“Stubbornness in a four-year-old is the material from which determination is born in the adult. Without the stubbornness of the child, the determination to overcome obstacles in the adult would not have been possible. With regard to ourselves, seeing the value, even in our negative qualities, is not always easy for us.”
– Tapestry pg 198

Pause and feel this.
A (inner) child says: “I want it.”
The system tightens.
That tightening is the lower layer speaking.
Pause.
That insistence is not evil.
It is ego in formation!!!
material waiting to mature!!!
A child says: “I’m bored.”
Trigger.
Pause again.
“What is trying to come alive?”
An adult sets a boundary. Old reactions flare.
Here the lower reacts
and the upper is invited to enter without domination.
Respond impassionately
not cold, not flooded.
Whether we succeed or fall,
the work is the same.
As Netivot Shalom teaches:
the יֵצֶר הָרַע · yetzer hara
is strongest after success.
When I say: I did this.
No.
כִּי ה׳ הוּא הָאֱלֹקִים
“For Hashem — He is God.”
(Melachim I 18:39)
Hashem is doing it.
Repond with huility / anava
In His rachamim,
the knife of the trigger softens.
I can notice — dispassionately.

The Practice · From Klipah to Curriculum
Now, when someone tantrums —
child, adult, or inner child —
I can say:
This is his/her curriculum.
This klipah is a protection.
I can shine light on it.
Seeing the enclothing as potential —
material ready to transform
from רָצוֹן לְקַבֵּל
to רָצוֹן לְקַבֵּל עַל מְנָת לְהַשְׁפִּיעַ
(the will to receive in order to give),
bringing
נַחַת רוּחַ · nachat ruach
to the Creator.
וְהָיָה ה׳ לְמֶלֶךְ עַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה ה׳ אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד
(Zechariah 14:9)
This is how two lines unite
into the balanced center column —
הַקַּו הָאֶמְצָעִי · kav ha-emtza’i.
This is how אֶחָד · Echad is restored.

Discernment in Concealment · Kavim, Chash–Mal, and Esther HaMalka
Torat HaTzeva teaches that inner pressure is not automatically a signal of truth.
At times, the body contracts
the chest tightens, the breath shortens, the system feels compressed.
Alongside this sensation, a voice may arise that speaks urgently, even accusingly.
Rather than asking Is this true?
Torat HaTzeva asks first:
From where is this voice speaking?
We begin by slowing the system, not by correcting it.
Some questions help restore clarity
not to be answered analytically,
but to interrupt automatic identification:
הַאִם זֶה קוֹל שֶׁצָּרִיךְ לְהַקְשִׁיב לוֹ?
Is this a voice that needs my attention?
These questions create space.
They allow awareness to return to the center.
Torat HaTzeva always returns to the body.
and a simple kavannah:
that אוֹר · ohr enters through attention.
Practically:
• Feel contact with the ground or chair
• Notice color, weight, temperature, pressure
• Track sensation without fixing or narrating

Something subtle but reliable appears:
הַבְדָּלָה · havdalah — the capacity to distinguish.
This clarity is not emotional.
It is טָהוֹר מֵהַנְּשָׁמָה · tahor me’ha-neshama.
וְהָרוּחַ תָּשׁוּב אֶל הָאֱלֹקִים אֲשֶׁר נְתָנָהּ
(Kohelet 12:7)
The ruach — the moving breath-spirit — settles back into its Source, the One who entrusted it to us.
This is not withdrawal from life.
It is re-alignment within life.
Esther HaMalka embodies this teaching.
She lives entirely within הֶסְתֵּר פָּנִים · hester panim:
וְאָנֹכִי הַסְתֵּר אַסְתִּיר פָּנַי
(Devarim 31:18)
Fear exists.
Risk is real.
Multiple inner impulses are activated.
Yet Esther does not allow the most urgent voice to lead.
She pauses.
She fasts.
She gathers information.
This is inner containment.
כִּי אִם הַחֲרֵשׁ תַּחֲרִישִׁי בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת
(Esther 4:14)
“For if you remain silent at this moment…”
(Esther 4:14)
חֲרֵשׁ · chash here is not passivity,
but intentional containment before expression.
Her silence is not avoidance.
It is regulated holding — allowing clarity to emerge before action.
This is חַשְׁ־מַל · chash–mal rhythm
• חַשׁ · chash — pause, restraint, containment
• מַל · mal — speech, movement, expression
Healthy avodah is oscillation.
Esther models chash before mal.