The Zohar - Jan 15th 2007

Look in the Mirror

The Zohar says the best years of Jacob's life were those spent living in exile in Egypt for 17 years.
The name of Egypt in Hebrew is mitzrayim. It also means narrow or problem. The Zohar is teaching us that Jacob was most alive when he was facing his problems and his garbage head on.

Our tendency is to want to get rid of problems, to solve them on the spot. But as Jacob is teaching us, our garbage is also our blessing. Pain and struggle lead us to seek more, to give more, and to reveal more. In fact, this is how most people take their first step onto the spiritual path.

The Zohar is not saying wallow in depression and feel sorry for yourself. That comes when we don't face our problems. But it is teaching us that when we confront our deepest fears and negative beliefs and behaviors, we uncover the spark of Light hiding beneath the harsh exterior of the circumstance. Kabbalists refer to it as revealing the concealed.

The longer we look at ourselves in the mirror, the faster our ugliness becomes beautiful.

It reminds me of a story my mother (and teacher) Karen Berg tells. It is of a man sitting in a field enjoying the sun when suddenly he is bitten on the hand by a lizard. As his hand starts to throb with pain, he walks to a nearby river and sticks his hand in to soak it. While sitting there, he notices a man drowning. He dives in, grabs hold of the man, and pulls him to shore.
"Thank you. You saved my life!" the man exclaims. "You should thank the lizard that bit my hand," the bitten man replied.
Many times chaos/challenges occur, and we should see them as opportunities to express the Light. So when we help others and they thank us, we can think, "Don't thank me. Thank the Light that I was allowed to reveal."

A problem is only a problem because we think it is. It's all how we look at it. This week we can see the blessing our pain is presenting us. We only need the courage to look.
All the best,
Yehuda

Buddy, I can relate to this. I remember going to bed right after we all hug and wish each other a happy New Year, that I was thinking why do things like this happens to me. I was not feeling sorry for myself but I was thinking in the last year and how I dragged people that I love into my drama. I took a resolution not to allow drama like this come again into my life. But I read this message from you and I remember this dear friend who left me a message on Friday in which he told me that it was not the best week of his life last week,

I remember leaving a message in his cell phone trying to encourage him to keep going and to look at every thing that come his way as a blessing. I know it is pretentious of me to compare his problems to mine. But what do we gain by feeling misarable instead of take responsibility for our life and feel more inpowered to change things around in our life.

Buddy, this is me thanking you for the good and the bad. I guess there is a lot of people out there not willing to keep going with me since I bring more misery than happiness. Love has always been a driving force for me. I apoligized to every one that I brought more misery than pleasure. It was not my intetions. It was love what I always wanted to give. Then again, I have noticed a problem with perception when it comes to me and me interactive with others. I promised to work on this and other of my short comings. Then again, I always tell people that I am a work in progress. Feed back is welcome, I do accept even the one that is given with resement and anger. Because it takes 2 to tango and the sooner I take my reponsibility the faster I will able to change things around or improove for the better.