A Kinder Severity

Day by Day - Kislev 21 (See today's Hayom Yom here. )

Right, left and center… right, left and center… It seems everything in Judaism follows this pattern of threes.

Even the days of the week are divided into threes. The first half – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday; second half – Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then it is Shabbat.

In some places in Torah Shabbat is placed in the center: Prepare for Shabbat for three days, have Shabbat, then keep its blessings for three days.

The triad of the week puts Sunday on the right corresponding to kindness (hence the creation of light) and Monday on the left corresponding to severity (the separation of the waters and the creation of purgatory.)

FYI – the first millennium was an extension of the first day – one thousand years of indiscriminate kindness and endless light. People lived too long, animals grew too big, sin went unpunished. The second millennium is an extension of the second day – a thousand years of severity and judgment. Man’s life span was reduced, animals were no longer huge and sin was punished by a deluge – punishment by water… but I digress…

The first Monday in the Hayom Yom calendar, or the Kislev 21, urges the study of Mishna in the streets and committing Mishna to memory. Possibly because Mishna memorized protects the soul from the discomforts of purgatory and reciting Mishna in the streets clears away the un-holiness created on the primordial Monday.

The study of Chassidic thought goes a step further and clears away heavenly sources of judgment leaving perfect kindness.

Note: True kindness is distilled from judgment. But where there is no judgment there can be no kindness, only permissiveness. Kindness and permissiveness should never be confused!