Yehuda Berg’s Blog

In the teachings of the great kabbalist Rav Ashlag, founder of The Kabbalah Centre, he made it clear that “the desire to receive for the self alone” is the source of all our troubles. As he said, “I speak for so long about the ‘desire to receive’ being a klipa (external cover), and they don’t believe me, since if they would have believed me, they certainly would have cast away this ‘desire to receive.’”

The main spiritual labor, in the eyes of Rav Ashlag, was changing that nature ingrained in us, turning it around and using it to benefit someone else. About this he would say, “. . .the measured amount of labor input by a person must be given in one charge, with the greatest energy.” He often used a parable to explain this principle:

If a person wants to break down a piece of board from a table with his fist, he must strike it and apply the fullest weight of the force in one charge, because if he would draw out this energetic force into a slower pace over a longer time, little by little, his striking hits would never break it.

There are many meanings to be found within this but, for me, the most important message is: act now. Today, I challenge you to apply your “fullest weight” to every action you take, no matter how seemingly minute.