Endurance and ambition is a combination of determination and tenacity. It is a balance of patience, persistence and guts. Endurance is also being reliable and accountable, which establishes security and commitment. Without endurance, any good endeavor or intention has no chance of success. • Endurance means to be alive, to be driven by what counts. It is the readiness to fight for what you believe, to go all the way. Without such commitment any undertaking remains flat and empty. It is an energy which comes from within and stops at nothing to achieve its goals. This, of course, requires that endurance be closely examined to ensure that it is used in a healthy and productive manner. • Ask yourself: How committed am I to my values? How much would I fight for them? Am I easily swayed? What price am I ready to pay for my beliefs? Is there any truth for which I would be ready to give my life? • Effective endurance needs to encompass the following seven ingredients: love, discipline, compassion, endurance, humility, bonding and dignity. The problems people have with endurance and commitment are due to a lack of one or more of these seven components. • For endurance to be effective it needs to be caring and loving. Endurance without love can be counterproductive. Raw endurance can come across as harsh and aggressive, which undermines the cooperation of others. Out of sheer determination one may often become controlling and demanding, driving others away. For endurance to be successful it needs a loving and caring attitude, it requires patience. • Does my endurance cause me to be, or seem to be, inflexible? Does my drive and determination cause me to be controlling? Am I too demanding? Do others (my employees, friends, children) cooperate with me out of the sheer force of my will and drive, or out of love? Is my endurance unloving? In order to get my way would I allow others to get hurt? Even when defending myself and others against unhealthy influences, am I driven by love or hate? • 🌱Exercise for the day: When fighting for something you believe in, pause a moment to ensure that it is accomplished in a loving manner. 🌱 #countingtheomer #shecountstheomer https://www.instagram.com/p/COJzGLcg_sT/?igshid=th2b4d19je9b

Plants live in a world of earth, water, air and sunshine. Animals live in a world of the body and its senses. Human beings live within a world of their own words. • The sages called us “the speaking being,” saying that our soul is filled with words. When our words leave us, our very being goes out within them. We conquer with them. We declare our mastery over Creation with them. Our words tell us that we exist. • For us, nothing truly exists until we find a word for it. All our thoughts of every object and every event are thoughts of words. Our world is a world not of sensations and stimuli, but of words. • Build your world with precious words. Fill your days with words that live and give life. • Memorize words of Torah and of the sages. Have them ready for any break in your day. Wherever you go, provide that place an atmosphere of those powerful words. • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” • Examine the sovereignty of your sovereignty. Does it come from deep- rooted inner confidence in myself? Or is it just a put-on to mask my insecurities? Does that cause my sovereignty to be excessive? Am I aware of my uniqueness as a person? Of my personal contribution? • 🌱Exercise for the day: Take a moment and concentrate on yourself, on your true inner self, not on your performance and how you project to others; and be at peace with yourself knowing that G‑d created a very special person which is you! #feastdays #countingthedays #SHEcountstheOmer 🍎 #WakingEve #omer #50days #torah #exodus #sevenweeks #7weeks #keepthefeasts #torahforchristians #teachustopray #heisworthy #examineyourheart #worshipinspiritandintruth #countingtheomer #shavuot #countingup #pentecost #wordofgod #messianicjew #bibleverse #faith #biblestudy #bible #pesach #passover #growingrace #SacredWisdom https://www.instagram.com/p/CA05EIjghvK/?igshid=1c7kge10vjmdf

If you have spoken to another and your words did not help, it is proof you did not speak with him, but with yourself. Your words may be the words you wanted to say, the words you believe, but they are not the words he needed to hear. • If you would speak to him and speak his words, then certainly he would hear. • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: John 17:22 “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,...” • Sovereignty is G‑d's gift to each individual. G-d’s nature revealed as Hod of Malchut is the humble appreciation of this exceptional gift. Does my sovereignty and independence humble me? Am I an arrogant leader? Do I appreciate the special qualities I was blessed with? • 🌱Exercise for the day: Acknowledge G‑d for creating you with personal dignity. Find a way to acknowledge the personal dignity He gave to others today. • #feastdays #countingthedays #SHEcountstheOmer 🍎 #WakingEve #omer #50days #torah #exodus #sevenweeks #7weeks #keepthefeasts #torahforchristians #teachustopray #heisworthy #examineyourheart #worshipinspiritandintruth #countingtheomer #shavuot #countingup #pentecost #wordofgod #messianicjew #bibleverse #faith #biblestudy #bible #pesach #passover #growingrace #SacredWisdom https://www.instagram.com/p/CAvd48fgPsZ/?igshid=19imrlzs9vumr

We are not passive observers of this universe, but rather partners in its creation. We are the ones who assign each thing its meaning, who bring definition and resolution to an otherwise ambiguous world. • Don’t imagine that you are just “telling it the way it is.” Choose your words, choose your perspective, like a witness on the stand. Because the way you tell it, that is how it is. • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: Matthew 8:7-10 “Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” • The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” • When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” • A person's dignity and a leader's success is tested by his endurance level. Will and determination reflect the power and majesty of the human spirit. The strength of one's sovereignty. • How determined am I in reaching my goals? How strong is my conviction to fight for a dignified cause? How confident am I in myself? Is my lack of endurance a result of my low self-esteem? Do I mask my insecurities by finding other excuses for my low endurance level? • Exercise for the day: Act on something that you believe in but have until now been tentative about. Take the leap and just do it! • #feastdays #countingthedays #SHEcountstheOmer 🍎 #WakingEve #omer #50days #torah #exodus #sevenweeks #7weeks #keepthefeasts #torahforchristians #teachustopray #heisworthy #examineyourheart #worshipinspiritandintruth #countingtheomer #shavuot #countingup #pentecost #wordofgod #messianicjew #bibleverse #faith #biblestudy #bible #pesach #passover #growingrace #SacredWisdom https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtZfpBAint/?igshid=1gmg9qr9f08uy

Talk is powerful. Speak bad about someone and you expose all the ugliness in him, in yourself and in whoever happens to be paying attention. Once exposed, the wound begins to fester and all are hurt. • Speak good about the same person, and the inner good within him, within you and within all who participate begins to shine. • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: Proverbs 16:24 “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” • Examine the compassion of sovereignty. A good leader is a compassionate one. Is my compassion compromised because of my authority? Do I realize that an integral part of dignity is compassion? The kingship (Malchut) nature of God can never be set apart from beauty (Tiferet) it’s precisely their Union that creates beautiful harmony in our world and is the key to successful leadership. Do I manage a smooth-running operation? Am I organized? Do I give clear instructions to my subordinates? Do I have difficulty delegating power? Does my organization work as a team? Do we have frequent staff meetings to coordinate our goals and efforts? • 🌱Exercise for the day: Review an area where you wield authority and see if you can polish it up and increase its effectiveness by curtailing excesses and consolidating forces. • 🌱 #feastdays #countingthedays #SHEcountstheOmer 🍎 #WakingEve #omer #50days #torah #exodus #sevenweeks #7weeks #keepthefeasts #torahforchristians #teachustopray #heisworthy #examineyourheart #worshipinspiritandintruth #countingtheomer #shavuot #countingup #pentecost #wordofgod #messianicjew #bibleverse #faith #biblestudy #bible #pesach #passover #growingrace #SacredWisdom https://www.instagram.com/p/CAq2kiRAiQw/?igshid=1qscd8oo2bwa7

The ancient philosophers divided the world into four realms, each realm transcendental in a way beyond those that precede it: • The “silent” realm—earth, rocks, water, air, etc.—do not transcend their bounds in any way. • Plants transcend their bounds by growing. • Animals transcend their bounds by traversing space. • And Man, how does he transcend his bounds? Man reaches outside of himself with words. With dialogue. • Man alone is capable of hearing his own self through the ears of another. Man alone is capable of transcending the very bounds of self. • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: Mark 9:35 “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’” • Week Seven - ”Malchut” Sovereignty - the last of the seven attributes - is different than the previous six. It is a state of being rather than an activity. • Leadership is a passive expression of human dignity which has nothing of its own except that which it receives from the other six emotions. • On the other hand, malchut manifests and actualizes the character and majesty of the human spirit. It is the very fiber of what makes us human. When love, discipline, compassion, endurance and humility are properly channeled into the psyche through bonding - the result is malchut. Bonding nurtures us and allows our sovereignty to surface and flourish. • Malchut is a sense of belonging. Knowing that you matter and that you make a difference. That you have the ability to be a proficient leader in your own right. It gives you independence and confidence. A feeling of certainty and authority. When a mother lovingly cradles her child in her hands and the child's eyes meet the mother's affectionate eyes, the child receives the message that I am wanted and needed in this world. I have a comfortable place where I will always be loved. I have nothing to fear. I feel like a king in my heart. This is malchut, kingship. • Day One of Week 7: Chesed of Malchut Healthy sovereignty is always kind and loving. An effective leader needs to be warm and considerate. Does my sovereignty make me more loving? • #shecountstheomer https://www.instagram.com/p/CAk-iF1AlM7/?igshid=12y2o2s6p2x92

Looking at your world from Above, all is good. • Looking at your world from within, things don’t always look so nice. • Until you connect your world from within to the world above. Then the goodness flows downward without distortion. • How do you make that connection? By clinging tightly above. By putting all your trust in G‑d. • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” • Examine the bonding aspect of bonding. The forms it takes and its level of expression. Every person needs and has the capacity to bond with other people, with significant undertakings and with meaningful experiences. • Do I have difficulty bonding? Is the difficulty in all areas or only in certain ones? Do I bond easily with my job, but have trouble bonding with people? Or vice versa? Do I have problems bonding with special events in my life? Examine the reasons for not bonding. Is it because I am too critical and find fault in everything as an excuse for not bonding? Am I too locked in my own ways? Is my not bonding a result of discomfort with vulnerability? Have I been hurt in my past bonding experiences? Has my trust been abused? Is my fear of bonding a result of the deficient bonding I experienced as a child? To cultivate your capacity to bond, even if you have valid reasons to distrust, you must remember that G‑d gave you a Divine soul that is nurturing and loving and you must learn to recognize the voice within, which will allow you to experience other people's souls and hearts. Then you can slowly drop your defenses when you recognize someone or something you can truly trust. • For bonding to be possible it must embody the other six aspects of bonding. Successful bonding must also include actualizing the bond in constructive deeds. • One additional point: Bonding breeds bonding. When you bond in one area of your life, it helps you bond in other areas. • Exercise for the day: Begin bonding with a new person or experience you love by committing designated time each day or week to spend together constructively. 🌱 #shecountstheomer #wotd #meditate https://www.instagram.com/p/CAg7AtgAPCa/?igshid=unay8n8ieyp3

When the Divine Light began its awesome descent—a journey of world to lower world for endless worlds, condensing its unbounded state again and again into finite packages until focused to a fine, crystallized resolution—it did so with purpose: to bring forth a world of continuous ascent. • Since that beginning, not a day has passed that does not transcend its yesterday. • Like a mighty river rushing to reach its ocean, no dam can hold it back, no creature can struggle against its current. If we appear to fall backward, to take a wrong turn, to lose a day in failure—it is only an illusion, for we have no map to know its way. We see from within, but the river knows its path from Above. And to that place Above all is drawn. • We are not masters of that river— not of our ultimate destiny, nor of the stops along the way, not even of the direction of our travel. We did not create the river—its flow creates us. It is the blood and soul of our world, its pulse and its warmth. • Yet of one thing we have been given mastery: Not of the journey, but of our role within it. • How soon will we arrive? How complete? How fulfilled? Will we be the spectators? Or simply the props? • Or will we be the heroes? • Tzvi Freeman, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth • 🌱Scripture Reflection: Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” • Yielding - which is a result of humility - is an essential element of enduring. Standing fast can sometimes be a formula for destruction. The oak, lacking the ability to bend in the hurricane, is uprooted. The reed, which yields to the wind, survives without a problem. Do I know when to yield, out of strength not fear? Why am I often afraid to yield? • Endurance is fueled by inner strength. Hod of netzach is the humble recognition and acknowledgement that the capacity to endure and prevail comes from the soul that G‑d gave each person. This humility does not compromise the drive of endurance; on the contrary, it intensifies it, because human endurance can go only so far and endure only so much, whereas endurance that comes from the Divine soul is limitless. • 🌱 #shecountstheomer #bibleverse #wotd #torahforchristians https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5vracABd1/?igshid=46orvhpoiofe