Counting the Omer Day Ten: Tiferet of Gevurah

This week’s trait is gevurah – strength, discipline, judgment. Today’s is tiferet which represents harmony and balance.

As a society sometimes it seems that we have lost the ability to criticize in a balanced way. Things seem to be getting more extreme. In America for much of the 60s and 70s the middle was the place to be. In the early 80s I voted for candidates from both parties, because you had candidates in the middle to choose between on nuanced reasons. Now everything seems much more polarized. The criticisms are much more extreme. People are no longer content to disagree, they engage in ad hominem attacks if you don’t agree with them. Here in Israel people on the left are portrayed as traitors who love Palestinians more than they love Jews and people on the right are branded as crazies who want to steal land.

Criticism needs to also listen. To be balanced. To understand mitigating factors. To understand the world does come in shades of gray.