Count the Omer 2015: Day 4

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Day 4: Netzach within Chesed, Endurance within Loving-kindness

Today's Omer lesson comes from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride! It is a tale of "fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...," the story of Buttercup and Westley, torn apart, reunited, torn apart, and reunited again.

After Westley's apparent death at sea, Buttercup was chosen to wed Prince Humperdinck. When Westley returned alive (see their reunion below), Prince Humperdinck threatened to kill him and Buttercup tried to save him by returning with Humperdinck to the castle, trusting him to give Westley safe passage out of the country. Instead, Humperdinck secretly imprisoned Westley and when Buttercup discovered that he had been lying to her, she delivered some harsh news to him: "You can't hurt me. Westley and I are joined by the bonds of love and you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords."

So, true love allowed her to endure the pain of separation. True love also allowed Westley to come back from being "mostly dead" to be reunited with Buttercup in the end.

"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."