This is a link to a preview of my new moon of Gemini video for 2008

Enjoy!

For the full length video go to:
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This is a link to a preview of my new moon of Taurus video for 2008

Enjoy!

For the full length video go to:
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One of the problems of illusions that we fall to is we get so involved in what is happening to us, what other people are doing for us, what we have to do for other people. We forget the only reason anything happens to me, the only reason for my interactions with other people. At the end there is only one purpose: My change.

In the Introduction to Ten Luminous Emanations Rav Ashlag quotes a section from the Talmud. It says every person needs to say “the world was created for me.” What does that mean?

Everything here, every interaction today, every interaction in my life, is only for me. Not for the good or the help I will give to others. It’s only for me. All the people in the world and all the interactions that I have in my life are to help me change. The entire world, everything in my life, is for one purpose: To give me the opportunities I need.

These interactions, the other people in the world, help me perfect my qualities. The only reason I have interactions with other people is to perfect myself. Rav Ashlag says that we perfect our qualities until they become the way they are supposed to be for the Light of the Creator.

It’s so easy to start thinking about what I have to do for other people in the sense that creates either worry or all kinds of disconnect from the Light of the Creator.

Often, certainly those of us involved in the spiritual work, and all of us to one degree or another, are teachers of other people. We often get involved with the affects of that work. We forget the only reason for this interaction was for me to grow, for me to change, for me to become a better person.

The situation we are in is because the Creator knows we need to have this interaction to become what we need to be. Everything that is happening in my life is for only one purpose. It is for me to change, for me to grow. If I’m so involved in everybody else, and things that I have to do externally, that I forget that everything that happens is for me to change, for me to grow, I missed everything. No responsibility, no interaction, no work, is for any other purpose than for me to change.

We live in the world of illusion. We think we need to create an outcome. None of that. All these things are in my life because I have to change from them and through them. All the situations, good things and bad things, chaos and positivity, are not here for me to solve or take care of. They are here for me to grow from.

If we really understand it and live it, it can diminish so much worry, and our minds won’t be diminished by this worry.

Tonight is the death anniversary of Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk. There is a lot that can and should be said about Rabbi Elimelech. One interesting thing that I was reading tonight.

We know that the Noam Elimelech, the book of teachings, does not have any Torah on Vayak’hel. It skips and goes straight to Pekudei. One of the students writes the reason is because Rabbi Elimelech passed away in Vayak’hel. The pieces of Vayak’hel were included in Pekudei. They felt the need to leave Vayak’hel empty to one degree to indicate the darkness or lack that was created.

This is true about all tzadikkim. Why do we come together on the death anniversary of a righteous person? The idea is when the souls leave our world they go to a different place. Certainly righteous souls. And we speak in the Endless World where everything is complete. There is no good or bad.

That means their connection to the pain is also diminished. We come together on the death anniversary to awaken them to our pain, to say don’t forget us and come back to help us. It’s easy for them to see the good, but we are still in pain. Please, don’t forget about us and help us.

I want to share something from this week’s Parashah from Noam Elimelech, two or three stories.

We know as we read the words of a righteous person we awaken their soul, we awaken their Light. We know Rabbi Elimelech did not write a will, teaching before he died. Most kabbalists do. They explain the book is his spiritual work. Depending on a person’s spiritual level, to that degree you can understand the book.

A righteous person, as we just said, the reality is he is in the Upper World. He doesn’t really deal in our world. But because they have a strong desire that the Creator should send down to us all kinds of blessings, therefore a righteous person has to detach themselves a little bit from the Upper World to come down into our world.

And this is something that Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk speaks about a while. This is something if you are serious about your spiritual work you question yourself. There is always the desire to make yourself perfect, and to help others. The more time you spend with others the less focus on your own spiritual growth. There is always the balance that has to be kept to perfect ourselves and to assist others.

Rabbi Elimelech says how can we awaken people’s desire to connect to the Light of the Creator? We know Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk, throughout his writing he talks about the righteous souls. All of us have that spark of righteousness within us, and he is talking to all of us.

This is a new teaching from Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk. How can we awaken people? One way is to teach, to explain to people. But there’s another level. When people see your great desire to do good for them, that simply by people seeing your great desire to do good for them, that injects within them an awakening of a desire to connect to the Light of the Creator.

It’s an important understanding. Very often when you are teaching, trying to teach people, it’s important to focus on the teaching, to what you are trying to awaken in them. But there is this additional pathway into hearts and souls by showing how great your desire is for them to have happiness, fulfillment, blessings. That revelation of your desire for goodness to come to them can awaken their desire to connect to the Light without any understanding on their part. Simply by showing them your desire for goodness to come to them, it awakens their desire.

This is true with our students, our children, our family and friends. It’s important that we speak and reveal our desire for goodness to come to them. It’s not enough to teach, to explain. If it’s not there, we have to awaken it. If to one person I’m only teaching, not awakening within my heart a desire for them to have good, I’m not a complete teacher. There are different pathways we have to explore. One path is teaching. A second pathway is to show our desire for them to have goodness.

It says Aaron raised his hands, and I think this is a cute teaching from Rabbi Elimelech. He says, sometimes when you are becoming awakened in your spiritual work, sometimes from the excitement, the joy of being awakened you start clapping your hands. Therefore the spiritual work can be called the work of the hands. But what type of work. The clapping that comes from your awakening to the Light of the Creator.

What Rabbi Elimelech is saying, when it says Aaron raised his hands to the people, on some level he was excited from the spiritual connection and he started clapping his hands. This is another interesting idea. If our spiritual work, at least at sometimes, does not fill us with such excitement and joy that we cannot help ourselves from clapping there is something missing.

Rabbi Elimelech says the spiritual work is called the work of the hands. Why? Is has to come to the point we are so excited and full of the Light that we start clapping. I like that story.

There are three stories that I’d like to share.

Rabbi Elimelech had many students. One of them wrote a book called….one of the close students. He quotes his teacher many times in the book. He tells this story. Towards the end of Rabbi Elimelech’s life, for a few days. He had four bothers at least. Rav Zusha was 15 years older than Rabbi Elimelech. He brought his brother to be a student in the path of the Bal Shem Tov, but he never met the Bal Shem Tov. Rav Zuash lived 15 years longer than Rabbi Elimelech, so he was 30 years older than Rabbi Elimelech when he passed away.

It is getting closer to the passing of Rabbi Elimelech, and he keeps telling his student day after day prepare yourself, prepare yourself, become stronger.

One night around midnight Rabbi Elimelech wakes the students up. Rabbi Elimelech takes his staff and he walks with his students to the cemetery. They came to a place in the cemetery where Rabbi Elimelech stopped. He said to his students, make sure you are strong.

At midnight, it was as if a window opened up in the heavens and a strong light, fire came out. They saw, they had this vision of this Light throwing sparks all over the world. The student, ….., couldn’t take this Light that shown through out the world. He had to cover his eyes not to see this tremendous Light.

After that window closed Rabbi Elimelech told his student, now you can understand who the Bal Shem Tov was. That was the Light of the Bal Shem Tov.

Rabbi Elimelech said he didn’t want to leave this world until he saw the Bal Shem Tov. Because of his work he merited to see the revelation of the soul of the Bal Shem Tov to him.

It says that before he passed away he told his students that he wanted to be buried on the spot where he was standing when the soul of the Bal Shem Tov was revealed to him. He is buried on that spot where the revelation of the soul of the Bal Shem Tov came to him.

A second story is about …Moshe. He was in the time of the Bal Shem Tov but never met the Bal Shem Tov. His son became very sick. He sent two students to go to the grave of Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk. He told them when you come to the gate of the cemetery you should say, you should announce to all the graves that we are going to give money for the sake of any one of the souls that becomes awakened to tell Rabbi Elimelech that we are here to pray.

The Zohar speaks of the fact that sometimes you need a lower soul to awaken a higher soul.

He says to make a note of these messengers, of the moment when they came into the cemetery.

The son who had been in a coma for a long time he began to wake up. He tells his father I know I will be healed, I will be healthy. His father asks how do you know? The son says a vision came to me, an old man, Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk, and he blessed me. I know I will be healed.

When the two messengers came back he asked them what time were you there. The exact time they got to the cemetery and made the announcements to the souls was the exact moment the son was awakened and began to be healed.

We know that as we tell these stories we are awaken this Light in our world. We are awakening the Light from Rabbi Elimelech to give all of us the ability to awaken these miracles for ourselves and for the world.

The second to last story. And this is a story told in many different places. During World War II, as the Nazis were going through Poland then came to Lejensk. They killed as many people as they could find. Many people went to hide by the grave of Rabbi Elimelech. The Nazis came and wanted to destroy the grave before they killed the people. As they dug in the ground they saw Rabbi Elimelech dressed in the clothes he was buried in and his face was shining. They covered the grave and left. And all the people there in the room were saved.

The last story is a story that many of us know. But it’s important that we remind ourselves. One of Rabbi Elimelech’s and Rav Zusha’s brothers was Rabbi Nachum. He became very sick with a disease. The doctors said nobody should be next to him, he was going to die, and it was contagious. One of the older people in the community said at my age it won’t make that big a difference and he took upon himself to take care of Rabbi Nachum in his last days.

The old man is in the room, helping Rabbi Nachum to eat, but he knows it’s clear that he only has a few days to live. The old man lit a candle and sat on the side of the room. Suddenly Rabbi Nachum becomes completely quiet and the old man is sure he has died.

We know that when a person leaves this world, as soon as possible the body is moved to the floor. The old man was getting ready to bring the body down.

Suddenly he sees as if a new soul comes into the body of Rabbi Nachum and he becomes awakened. That next morning Rabbi Nachum was like a healthy person. The old man says what happened? Obviously this is not a normal recovery.

The old man says I saw you already dead, and I’m about to put your body on the ground and you become awakened. Rabbi Nachum says I can’t tell you. The old man says I risked my life to take care of you, I think you owe me to tell me. He becomes tough. He says I command you to tell me the truth.

Rabbi Nachum tells the old man he died. His soul left his body. There he met his brother Rabbi Elimelech. His brother asked what are you doing here? Rabbi Nachum said the decrees came that I am supposed to die so I’m here in heaven.

Rabbi Elimelech says how can you kill someone so young? He has children, a wife to take care of. He said I don’t agree with this decrees. I ask that the supernal court sit down again and come to another decision.

Suddenly Rav Zusha comes. Rabbi Elimelech was talking, trying to change things. But Rav Zusha doesn’t’ fool around. He says take his hand, let’s go. The supernal court says you can’t just grab the soul after it’s been decreed that they shall die. How dare you, Rabbi Elimelech and Rav Zusha, send his soul back down.

A voice came out and said the book that Zusha has under his arm is the holy Zohar. He studies the Zohar. Because he studies the Zohar, the voice said, he can do whatever he wants. Nothing can be held back from him. Therefore we have to listen and do everything he says.

Rabbi Nachum finished the story. My holy brothers, they woke me up. This all happened in a second. And that’s when my soul came back and when I began being healed.

There’s so much that can be learned. This idea, why Rav Zusha, and not Rabbi Elimelech. A lot of people study Zohar. Zusha has no doubt that because of his connection to the Zohar there was nothing he couldn’t do. Because he had no doubt, there was nothing he couldn’t do.

Certainly on this night, with the assistance of Rabbi Elimelech, to awaken within ourselves the spark of the tzadik that everyone has, and the power of the assistance.

During the blessing:

The reason we do mezonot and l’chaim, now there is a tremendous amount of Light of the revelation of the soul. How do we make sure we hold onto it? By ingesting the liquor and the cookies. We actually bring it into our world.

When we say l’chaim we should be thinking about the fact that it’s not only about the people here, but we want to draw the Light to the entire world. We draw the light of Rabbi Elimelech through saying l’chaim here into the whole world.

We’re here at Rav Ashlag’s, so it’s only fitting that our lesson this week has to do with Rav Ashlag.

We know that the appreciation is the vessel to draw the next Light. It’s important not only to have an appreciation for Rav Ashlag, but also to grow our appreciation for Rav Ashlag. The more we grow our appreciation for Rav Ashlag the more of a connection we have. We know of all the amazing things that Rav Ashlag did in his generation was because the generation was ready.

The Creator Reveals Our Filth for the Sake of Changing It

At a time when the Israelites were on a high spiritual level tsara’at, leprosy was a reality. It’s clear the Israelites only had the merit to have the whole framework of leprosy when they were on a high spiritual level. It’s an interesting paradox. On the one hand leprosy is not a positive thing. Who wants to have leprosy? On the other hand it is also viewed as a gift.

Rav Ashlag reveals that the Creator only shows us something that needs to be changed when we can do something about it. If we cannot correct it, if we don’t have the capacity, the desire, it won’t be shown to us. Because the Creator knows that we don’t have the capacity to change it.

Rav Ashlag asks why often when we look around ourselves, and certainly when we look out into the world, there are a lot of people that don’t have a desire to change. More than that, they don’t have an understanding of the need to change. Many people don’t see anything wrong with them.

The reason why so many people out there don’t see anything wrong is because the Creator knows they don’t have the capacity to change. The Creator will never show us something wrong about ourselves if we can’t change it.

Rav Ashlag uses the example of a person who has been working outside all day. When he goes to the mirror he sees a dirty person in the mirror. He spends 30 minutes cleaning the mirror. When he is finished he still sees a dirty person in the mirror. He takes a towel and soap and spends all day cleaning the mirror. At the end of the day he still sees a dirty person in the mirror. If he would take the time to clean his own face he would not see a dirty person in the mirror.

The lesson for us is we should be thankful when we see our negativity. What is tsara’at, leprosy? It is the coming out. When a person is pure inside, to whatever degree, then negativity has to be pushed out into the world.

If we are not constantly being shown what is wrong with us it is not a good sign. It is an unfortunate sign that the Creator is saying we can’t correct it, and therefore He cannot show it to us.

If the Creator is not revealing this tsara’at, leprosy to us it doesn’t mean we don’t have things to correct. It means there is so much darkness inside us that the new darkness can stay. It’s not a good thing to not see more filth.

When we see filth outside, it’s not because it is outside. As we see more filth we should be filled with joy and happiness because the Creator sees we are ready to correct. It’s a gift that the Creator gives us. This Shabbat we have to ask and beg that the Creator never gives up on us and that He keeps revealing this gift to us. We have to ask the Creator, beg for the gift to see the filth that is inside; beg the Creator to give us the ability to change ourself.

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The problem with life’s tests is that we always perceive before we go into a test that it will be difficult, but we think that whatever I understand now will sort of help me through it. In reality, when a person goes through a test, what he thought he had to sustain him has to be taken away or it is not a true test.

In the story of the Golden Calf, we know that the fall came in the last 6 hours before Moshe was supposed to return. The Midrash explains how the Israelites fell? There was a vision created of the death of Moshe. The Israelites saw Moshe was dead and being carried by the angels. Then came the question, are you going to have certainty in Moshe who said he would be back in 40 days, or are you going to believe your eyes?

When we go through tests of consciousness, whatever clarity we had is not there anymore. And not only is it not there any more, the opposite is there.

The Zohar talks very clearly of certainty referring to Jacob. Very often people mistake certainty as being certain in what I want to happen and the Light will make it so. That’s not certainty. As the Zohar makes very clear, certainty is in the Light of the Creator, and that what is right is going to happen. It’s a very great distinction. As Rav Brandwein explains in his letters to the Rav, certainty only works in its truest sense when my desire is the Light’s desire.

If I desire that everything will remain easy for me, I can have certainty forever and it’s probably not going to happen. That is not in alignment with what the Light wants for me. The Light wants that I will grow and change. If I want to be in comfort that is not certainty. True certainty is in doing what I need to do in life. When I am doing what I need to do, what the Light knows is best for me will occur.

Very often when something we perceive as negative happens, we think if that can happen then anything else can happen. Rav Ashlag and the Zohar explain that if a person’s certainty is moved by something that he doesn’t understand, or didn’t want to happen, it is never true certainty.

Rav Ashlag speaks about the concept of certainty beyond understanding. This is true certainty. If it is based on everything always going the way I want it to go, that is some sort of silly trick we put ourselves through. Real certainty is that assuming I’m doing the work, whatever is right for me is going to occur. That’s what the Zohar says. That means that my desire for the outcome is secondary to what I want the Light’s outcome to be. The spiritual work that we do is to remove the veils from the Light becoming manifested.

It says in the Zohar, a section the Rav always quoted, in the time we are getting closer and closer to, in the time of the greatest tests, in the time of Oy and Ashrei, it says worthy are those who keep their certainty in this time.

Times are changing, and in dramatic ways. We are coming close to the time of Oy and Ashrei, to the time when true certainty will be tested. Whenever something occurs that we don’t understand, we have two choices. We can drop our certainty, and who knows if we will recover, or we can say no, I will maintain and strengthen my certainty. One of the reasons things occur is to give us the opportunity, the merit, to strengthen our certainty.

There is no way that whatever certainty we have today will take us through the gamar hatikun. We have to make this distinction. We have to grow our certainty. It’s not to guarantee the result that I want. It’s to guarantee the realm the Light wants. If something happens that I don’t understand, does my certainty drop? Do I start worrying about everything else now?

We need to maintain and to strengthen certainty, for many reasons. Not the least of which is as we come closer and closer to the gamar hatikun, the test of certainty is because we need these tests. We need to have real certainty.

The test of certainty is not when things are the way you want them to be. The real test of certainty is when things are not what you want them to be. Are you at the level of doubt, or the level of certainty? We need to strengthen our certainty, not just because it helps, but because this is where we need to go.

The Bal Shem Tov is buried in the Ukraine. The first day we spent in Poland, the second day we spent in the Ukraine. One of the most amazing experiences happened to work out this way: we traveled for three days, and by the time we came to the Bal Shem Tov, as when we came to Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk, it was late at night and it was dark.

The Bal Shem Tov is buried on the outskirts of what is still a town. From the moment you walk into these places until the moment you leave, you can’t help but feel this awakening, this Light.

The Bal Shem Tov teaches a very important lesson concerning this week’s Parashah, concerning the galut hada’at, the coming out of the exile of our consciousness, which we all still have.

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The Kabbalists, when they talk about the exile in Egypt, talk about it as galut hada’at, the exile of the mind. When we talk about going out of Egypt, it’s not going out of physical work, out of physical difficulties. Most importantly, at its core, it’s about going out of limited consciousness. Galut Hada’at, lack of understanding, lack of vision, lack of seeing.

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The portion of Vayechi in the Torah is special and different. There is no open line, no emptiness between the portions. There is no great break between the previous portion and this week’s portion. Rashi, the great commentator, says the reason there is no break is that this week’s Parashah is the beginning of the difficulties. Their eyes were closed from the pain and suffering of the exile.

The Kabbalists never look at or understand the Torah or the explanation in a way that reveals negativity. This week’s Parashah begins “Ya’akov lived in Egypt.” Right after that he was ready to leave this world.

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I want to share from the Kedushat HaLevi, the great Kabbalist Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditshev.

There’s a whole discussion about Efrayim and Menashe, the younger and older son. Joseph assumed the right hand on Menashe and the left on Efrayim. But Jacob changed hands, putting his right hand on the younger son and left hand on the older son. Jacob and Joseph had a discussion. Kedushat HaLevi reveals an important and powerful secret, based on the verse that says all the sickness, all the illness, all the negativity the Creator put in Egypt, I won’t put on you because I, God, am your healer. (Exodus 15:26)

The question is, if there is no sickness, why do you need a healer? The verse states that all the sickness that was in Egypt, I won’t give to you, because I am your healer. If there is no sickness, you don’t need a healer. If you need a healer, there is sickness.

Kabbalah is not the path to make your life easy

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This story from the Zohar is one of my favorite stories. (Zohar, Vayechi, Section 19, Verses 144-152.) We know Rabbi Shimon had a small and closed group of students around him. Rabbi Yitzchak was one of them.

Rabbi Yitzchak was sitting at the door and was sad. Rabbi Yehuda came out and saw he was sitting there and was sad. Rabbi Yehuda said, “Why is today different than any other day?”

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Most of you know the story of the letters of Abraham, the man who was with Rav Ashlag. The student is here for Chanukah, and yesterday she shared a story with me. She said the only reason people know Rav Ashlag is because of Rav Brandwein. Abraham told her this story.

As an aside, we know Rav Ashlag didn’t have any money. If you came to study with Rav Ashlag, you had to pay a lot of money. His students were all very poor, but he said the only purpose for studying is to spread the Zohar.
Because they couldn’t afford to pay, they would gather whatever money they had; one student would study and then tell the others what Rav Ashlag taught. We have to ask ourselves if what we are doing is spreading this further.

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On Thursday I received an email. I won’t say the name of the person. This woman said she had been studying Kabbalah for almost 3 years. She was a single, divorced mother of an 8-year-old named Jake.

She said, “He wears his red string proudly, and when asked what it means, he gives a detailed description to whoever is asking–’I have been working hard to let the Light shine through.’ There is one book we are missing that we find is key to our learning experience. That book is the Zohar. We find that every book suggests we read the Zohar. The problem is we cannot afford the Zohar. I have searched sites, and cannot find one that is affordable. I was wondering if you can help me.”

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There is a section that always bothered me about this story in the bible. Jacob told Yosef to find his brothers. Jacob said to Yosef, “Your brothers are in Shechem, go to them.” And Yosef went from Hebron to Shechem to try to find his brothers.

It says in the Torah he came across a person. Yosef was lost. This man said, “Do you need directions? Can I help you? What are you looking for?” Yosef said, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are.” The man told Yosef they had gone away from there. They said they would go to a place called Dothan.

Yosef heard from this man where his brothers were, and he went and found them in Dothan. This was the beginning of the process of Yosef being sold as a slave.

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There is a story about one of the great kabbalists, Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, in the time when the Rashash was living in Jerusalem. There was a person in town who had a very difficult life. His wife said there is a great kabbalist, you should go see him. Why should you have a difficult life? The man went to the Rashash’s house. The servant answered the door and said, “The Rashash is busy right now. If you sit down, he will see you in a few minutes.”

The man had all kinds of difficulties in his life. He sat down and fell asleep. He had a dream.

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In the biblical story of Jacob — after a life of hardship, running away from his brother, then running away from his father-in-law — Jacob is back home, or at least he thinks he is, and he wants to settle down. The Torah shows us that’s when things really start to happen.

Joseph’s brothers thought they were doing the right thing.

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Often, for me, the greatest stories are very important occurrences in our life. And as time goes on, we understand them in a deeper ways.

I’ll share a little of the background. Many of you who were with us at Pesach and Rosh Hashanah know about a student we have in the Centre in Israel. Over the years she has become friends with a person named Abraham, who was close with Rav Ashlag. She has become very close to Abraham over the years and he has given her two letters to give to the Rav, to give us.

I hope it doesn’t get too complicated, because there are a lot of names in this story.

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Jacob’s battle with the negative angel was the battle with his own ego. We read about the fight between the negative angel and Jacob. We know everything has a physical and a supernal, non-physical manifestation. It says that Jacob found himself at night, alone, and he battled with this angel until sunrise. We know, as the Zohar explains, this wasn’t a physical battle–it was a fight of consciousness between Jacob and his own ego.

What was happening here, what Jacob feared the most, was beginning to happen. Jacob’s ego came to him and asked, “How many people are as connected as you? How many people know as much as you?” This battle we read in the Torah is not a battle of physicality, but a battle of consciousness. It was the battle of Jacob with his own ego.

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We know the Torah is not simply stories, but a discussion and explanation of great Lights being revealed and great supernal battles being fought.

Why was Jacob frightened by Esau?

This week we find something very interesting. Jacob was very scared. Jacob says, “I’m so afraid of Esau,” and he begs for assistance. It says Jacob was very worried. Time and again in his meetings with Esau, Jacob was very frightened.

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I wanted to share a little more, and I want to end with one of the last sections where the Zohar talks about the power of unity. It speaks about the time when they built the Tower of Babel. It says because they were unified, no judgment could come down to them until their language was mixed up and their unity began to fade. Because they were with one mind, one heart, one thought, nothing could stop them. And judgment from above could not come and rest on them.

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It says that Noah was a righteous person in his generation. I think I shared this last year: there are two teachings from the Apte Rebbe about this week’s reading. He teaches that the power is not that it just gives wisdom or understanding, but that it completely transforms it. As I was teaching the chevre on Thursday night, these are two of my favorite teachings. But you can’t keep repeating the same lesson over and over, and this year I was going to teach something else. I was reading in a different book, the O’hev Israel, and it’s the same teaching, but deeper. I was excited about the fact I could retell this teaching.

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The Baal Shem Tov, in his last will, speaks about Noach’s ark. What the kabbalists teach is the word tevah, ark, can also mean a word. What the Baal Shem Tov explains, and another appreciation and understanding we should have of the Zohar, is that there are two ways to connect. We can connect from the outside looking in, the way most of us make our intellectual connection. And then there is entering into the Zohar. The Zohar explains that the Light that is the Zohar can act as a Light that protects us from negativity, but only if we enter it.

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In this week’s Zohar, there is a very sad commentary from Rav Ashlag. Many of you know that over the past few years we have been able to receive more of the original writings of Rav Ashlag. There is much to be learned, not only from the teachings, but also from the way his life went and the challenges he had.

It’s hard to explain all the details of this, but unfortunately, even when Rav Ashlag’s writings were printed in Hebrew, we are now discovering that much of the meaning behind it has been altered by the change of a word or a phrase. And it is true that when you change a word or phrase, you can gut the meaning of a teaching. We also find that in some of the writings that were published, some of the meanings were taken out. Now, because we have the merit to have the original writings, we have a much fuller, more complete Light.

In the Zohar, in the first few section, Rav Ashlag has a very lengthy explanation in almost every second paragraph. When kabbalists write, it is not just for themselves, but for the world. At the beginning of Parashat Noach, he writes as a footnote: unfortunately, because there are so many expenses, we cannot afford both the paper and ink to write lengthy commentaries. He says that places where the need is not terribly great, to explain: I’ll just translate into Hebrew with a few short words of explanation. These small words, if it’s in the middle, small letters; if it’s afterward, big letters.

The type of Light that was withheld from the world — because Rav Ashlag did not having the money to buy paper and ink to write the commentaries — should awaken within us appreciation, and we would hope that in the generations down from us that nobody has to say there was something not done because of anything physical or even spiritual lack.

It was not a coincidence that in this month, in this Parashah, Rav Ashlag realized that even as he was doing his great work in revealing the Zohar to the world, that the world was still not ready. Therefore, he didn’t have the physical ability to complete this revelation.

This is a link to a preview of my Chanukah video.

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An important idea for us to remember on Shabbat concerns global warming: they say the only reason why the city of New York is livable, despite the terrible things going into the air, is because the trees of Central Park have the ability to clean the air. I was thinking about this yesterday, certainly for those of us making the connection of Shabbat Noach. Why is it so important for us, a few hundred people, or even just one person? Why is it important to connect to the Light of Shabbat and to grow every week?

Then I understood that every one of us are like the trees in Central Park. When we not only connect, but every week strengthen our connection, we are literally taking the chaos and pain in this world, and through the greater connection we are dampening it or removing it.

When we come to Shabbat, we receive a certain level of the tremendous Light available in this 25 hours. But we are not doing it for ourselves. The gift of Shabbat gives us the ability to take in a little of the pain in this world and transform it. The mercy that comes on this Shabbat is that everyone of us is a channel to act like the trees in Central Park, to take some of that chaos, that darkness, and literally transform it.

It changes our experience of Shabbat from one that is personal to one that is global, one that is more sharing. We know that our connection to the reading is not only to influence ourselves, but also to be the machines that influence the world, taking the chaos and transforming it into Light.

I first want to share something that I hope everybody has already heard. For those of you who have seen the Cheshvan Rosh Chodesh video, we had a tape of the Rav talking. I hope those of you who did not see it will get a copy. We are working on the process of getting many of the old tapes of the Rav edited so everyone around the world can have access and study from the Rav. This Rosh Chodesh, the Rav said many things about Cheshvan. We know it’s not coincidental that Cheshvan begins with the reading of Noach.

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The Day of Yom Kippur offers a tremendous opportunity to connect in a way we cannot connect any other day of the year.

To understand the Light, not only to connect in our mind, we will read from the Zohar because the words of the Zohar are the way to awaken this Light.

In reading and listening, we are not simply learning, but are awakening for ourselves, and for the world, the Light of Yom Kippur.

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This is a preview of my new moon lecture:

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This is a story from the Baal Shem Tov. On this day, many people become sad. We remember stuff we have done, things we want to get rid of. It’s necessary on this day, but it can bring sadness.

There is a school of thought that says one should be serious. But the kabbalists were always happy. On this day, they were the happiest.

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We know that the Zohar speaks at length about Yom Kippur being the day we connect to the realm of Binah, our supernal mother. The one physical equivalent we have is the power of the mikveh. The mikveh is a body of water, built to certain requirements. To connect to Binah, we immerse ourselves in that water. By immersing ourselves in the water of a mikveh, we can take off everything of a negative nature that is attached to us. If even one hair stays out of the water, the negativity can stay attached. Only if the person is completely immersed must the negative be released.

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I would like to share a story because we are not simply thinking about ourselves, we are also thinking about the world. The story is about two great kabbalists. As they were getting older, they made a pact. They said, if one of us passes away before the other, he will come back and tell the other what is happening in the next world.

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When we connect to the Zohar, it’s not simply to gain understanding, but the words also awaken the connection to the Tree of Life. There is no other day of the year when it’s as important as today on Rosh Hashanah. We want on this day to plant the seed so that all of our present year is connected to Etz Chaim.

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We know that the writings of Rav Ashlag are not simply teachings. By reading from his words, we actually connect to his essence.

Rav Ashlag did not have enough money for paper. Much of it is written in very small letters. The footnotes are even smaller.

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It says the negative side, the negative angel, gets nervous on Rosh Hashanah when he hears the blowing of the Shofar.

We need to strengthen our consciousness. We are not just studying about the reading or the blowing of the Shofar. We are strengthening our consciousness for ourselves and to send this awareness out to the rest of the world.

The Zohar, in Naso, speaks of those who merit to taste from the Tree of Life, the book of the Zohar. And it says because it is a connection to the perfect world of Binah, that is why those people who merit will not have any judgment, will go out of the exile with mercy. On Rosh Hashanah, the Zohar talks about how the true essence of the Light of Binah is awakened by the meditation of the blowing of the Shofar. It’s important to understand we are awakening this for the world.

One of the unique gifts that we have this year concerns the names of the year — Taf-Shin-Sameach-Zayin. The last two letters of the acronym can stand for many different things. One of the things is that this year will be the year of the Zohar.

I shared with you yesterday that I had a dream in which the Rav told me it’s about the Zohar. Every time you speak or think about the Zohar, there is always the question of how can you really express the power that is found in a set of what are books, now, in our time?That is one of the biggest barriers for us to connect to the power of the Zohar.

I was speaking with a chevre going to one of the other Centres for Rosh Hashanah and he asked me for one of the main consciousnesses we needed to have for this Rosh Hashanah. My answer was that it has to do with the name of this year. Whatever connection we think we have to the Zohar, to this amazing Light, this year should be a completely different and much more powerful connection.

I just want to share two ideas. I was talking to one of the chevre a few days ago about a certain city with a small group of people. I remember the Rav always made it very clear that it wasn’t the quantity, but knowing that if you are in the city, making your connections and connecting to the Zohar, that the effect, outside of the number, is that the Light being revealed through you cannot be measured in a material way. But, in your city, you are creating a source of Light. You are doing a great service, not only for yourself, but for the city and the world. Light does not get contained by walls and numbers of people. It permeates out.

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This is a preview of my new moon lecture:

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A few weeks ago I met the Dalai Lama in New York…

Another gift we received this year was that one of our students in Israel has become friends with someone named Abraham, who’s now in his 80s, and I hope to meet him on our next trip to Israel. In his younger days, Abraham was a simple person, but was close to Rav Ashlag and Rav Brandwein. At the time of Rav Ashlag’s life, he was a young man and assisted in the editing and printing of the Sulam. At Pesach, I read one of the letters Rav Brandwein wrote to this boy, to Abraham.

I received another letter last night. It’s the essence of choosing life. I know it is not coincidental we received it last night and we hear it today.

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One of the gifts that Rav Ashlag gave us was writing that three books are opened up on Rosh Hashanah: The Book of the Righteous, those who are written up for a good life this year; the book of those subject to the negative. Then there is the third book, those who have not made the complete connection, but have time to complete their correction.

Then he says that it’s not up to God to write us in the Book of Life, it’s up to us to write ourselves in the Book of Life. We know that the words of these great souls is their energy as well.

It’s not up to God to write us in the Book of Life. We, through our consciousness and our connection, can and will, God willing, write ourselves in the Book of Life.

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We understand the purpose of this wisdom on a personal and global level is to bring complete transformation; when you study the writings of Rav Ashlag, he makes it clear. We know Rosh Hashanah is unique to any other time of the year. The Zohar explains our soul has completely discharged its life energy. Today and tomorrow we will recharge. It’s important to charge ourselves, and to think about the world. We have completely discharged our soul’s ability to sustain itself in this world. To the degree of our desire to share this with the world, to that degree we will recharge our battery.

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I would like to share going back 9 months, maybe more. Most of us know the Rav is not as accessible as he was in previous years. Most of the messages I get are in my dreams.

In a dream, the Rav came to me and said, “You know Michael, it’s just about the Zohar.” To me, and to those of us who have been around the Rav for years and have heard the Rav talk, it IS just about the Zohar. Maybe it takes time and pain and the events that occur in our lives to really get it.

One of the signs that this year is going to be a very special year, is, as I’ve said, the writings we have just received that were written by Rav Ashlag. Many of us know that over the past few years we have been finding and purchasing the writings of Rav Ashlag. For me, one of the ways I can tell if we are on the path that leads toward transformation is our connection to these writings. It’s important for all of us to have a true consciousness of the soul of this person, Rav Ashlag, who came to this world, and the importance of his teaching.

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A few weeks ago, our good friend Raffe came back from Israel. As some of you may know, in the past few years we have been finding and purchasing the writings of Rav Ashlag, the teacher of Rav Brandwein, the teacher of the Rav. A few weeks ago he came back and said we found another batch of the writing of Rav Ashlag. He says now you will have something to talk about at Rosh Hashanah.

I got them last night. I cannot express how excited I am about the amazing things we are finding. Most of the stuff has never been published before.

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The story is that the Baal Shem Tov had a very close student, the person he chose to blow the Shofar for him. The Baal Shem Tov sat with the student and taught him all the meditations and the correct way to blow the Shofar. The student wrote it down and had papers upon papers in his pocket. The Bal Shem Tov took the papers out of his pocket without him knowing.

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Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity not to just better ourselves and our life, it’s an opportunity for complete and true transformation. Even when we look at ourselves, we think, “I will make myself a little bit better.” What we should be thinking, what we should be saying to ourselves, is, “I cannot believe the place that I’m at. I can’t believe the person that I am, falling to the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone, to my ego. I must completely change.”

I’m not looking to Rosh Hashanah to make myself a little or a lot better. In many stories in the Zohar and the Talmud, people who did not start their lives as great people came through a situation that awakened them not only to the need to better themselves, but also to the need to completely change who they are, to the way they look at themselves and interact with people.

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In order to really partake of this great Light that’s available, we have to understand the preparation for Rosh Hashanah. It’s not a coincidence it comes right before Rosh Hashanah. It’s this Light that can prepare us for Rosh Hashanah.

There are two sections in the Zohar that speak to the month of Elul, and specifically to the last week before Rosh Hashanah.

On the flight back from London, I was reading in this section of Lech Lecha. It’s made clear that Abraham’s focus in life was to transform people. In the Torah and in the explanation in the Zohar, it’s clear that Abraham’s mission very much parallels the Centre’s mission. Reading it this time, I got a deeper understanding of the true importance.

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This Shabbat is the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. We know that before the end of anything, there is the opportunity for the multiplying of the revelation of Light.

We know, for instance, when the Prophets would pass away, it was very important for their students to be there when their teacher passed away. At the time they left this world, all the Light they revealed in their lifetime would be revealed doubly.

The same is true for the third meal of Shabbat, when the most Light is revealed. At the moments of ending is the potential for the greatest revelation of Light.

This Shabbat, as explained by the Kabbalists, all the weeks of the year come together and their Light is revealed. Double the amount of the total of all the week’s Light. It is clearly a very significant Shabbat.

This is a preview of my new moon lecture:

click here to get the full video

click here to get the full video

Sometimes we look at things in our life, and in our spiritual work, and we see coincidences. We know, technically, that we sometimes read two readings together, and sometimes separately. In a leap year, in order to come to the end of the year and have a portion to read every week, we read the portions separately. But in a year that is not a leap year, like this year, we read them together.

I was reading this week that the significant point that comes from almost every aspect of this Shabbat is the power of unity and the power of love.

The kabbalists say the reason why we read them together is to awaken the power of unity. I want this to not to seem like a small point. If you have been here for awhile, you have read them together and separately, and realize that everything that occurs and relates to our spiritual work is never a coincidence. The reason these two portions are being brought together today is to awaken the power of unity.

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Those of you who have been around a long time, probably back 20 years, it hasn’t been like this for a while. One of the things the Rav would always talk about in Queens is the importance of the Sefer Torah, and how lucky we are to have the knowledge of the kabbalistic meditations included in the Torah.

The Centre having its own sofer was very new. And the Rav was happy about having our mezuzah, tefillin, and Sefer Torah written by the scribes who know the meditations. The Zohar talks about the importance of knowing how to write using the meditations.

Shimon Shafarti, who is in Florida now, who was in Paris, every week that was all he would talk about. Over and over he talked about the importance of the Sefer Torah.

It’s been a while s