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......