Spirituality Studies 57 Arik Segev From a rational perspective, that is, the perspective of Tiferet, the correct calculation would be to protect the remaining crew of five and avoid additional risk, as reflected in Sanders’ decision. However, Henderson’s act is not heroic within the logic of Tiferet. He does not do what is commonly accepted as the right thing. Rather, it is a “crazy” Gevurah act, endangering five people he loves – not to preserve their physical lives, and not to rescue their teammate, but rather to protect their autonomous souls, enabling them to think and choose for themselves. This decision resists both his official role and the standard, Tiferet, ethical reasoning. The policy he violates is reasonable, altruistic, and widely accepted. Despite the high risk, the crew agreed to return and attempt the rescue. This decision, I argue, belongs more to Tiferet than to Gevurah; it is influenced by an ethos, particularly the moral imperative of not leaving a soldier behind. Choosing not to act might have resulted in a sense of guilt and shame. In contrast, Henderson’s decision was: 1. Entirely free of prior codes or ethos; 2. Radically disruptive, running against his entire responsibility as a flight director; 3. Completely lacking self-interest, placing him in a lose-lose situation in all four scenarios: a) If the crew returns to save their teammate and dies, Henderson will be the one to blame. b) If they succeed in saving their teammate, he is still blamed for endangering them and defying orders. c) If they decide not to return to save their teammate, then, even if they return safely to Earth, it will not ease the guilt they will suffer – and he is blamed. d) If they do not return to save their teammate and nevertheless die due to unrelated reasons on their way back home, one of the explanations for that would be that their guilt feelings, even indirectly, contributed to the accident. Again, he is the one to blame. In each scenario, Henderson loses. And yet, like Abraham, willing to sacrifice his son, his act expresses, from the perspective of Ein-Sof (Heb. “eternity”), a profound faith in the goodness of creation. From this perspective, he is the film’s spiritual hero, achieving the level of Gevurah. One final note: an action cannot be considered Gevurah without full awareness of its risks and consequences. A radical act lacking such awareness may still be noble, needed, or compassionate, but it is not one of Gevurah. A true Gevurah act undermines Tiferet, but at the same time, it opens a new path for it, enriching its potential on the journey toward wisdom. Certain daily and religious practices cultivate this mindset, serving as preparation for moments when Gevurah may be enacted. These include fasting, solitude, and circumcision, as practiced in the traditions of Islam and Judaism, rooted in Abraham’s legacy. Awareness of the movement from Tiferet to Gevurah entails recognizing that there are options that appear to contradict the norms of Tiferet, yet they are closer to the true essence of Being. 5.6 Stage 6. Gevurah to Chesed Stage six in the spiritual development toward wisdom involves awareness and attention to the movement of Being’s emanation between Chesed (Heb. “Love and Compassion”) and Gevurah (Heb. “Strength/Overcoming”). This awareness enables the revival of meaning in the world, the experience that there is at least a possibility of good, truth, and harmony, which were lost after exiting Tiferet’s balance into Gevurah’s irrationality, disorder, and existential suffering. It also marks the birth of the possibility of direct love, faith, and mercy in reality as a whole. The suffering caused by breaking away from Tiferet toward Gevurah may then be transformed into compassion, generosity, and joy. At its essence, it gives rise to the feeling and belief that existence as a whole is good, just, true, and beautiful, and that this is not immediately obvious, namely, that the metaphysical or ontological default is nonexistence. Whatever, from Gevurah’s perspective, appears as fractured or nihilistic, becomes, from Chesed’s perspective, a wonderful miracle – a special gift to accept with love and be devoted to its keeping and maintaining. The very existence of a spatiotemporal world (for example, (1) the distinct material entities, (2) the distinct immaterial entities, (3) the fragility and limits of the immaterial entities to create meaning and its status towards infinity, and (4) the narrative, logic, metaphysics, codes, laws that, at least partially, harmonize all these general aspects of the spatiotemporal
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