Why Me? Why Now?

Many people have asked me why I believe I can write or discuss any aspect of Kabbalah, let alone how it relates to conscious creation. I first received this question when I was under the age of 40; you see, a time existed when people under 40 weren’t supposed to study Kabbalah. Besides that, I was a women, and traditionally women did not study Kabbalah either. I had two strikes against me. Additionally, I was not a Torah scholar in any way, shape or form.

These days, I’m still not the latter, and I haven’t changed my sex, but I am over 40. I continue to study all sorts of Jewish texts as much as I can (which, albeit, isn’t that much given my work and my two children’s crazy schedules). So, what makes me the “expert” on this subject or gives me the ability to teach it or write about it? I happen to understand this one particular aspect of Kabbalah. I have studied conscious creation, deliberate creation, The Law of Attraction – whatever name you want to give it – for many years. I have studied Kabbalah – maybe not on a very, very deep and scholarly level, but I have studied it – for quiet a number of years. And I saw the correlations. I connected the dots. I came up with my own understanding and my own methodology for combining the Kabbalistic teachings with the secular teachings of conscious creation. I also went out and corraborated my theories with some scholars – rabbis and Kabbalists more knowledgeable than am I.

Plus, at this time in our human evolution, this information needs to be disseminated. In fact, Rebbe Ashlag actually spoke in favor of the dissemination of Kabbalah and began the process of doing so.  He felt that because we live in time when so much is changing so fast and not always for the betterment of all, we need to use the information available to us – information that Kabbalah has to offer – to help improve our situation. As our human situation worsens (some might see it differently…), more and more people are becoming unhappy and dissatisfied. Thus, they are beginning to ask the BIG questions about life: What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? What is my purpose? Why is life so difficult? How can I succeed at this thing called living? What is the meaning of all of this – sex, money, power, “stuff”? Kabbalah explores the answers to these questions. Thus, the time to learn a little Kabbalah…or a lot…is now.

My work may not be an indepth study of Kabbalah. In fact, it’s not meant to be. It’s meant as an entry way, a portal, if you will, into a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, a new way of seeing, and a new way of being in the world. It’s a way into a new consciousness…and a way into creating change. And we sorely need change right now. 

Why now? The world lies on the brink of transformation. Actually, change is occurring all around us. You need only watch the fluctuations of the stock market to see this. Some say the Mayan calendar predicts a huge change for humankind in the year 2012. The Kabbalists also predicted a change that lies still many years off in the year 6000 on the Hebrew calendar but which has already begun. It’s up to us to help make the change a postive one, to transform ourselves, first, and then, second, the world, for the better. The teachings I offer, which come from Kabbalah, offer ways to begin that transformation.

Why me? Because I believe I discovered this correlation between secular teachings and Kabbalah in order to share them and help others create change within themselves and then in the world around them. I believe that in that way, I can be a change agent in my own small way. I feel this is my soul’s purpose.

Some might criticize what I’m doing as too much like “pop” Kabbalah, because I draw on popular secular ideas as well.  In my defense, I quote my friend and teacher, Avraham Lowenthal, a student of the work of Rebbe Ashlag and a great Kabbalastic artist and a Kabbalist in his own right:

“Ancient prophecies say that the revelation of the inner teachings of the kabbalah to everyone will be part of the spiritual transformation in the world, when six billion people finally come to truly care for one another. I think that the Kabbalah coming out in the world today in a big way, even if a lot of it is on a very ‘pop’ level, is the beginning of the fulfillment of these ancient prophesies.”

I trust that he is right, and I hope that, indeed, I can be a part of the fulfillment of these prophecies.

Defining Kabbalah: It’s All About Receiving

For a long time I struggled with how to define Kabbalah. I’d talk about the different major books, like the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation), and the major teachers, such as Abraham Abulafia and Isaac Luria. I never failed, however, to mention the definition of the Hebrew word itself – kabbalah. And as my study took me farther and farther into what Kabbalah taught about conscious creation and giving and receiving, I found this word to represent the epitome of what has become known as Jewish mysticism.

The world “kabbalah” comes from the Hebrew rootl’kabel, which means “to receive.” More often than not, therefore, kabbalah is translated simple to mean “to receive.” Other people translate this word as “reception” or “received.” The assumption becomes that Kabbalah consists of received teachings, or a body of knowledge and customs passed down from one generation to another, passed on l’dor v’dor(from generation to generation).  A student receives a teaching from a teacher. This is a receiving, a Kabbalah, if you will.

More exists to the receiving. The person studying or practicing Kabbalah receives (or tries to receive) knowledge of God and information about how to live. As author Arthur Kurzweil says, in Kabbalah for Dummies, “Kabbalah is a theological process central to Judaism. That is, Kabbalah is the way in which Jewish tradition tries to grasp the Infinite and tries to communicate to each generation the ways that the sages have understood that human life – in relation to the creator – should be lived.” It’s how we ask questions about life’s hard issues and open to receive the answers: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does suffering exist? Why did God create evil? Is there life after death? How do I know God? Why am I here? How was the world created? What is my purpose? And it’s how we open to receive God, to have an experience of God- to have a spiritual experience.

To me, Kabbalah teaches you how to receive. What are we to receive? All the goodness God wanted to give  us when the Creator had the first thought, the first desire, to create the world and us in it. Kabbalah offers us ways to learn how to become containers for this goodness. It prepares us to receive, tells us what we should want to receive and what we will receive, explains from where the things we desire will come, and helps us figure out what we need to receive.

Kabbalah allows us to receive God into our lives, and with God comes all sorts of gifts. The question becomes, are we ready to receive? What do we need to do to become good receivers? How do we receive God?  And how do we allow in all of God’s goodness?

That’s Kabbalah. And that’s why I think Kabbalah has so much to say about conscious and deliberate creation and the Law of Attraction. It’s also why I think Kabbalah goes so, so much farther, so much deeper than anything written to date on this subject.

Discussing the Law of Attraction from a Jewish Mystical Perspective

Millions of us each year wish we could find a new and better job, make more money, have a better relationship or marriage, lose weight, but despite their unhappiness and frustration with where we currently are, we feel unable to create something different.  Some of us do break out of our negative patterns and attempt to create what we want, but often we find ourselves unsuccessful in doing so and back in the same negative situation as before.

Too often we spend our time complaining to ourselves and to other about our sad lot in life. We don’t realize that the thoughts and words we use to do so are self perpetuating.  Every time we say, “I hate my job,” we hate it more.  Every time we say, “My husband doesn’t appreciate me,” he appreciates us less. Every time we say, “I don’t have enough money,” a new or unexpected bill arrives in the mail.

To begin manifesting more of what we want and less of what we don’t want, we must remember that we are what we think and begin watching our words both in the form of what we say and what we think.  Simply by stopping our negative talk and thoughts, we can begin to change what we create in the world. Indeed, we are what we think, and what we say has great creative power. In addition, to create your dreams and desires, we must learn to constantly “Think what we want.”  In other words, we must change our words and thoughts to match our desires. 

Judaism has long held the belief that “what we think is what we get.”  One of its best-loved teachers, Rebbe Nachman of Bratslov, said, “You are where ever your thoughts are.  Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be.”  His teaching corresponds with modern-day proponents of positive thinking like Napoleon Hill, author of the best-selling book Think and Grow Rich, and Norman Vincent Peale, author of the best-selling book The Power of Positive Thinking. The great kabbalists, or Jewish mystics, also knew that our thoughts and words, especially when combined with feelings, would manifest what we want on the physical plane.  They taught that the Hebrew language, called the “Holy Language,” was special because the Hebrew letters possess an extraordinary creative force, an energy that makes them the primordial tools of creation.  In fact, God spoke the world into being with 10 Utterances.  God “said” and it came to be.  In kabbalistic and Chasidic tradition, the world was created and exists on a foundation provided by the Hebrew alphabet.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word “abracadabra” literally means “He has created as he has spoken” – manifestation according to the power of words.  This word comes from the verb “daber,” which refers to organizing “speech.” 

Despite the kabbalists’ focus on using Hebrew to manifest physical things and the physical plane itself, the English language – or any language – can be used for the same.  Almost any language can find its roots in Hebrew and Aramaic. 

Mystics throughout the ages have known that their words held amazing creative power.  Thus how we use them, such as by writing affirmations and goals, invoking what we want through prayers, visualizations and incantations, can bring our dreams and desires to us – like a magician waving his wand and creating a rabbit out of thin air.  The Jewish story of the golem speaks to this concept.

The huge success of the book and DVD The Secret comes from the fact that the principle that it proposes – combining thought and feeling about what we want to bring about the manifestation of that desire on the physical plane – is not new.  In fact, it is well known and well proven. 

Many people don’t realize, however, that this idea that has most recently been called the Law of Attraction can be found within Judiasm and it’s mystical tradition, or Kabbalah. When I learned this fact, I became extremely excited, because it welded my interest in both conscious creation, also called deliberate creation – or the Law of Attraction (LOA) – Judaism and Kabbalah.

I’ve devoted much of my personal and professional life to this topic, and that’s what I will explore with this blog. Call it the Jewish take on The Secret or a Jewish mystical view on deliberate creation. That’s fine. I call it the Kabbalah of Conscious Creation. I’ll investigate and discuss and mull over how to employ not only thoughts, words and feelings but actions as well, and I’ll do this mostly from a Jewish perspective, although I’ll more than likely incorporate some secular teachings as well and see how they fit into Kabbalistic teachings.  And I’ll looking deeply into how our ability to receive and to give make it possible for us to manifest our physical and spiritual desires in this world. All the while, I’ll do this, hopefully, in a way that provides useful information to you, the reader, and that crosses religious and spiritual lines, making this blog pertinent to anyone interested in the subjects of LOA, deliberate or conscious creation, giving and receiving, and, ultimately, achieving a higher consciousness that will help change the world and make it a better place in which to live.