For week two, I wrote, "At the end of this week, you have taken three concrete actions for social change. You've also examined your capabilities and limitations, refined your sense of what's possible, budgeted your resources, and nudged yourself toward doing something challenging. And you've given yourself space to be who you are, a compassionate understanding of your motivations, and a vision of a better future." I did not in fact manage to do all of that, for reasons discussed elsewhere, but I did my best. For a budget, I'm going to try to textbank one night a week (though not this week), and I've set up recurring donations that hit that sweet spot of giving enough that I feel it but not so much that I suffer from it. For motivations: safety for me and my family, justice and reparations for those who have been harmed, and... look, I'm just going to be blunt, fewer dead people. I once said that if I ran for office it would be on the Fewer Dead People ticket and I mean it more now than ever. So much of my activism stems from my profound grief at the unfairness of death, and my desperation to defeat it any possible way.

The discipline of gevurah has channeled the intense light of chesed, and that brings us to the week of tiferet.

Week Three: Tiferet - Balance, Harmony, Truth, Focus

Tiferet is chesed's abundance and gevurah's constraints held in balance. I also think of it as focus: if chesed is the light that's all around us, like sunlight, then gevurah is the magnifying glass that draws the light to a point, and tiferet is the beam that strikes a well-chosen target. Or in a more psychological sense, chesed is scattered attention, gevurah is hyperfocus, and tiferet is that serene focus that can incorporate an interruption or a distraction without losing track. R' Yael Levy sometimes translates it as "the heart" in the sense of one's deepest, truest understanding. Tiferet sees everything as it is.

9/29: 15. Chesed sh'b tiferet, love within truth: Doubt is one of the great enemies of action. Does that charity waste its funds? Are we secretly motivated by selfishness? Are we making the most efficient use of our resources? Resist the urge to get distracted by the anxious pursuit of the perfect mindset, action, or cause. Instead, lovingly accept the flaws in yourself and the lists you've made. Let the work you've done so far be good enough. Your action for today is simply to recommit yourself to the path you've laid out for yourself. Suggested reading: "You Are Enough" by Melissa Camara Wilkins.

9/30: 16. Gevurah sh'b tiferet, discipline within focus: What gets in the way of action for you? What makes you weary or sad or brain-fogged, or interrupts you, or demands to be put first? Identify that stumbling block in a specific, concrete way, and figure out what specific, definable, attainable thing you can do to counteract it: putting activism time on your calendar, involving an attention-seeking person in your activism so it becomes collaboration rather than competition, setting lower goals that are easier to meet, treating your pain, making more time for sleep. Don't just try to willpower past your obstacle; make a plan and give yourself the resources you need. Suggested reading: "The Most Important Thing You Need to Know About Your Obstacles" from Hillary Rettig's The Lifelong Activist.

10/1: 17. Tiferet sh'b tiferet, harmony within harmony: When I think of harmony, I think of voices raised up together, ringing with combined power and beauty. Looking down your lists of motivations, actions, and causes, are there some that seem particularly resonant with one another, or with where your heart is right now? Lift up that harmony and take an action that rings through you with righteousness. Suggested listening: "We Rise" by Batya Levine.

10/2: 18. Netzach sh'b tiferet, vision within truth: To build a better future, we have to honestly acknowledge the failures of our past and the sorrows of our present. Is there a truth about the world that's so terrible that you struggle to look it in the face? Give yourself the strength to acknowledge that painful truth by envisioning a future in which that pain has been healed and we have collectively committed to never allowing it to happen again. Then take a concrete action toward making that vision a reality. Suggested reading/listening: "I Have a Dream" by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

10/3 (Shabbat): 19. Hod sh'b tiferet, presence within the heart: I love that hod is the characteristic that falls on Shabbat each week, because Shabbat is a perfect time to simply be present with ourselves. What have you been feeling in your deepest heart as you read these passages each day? Have you become conscious of your own power, struggles, or flaws? Have you learned more about your fears or your hopes? Be present with some truth about yourself that you didn't know three weeks ago.

10/4: 20. Yesod sh'b tiferet, foundation within focus: In traditional sitting meditation, whenever you're distracted, you come back to the breath. I prefer walking meditation; whenever I'm distracted, I come back to the sensation of taking a step. Name an anchor that's always with you, the way breathing and moving are always with you: a feeling in the body, a memory, the face of someone you love, a vision of a better future. When you find yourself being distracted from your activism, gently identify the distraction and then bring your mind back to that anchor. Right now, plant your feet firmly on that foundation and use it as the jumping-off point for an action. Suggested watching: "Training the Monkey Mind", "Changing Perspective", and "The Noting Technique" by Headspace.

10/5: 21. Malchut sh'b tiferet, immanence within harmony: During the virtual Yom Kippur services, my cantor, who usually loves to get the congregation singing the melody so she can harmonize, instead held the melody line so we could each sing harmony within our homes. I could only hear her voice and mine, but that was enough for me to feel less alone at a very lonely time. If you also feel alone or isolated, seek out another voice that you can harmonize with in order to manifest a more kind and just world. Reach out to repair or sustain a relationship, offer comfort, or ask for help. Amplify your activism by inviting others to join you in it, keeping one another accountable and boosting one another's energy. Even if it's just you and a friend writing postcards together over Zoom or laughing together on the phone, your entwining voices will create a space within which the divine can be present for you both.

At the end of this week, you have taken three concrete actions for social change. You've renewed your commitment, given yourself an anchor for when you feel adrift, and made a plan for moving a stumbling block out of your path. You've acknowledged truths about yourself and about the past and present. And you've built or renewed a relationship that supports your action or is itself an action, a tiny way that you've made the world better than it was.

Next week begins another three-week group: netzach, looking up and out at the future; hod, centering ourselves in the present; and yesod, grounding ourselves in the past. The first of these is netzach, the week of eternity, vision, endurance, and the long term.