This week is the week of Hod. It's the fifth week of the Omer (Omer count). It's amazing how fast time is flying. It's the Midah (attribute) of Hod. To explain Hod, let's first explain where it corresponds in a person's body. We spoke about Chesed (kindness) being the right arm, Gevurah (strength) being the left arm, producing Tiferet being the perfect balance between the two. That's the ability to give. The legs have a completely different function. They don't actually do anything, but they take you to your destination. The right leg corresponds with Netzach, like the Kav HaYamin (right-hand line), which is the side of Chesed. The left leg corresponds with Gevurah. Hod and Gevurah are on the same side, Midat HaDin (attribute of judgment). But Netzach and Hod must work in conjunction with each other. They work together. You cannot work one without the other. And the function of the legs is to take you to your destination.
Understanding this can help us understand the actual Midah of Hod, which means to be modeh, to admit, to praise. But let's try to understand the function of these Midot, Netzach and Hod. When a person is sent down to planet Earth, he's sent on a mission. And these two Midot, Netzach and Hod, are the two Midot that a person actually interacts with. They interact, just as the legs interact, but with the outside world. A person uses these Midot to grow and appreciate what he has to do on planet Earth as a mission that Borei Olam (Creator of the world) sent us there for.
That's the Midah of Netzach. The difference between Netzach and Hod is that Netzach is the one that comes from the word Netzach, from Nitzchiyut (eternity), or to be Menatzeach, or to win over, which is really being proactive, winning, fighting with the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), and being able to overcome the Yetzer Hara. The Midah of Hod really comes more from the Midah of being modeh, to subjugate oneself to something else, more of a hoda'ah (admission), like Midat HaDin is always not being proactive, but rather working more internally on oneself. So these two weeks are the weeks that Borei Olam gave us to be able to shteig, to continue growing, and to be able to focus on the goal of changing either to win or to admit and subjugate oneself to the Torah and the Midot.
The Midah of Netzach carries in it as well the concept of tzadik ve-ra lo (A righteous person who suffers), meaning it's on the right side, so ultimately it's going to be a good destination. The Yi'ud, the ultimate place, is a good place. However, sometimes a person has—ein tzadik ba'aretz (There is no righteous person on earth)—sometimes we do sins, and there has to be a correction, a fixing process, since a person's goal is to reach his destination, and he'll navigate what he has to navigate through, even sometimes through a cleansing process, to ultimately reach his destination. That's where you find tzadik ve-ra lo. Sometimes he has to experience, in order to achieve the ultimate goal, something which is not comfortable.
However, on the other side, the side of Hod, sometimes HaKadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, blessed is He) will admit to that person. Meaning, it's on the left side, it's Midat HaDin, and you'll find rasha ve-tov lo, a Rasha which has all the good things in this planet Earth, and we look at him and think, "You know, why is he succeeding?" The answer is that his destination is really not something that he wants. He doesn't want to succeed. He doesn't want to succeed. He wants Olam HaBa (the World to Come). He wants Olam HaZeh (this world). He performs some mitzvot (commandments), so Borei Olam will pay him in this world, which is really Midat HaDin, but packaged in Rachamim, in mercy, to pay him for what he has done.
So that's the Midah of Hod for this week. Baruch Hashem, we're going to take, believe it, Baruch Hashem, each day, Chesed of Hod, Gevurah of Hod, and so on and so forth. But I just wanted to give an overview of the actual Midah, of this Sefirah (emanation) called Hod, which is the beginning of the fifth week.