From Chesed to Gevurah

(by Christopher Fredrickson from Brutal Planet)

Got a very interesting question as to why chesed is parallel to gevurah on the sefiros. This is actually a very good question and the answer is actually something that comes about through application. Chesed as you know signifies loving kindness, gevurah signifies judgement. So what is the parallel here? The answer is within that of the word tzaddik. Now did you know this word not only signifies righteousness but judgement as well? For this is why Yeshua said "judge rightly". Yeshua himself was pointing out both chesed and gevurah. For we are supposed to give loving kindness and it is the foundation of all of Torah learning. Now can a person "judge rightly" if they have the opposite of chesed within them? Of course not. And this gets into something called mishpatim law or social law in the Torah. We see that Yeshua was showing this as well in terms of our response. For he said, "when someone slaps you on the right cheek offer him your left". He was showing that we have an opportunity to show mercy as opposed to doing evil. To carry out Torah law, especially mishpatim law it is important that we must pass through the three pillars in how we carry something out in terms of judgement we must first be in the state of chesed and then move to the middle pillar of tiferet which signifies spirituality, balance, integration, beauty and compassion. So chesed must move through tiferet until a judgement can be carried out they also can pass through Da'at to get to gevurah because Da'at is interconnected as well with chesed and gevurah in the sefiros. And da'at signifies knowledge. So if a person takes the knowledge after attaining chesed then they carry that with the attribute of da'at or tiferet they will get the same outcome in gevurah and judge rightly. This is also alluded to the in Torah when we see it says "the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob" Abraham exuded chesed, Isaac exuded tiferet and Jacob was the encompassment of gevurah. 

Now it is important to not go right to left in terms of the sefiros. One must always go left to right, for it is the way Hebrew and Aramaic read so in the Jewish mind a person starts at the left pillar of the sefiros and moves to the right. For can a person obtain chesed after they have judged and have judged rightly? God forbid. For going left to right manifests shalom and right to left manifests hara. I pray this was helpful.

 It must also be noted that if you wonder "do I go chesed da'at then gevurah or chesed tiferet gevurah" it would depend upon the person. If one is nieve then the person must go chesed da'at then gevurah in judgement. But if a person was blessed intellectually then they go chesed tiferet and gevurah so that his intelligence does not manifest his yetzer hara in judgement causing him to forget chesed. Now is that to say the one who goes through tiferet is more blessed than the one of limited intelligence who filters through da'at? Heaven forbid. No, Hashem has given each person a unique spark, the one who passes through da'at doesn't have the burden of ego like the one who must filter through tiferet. The middle pillar is our safeguard. This is why the rabbis and sages say in Zohar 221 that "the Son of Hashem is the middle pillar of the sefiros" and they come to this conclusion with the misplaced et in Bereishis 1:1 that is the 4th word in the Hebrew scroll out of the 7 on the first line of the text which makes up the first verses of the Bible.

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