LEAVING EGYPT FOR GOOD: The Inner Power of Passover - Part 2 of 2

As in the days when you left Egypt, I will show you wonders. Michah, 7:15

It all comes down to this: Until we free ourselves from the inner Egypt we will never be truly free.

But once we do, we will never be slaves again - to anything, or anyone. Not even ourselves.

The generation that left Egypt ran up against the same basic problem again and again. They were conditioned to think like slaves. They feared the power of the nations who opposed them, and they could not fully internalize - trust and rely upon - their relationship with G-d.

But Kabbalah tells us a fascinating thing. It says that the souls of the generation that left Egypt will be reincarnated in our times, in the generation of the final redemption. It is the task of this generation to finally transform the inner Egypt and set ourselves and all our descendents free.

We have now entered the month of Nissan, the month in which the Exodus occurred. Nissan is called the Rosh Hashana, the new year, of redemption. The name Nissan itself contains within it the Hebrew word for miracle (Nes). And each Nissan, as it enters in, brings with it exactly that - a vast potential for miracles of redemption, a new level of potential that was never present in the world before.

You might sense this; you might not. But either way, it doesn’t change the facts. As the last generation of exile and the first of redemption, we were born with the slave mentality, but only in order that we can transform it once and for all. We are meant to come face-to-face with those feelings of smallness and helplessness, the fears and uncertainties, and the fact that the constraints and challenges of our physical world still seem all too real. But only so that we can finally leave them behind.

You have to feel these things, true. But you don’t have to believe in them. You don’t have to let them control your life anymore.

According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Moses of our generation, at this crucial and transitional time in history we can and must begin to use our new potential - our miraculous potential - in every aspect of our lives. It’s not enough to simply stop being slaves, to become a nation among nations. We must go much higher than that. Each one of us, through the intimacy and intensity of our connection with G-d, now has the power to connect with our own concealed essence as well. From that place, we become true partners in Creation. Not only will our lives become miraculous, but miracles will become a part of our very nature.

Here’s a little secret that will help. The truth is that everything is already a miracle. Since G-d is bringing this world into existence from divine “nothingness” at every moment, everything is intentional, everything is miraculous and everything is an alive, moving expression of its infinite Source.  But this reality can’t just remain an idea. It must be internalized; become a part of our daily consciousness, our ordinary lives.

So let’s start with you.

What would change in your life if you connected to this reality and began to tap into a still-unexplored level of awareness and power? Would you notice the myriad and continuous expressions of Divine Providence in your life and world?  Would you feel more connected and empowered? Bolder, more confident, less afraid?

What would your relationships be like? What would you be committed to? What would you create?

You don’t have to wait. In fact, waiting is the last thing you should do.

This Nissan, it’s time to approach each challenge and every opportunity of your life with a new belief, the belief that it is now within your nature to make miracles, to create redemption.  This belief - and the actions that go with it - will change your world.

We don’t have to wait for next year in Jerusalem. As we sit by the seder table this year, may we be truly free!

Are you ready to start tapping into your inner light? To activate your power to create, to make real things happen, in the places where it matters most? Are you ready to start living a life that’s bigger, brighter, rich with purpose and power?

If the answer is yes, the Turning Walls into Doorways Membership Club is for you. It’s designed to help you do that - and much more.

In Turning Walls into Doorways you will learn some of the most powerful secrets of the Blueprint for Creation, tap into the transformational light of authentic Kabbalah and Chassidus, and learn practical and powerful tools that will help you shift your very ground of being and affect every aspect of your real life.

You can start the journey today.

For more information or to register, visit http://www.WallsIntoDoorways.com

 

LEAVING EGYPT FOR GOOD: The Inner Power of Passover - Part 1 of 2

As in the days when you left Egypt, I will show you wonders. Michah, 7:15

On the fifteenth of the Hebrew month of Nissan, Jews around the world will sit together with family and friends. They will sit at tables covered with white cloths, illuminated with candlelight, sparkling with silver, china and crystal. Throughout the night, they will taste the richness of wine, the bitterness of horseradish, and the subtle pure taste of matzah, the bread of faith.

On the seder night, we celebrate our liberation from slavery in Egypt, our redemption and freedom.

And yet, we are still waiting to be free.

When I was a small child, I lived in Chicago. We weren’t observant, but my grandparents were. And every Passover (Pesach), we would go to their apartment - my parents, my brothers and I, together with all my aunts, uncles and cousins, to celebrate the seder.

I remember my Uncle Artie and my Aunt Shiffy joking, the kids clowning around, my grandfather talking about the Exodus from Egypt and my grandmother saying: “Samuel, I’m hungry!  Can you please hurry so we can eat?”

I never wanted my grandfather to hurry. I would have loved it if he had told the story of the Exodus all night long. Because from as far back as I can remember, at the seder - in the eating, the drinking and the telling of the story, I could feel the walls of the world shifting, opening and moving back. I could feel the presence of something else, something sparkling, something powerful, profoundly in motion, real and alive.

Many years have passed since my grandparents passed away. There were years - lots of years - when I didn’t go to any seder. There were years when I didn’t even know that Pesach had come and gone.

Then began my own journey back - back to my roots, to the roots of my grandparents and great-grandparents, to the roots of all the generations that came before. My journey brought me all the way back to the generation of the Exodus from Egypt, an Exodus which is still occurring today.

The slavery of Egypt was the most profound and all-encompassing that ever existed, as it was not only physical but spiritual as well. The redemption from Egypt took place in the midst of thunderous miracles, and through it, both bodies and souls become free.

But that freedom did not last.  True, the Exodus was the prototype for every redemption that would ever follow. It was a world-altering event that led to the birth of the Jewish nation and the giving of the Torah, the Divine mandate for all of humanity.  But it was incomplete.

G-d took us out of Egypt, but He did not take Egypt out of us.

Kabbalah explains that the Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, means limitations, boundaries, constraints. In breaking out of Egypt, we were freed from those constraints, changed forever. From the moment Pharoah let us go, there was no longer any force in the world powerful enough to keep a Jew from connecting with G-d. No force in the world.

But inside the Jew - that’s a different story.

Many times over the millennia of our history we were enslaved, oppressed, expelled - and much worse. The world has not been a hospitable place for the Jews.  But in each of those situations, Jews kept the Torah. Though the world has tried to destroy the Jewish nation time and time again, the Jews have never agreed to disappear.

Nevertheless, Egypt remains alive inside the hearts of each one of us. It makes us feel small and unworthy. It makes us forget who we are and who we could become. It makes us believe that we have to blend in with those who seem bigger and more powerful than ourselves. It gives us the stubborn illusion that the world is solid and real, and that the intimate presence of G-d and our own souls is a fantasy or a dream. 

This “slave mentality” is the cause of all the limiting beliefs, uncertainties and fears that are in our way. It makes us feel helpless and disempowered. It cuts us off from the miracles of our past, the potential of our future and our own truly infinite power to change our world for good.

Please return for Part 2 of our post in just a few days.

The Climax of History - Part 3 of 3

From the external perspective our world is a mess. But nonetheless, we are more and more convinced that each and every one of us is unique and irreplaceable, endowed with a tremendous untapped power to do good.Without really noticing it, we have entered the climax of history. Like pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle, without the picture on the cover of the box it’s all a hopeless jumble. But once you see the whole picture, many seemingly diverse and random pieces begin to fit together.

This has always been the perspective of the Blueprint. But for millennia, our “lowest world” has been trapped in an endless cycle of barbarism and despair. At last we are becoming “mature vessels”, receptive to our source.

Remember, this is a process. As the last generation of golus and the first of Geula, both within us and around us these two realities exist side by side. But like every conflict, like the core paradigm of Creation, these two conflicting perspectives will merge, revealing that in essence the darkness was always light.

Revealing that light from within the darkness means moving to a higher plane of consciousness, connecting not to light or darkness alone, but to the source of both, the place where they were always one.

Most of us can’t put a name to what’s happening, nor do we know exactly what to do about it, but we sense it nonetheless. We are touching the edge of a tidal wave of transformation that will have incalculable impact on our individual lives and on the sum total of human potential.

The transformation whose beginnings we are experiencing was always meant to come. To embrace it fully, to reveal its light and potential, means to live with a new  level of awareness and responsibility, making choices on both the spiritual and material planes that reflect not the past, but the future. But it is a privilege which brings with it unprecedented possibilities, not only for the world at large, but in every aspect of your personal life.

Since the sad story of our exile from the Garden, we’ve been slowly but surely working our way back. But this time, when we find ourselves in the Garden, we will know the place from the inside out.

Our experience of G-dliness, our connection with our own essence, with each other, with all that is, will not be conceptual or external as it once was. It will be tangible and oh so personal. We will be shining from within, connected with our Creator and illuminated by the light of our souls.

And that, my friend, was the whole intention of the exile in the first place

This transformation, regardless of how global its ramifications will eventually be, has to start on the most personal level, in your personal life and relationships. You must become of point of light, a candle whose flame burns every brighter and more pure. And like one flame can light candle after candle and never diminish, your light can illuminate, set fire to others yet never grow dim.

This transition process is still underway. You will still need to do the work. But, because of the unique nature of the times, it will be far easier than it once was to succeed. You just need to know the rules.

Are you ready to start tapping into your inner light? To activate your power to create, to make real things happen, in the places where it matters most? Are you ready to start living a life that’s bigger, brighter, rich with purpose and power?

If the answer is yes, the Turning Walls into Doorways Membership Club is for you. It’s designed to help you do that - and much more.

In Turning Walls into Doorways you will learn some of the most powerful secrets of the Blueprint for Creation, tap into the transformational light of authentic Kabbalah and Chassidus, and learn practical and powerful tools that will help you shift your very ground of being and affect every aspect of your real life.

You can start the journey today.

For more information or to register, visit http://www.WallsIntoDoorways.com

The Climax of History - Part 2 of 3

In the material realm, there are new possibilities for swift change, great abundance, remarkable and rapid acquisition of wealth. Though poverty is still widespread, huge fortunes are made (and lost) overnight. The struggle for prosperity, once tied to long years, even generations, of toil and production, has begun to shift venues. Where once it was tied to land, and then to manufacturing, wealth today can be generated almost instantaneously from ideas alone.

In the realm of science and technology we take for granted today things that could not be imagined even a few short years ago. Photographs of Mars are transmitted into our living rooms. Computers only a few molecules in size make possible a precision which stretches the limits of the imagination. New technologies become obsolete almost before they are off the assembly line. Genetic researchers discuss the possibility of slowing down or even stopping the aging process and of reversing all illnesses.

This explosion of change in the realms of science, medicine, information and business is being driven by an entirely new sense of what’s possible. We have begun to feel that there is no frontier that cannot someday be conquered, and we act accordingly. We are racing toward the infinite.

At the same time, a subtle yet profound transformation is taking place in human consciousness. Our thinking has begun to undergo a shift, one that we take for granted, but which in fact represents a deep change in our perspective and expectations. Even while our society is in crisis, in some ways more than ever before, we nurture an inner and unquestioned conviction that things just shouldn’t have to be this way. 

For millennia, the world has endured war, poverty, oppression, cruelty, ignorance and suffering. These things were predictable, constant and inevitable. To all previous generations, this painful reality was accepted without question.

This is no longer the case. In our generation, for the first time in history, ordinary people have begun to dream about, talk about and work toward such utopian ideals as universal abundance and world peace.

Though you may not have noticed it consciously or been able to explain it to yourself, you are probably already aware on some level that something is happening. Most of us sense that the world is in the midst of a kind of transformational process, spiritual in nature, and that this process, like time in general,  is moving faster and faster each day.

This feeling is not limited to those religiously inclined. Go to any bookstore and you’ll see an amazing number of books on spirituality. Check out the most popular shows on television, cover stories of magazines, movies and commercials to hear about angels, heaven, afterlife, destiny. This thirst for spirituality and meaning is far more widespread than ever before. More significant, it’s no longer confined to weekend services at a house of worship, but is permeating the most mundane and personal details of our daily lives.

More and more, we are becoming comfortable with the idea that the physical world is governed by spiritual principles. We are beginning to believe that if we can understand and integrate these principles, we can break through the limiting boundaries of life as we’ve known it until now.

On the human level as well as the technological, we are moving toward a whole new set of beliefs, toward that language of Geula, and it is only by taking a big step back that we can see what an enormous shift these beliefs represent. Despite all evidence of the past, we are convinced that all problems have solutions, that differences can and should be resolved without conflict, that cooperation buys us more than competition. That life is not random and chaotic but rather filled with an underlying meaning and purpose and that human beings are, in their essence, good. 

These ideas have crept into our minds and our culture through a process that’s transparent to us. Our parents didn’t think this way. Neither did our grandparents or great-grandparents. In fact, they would not have been able to begin to imagine the world of today.

The Climax of History - Part 1 of 3

“It is not up to you to complete the work. But neither are you free to desist from it.  The day is short, there is much work to be done, the reward is great, the workers are lazy, and the master of the house is knocking.” – Ethics of the Fathers  

“The Time of Your Redemption has Arrived”  – the Lubavitcher Rebbe

 From the moment our ancestors were exiled from the Garden of Eden, we have been forced to live life in a world of struggle, darkness and death. In this state of conflict, scarcity and isolation, we are cut off not only from the physical Garden, but from our own essence, from G-d, and from each other. There is no question that life holds the possibility of amazing beauty and deep pleasure. But this pleasure is always mixed with the inevitability of pain.  In all of history, not a single human being has managed to entirely escape the consequences of the exile from the Garden. Whether in tragedy and loss or in the everyday struggles of life, we all feel it, on some level, every day.  But life as we know it to be, the life of exile, was never meant to go on forever.  Our mission has always been, whether we were aware of it or not, to elevate and transform the world of exile into a home for G-d and a place where humanity can thrive.  When the mission is completed, life will look very different from the way it does now. We are destined to go back to the Garden. Or more accurately, to make of the entire world a garden – a place of beauty, harmony and holiness. This process, as never-ending as it seems to be, had a beginning and will have an end. And the end of this process, the climax of history, is far closer than ever before. According to Kabbalah, right before the end of the process we will live through a time of transition between exile and Redemption. A time of intensified darkness and intensified light. A time when, after thousands of years of homelessness, we prepare ourselves to go back home. The purpose of this time is to move us to a whole new level of consciousness. It’s time to align ourselves with our destiny, to remember who we are and why we’re here. At this time, our choices make more difference than ever before.  It’s always darkest before the dawn. But at the same time, it’s getting lighter too. It’s as if, throughout history, we’ve been riding a moving train through a long tunnel. As we near the end of the tunnel, the light coming from the beginning gets weaker and weaker, and the darkness grows. But at the same time, a new light, the light at the end of the tunnel, is beginning to shine.

As the darkness increases, our problems increase too. It’s not the first time in history that we’ve face challenges, but it is the first time that they have held such destructive power.

Our old paradigms – the light from the beginning of tunnel – will not enable us to solve these problems. The level of consciousness that we’ve held until now is simply not enough. But this is the language of golus. From the perspective of Geula, the expansion of consciousness that is being called forth by our challenges is the very reason they’re here. It’s all part of the Blueprint, the Tapestry, the vast cosmic plan.

But bear in mind that whatever form they may take, these crises have all been predicted. They are all part of the plan.

The words below, written thousands of years ago, describe this time of transition. I leave it to you to decide whether or not it sounds anything like our world today: Insolence and self-centeredness will increase, there will be oppressing inflation,people will be addicted to the good life and the costs will be high, moral standards will dissolve, morality and wisdom will be denigrated, there will be unbridled irresponsibility on the part of authorities, centers of learning will turn into centers of immorality, poverty will increase, the young will denigrate the old, families will disintegrate, leadership will be impudent. The world will see a succession of troubles, epidemics of terrible diseases, and international confrontations. The face of the generation will be ‘like the face of a dog’. Just as dogs are not embarrassed by anything they do, so too people will lose their sense of embarrassment.  

We are being called upon to expand beyond our boundaries. Our challenges will force us, as challenges so often do, to dig deep within ourselves to find entirely new ways of thinking and being. They will compel us to strengthen our relationship with our Creator and to listen more intently for the soft voice of our soul. Out of the breakdown of the old and unworkable, we are destined to create something completely new.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of 3 in the next few days of The Climax of History…… 

When Down is Up: The Kabbalah of Growth

One of the most frustrating things about personal growth is the fact that we seem to run into the same obstacles again and again. It can make us feel like instead of growing, we’re standing still – or even going backwards.

However, this frustration is based on a false belief - that growth is supposed to linear, a smooth continuous move in an upward direction. The Blueprint for Creation tells us a different story.

True growth isn’t linear. It’s more like a spiral. A spiral is always going up – but this upward progress is not straight. The spiral moves up in circles, actually moving back as a preparation for each new step in the climb.

Our growth works like this as well.

We can understand this better through understanding what’s known in Kabbalah as Lights and Vessels. In order for a light to actually shine, it must be contained in a vessel that fits it well, somewhat like the way an electric current needs the right sized light bulb in order to manifest as light.

In terms of your growth, the light is the potential that you want to experience or express. The vessels are specifically where and how it will be expressed. In a general way, growth means that more and more of the light of your potential is expressed within the vessel of your personality, and by extension, in the circumstances of your life. 

The problem is, your potential is infinite and your personality is finite. That means that, by definition, the light is always too big for the vessel.

In order to hold more light, the vessel has to grow. And that’s where your challenges come in. Those very things that get in the way of what you want to experience, whether your external circumstances, your fears and doubts, your old habits or your failures of the past, are what enable that growth. Facing your challenges head-on, not with shame and frustration, but with dedication and anticipation, will cause you to stretch and expand, just like lifting heavy weights will inevitably make you strong.

However, stretching is uncomfortable – sometimes very much so. In fact, it’s precisely when the challenge is doing its job of opening you up that it feels most like you’re stuck. Instead of seeing it as an opportunity for powerful growth, it’s easy to feel confronted with everything about you and your life that simply isn’t working the way you think it should.

When this happens, there are two possible responses, a choice between two roads. The first, the low road, is to avoid the discomfort by giving up on the light, in whatever aspect of life it may be. Stop going to the gym, let that relationship fall apart, give up on your dream or goal. Your life will get steadily smaller as you continue down this road, but you will successfully avoid the discomfort and uncertainty of stretching.  True, you will be far less present and conscious in your life, but that won’t make you very different from most of the people you know.

The second, the high road, means to embrace that discomfort, secure in the knowledge that you are NOT going backwards, but rather expanding your vessels to hold a far greater level of light. It means that instead of letting your dreams fade away, you attach yourself even more deeply to their light, tapping into a deeper level of desire, learning new ways of thinking and behaving that make your life bigger, brighter and more authentic than it was before.

If you take this road, you will have moments of discomfort, without a doubt. But you will also have a continuously expanding life; a life of great discovery, of power, purpose and joy.
 
The truth is that we have no idea how high we can go. Our potential, our light, has always been far greater than our vessels, our ability to perceive, and in these transformational times it gets greater each day. This means that our challenges, both personal and global, increase as the gap between the expanding light and the old, limited vessels grows. At the same time, the more light there is, and the more we understand about how to internalize that light, the bigger those vessels can be.  The bottom line is, you’re always getter bigger or smaller with every choice you make – or fail to make. You’re never standing still.

So next time you feel like you’re stuck, next time you have the thought that you just don’t have what it takes to meet your challenges or fulfill your dreams, consider making a different choice. Consider letting the challenge move you up, open you up, stretch you, and fill you with an entirely new level of your own light.  Consider taking the high road, the road to transformation, where all is new, nothing is certain, and wonders await those who have the courage and patience to let them in.

Are you ready to start tapping into your inner light? To activate your power to create, to make real things happen, in the places where it matters most? Are you ready to start living a life that’s bigger, brighter, rich with purpose and power?

If the answer is yes, the Turning Walls into Doorways Membership Club is for you. It’s designed to help you do that - and much more.

In Turning Walls into Doorways you will learn some of the most powerful secrets of the Blueprint for Creation, tap into the transformational light of authentic Kabbalah and Chassidus, and learn practical and powerful tools that will help you shift your very ground of being and affect every aspect of your real life.

You can start the journey today.

For more information or to register, visit http://www.WallsIntoDoorways.com

The Journey Back to Consciousness - Part 3 of 3

Seeing Through the Walls

…When G-d created the world, He created the angel of death on the very first day… as it is written, “And darkness was upon the face of the abyss”. Man was created only on the sixth day, and it is a plot that was contrived against him that he is the one who brought death upon the world, as it is written, “For on the day that you eat from it, you shall die”.… Hence (it says in Psalms 66:5): “His fearsome plot upon the children of man.” (Midrash Tanchuma)

Torah is the Blueprint for Creation. As a blueprint precedes the building of a house, Torah – and Kabbalah - preceded and informed the creation of the world.

And in the very first chapter of the Blueprint, the story of Creation describes the fall of man. This steep plummet from light into darkness affected every aspect of existence. Despite the fact that with it the potential for death and incalculable suffering was introduced into the world, because it is part of the Blueprint, it is a inevitable and fundamental part of G-d’s plan for Creation - it had to be.

Death, and the sin that precipitated it, was a precondition necessary to fulfill the purpose for Creation. Only through internalizing the darkness, the all-too-intimate experience of being separate, impermanent, small, and alone, could we slowly, over the course of millions of choices over thousands of years, begin to make that darkness shine. Our darkness is upfront and personal. That’s why we have so much power to turn it into light.

Making the Darkness Shine
Each and every time you make the choice to transcend your limited perceptions, open your mind and heart to the bigger, deeper truth of G-d’s perspective, become more aware of the Divine hand concealed within the glove of our world, you use your power of daat, attachment, to broaden your capacity to see through the walls of exile.

In a general sense, this happens through learning Torah, especially Kabbalah and Chassidut, and through doing the mitzvos. Torah gives us access to the wisdom of the Blueprint, and transforms and expands the capacity of the linear human mind to perceive non-linear Divine Truth. Mitzvos, on the other hand, aren’t limited even by the mind. Each mitzvah is designed by the Creator to pull infinite Divine Light into the finite boundaries of the physical world, making physicality itself more and more receptive to its Divine creative Source.

But in an even more intimate and personal sense, in your ordinary individual life, you can create this transformation at any time. Each time you choose to transcend the limiting ego-based emotions that began with the eating from the Tree of Knowledge, you bring yourself and all of humanity one step closer to its fulfillment.

Whenever you choose trust instead of fear, understanding in place of anger, generosity instead of greed, love and connection instead of ego, you open your heart, transform a piece of darkness into light, and bring the whole world one step closer to its ultimate transformation.

Far from being your problem, your all-too-human flaws are in a sense your biggest asset. It is they that give you the opportunity to transform and transcend – to make the darkness shine, to elevate yourself and the world in ways that you otherwise never could.  This is why they’re there in the first place.

Are you ready to start tapping into your inner light? To activate your power to create, to make real things happen, in the places where it matters most? Are you ready to start living a life that’s bigger, brighter, rich with purpose and power?
 
If the answer is yes, the Turning Walls into Doorways Membership Club is for you. It’s designed to help you do that - and much more.
 
In Turning Walls into Doorways you will learn some of the most powerful secrets of the Blueprint for Creation, tap into the transformational light of authentic Kabbalah and Chassidus, and learn practical and powerful tools that will help you shift your very ground of being and affect  every aspect of your real life.
 
You can start the journey today.
 
For more information or to register, visit http://www.WallsIntoDoorways.com 

The Journey Back to Consciousness - Part 2 of 3

Present Perfect

Just as G-d’s plan for the world involves the fall into darkness followed by the genesis of a greater light, so too His plan for your life.

As Chassidus explains, there is nothing that happens, even to the falling of a leaf from a tree, that is not deliberately, intentionally orchestrated by G-d. Your life, too, is being custom-created at each moment exactly the way it needs to be in order for you to realize your full potential and purpose on this earth. When you know that, live with it, life becomes illuminated with the realization that nothing is ever wrong. Yes, there may be things –even big things - that need to be improved, changed, corrected, achieved. But it is infinitely empowering to approach those changes from a place of peace, secure in the knowledge that you, and every part of your life, is exactly as it is supposed to be as a starting point for your growth and transformation.

Consciousness: the Journey Back

This knowledge is the key, the first step in the journey back to consciousness. And it is a step you can begin to take, if you choose, right now. By practicing the awareness that your life is being created with loving intention at each moment, just as it is supposed to be, the choices you make will automatically be more expansive, illuminated, G-dly. G-d is the director of the show of your life, and you are its star. And as the star, the choices you make will help determine, each and every time, how the next scene unfolds.
 
Evil, and freedom of choice, existed before Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge. But then evil was something external from the person, and the two domains were completely separate. Man’s mission in life was to “work and keep the Garden”–to cultivate the good and keep out the bad. By eating from the Tree, man gained intimate knowledge (daat) of evil, ingesting it into himself and–man being a microcosm of creation–into his world. From that point on the two realms were confused, there being no evil without good and no good without evil. The task of man became the “work of refinement” (avodat habirrurim)–to distinguish and separate good from evil and evil from good. (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi)

There is a story told of three blind men who were asked describe an elephant based on touch alone. The first one grabbed the trunk, and exclaimed: “Ahh… an elephant is just like a snake!” Another felt the leg and disagreed, “No,” he argued, “it’s clear that an elephant is exactly like a tree!” The third blind man grasped the end of the pachyderm tail and insisted: “Ridiculous! Why can’t you both see that an elephant is just like a broom!”

When Adam and Eve ate from the Eitz HaDaat, the self-consciousness that they introduced to the human experience was not merely painful. It was blinding as well.
 
Our world is vast and infinitely complex. However, our perceptions of it – and even more important, the interpretations we make of them - are as limited and contradictory as that of the three blind men.  And like they, most of us live our lives in the firm conviction that the way we see it is the One and Only Truth.

This perception is inaccurate and deceptive at best. But it becomes truly problematic when the people we live and work with, each with their own unique take on life, feel the same way.

Daat, in Hebrew, means attachment, connection. It means to know something in a way that is personal and meaningful.

Daat allows us to care about things, to be attached to people, to be motivated, to follow through. But this very same quality can act as a blindfold as well.

There is only one absolute Truth – G-d’s perspective. The rest of us may think we have a grip on Truth – but most of the time all we have is a leg, a trunk or a tail. The personal take on life that results from our daat-driven perceptions and agendas often bears little resemblance to reality.

Once again, this is no accident. It is a fundamental part of our purpose, of G-d’s plan for creation. The blind self-consciousness of the Tree of Knowledge is not our final stop. It an intermediary state of darkness that is a preface to a far greater level of light. And as dark as it may seem now, the light at the end of the tunnel has never been as close or as bright as it is today.

The Journey Back to Consciousness - Part 1 of 3

“And G-d commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat of it; for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis

Our world is filled with potential. But all too often we experience life as confusing, dark and overwhelming, and ourselves as disempowered, separate and alone.

When G-d first created Adam and Eve, our original ancestors, the world looked very different from the way it does today. In the beginning of creation, life was illuminated, bright with the glory of the Creator, filled with abundant goodness and entirely void of fear.

The Birth of the Ego

“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they felt no shame.” Genesis

“And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat… And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” Genesis

Adam and Eve were created conscious.

To be conscious means to be fully aware. And so they were. Aware of their purpose, their own awesome potential and the infinite presence of G-d. However, with one fateful act – eating from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge – Adam and Eve fell from the bright illuminated state of consciousness to the darkness of self-consciousness. As the Torah relates, they realized that they were naked – shamefully naked - in a physical sense. But more than this, they were naked spiritually and emotionally as well. From the serene perfection of the Garden, they had been plunged into the fearful reality of a world of golus (exile) – a world where something was terribly wrong. 

At the dawn of human history mankind was created living life from the inside out.  Attuned to Divine Truth, fully present, free of judgment or self-criticism, guilt and shame, Adam and Eve in their first moments on earth experienced a state of all-encompassing wholeness, devoid of any sense of struggle or lack. But from the instant they bit into the forbidden fruit of the Eitz HaDaat, the Tree of Knowledge, ego and self-consciousness became an intrinsic, inevitable part of the human condition. They felt exposed. They were ashamed.  From a profound state of awareness and power, they fell into the depths of confusion, helplessness and fear.

It was at that point that mankind began to live reactively – from the outside in. Instead of being one with themselves, they became, in a sense, two. One self to observe, and the other, the ego-based identity, to interpret, judge and react. And inevitably this reactive state was followed by guilt, regret and the desire to hide, deny and shift the blame to others.

To make matters worse, Adam and Eve, in their new state of being, were exiled from Paradise. Life became a struggle to survive.

Exile from within, exile from without. Not an easy place from which to start our journey of life on earth.

The Divine Template for Creation

This entire scenario – the original state of illuminated awareness, the sin, the fall into darkness, and the personal, painful experience of self-consciousness and exile – is actually an integral part of the Divine template for Creation. And the whole point of it all is that, through our own efforts, we return to consciousness once again.

At the beginning of Creation, Adam and Eve were in a very high spiritual state. But it was all due to the kindness, the largesse, of the Creator. They themselves were mere recipients – they contributed, essentially, nothing of their own.

And there was another problem. Before the sin, although everything was filled with light, there remained one piece of lurking, unrectified darkness, an Achilles heel to all of Creation. The Garden was created with a fundamental evil, the infamous snake.

The sin of eating from the Eitz HaDaat precipitated a terrifying fall.  The darkness that once lurked only in unactualized potential, within the seductive snake, was made real. In fact, it became an intrinsic part of the human psyche. But together with that darkness, mankind internalized the potential for transformation – to turn that darkness, through our own desire, our own will and our own efforts – into an even greater light.

Sometimes   we don’t recognize - or don’t actualize - our power to transform. We live in the world of victimhood, helpless in the dark. Sometimes we behave in ways that make the darkness even deeper. But the good news is that every fall, whether cosmic or personal, contains within it the seeds of a far greater redemption. It is never too late.

When you embrace your power to transform you accomplish two things. First, you reveal the inner Divine purpose behind every challenge and concealment – the reason that G-d created it in the first place. Once you do that, the very thing that separated you from G-d, that stood in the way of your authentic fulfillment, now connects you. From the perspective of Kabbalah, you have now turned that piece of darkness into light.

And second, as you do so, and do so of your own free will, you stop being a passive recipient of G-d’s largesse.

Instead, you become a full partner in Creation. And that’s what G-d planned for you all along. 

Invisible Fences - Part 3 of 3

Childhood is intentionally designed to reactivate and give a personal flavor to the limiting emotional states that were imprinted in human psyche during the exile from the Garden. Your particular experience and predispositions combine to create your ego-based identity, your persona. This part of you tells stories, gives opinions, makes judgments, has reactions, and is programmed to reinforce and defend itself in exactly these ways. It is on the one hand part of what defines you uniquely as you, but on the other a highly restrictive, limiting structure, like a piece of very dark, even opaque glass superimposed over a clear window. It is the most external, surface layer of who you are, which conceals all of the more internal layers. Because it’s the most visible, it appears to be the most real.

But there is a truer you. And the purpose of each and every obstacle in your life and all of your reactions to those obstacles is to allow that truer you to shine through.

And at this time, when, as prophesied, the Divine wisdom of Kabbalah has become accessible to the average person, the time has come for just that to happen.

Every Olympic athlete has spent thousands upon thousands of hours testing and expanding his limits; jumping hurdles - or the equivalent - in order to access a latent power that would otherwise never be expressed and to break through the barriers of what is assumed to be possible, over and over again.

Whether or not you are an Olympic athlete, you have the same power to break through barriers in your own life. In the game of life, we face hurdles almost constantly. Often these hurdles seem just too high. Each time you run across a hurdle that seems just too high, you have a choice to make. You can stick with your familiar old story about who you are, back away from the hurdle and resign yourself to a smaller life. Or you can reach beneath and beyond the concealing glass into the unbounded potential of your truer self. There, you already have the untapped power to jump higher and farther than ever before, and in doing so expand the very boundaries of the person you’ve assumed yourself to be.

Any time you do this, you’ve taken a piece of darkness – whether your own limiting stories, the obstacle in your way, your fear, resignation or self-doubt – and used it as the impetus to draw more light, power and aliveness from the essence of who you are. That’s one of the reasons that you’re here.

Next time you hear yourself saying or thinking something like: “I’m just not the type”, “I can’t”, or “I’m afraid”, think of the tiger and the elephant.  Knowing that you’re creating your own cage is the first step in breaking free.

Then, just as an experiment, ask yourself what you would do if you were the type, if you could do it, or if you weren’t afraid. If you ask yourself this question, you may be surprised at how clear and available the answers are.

Then, as a bonus, even though it ‘just isn’t you’, even though you’re scared, try taking action based on these answers and see what happens.

It’s time to turn some darkness into light.

Authentic Kabbalah is not magic, spiritual tricks, or a new age self-help technique. It is Jewish mysticism, the deepest level of the Torah – the Divine communication given to Moses at Mount Sinai.  It is the ultimate mission statement and owner’s manual for the human being. Learned and applied properly, authentic Kabbalah will help you to reach your highest potential as a human being created in the image of G-d,  and give  you access to a life of  joy, purpose, power and passionate aliveness.

*Since the Torah forbids the erasing of G-d’s name, it’s customary to avoid writing it out in full.

Are you ready to start creating what you TRULY want in your life - regardless of past failures or fears? To activate your power to create, to make real things happen, in the places where it matters most? Are you ready to start living a life that’s bigger, brighter, rich with purpose and power?
 
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