Counting the Omer Day Four: Netzach of Chesed

This week is all about chesed, love. Today’s aspect of chesed that we focus on is netzach. Netzach is “enduring.” The term “netzach netzachim” is used in the liturgy to mean “forever and ever.”

Does your love have staying power, or do you quickly fall in and out of love? Every relationship – not just romantic ones – has ups and downs. Has periods of greater closeness and periods of some distance. Life throws “challenges” at us, and those challenges have an impact on relationships with others. Sometimes despite loving someone we have misunderstandings or disagreements. Netzach of chesed is the trait that helps us weather those ups and downs. Our love endures through the inevitable trials and tribulations that go with life and relationships with other people if our love has endurance, has chesed has netzach. We can cultivate this trait by making commitments to our love relationships – the ultimate example, of course, is getting married. But making a commitment such as marriage is not enough to ensure that love will endure, as the high divorce rate shows. It also takes a commitment to keep working on the relationship, to putting energy into the relationship. Love is a marathon, not a sprint. Although maybe the exercise metaphor makes it sound like all work and no fun, and obviously that’s not the case. Maybe it’s more like a long leisurely journey by train than a quick short flight in a plane.