Tiferet, beauty, harmonious splendor, is the sixth Sefirah, at the heart of the central column. Elijah calls it "the trunk," the body that links the two arms. It is the third in the verse of Chronicles: "and the beauty." Rabbi Akiva reads: "the beauty, this is the giving of the Torah"; Rabbi Shila: "the sun and the moon that stood still for Joshua." Beauty, here, is the accord of opposing forces: Chesed and Gevurah blended in a right measure, mercy, rachamim. The Pardes calls the middle Sefirot "the arbiters" and explains why they exist: sometimes the world needs punishment, but not too much; sometimes reward, but not too much; G-d therefore emanated a middle line between the two extremes.
Its figure is Jacob: "G-d of Jacob: Tiferet," says the Pardes. Micah says it in his own way: "You will give truth to Jacob, loving-kindness to Abraham." Truth is the other name of Tiferet; Cordovero closes his chapter by calling it "the quality of truth." Jacob is the son who holds kindness from Abraham and severity from Isaac, and makes of them a single life: the trunk where the two arms meet. Tiferet is also the four-letter Name itself, the Bridegroom whose Bride is Malkhut, and "Israel" in the language of the Zohar.
The Tomer Devorah is clear: "There is no doubt that the quality of Tiferet is the study of Torah." But it goes on at once to the condition: "great care that a person not become proud over words of Torah." For the one who becomes proud causes Tiferet, which is the Torah, to rise and withdraw; the one who humbles himself in words of Torah causes Tiferet to descend and give itself to Malkhut. Cordovero details three kinds of pride and their remedies. The one who raises himself above his students separates Tiferet from Netzach and Hod, "the disciples of the L-rd"; let him teach "with love," according to what they can bear. The one who despises the poor because of his learning separates Tiferet from Yesod; he recalls the story of Elijah appearing as an ugly poor man to a sage too pleased with himself. The one who thinks himself above the people separates Tiferet from Malkhut; let his mind be "mingled with people."
Then comes the rule for disputes: to debate Torah "for the sake of Heaven" is to bring Chesed and Gevurah toward Tiferet, so that the law may be fixed with truth; any dispute that leaves this line, even in words of Torah, wounds Tiferet. Finally: do not take enjoyment from words of Torah, but study them "for the satisfaction above"; and always "acknowledge the truth," retract as soon as one is wrong, "so that Tiferet, the quality of truth, may be found there."
Keep Jacob's measure: beauty is not brilliance, it is rightness. A Torah studied without pride, a word that admits its error, that is Tiferet.
