Blogs of Change
All of the life-changing secrets that you and I learn as students of Kabbalah originate from the wisdom revealed in the Zohar by the great teacher and sage Rav Shimon Bar Yochai. Next Thursday, we celebrate his death anniversary on Lag B’Omer, which means this coming week we can all connect with the essence of Rav Shimon — by really applying the lessons he taught and tapping into the power he made available for each of us.
Rav Shimon escaped from the Romans who wanted to kill him and he hid in a cave for 13 years, during which time he received the wisdom of the Zohar from Moses and Elijah the prophet. But the truth is, despite the fact that he escaped, Rav Shimon chose to live in that cave because he knew what he’d come to this world to do.
For 13 years, he ate only carobs from a tree outside, drank only water from a nearby stream, buried himself in the ground and spent all his time learning. I don’t know about you, but if I eat the same dinner three nights in a row, I’ve had enough!
It was unbelievable the sacrifice that Rav Shimon not only had to go through — he volunteered to go through!
He was willing to do whatever was necessary to reveal the Light.
One of the most powerful lessons any of us can learn from Rav Shimon’s life is that anytime we want to achieve something important, we will have to make a sacrifice.
Whether it’s giving up our time, money, ego, negative behaviors or addictions — there is something of comfort to us that we are going to have to kiss goodbye in order to accomplish the great things we are meant to achieve.
No one can be expected to be on the level of Rav Shimon, but it’s important to understand that when we let go of our comforts, what we’re really letting go of are our limitations — those things that are blocking us from fulfillment!
Revealing great Light only comes from great sacrifice.
All the best,
Yehuda
Fear is often seen as a weakness in our society. We perceive it as something we need to eradicate completely from our beings in order to be fulfilled, but you may be surprised that some of the most wise and righteous people in the history—the tzadikim— lived in fear.
The fear that haunted them: “Maybe I’m not doing enough.”
It’s the only thing that really frightens a truly spiritual person. It is written in Proverbs, “Joyous will be the man who is always afraid” because he knows that he has to work to receive the Light. The wicked, however, are neither fearful nor courageous; they’re simply indifferent.
By today’s standards however, having an air of indifference or seeming unaffected can be hailed as a quality of strength in an individual – an interesting play on what is real strength and what is weakness.
This teaches us that those on a spiritual path may appear weaker than those who are not, namely because they are not concerned with looking strong to anyone else. They just want to do the right thing! A righteous person will act with righteousness at all costs – even if it humiliates them, even if it makes them look like the lowliest person in the room!
My father, Rav Berg’s, teacher Rav Brandwein once told him: “When we come to the world of truth, we are asked to name the greatest accomplishment of our lives. Sometimes, people say, ‘Everybody loved me.’ But those people are deeply in error. They are saying that they did nothing in their lives except what others wanted them to do, and whatever that may have been, they were willing to do it.” We must learn to act always in accordance with the Light, even if the true nature of our actions may not be apparent to others.
Many of us try to live as if we were running for political office. To get as many votes as possible, we say only those things that we think others want to hear. So we should take ourselves “out of the running.”
We put so much energy into looking amazing, we forget to just go be amazing.
It’s time to start being less afraid of how we look to others and more concerned with if we’re doing all that we can.
The kabbalists teach that nothing is random. We may not see it from our limited perspective, but rest assured: For everything there is a reason.
I recently went to Honduras and met with three people: The ex-president of Honduras - Manuel Zelaya, the current President of Honduras - Porifirio Lobo, and General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez. It was interesting to be in a room with these three men who clearly share a piece of that country’s destiny.
I was reminded there of a story about the great Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, also known as the Baal Shem Tov. A student of the Baal Shem Tov’s came to him and said, “Life is so random! There’s no real justice in the world!” The Baal Shem Tov told his student to go to the park and there he would see the contrary, that life is certainly not random.
The student did as his teacher suggested and at the park he saw a man arrive with a large bag of money. Distracted by something happening in the distance, the man with the money set his bag down next to a tree and went off to investigate. Meanwhile, a second person showed up, found the bag, looked inside the bag and took the fortune! It’s not long before a third man came into the park and decided to sit down next to the tree for a rest. When the first man returned to the tree, he saw his bag with the money has been taken and assuming it was stolen by the man sitting there, proceeded to beat up the bystander!
Returning to the Baal Shem Tov, the student exclaimed, “Life is random! I saw a man lose all his money. I saw a second person gain tremendous wealth for no reason. And I saw a third man beaten up without warrant.”
The Baal Shem Tov explained, “You didn’t have all of the information. Long ago, the first man you saw stole from the second man. This is why he now had to lose his wealth to him. The third man you saw was the judge of their trial and had unrightfully taken a bribe so the first man could keep what he had stolen.”
The men in the park shared a story about money; the men I met in Honduras shared a story about power. Every situation in life is a shared story of destiny playing itself out. This is an important lesson to remember: As trivial or meaningless as things seem there is always a cosmic dance taking place. This makes every circumstance important, relevant and truthful. It is our job to unravel the mystery and step up to our purpose. For me, I feel that I was in Honduras so that I could share this experience with you!
…Nothing is random.
