(recent lecture)

I was talking to someone on the plane as we flew to Malawi. I wondered when in history that someone made connections in Malawi, or studied Zohar. Who knows if ever, but certainly, probably not in recent history. I was reminded of an important lesson from Noam Elimelech.

Everywhere we go, through our actions, we elevate sparks of Light. Noam Elimelech says the entire purpose of our life in this world is to elevate sparks of Light.

After the sin of Adam, even more sparks of Light became enclosed within shells. Our work is to break open those shells and elevate the sparks of Light. When enough of those sparks are elevated through our work, at that time is the end of the correction. At its essence, that is the purpose of all our work.

As the kabbalists explain, when you go to a place, certainly one that is out of our way, there is no coincidence you find yourself in that place. There are sparks of Light waiting for you to elevate them. If you find yourself there, there are sparks of Light related to your soul waiting for you to elevate them.

There is a story of the Ba’al Shem Tov. He was traveling with his students. And we know they would not ride the horses. The horses would lead them. Suddenly the horses stopped in the middle of the road. There was a frog in the middle of the road. The Ba’al Shem Tov stopped and talked to the frog for about a half hour. When he was done, he explained to his students that within that frog there was a soul trapped there for a thousand years. That soul was waiting for someone to come and elevate him from that prison. That is what the Ba’al Shem Tov did.

When you find yourself in a situation, it is not an accident. There are sparks of Light that need our assistance to bring them out of the prison, out of the klipot that they are in. Our purpose is to elevate sparks by our actions everywhere we find the opportunity.

Certainly for those of us who went to Malawi, it was interesting to find the sparks that were waiting for us. Hopefully we elevated some of those sparks. We probably have to go back.(Smile)

This week’s Parashah talks about the appointing of spies. Before they go to the land of Israel, the most righteous of the people, the leaders of the tribes, Moses appoints them to go see what kind of land it is. Do they have armies? Tell us about the physical environment.

We know the Torah was not written or meant to be understood literally. There is a powerful lesson to learn and to understand in this week’s Parashah.

Rabbi Elimelech says the purpose of the creation of our world was to give fulfillment to all of the creation. And that’s why in the creation of our work, sparks of Light were scattered throughout the world. Because through the work of humanity to elevate those sparks, all the sustenance, all the blessings, everything good and all the fulfillment we hope to achieve in our life, comes from those sparks we elevate.

After the sin of Adam, even more sparks fell from the Light into the darkness, into the klipot. How do we elevate the sparks?

This is one of the beautiful things about the kabbalists in the way they tell us things. They tell us what to do, and they tell us the process of how it works. It’s through our consciousness we can do the work.

I studied this with the chevre on Thursday night and kept repeating this one sentence that is so powerful and so important.

We read from the original writings of the kabbalists to gain the knowledge, and also to gain their assistance. Their soul is imbued in these words.

How do you elevate the sparks, he asks. The way, the first step, is to realize, in our consciousness, consistently, the silliness of the physical world. And by, in our consciousness, realizing the silliness of the physicality, we can elevate the sparks. The physicality is not only the physical objects, but also the actions of the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone, the emotions of the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. Anything that relates to the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone is of this physical world. Anything in physicality can be a shell that traps within it the Light of the Creator. By realizing the silliness of these situations, the silliness of physicality, that consciousness breaks the shell that is around the spark. That is the only way. That is the only way we can elevate sparks.

This is a very important idea. I assume many of us who have been around the Centre have heard that as we elevate sparks, we bring Light to our lives and assist the world. Rav Elimelech is telling us here that it’s a two step process. First you have to break the shell that surrounds that spark. How? By realizing the silliness of the physical world, the silliness of the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. By doing that, you make it lose its power.

The shell surrounding any spark of Light draws its strength from the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. Once you undermine its strength by realizing its silliness, it breaks the shell and you can elevate the spark. It’s a tremendously important and exciting idea.

When we find ourselves in a big or small situation, and I’ll give you a simple one. We are here, making a connection. Let’s say someone bumps us and annoys us to a certain agree. What happens? There is a spark of Light in the situation. It is covered by the annoyance.

Wheat gives us the annoyance? The spark in the situation. In any situation there has to be a spark of Light. By breaking the shell, you remove that spark. If someone bumps into me and annoys me, there is a spark of Light trapped in the annoyance, in the negativity. When I take a few seconds and realize how silly it is of me to be annoyed for the next five seconds, that consciousness opens up and takes away the spark of the shell. What is left? Light. And I get that Light.

In every situation that I find myself in, I can realize that in any negative situation, both great and small, there is a spark of Light, greater or smaller, trapped within a shell. The way for me to take that spark out is by undermining the shell’s power. How? By realizing its silliness. When I realize the silliness of the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone, I break open the shell and receive the Light. It’s a two-step process: break the shell open and elevate the spark.

When I was studying with the chevre on Thursday night, someone said it’s difficult to do this, to realize the silliness of the situation. Throughout our day, there are hundreds of small situations in which there are sparks of Light held captive by the klipot. By us undermining the strength of the negativity, we break the shell open and bring out the Light from within it.

If I have the ability to become very angry, if I allow myself to react in that way, I am not only not breaking open the shell and taking out the Light I need, but I am also sending it even deeper in to the darkness, making it harder for me next time to elevate that spark.

Rabbi Elimelech explains the purpose of sending the spies to Isabel. The whole purpose of bringing the Israelites into Israel, the singular purpose for bringing them into the Land of Israel, was because there was a tremendous amount of Light there. The only way to reveal this Light was to break the shells and elevate the sparks.

We know that often the shells are very strong. This process actually began with Abraham. It says in Beresheet, the Creator tells Abraham everywhere you stop, everywhere you go, that will be the land of Israel. There will be a nation. The question is why only where Abraham stepped would it become the land of Israel.

Abraham was a tremendously powerful channel. In order to make is possible for later generations to elevate the sparks, he had to soften up the shells. Wherever he made his connection, wherever he went, he softened the shells. But it wasn’t enough yet.

Before coming to the land of Israel, Moshe was told find the best. Their purpose was singular. Go and soften up the shells. He was telling them, and this is amazing, when you see someone strong who might scare you, it’s just physicality, it’s silly. Make sure you keep your consciousness strong. The Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone has no real strength. It’s all silly. By doing that you will prepare the land for the entire nation to come in and elevate this land.

This idea, it’s all about consciousness. That was their work. The spies were supposed to go in and travel the land. They were supposed to keep in their consciousness the silliness of the physical, the silliness of the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. They would then soften up the shells that were surrounding the Light, making it easier for anyone who comes afterward to elevate the sparks.

What did they do? They fell into the physical world, into the importance of the ego, into the importance of the Desiree to Receive for the Self-Alone. That was their consciousness as they were traveling. They saw strong men, and thought strength was in the physical. Their consciousness was of the ego.

What did that do? It not only did not soften up the klipot, the shells, it made them stronger. That is why they were told they couldn’t go into the land. It was not punishment. It was impossible to elevate sparks. There was no purpose to go there. Because of what the spies did, they not only did not soften the shells, did not soften the klipot, they made them stronger. Until they traveled in the desert more, and evaluated, strengthened their consciousness, they could not enter the land and elevate the sparks.

Moshe asked the Creator for an extra infusion of the Light. Why? The spies just made things more difficult. Through their ego they made it so there was no purpose to go into the land. Therefore Moses was asking for more strength because now we need it.

We know this didn’t just happen a long time ago, it is happening now. When we realize that the purpose in every situation we find ourselves, if we are eating, or having an argument, we have to remind ourselves, there is a spark of Light in here that maybe has been waiting for me for five years or for a thousand years. This is a spark that I need. I need this spark to have fulfillment. I cannot just let it go.

When I say I’ll work on it tomorrow, you will miss the spark you should have gotten today. In every situation, both mundane and important, there are sparks of Light covered by shells. The ego, the anger, that consciousness is the shell. We need that Light. We cannot let that Light go. That is Light that we need.

Therefore this consciousness of working on awakening the silliness, the lowliness, the lack of importance of the physicality, of the ego, of the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone, and injecting it in every action, every part of our day, that is what will soften the klipot. Those sparks are the Light at we need for every aspect of our lives. This is not just a good spiritual lesson. We need this Light. That’s why we cannot let these lessons go by.

We get the assistance for this from this Parashah. The Creator give an extra injection of Light to enable us to strengthen our consciousness to diminish the power of the physical, the ego, the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. It’s a tremendous opportunity that they missed. But hopefully we will not miss it.

I just want to read this sentence again. It’s so powerful and so important. Why do you break the shell? To constantly, consistently, take the time, you know sometimes, I don’t know if the word is make fun of ourselves, I remember a few days ago say, I got angry a few days ago. How silly of me. What was I doing? I was letting the physicality, the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone, the ego, take control of me. This needs to be our consciousness. I found myself in the situation and was overwhelmed by the physicality. How silly of me. Through that we break the shells that are surrounding these sparks of Light. Then we can elevate these sparks of Light to bring blessings and fulfillment into our lives.