Tiphareth: The Beauty

Tiphareth in Hebrew תִּפְאֶרֶת means “beauty,” “splendor,” or even “glory” (being close to “Hod”), it is the sixth sefira in the cabalistic tree of life, and has in common the association of “Spirituality”, “Balance”, “Integration”, “Beauty” and “Compassion”.

In the Bahir (one of the first cabalistic literature works) we read: “Sextus is adorned, glorious, enchanting throne of glory, the home of the world to come. His place is engraved in wisdom as ‘GOD said: Let there be light, and light was”.

Tiphareth is the force that integrates the Sefira of Chesed (“compassion”) and Gevurah (“Strength, or judgment”), these two forces are, respectively, expansive (giving) and restrictive (receiving), one without the other could not manifest the flow of divine energy. They must be balanced in perfect proportion by balancing compassion with discipline, and this balance can be seen in the role of Tiphareth, where conflicting forces are harmonized and creation flourishes. Tiphareth also balances Netzach and Hod in a similar way, in this case Hod can be seen as intellect and Netzach as emotion.

Tiphareth is the only one among Sephirot that is connected to all others except Malkuth, its position in the center between Keter and Yesod indicates to many Kabbalists that it is a kind of “conversion” of the sefirah between form (Yesod) and strength (Keter). In other words, all the intersections on the central path via Tiphareth determine a polarity inversion. The law of conservation, valid for both energy and mass, tends to confirm this, in all cases of energetic transmutation, as can happen in the transmission of gifts and goods from parents to their children, a sacrifice is necessary for a new form to be born.

Tiphareth is the center of the tree, and five Sefirot surround it: above are Chesed on the right (south) and Gevurah on the left (north), and below are Netzach on the right, Hod on the left and Yesod directly below. Together these six are one entity, Zer Anpin, which is the male counterpart of the Malkuth female sefira. In certain contexts, Tiphareth alone represents the whole sefirot of Zer Anpin, so that the whole tree appears with only five sefirots: Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Binah, Tiferet and Malkhut.

In both the Jewish tree of life and the hermetic tree, Tiphareth has eight paths leading (counterclockwise) to Keter (through Daat), Binah, Gevurah, Hod, Yesod, Netsach, Chesed and Chokmah.

Tiphareth can also be a variant of the word “Tifarah” and in modern Hebrew used in Israel is translated as “Glory” (from GOD – “ELOHIM, ADONAY).

  

1. Attribute:
   BEAUTY – Usually beauty is attributed mainly to an external factor, yet the true beauty is not what is immediately perceived by the eyes, but the one that is slowly perceived in the depths and that arrives in the Spirit to never leave it. The beauty of which the fifth sephirot refers to is that “grace” and that “splendor” that a good, pure, generous, clean and altruistic Soul manages to emanate in creation, in whatever context it is spent. The beauty of Susanna as told in the Bible, the beauty of Job’s daughters, and the beauty of Mary of Magdala, but also the beauty of Joseph, that of Jesus and that of Mohammed. Women and men who have remained in our imagination as eternally beautiful, not for what they looked like, but for what they were.
2. Biblical characters associated:
   • JACOB – Probably the most “beautiful” patriarch intended as “glorious” in the Biblical narrative, the one who will change his name to Israel, to then become the ideal of the nation whose “Soul” is predestined to change the World to lead it to the ultimate good. But beware, this concept has nothing to do with the policy we see in the present, in place in the State that fights Palestine (this is only a provisional stage that will soon be improved) instead of welcoming it as a sister. In the division there will always be loss, and when Isarele will return to behave as a leader, opening its doors to the World, then the “splendor” will be under the eyes of all, and the Temple will return to shine as a universal beacon of Peace. Gicobbe was the only one (just like Tipareth) able to rise directly from the degree of “beauty” to that of Ketehr “chosen”, “elected”, the highest degree on the scale. Tipareth although only the fifth station, can allow to directly reach the “top”, through its fundamental attribute the balance.
   
3. Associated body part:
   BUST – BODY – The element associated with this sephira is the bust. For centuries, European universities had followed ancient Greek thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle and Galen in viewing the human soul as divided into three parts. At the top of this hierarchy was the “rational” soul, located in the brain, which managed intellectual operations: logical reasoning, memory and the power of the will. Below this, situated in the chest or heart, was the ‘sensitive’ soul, governing motion, emotion and sensory perception. Finally there was the “vegetative’ soul”, which governed the basic operations necessary to all living organisms: growth, nutrition and reproduction. These processes took place in the “lower parts”, the digestive and reproductive organs, and were often identified with the liver.
   Then in the seventeenth century this classical model of the soul began to change, and the French philosopher Descartes (1596-1650), hypothesized that the soul operated on the body through the pineal gland, an organ no larger than a grain of rice nestled in the center of the brain. Later scholars and physicians such as Thomas Willis (1621-75) relied on increasingly detailed anatomical studies of the brain to argue that the soul’s operations took place entirely within the head. Yet if we think about it, the stomach gives us plenty of signals when we have strong emotions, and the most common example is when we say we have “butterflies in our stomachs.” So today the idea of digestive organs as the seat of emotional experience doesn’t seem so silly, and over the last century research on the gut microbiome and enteric nervous system points to a dynamic, multi-directional relationship between the gut and the brain, with scientists now taking a fresh look at the role of gut health in physical and mental well-being. Every person has deep visceral sensations that may be able to tell us something very important, and those who reach the Tipareth stage know this well.

  

After “reaching” Yesod, one may continue either to the right side (Netzach) or to the left side (Hod). Those who choose this “path” have fully understood the power of works, that is the tangible things that lead to a result, whatever it may be. Aaron knew that his eloquence and faith (if constantly nurtured) would take him to the top, and it did. Glory on Earth, even for more material things is not to be repudiated in all cases, and in fact in the case of Hod one can “pass” even through this “stage” to then continue on upward to “rigor” or “beauty” (stations 7 and 5). The attributes to be demonstrated are:

1. Balance:
   • Balance, being like water, which adapts to every container we put it in, and even when external influences agitate it, then it always returns to calm itself, inexorably. Achieving balance is easy for anyone, but only the wise will know how to keep it for a long time, and especially recover it once the thousands of external factors of life will unbalance us. No human being, not even the holiest, can claim to have always maintained balance, but those who work on this great quality, manage to perfect it more and more as their experience increases. “Panta rei”, everything flows.
2. Sympathy:
   • Being compassionate and empathetic generates a “beauty” that goes far beyond the physical. The former can be preserved, nurtured and increased until death, while the latter is only a prerogative of a few, and most importantly does not last long. Sensitivity is a fundamental attribute for those who managed to reach “Hod”.

  

1. Yesod (through 6 – vav – ו‎‎ )
2. Netzach (through 8 – chet – ח‎ ‎)
3. Hod (through 9 – tet – ט‎ ‎)
4. Chesed (through 30 – lamed – ל‎ ‎)
5. Geburah (through 40 – mem – מ‎ )
6. Chokmah (through 60 – samech – ס‎‎ )
7.  Binah (through 70 – ayin – ע‎‎ )
8. Kether (through 100 – qof – ק‎‎ )