Kabbalah By Heart

Today is November 9, 2022 and the 15th of Cheshvan 5783 on the Jewish calendar.

I think all of us can agree, time seems to be moving faster these days than in previous years. Why is that happening? Is it simply that we have gotten older or is it a mirage of some sort? Usually when time flies, it's because we are having fun, right?

I don't think that we are having more fun than usual....unfortunately.

Still, we ARE sensing something quite remarkable and perhaps shall I dare say, other-worldly?

Seems to me, I start on Sunday and by the time I get to Wednesday, I can't believe that I am nearly at Shabbos! Wasn't it the new year of 2022 recently, and I am already 11 months later? Weren't my taxes done just yesterday but now it's almost time to do them again? Didn't my husband die in 2020, just yesterday, but it's been over 2 years! So much is happening and it's all such a blur.

Yet, there are times that I feel quite stuck and sludging through incredible blocks. And it can feel like there is no end in sight yet things flip on a dime and then all seems to be moving in the right direction.

Do you understand what I am saying? Do you experience this too? And as hard as things can be, are you also learning and developing at warp speed? Are you also discovering that you might have some real psychic-like powers you didn't realize you had? What IS going ON?

All of this reminds me of something I'll never forget that I learned years ago in a Kabbalah class with Shifra Hendrie. She taught that the material world is becoming more permeable, more spiritual. That all of the mitzvot that all of the Jews have done over all of the millennia has made this mundane reality more accessible to the Divine that lies within it.

Somehow, that hit me and it made sense.

You may know of or heard of a mitzvah. Usually it refers to a good deed. And it is literally translated as commandment - like in the 10 commandments. They're usually referring to the bulk of spiritual practices that make up Jewish religious activity - and it's said that there are 613 of these practices. The Hebrew word itself "mitzvah" also means "bound" or "connect". So, the Jew has literally 613 ways to connect to spiritual Source, many times a day in many different ways, throughout the entire day.

A prayer is a mitzvah. Prayers in Hebrew always start with the word, "Blessed are You" or "Baruch Atah". (CH at the end of Baruch is pronounced with the gutteral H sound) The word Baruch can also be read Berech if you change the vowels and Berech means "knee". The knee of course allows you to bow down. The ancient sages always made connections between Hebrew words to create more meaning. So the meaning of "Baruch" indicates that in the practice of prayer, you are drawing down Divine energy. A simple way to explain how this works is by showing what happens when a person says a prayer over food or drink.

When saying a prayer over food, one is literally drawing down into the food Divine energy or revealing and releasing the divine energy that is locked within the materiality of the food. The Jewish prayer over a specific food simply acknowledges that food's divine Source of existence. The Jewish prayer before eating isn't like other religions' prayers over eating because it isn't about gratitude. Instead, it's about acknowledging that specific food's Divine Source. In authentic Kabbalah from Jewish sources, it is understood that through a human being's awareness and acknowledgement, the divine sparks within food are enabled to be released from the dense materiality of the food and then once it is eaten, can be used as fuel for another mitzvah.

Example of prayer over a milk, meat, or a drink of water: Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, by whose word all things came to be.  An example of the prayer over fruit: Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the Universe, who creates fruit of the tree.

This "releasing of sparks" can be done with anything that is in this material world. Each mitzvah you do allows those sparks to be released from behind the veil of materiality. Those sparks are now allowed to be revealed rather than hidden.

This is a simple way of understanding how and why time seems to be flying. The very materiality of everything is starting to reveal a deeper reality where there is really no time at all. No space at all or perhaps, really, a space filled with timelessness, fullness and wholeness, where it is empty of all separate things.

In Judaism, this entire world is moving in the direction of oneness, peace, and unity. We are traveling back to having this world be a Garden of Eden. We will eventually be seeing clearly and constantly that we live on a supernatural planet, in a cosmic existence and are deeply connected to our Source of Being and each other, always at all times.

As we find ourselves hurtling through this calendar year, I find myself holding on to the Jewish calendar in order to get my bearings. Six months ago we were in the time that connects Passover with Shavous. It's really just one long holiday of letting go of whatever enslaves us so that we can find ourselves in unity surrounding a holy mountain able to download directions from the Highest Mind. Am I becoming a clear channel for that Highest mind?

I am so far from being a clear channel!!!! But I know that's the goal. That we all become transparent to Higher wisdom and develop the ability to take the Higher road in all we do. And as far as I am from my highest intention, I know deep down in my soul and I am completely sure of this one thing: that we all have that hope, desire and wish to be on the higher road.

And so we went through the High holidays in non-stop prayer for days at a time, renewing our commitment to the purpose of mankind, and then finishing several weeks-long series of holidays by dancing! Then we started the Jewish new year re-reading Genesis and remembering who we are and what the plan was for creation. But now we are in the darkness of the year and finding the light - which is what our journeys on this earth plane are all about. All of the dark places we encounter have been uniquely designed for each and every human being. Because finding that light and transforming that darkness is what human life is all about. And so, time will continue to go faster and faster as we transform the heavy materiality within our own consciousness by bringing down the Higher perspectives and thus, transforming the density of our material world in the process.

I highly recommend contacting your local Chabad and getting yourself a Jewish Art calendar - just google Chabad and your city. Or let me know and I will get one to you! Or search for Jewish Art calendar here: judaica-world.com/index.php/jewish-art-calendar-5783-2022-2023-large.html In it you'll find a monthly explanation of the Jewish holidays for that month. If you want to light candles every Sabbath, it will give you candle-lighting times for each Friday night. It also gives you knowledge of when all the Jewish holidays are - they change every year since the Jewish calendar is based on the moon. It also gives you the name of the Torah portion that we read that week so you can read along with Jews all over the world, finishing all 5 books of the bible by the next Jewish new year!

I know that astrologically there are planets going retrograde and an eclipse going on and many of us are looking to astrology to understand how we are being effected in these times. But looking at the Jewish calendar is another way to find your bearings. I love it that I know when the moon is going to be full because I know when the 15th of the Jewish month is. Following this calendar connects me with the moon's transits and I know I am starting a new series of lessons once a new Jewish month starts. Plus, I get to know what opportunities I have to work on my issues with, the energies available during that specific month on the calendar - the energies are based on all that has happened to the Jewish people throughout the millennia. Each month has it's own unique flavor for our own specific renewal.

I wish you all a deeply transformative winter.

Allison

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