Are You Humble? Omer Workshop Session Four
How obstinate are you? Do you ever refuse to compromise because of pride or principle, or perhaps due to insecurity and fear of being taken advantage of? Or is it the other way around: Perhaps you are tolerating too much because you fear confrontation and want to always please? When you experience challenge, do you know when to stand firm and when to yield? We are taught that “one should always be soft like a reed, and not be hard like a cedar.” At the same time, some situations clearly require standing strong. How do we determine which is more appropriate? Determination and drive (netzach) are vital tools, but do you know when they need to be tempered with humility and flexibility (hod)?
Moving right along from love and discipline to empathy and determination, we now enter the fifth week — the week of humility — of the powerful, 3325-year old Omer system of personal refinement and character development. Please join Rabbi Jacobson as he dissects our ability to yield and be flexible. Discover methods to diagnose your life skills, to identify your strengths and weaknesses and incorporate techniques to access and improve your flexibility, and how this can radically improve your situation. This is the fourth of a series of classes dedicated to exploring all our emotional faculties to help us enhance our lives and relationships.
The word שפל Shaffel (humble) and the word Kadosh (holly) קדוש , or קודש Kodesh have the same גימטריה ( gimatria ) numerical value.
ק+ וֹ + ד + ש = (Kodesh) = 300 + 4+ 6 + 100 = 410
ק + ד + ו + ש = (Kadosh) = 300 + 6 + 4 + 100 = 410
ש + פ + ל = (Shaffel)= 30 + 80 + 300 = 410
This teaches us that striving to become holly, it means striving to become humble. Only the High Priest enters the קודש הקודשים Kodesh Hakodashim (Holly of Hollies) on Yom Kippur. It means that there is one soul who reached that level of Humble of Humbles.