Viduy for the Mirror of Beauty
Gate 17: Tiferet sheb’Tiferet
Iyar 2, 5785
Ribbono Shel Olam,
I stand before You not as I am—
but as I have pretended to be.
I have shaped my soul to be admired
more than to be real.
I have crafted appearances
where I should have built integrity.
I have performed holiness
instead of embodying it.
I confess:
I confused the shine of charisma
for the light of character.
I fed on praise instead of Presence.
I became an image,
and called it righteousness.
I confess:
I feared invisibility more than I feared You.
I was more devoted to managing how I appeared
than surrendering who I was.
But now I see
that You are not deceived by beauty constructed—
only beauty revealed.
You gaze not at the face I show the world,
but at the soul beneath my projection.
So today I drop the mask.
I drop the pose.
I drop the smile I crafted for others to think I was whole.
Today I ask:
Not how do I appear—
but what do I reflect?
Do I reflect You?
If not—strip me.
If not—shatter me.
Break the mirror I built with my ego
and replace it with the Ispaqlarya of truth.
Let my beauty be unadorned,
unspectacular,
unpolished—
but Yours.
If You are not visible in me,
then there is nothing worth showing.
So erase what is false.
Reveal what is real.
Make me again.
Amen.
