Middle of the Road

Today is the third day of the Omer, it is Tiferet of Chesed. Tiferet is the balance point between the complete restraint of Gevurah and the the unlimited giving of Chesed. Tiferet is when the two are harmonized with each other. Each moderating the other to produce a harmonic whole. It is the middle path.

Kitzur Schulchan Aruch, vol. I, Chap. 29:

Men differ widely on their temperaments: Some area chronically angry, others are of a placid disposition who never become angry, or become so once in many years; some are too haughty and others are too humble; some are sensuous, never satisfied with pleasure, others are ascetic, having no desire even for small things which are the necessities of life; some possess unbounded greed, not satisfied with all the wealth in the world, as it is written: “He that loveth money will not be satisfied with money;” others are improvident, satisfied with the little they have, and they do not even seek to earn enough for their necessities; some are avaricious, afflicting themselves with hunger, while they keep on hoarding money, and whatever they do spend for their food they do so grudgingly, others are spendthrifts, spending all their money lavishly; and the same is true with other dispositions and views: the naturally melancholy and the gay; the villain and the noble; the cruel and the compassionate; the gentle and the hard-hearted, and so forth.

The good and right course for one to follow is the happy mean, and not the extreme….And so with regards to the other attributes, a person who adopts the middle course is called wise.

The Shulchan Aruch, as quoted above, advocates moderation in all things. It says that a person should be an Ish Tam, a simple man, the dweller in town, the one that quietly learns in the yeshiva, follows the rules, and is satisfied with his lot. My difficulty is that I have always lived as the Ish Sadeh, the man of the fields, the individual that craves the wild, that pushes the envelope, that tends to extremes, and wants to experience things with more intensity. I’m not sure how to achieve that state of moderation, as an Ish Tam I feel muddled and static, it is the excitement of the Ish Sadeh that actually brings me focus and allows me to access the calm inner center.

Boy, don’t you worry... you’ll find yourself.
Follow you heart and nothing else.
And you can do this if you try.
All I want for you my son, is to be satisfied.
And be a simple kind of man.
Be something you love and understand.
- Ronnie Van Zant