Do you ever question your beliefs about Your religion? Do you question God’s word, the value of the commandments, the teachings of the forefathers, the meaning of the rituals and prayers?

They say the Jewish people are God wrestlers. We don’t always accept God’s word or anything to do with our religion without questions, without wanting to understand why, without pondering the value, the validity, the truth of what we are told or asked to do.

Yet, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or some other religion, sometimes we get stuck in fear—fear that if we don’t listen to God’s word, believe every single word we hear and do as those words command—something bad might happen. We might be struck down by lightning, fall from grace, not live another year, not receive God’s goodness. Then we stop wrestling with God.

It takes a lot to move out of that fear and to begin questioning again, wrestling again.

I was pleased this week to find a current example of someone who moved through that fear and began God wrestling—and did so in the public eye. I read in a JTA article that Chassidic reggae musician and singer Matisyahu publicly shaved off his beard and peyes and uploaded a picture of himself clean shaven on Twitter on December 13. Along with it, he posted this message:

“This morning I posted a photo of myself on Twitter.

“No more Chassidic reggae superstar.

“Sorry folks, all you get is me…no alias. When I started becoming religious 10 years ago it was a very natural and organic process. It was my choice. My journey to discover my roots and explore Jewish spirituality—not through books but through real life. At a certain point I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity…to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person I needed rules—lots of them—or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.”

The next day, December 14, the JTA ran another story. In it he explained this decision in more detail during an interview WNYC’s Soundcheck. He began growing his beard when he became religious. The decision not to shave was based on a teaching from Kabbalah that the beard is a manifestation of the 13 divine attributes of mercy, he explained. (Learn about the 13 Attributes here.) He feared that if he were to shave the beard, he would no longer be privy to those blessings of mercy.

Recently, however, he asked himself, “How can [God’s mercy] possibly be connected to me shaving or not? And I began, over the last few weeks, I went through a pretty major transformation, probably bigger than any in my life, due to several things, but a lot of revelations and a lot of realizations started coming clear to me, and I realized just like these fears that I have, the idea that God’s mercy is connected to whether I shave or not is ludicrous. And I just need to trust myself, and that if I’m deserving of God’s mercy, I’ll get it regardless.”

That’s a big jump…to trust your own goodness and to trust God to be merciful whether you follow His commandments or not. Orthodox, or observant, Jews, live within the confines of God’s laws, God’s mitzvot. They offer structure. They offer a way of life. They offer a means by which to be a good Jew, a mensch.

Yet, here we see someone coming out of that world and saying, “I think I can be a mensch, I think I can be a good person, a spiritual and religious person deserving of God’s grace and mercy without observing every single mitzvah—every commandment.”

And haven’t those of us who are not that religious wondered what would happen—in the reverse—if I suddenly became more observant? Would God be more gracious, more merciful? Would my prayers be answered?

But maybe it’s simply about being a good person, about being deserving—beard or no beard.

What about you? Do you wrestle with God? Do you question your beliefs? And do you occasionally shave  (or have you ever shaved) your beard—metaphorical or real—to see what might happen?

I’ve been getting emails all week about events related today’s auspicious date: 11-11-11. Sure, it’s cool that the date consists of all ones, but what does this really mean? We all want it to mean something…just like we want the end of the Mayan calendar on December 31, 2011 to mean something…significant.

I don’t think anyone really knows what 11-11-11 truly means. That said, I think we can derive a bit of meaning from some of the research that has been done on the occurrence of the number 11 and 11-11 historically. I found a great compilation of data and some analysis of it by none other than Jewish paranormalist Uri Geller. (You can read it here.) He says the number appears as a wake up call, and that when we see it we should take note.

So what should we be taking note of right now? Should we be remembering that the year is coming to a close and it’s time to start reviewing the last year? Or should we being remembering that we as a people very likely are heading toward a major transformation of some sort?

Of course, if we consider the approach of the year 2012 and the fact that many have predicted that the New Year will bring with it a huge change in consciousness that coordinates with the end of the Mayan calendar, which ends then, I begin to think about what new type of world we will discover, what new word will be created–or we will create, at that time.

The Kabbalists would say that we have been in transition and will continue to be in transition for some time to come. The change of consciousness is, indeed, happening, but the major change expected after January 1 is actually a long time off. The Hebrew date of Cheshvan 14, 5772, or November 11, 2011, is 228 years from the time the Kabbalists expect drastic changes in consciousness.  But maybe today is the day the change begins to be felt, the day we begin to truly see the new world, what Jews call the World to Come  and Christians call Heaven on Earth, beginning to take shape.

Why do I say this? Reportedly, Hebrew Scriptures place September 11, 1999 as the 6,000th anniversary of Adam’s creation and year 1 on the Hebrew calendar. If this is true, maybe today is the day a new human being is created and the new calendar actually begins–not on January 1. Could this be true, at least on a spiritual level? It’s worth considering.

It’s worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Or maybe it’s just the day that you create a new you, that you take on a new consciousness, that you begin to prepare for the new year if not for a new age. That, too, too might be worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Geller says 11:11 is a positive sign whenever we see it–on a clock radio, a hotel door, the odometer of your car, the columns in front of your house. See today’s date as just that–a positive sign that it’s time to wake up. Have you been sleeping, sleep walking through life? Just becoming more awake will change your perspective, your consciousness. That’s also worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Not surprisingly, from a Kabbalistic standpoint, the numerology of today’s date also points to the beginning of the new age: the arrival of the World to Come or Heaven on Earth. If you add up all those ones (1+1+1+1+1+1), you come up with the number 6. Six equates to Tiferet on the tree of life. Tiferet is the domain of beauty, harmony, artistry, gracefulness, synergy, peace, blessing, and balance.  It can be best described as many voices blending together in beautiful harmony; it’s the opposite of discord. Sounds a bit like peace on earth, no? A bit like heaven?

That’s something to think about, to pray about, for at least 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

My husband and I were discussing how we react to things that happen in our lives. We have very different approaches to what could be seen as “irritations” that occur. I tend to take what I call a more “spiritual” approach; he tend to take what I call a more “reactive” approach.

I’m not saying I don’t even get upset or angry over things that happen, but I try to switch gears quickly, problem solve and stay pretty positive and grateful. My husband, on the other hand, tends to just get angry and upset and to feel like a victim to circumstance. It becomes hard for him to see anything positive–any upside or opportunity.

So, for example, when our state tax refund showed up just in time to pay for the property taxes and my son’s summer dance program (both of which we were going to have to pay for out of our savings account), he saw that as something about which to be upset rather than happy. The money that we had just received went out the door as fast as it came in.

And when my old car died just as we were about to get our federal tax return, which we hoped to save, again this was something about which to feel angry.

I wasn’t pleased about spending the money we could have saved, but in both cases I simply accepted the fact that we had expenses–and we had been provided with the means to meet them. I felt grateful that we didn’t have to go into debt or deplete our savings. I also didn’t spend a lot of time getting upset or angry about the situation–or shaking my fist at God.

Rather I felt as if God were acting as my partner. As always, I believed in some way shape or form God’s hand was in all of this. I knew I just needed to trust that everything was okay and would be okay. I knew I just needed to feel connected.

Interestingly enough, this morning after more discussions with my husband about new cars and money, I got an email from one of my favorite rabbi–a man and teacher who has helped me with my own writing projects and who put me on the Jewish mystical (and Jewish spiritual) path. I took the time to visit Rabbi David Cooper’s website and found a post there that spoke to this point (and inspired my post today). In reading Rabbi Cooper’s words I was reminded how hard we must work every day to stay conscious and connected to Source, to not react to what we are presented with in our lives each day but instead to respond. That’s why we must stay on the spiritual path no matter how hard that feels, engaging in some sort of spiritual practice. And, and I’ve said before, it does take practice to stay conscious and connected. It doesn’t happen without effort and daily–almost hourly or minute-to-minute–sessions.

Rabbi Cooper writes:

The purpose of spiritual practice is to gently and consistently move us from our place, where we normally “hang out” in our day-to-day behavior, to a mind state of greater refinement. In this context, refinement is connected with our conditioning, our normal reflexes and responses to situations that arise every day. Through practice, we begin to reflect and react in different ways. This change in our behavior actually causes many significant results.

Spiritual practice, is this context, has a series of tiny ekstasis that arise when we behave out of place of our normal reactions. We must keep in mind that “normal” for most of us is quite different from “natural.” Normal is how we are conditioned to respond. Conditioning develops from the time we are conceived; some say that our propensities to be conditioned go back into our genetic dna. But the spiritual principal at the base of many traditions is that our natural inclinations arise when we fully recognize the basic nature of our own minds and thereby gain greater ability to resist conditioned reactions.

Through our spiritual practice we learn to respond rather than react, to stay connected and conscious. Another of my teachers, author Stuart Wilde, says this is like spiritual weight lifting. We become stronger, more able to change how we react to the irritations in our life–the situations that arise–by constantly practicing remaining conscious and connected no matter what arises–in spite of what arises–in our lives. Life becomes our training ground, our gym, our practice field.

Little by little, day by day, hour by hour we change simply by living. As Rabbi Cooper writes:

Skilled practice results from an ongoing engagement in the mystery of what everyday life presents. As we never know what life will bring, we need always to be prepared to meet this unknowable reality with our highest potential. Thus, to the best of our ability, we continuously are challenged to bring our awareness to the many opportunities that present themselves as a series of invitations for manifesting enlightened actions. Each and every time we succeed, we change the world.

I’ve still got a long way to go–a lot of practice before I become truly “awakened” or “enlightened.” I still react more than I’d like; I still get irritated by the irritations. I notice this when I angrily respond to the fact that my son forgot an essential item that prevented him from taking dance class–after I drove an hour and a half to take him there, the shelf in my living room has not been replaced by my husband after five months or the insurance agent takes two hours to ask me questions I already answered once before. So, you’ll find me in my spiritual gym on most days lifting weights in an effort to become more awakened.

As Rabbi Cooper explains:

The highest teachings are explicit in describing the idea that our most enlightened opportunities occur in the ordinary daily life we now experience. The difference is that one who is awakened recognizes the essential nature of what is happening while one who is not awakened is easily overwhelmed by an ongoing flow of “self” induced dramas.

To rid ourselves of this sense of drama, Rabbi Cooper says we must rid ourselves of the belief that we are separate. When we do so, we also lose many of the harmful actions, false beliefs, negative reactions, confusion, irritation, and suffering that go with it.

Instead of believing we are separate–something most of us have believed for a long, long time–we must remember we are connected and always have been. Connection is our normal state of being. We only think we are separate from the Source; the thought doesn’t happen to represent truth.  It’s a meme, a thought given to you by someone else that you adopted. You can choose to adopt the thought that you are connected instead, but knowing and feeling this connection comes with spiritual practice.

Some people end up feeling too irritated, too angry, and they fall off the spiritual path before they can change their reactions or thoughts. They leave the spiritual gym seeing no results from their efforts. They feel alone in their work there and without a personal trainer. They don’t feel connected, so they go off alone blaming the gym and it’s Proprietor for their failure. They don’t realize that if they don’t stay in spiritual shape, bit by bit, parts of their life start feeling harder and harder. Without connection and consciousness, everything begins to feel like an irritation and a struggle.You get stuck reacting to irritations in your life in the same old way you always have.

Is that what you want? I don’t. So I look for “enlightened opportunities” as they occur in my ordinary daily life to respond in conscious and connected manner. I lift spiritual weights daily. Sometimes I’m not strong enough to do all the sets, but I keep lifting.

How do you react to the irritations in your life?

One of the major premises in my work, both my writing and teaching, revolves around the need to give as well as to receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. Yet, we don’t want to give in order to receive.

When we give, we make room to receive, for something else to move into the space we have created. In the Kabbalistic story of creation, God contracting to make space for all of Creation. In the void that was created, God sent a beam of Divine light or energy. From that, everything we know of as the world in which we live–including ourselves–come into being. Each time we create space by giving, Divine light and energy in all its many forms fills the void we create as well. This becomes a constant flow of giving, receiving, giving, receiving, giving, and so on.

In my current work writing The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation in its full length, I have been trying to fully understand the true nature of giving – at least as put forth by Rabbi Yehuda Lev Ashlag. Relying on In the Shadow of the Ladder, a wonderful book on his teachings, as my primary source, I’d like to grapple a bit with this idea here and to ask you to try and implement the concept of giving on a deeper level in your life.

Today, I will give you one part of the equation:

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers

Let’s begin with the idea the God’s nature is to give. The Creator is a Giver and we were created as receivers. Typically, our will has us focused on receiving for ourselves alone. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s true. Most of us are focused on our own desires, and with good reason. First of all, it’s our nature as pure receivers to desire things for ourselves, and in this physical word we often feel we have unfulfilled needs. We need to receive more.

Our goal, however, lies in becoming not only a receiver, but a giver. As I said, giving opens us up to receiving. Ah, the ego, says, “That’s great. I can get more.” However, we want to aim for a more spiritual reason to give. Yes, we want to get more, but not necessarily more material things. We want more spiritual things. You see, as long as you are a receiver and God is a Giver, a separation, albeit possible a perceived separation, exists between you and God. Most people – at least those on a spiritual path – would like to draw closer to God. What we actually want to get from giving is a connection to our Creator.

Giving for the Sake of Giving

So, we begin to place restrictions on how we use our will to receive. Even though it is our nature to receive for ourselves alone, we try simply to give instead of to receive.  We give for the sake of giving. We receive in order to give to others.  This makes us givers. And if we are givers, we are like God. We achieve something called “affinity of form” with God, and the separation between us and our Creator diminishes or disappears. Thus, we feel our Divine connection, and we receive what we desire – a relationship and a connection to our Creator.

However, there’s one problem with this scenario. We aren’t fulfilling our end of the cosmic bargain. God created humans for the purpose of giving us pleasure. Pleasure comes in the form of receiving Divine gifts. (That’s right, the fulfillment of our desires.) God was supposed to give, and we were supposed to receive. If we only give, we can’t receive. If we don’t receive, God receives no “pleasure.”

For today, just consider this concept. Think about how you give and how you receive. Consider if you give more than you receive or if you receive more than you give. Think about the idea that you are born to receive. How does that make you feel?

Tomorrow we will go on to part 2.

While it is all well and good to want “things” in the physical world, and it is part of our nature as physical beings to want and to need material stuff, the Kabbalists teach that such desires — and even the fulfillment of those desires — will never make us happy.  Additionally, they will never open us to the flow of goodness and pleasure that God is waiting to give to us.

Thus, we must change what we want.  First, we must want a new attitude or way of approaching life and all it gives us — or doesn’t give us.  We need to find a way to simply be okay with our current situation.  This doesn’t mean we don’t want to change it for the better or take action to accomplish this. Until we manifest this desire, however, we choose not to suffer. We learn to be in the now, in the moment, okay with what is, with what we have. We learn to see what we have in a different light — with gratitude.  We must feel good where we are while acknowledging that we want to be somewhere else, we want to receive something different.

Secondly, we must develop a desire for something different. We must want a new desire.  We have to want to manifest a desire to receive not for ourselves alone but for the sake of giving unconditionally to others.  In affect, the Kabablists tell us that what we should desire is a new consciousness.  Only when we manifest this new consciousness will we truly be happy.  And only then can we open ourselves fully to the flow of Infinite goodness and pleasure.

If these concepts interest you, you can learn more here and here.

With the Blue Moon rising, tonight we ring in not only the New Year, but a whole new decade. And we do so at amidst a time of change.

We’ve seen climate weather, world economic changes and political and government leadership changes. In spiritual, mystical and metaphysical circles, everyone is talking about and predicting change, the biggest of which is, of course, the fact that the Mayan calendar ends with the Gregorian calendar year of 2012. This has caused some people to predict a cataclysmic end to the world in that year. More people are actually predicting a huge shift in human consciousness at that time, which is what I believe will happen…and which I believe is happening already little by little.

More correctly I believe, 2012 actually will be just the culmination of a long process of human consciousness being raised little by little. And, since processes tend to come to a head but continue from that point onward, the process of raising human consciousness will continue beyond the year 2010 as well.

I study all sorts of spiritual and wisdom traditions, but my heart lies with Judaism. In its mystical tradition, called Kabbalah, the mystics claim that creation as a whole is moving toward a change in consciousness that will herald in the World to Come, a time of peace on earth. Rather than this occurring in two years, the date of the end of the Mayan calendar is seen as just a step on the way to the ultimate transformation, which they say lies 230 years in the future – yet the change is happening now, every day, every moment as we move ever closer to the year 6,000 on the Jewish lunar calendar. That would be the year 2240! (We are in the year 5770 on the Jewish calendar.)

Any way you look at it, we seem to be in the midst of a change process. What better time to become part of the change, to become a change agent and learn how to create change within and without, than now.  Of course, to do that, you have to start small-with a process of your own. You have to start by creating change within yourself and in your own small environment, and then work outwards. You have to start raising your own consciousness. In the process, you help raise the consciousness of humankind and of the planet as a whole.

To become part of the change, to become a change agent, you don’t have to become an activist, although you can. You do, however, have to change your consciousness.

Let’s look at this change in consciousness from a Kabbalistic standpoint, which, by the way, is not just for Jews-anyone and everyone can and should consider this perspective if they want to become a change agent. The Kabbalists, or Jewish mystics, taught that human beings were created as receivers. God, the Ultimate Creator, created us as the receivers of all the Divine goodness He/She had to offer us and all of creation. Our purpose in creation lies in receiving that goodness. That’s the easy part, because we naturally desire that goodness for ourselves, and the desire pulls the goodness to us. (Admittedly, actually allowing in the goodness can be difficult for many of us.)

To raise our consciousness to a new level we need to have a new desire. We have to desire a higher consciousness…a new consciousness that wants to receive Divine goodness not for our own sake alone but rather for the sake of giving it to others. That’s the hard part. We have to have the desire to share what we receive with others.

For those of us who love others, for instance, our children, this actually may feel easy. We share with them unconditionally. However, we have to feel this way about everyone and everything. We have to want to share unconditionally with all of creation. We have to want to receive in order to share.

And when we do this, we find ourselves in harmony and in unity with the Creator. We find ourselves one with God, because God is a giver and we have become givers. We have removed any perceived separation between ourselves and God. From this place of oneness and with this higher consciousness, we can create amazing change in our lives and in the world, because we are tapped into the flow of goodness and abundance in the world. We are tuned into the Source of miracles.

For the Kabbalist, becoming a change agent means achieving some semblance of this consciousness-developing the desire to share unconditionally and having the consciousness to want to receive for the sake of giving.

In other traditions, changing our consciousness or achieving a higher consciousness may look or sound different. It may be explained in different words. People will talk about creating peace and harmony or accepting diversity. However, the same holds true. To really do this, we want to function from a place connected to Source. It’s here that we actually begin to vibrate with the energy of peace and harmony and non-judgment. This takes coming from a loving place, a place of acceptance, a place of non-judgment, and a place of wanting to share.

To become a change agent in 2010-or any time-you have to find a way to reach this higher consciousness. The Kabbalists recommend getting there through receiving with the intention of giving. However, you also can do it through meditation, chanting, prayer, or any number of contemplative exercises. The change in your vibration and consciousness immediately will radiate out into the world and begin to create change. Then, if you also can take that energy out into the world and put it into action with the same vibration of love and peace, you’ll do a lot of good towards creating change as well.

We can’t stop change, but we can be a part of it. We can become change agents. I challenge my readers to begin by simply changing their own consciousness.  Create change within. Raise your consciousness in some way…to a more loving one, to a less-judgmental one, to a more giving one. When you do so, you can’t help but begin creating change without.

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time over the last week throwing away all sorts of stuff. Primarily, however, I’ve thrown away accumulated papers. I can’t believe how many papers I seem to save and collect. I have piles and files filled with papers of all sorts. Most of these papers I must have thought I would want or need at some later date, but at this point I can’t remember why.

Primarily, all this stuff just takes up room in my home and in my office. In the process, it leaves no space for anything new to come in. Thus, by removing it – throwing it away – I create a space for something else to exist.

This works much like the Kabbalistic creation story in which God wanted to create something other than God. The problem was that God was everywhere and everything; no room existed for anything else. Thus, God had to contract to create space for something else to exist as well. Into the void God created within the Divine, something new could become manifest.

So, by cleaning out and throwing away all the old stuff I don’t need – the stuff that is just taking up space – in my home (and in my life), I create a void in which something else can become manifest. I make room for change to take place.

Of course, this is just one way to create change, but it does tend to work pretty well. I’ve gotten really caught up in the process, and I like the results. They make me feel good. It’s easier to think, to focus, to concentrate, and to function in my home with less piles and stuff… Everything feels cleaner and more organized. That’s a nice way to start the New Year anyway.

If you want to create change in the new secular year, begin creating a place for that change to exist now. Look around. What have you accumulated that you don’t need? What can you throw away or give away? How can you make room for change?

Today I was reading a commentary written by Rabbi Label Lam on this weeks parsha, the weekly torah portion. It happens to be about the reunion of Jacob and Esau, but it pertains to the giving and receiving, an important Kabbalistic concept that typically comes to the forefront of our minds during the holiday season.

Just when so many people are caught up in the “getting” of gifts–in what they desire to receive–I found it interesting to read about the different perspectives these two biblical characters had on their so-called “possessions. In Genesis 33:9, 11, Esau proclaims, “I have plenty.” Jacob says, “I have all.”  According to Rashi, one of the most famous commentators on the Torah, “Esau spoke boastfully, proclaiming :’I have plenty more than I could ever want.’ (Jacob said, ‘I have) everything that I require.’” Rabbi Lam points out that Easau “evaluates his personal wealth in terms of quantity (“plenty”), as opposed to Jacob, who does so in terms of quality (“all”). While the former is still hopelessly addicted to temporary material existence, the latter is living life on a higher frequency.”

I see this as the difference between someone who wants material “things” and often feels lack when those things are absent and a person who looks around at the world and sees the abundance of the universe and feels rich in every way. One person will always see something missing in his or her life, while the other person can always find something in his or her life about which to feel grateful and prosperous and abundant. It’s a different perspective, a different point of view, a different way of seeing the world. In fact, it’s a different consciousness.

During Christmas and Chanukah, a lot of stress is placed on presents. Most people enjoy giving presents as well as receiving them. The Kabbalists teach that we should really want is a new consciousness–a consciousness that desires to receive in order to give, or to share, with others unconditionally. The holiday season offers us a chance to practice this more so than at any other time of the year. We can ask ourselves as we make up our gift list, how can we share what we receive? How can we do so when we feel as if we don’t have enough ourselves? And how can we get out of feeling that sense of lack so we can give more freely and easily and unconditionally?

Additionally, how does what we have to give play into our concept of ourselves and what we feel we are worth? Many people’s self image is tied totally into their home, car, clothes, savings, and other material things. Do these things really say anything about who we are and what we are worth?

Read this story that Rabbi Lam told in his commentary on this week’s parsha, and you’ll realize that a person’s worth and value actually is tied to their unconditional giving.

A powerful king once approached the famous Baron Rothschild and candidly asked him what he was worth. The Baron is reputed to have answered that he was worth some 50 million francs. The king felt that the answer somehow understated his true holdings and did some investigation. When he discovered that Baron Rothschild really was worth 500 million francs, he felt betrayed, and confronted the Baron again. “Why have you misled me and violated our trusting relationship? I am aware that your assets exceed 500 million francs!”

The Baron humbly replied that true, his holdings were some 500 million francs – but the king had asked, “How much are you worth?” To that the Baron was compelled to tell the truth. “What I gave to charity approaches 50 million francs. What I have managed to give away is actually accounted to my “worth.” That is what I carry with me. It is locked in a vault of good deeds forever. As to what will happen to the remainder of my wealth, I am uncertain. I do not count it as my personal worth.’”

Rabbi Lam explains the moral of this story in this way: “The spiritually-oriented person is not compelled to impress or be impressed by that which lies outside of himself. His true ambition is aimed at goals that are within his reachable realm, and his physical possessions are merely a means to achieve those ends and not the ends themselves.”

I’d add this: We all have desires. We all want to learn how to manifest those desires. The key is to find desires that involve giving to others…helping others…becoming change agents… Try to manifest “things” that help you do this, and use them in that manner.  Then ask yourself what you have and what you are worth. You’ll probably discover that you have all, your worth has grown considerably and you are quite worthy of receiving more.

The new Hebrew month of Cheshvan began on Sunday, October 18th and, Monday, October 19th. In the Jewish calendar, a new month begins at the time of the new moon.

Earlier this week I was reading an email newsletter sent to me by my friend, author Melinda Ribner. She wrote about the fact that, according to Kabbalah, each month offers new energies and offers new opportunities to realize our full human potential. Each month our spiritual and personal energy fluctuates just like the weather. Indeed, even the weather changes month to month — as we can saw here in Northern California as the rain and cold came in on Monday with the new moon. If we attune to these energies, we can use this knowledge for personal growth and achieving our goals.

Last month, Tishrei, was filled with Jewish holidays-more holidays than during any other month in the Jewish calendar year. Now, during the month of Cheshvan, there are no holidays. This gives us a chance to turn our attention to taking action on our goals for the new year, which we celebrated in Tishrei. We begin to translate into reality the visions we focused upon-the targets we set-for the future as we thought about the new year.

Even if you aren’t Jewish, though, you can take advantage of the energy of this time period. The energy is “generic,” and can be accessed by anyone.

According to Mindy, this month is a time of cleansing and purification. Not coincidentally, she points out, we begin the month by reading the Torah portion about Noah and his ark. In the Torah, Noah was instructed to build an ark to safeguard life from the destruction of the flood-a flood that cleansed the earth.

I suggest that we use the next few weeks to think about what we might allow to “float away” in a flood, if we had to…or if we chose to. If we had to board an ark, what might we take with us? Why not cleanse your home, office or life of what you don’t need or want to take forward with you, keeping only what is of value?

Mindy pointed out that the word for “ark” in Hebrew (teva) also means “word.” Thus, the energy of this Hebrew month also involves watching our words-or using our words wisely. As you focus on taking action to bring your visions into reality, use your words to speak about your visions clearly, thus utilizing the Law of Attraction and of conscious creation to speak your goals and dreams into reality-just as God created the world by speaking it into existence. Build an ark to hold your dreams for the future by vocalizing or writing down your intentions, goals, visions. Speak your future world into existence. (But don’t forget to feel what it will be like to have manifested your dreams and visions…and to take action towards manifesting them.)

You can find information about the energies of every month in Mindy’s book, Kabbalah Month by Month. To receive a free posting of the kabbalistic energies of each month, please contact Miriam@kabbalahoftheheart.com.

For more information on how to put the Law of Attraction to use in a Kabbalistic manner, check out my booklet, The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation.

I graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. I still remember one of the first lessons I learned there: Communication-real communication-requires a broadcaster or transmitter and a receiver. In other words, someone has to speak and someone has to listen.

Today, on the eight Day of Awe, with Yom Kippur just a day away, we-I-contemplate how we communicate and how we fulfill both the role of broadcaster and receiver. We ask ourselves if we have sinned-missed the mark-in the area of communication. Is there anyone from whom we need to seek forgiveness, because we have been careless in our communication, haven’t communicated enough, haven’t communicated well, or haven’t communicated honestly? Do we need to ask to be forgiven for not listening well (or at all) or for misunderstanding the message that was sent to us?

We look at two types of sins: transmitting sins and receiving sins.

Then, we ask ourselves how we can improve our communication skills. (Sound like being in a corporation? It’s not much different in our every-day life.) How can we send clearer, more honest messages? How can we listen better? How can we make sure we are heard, that our message gets across to those who matter to us? And how can make sure that we are paying attention when someone sends a message to us?

We communicate in many ways. Most often we think about communication coming in the form of words. Indeed, whether written or spoken, whether arriving via a computer screen, the television or radio, a newspaper or magazine, a letter or email, or a telephone, words are the most common vehicle for communication. They also are the most powerful form…at least from a mystical standpoint. Words possess a creative nature. The Kabbalists say the world was create with words, since God spoke the world into being. “Let there be light,” he said, and there was light, for example. Plus, once we have spoken words, they cannot be recalled. We cannot scoop them up and change them. These days, our words go out via the Internet and live forever. There they have impact we might never know. For instance, an article I post to a directory could be picked up and used in a newsletter of blog somewhere on the other side of the world, and I’ll never know how it changed someone’s life.

We also communicate with our faces and our bodies. We don’t think about his much, but we give off clear messages all day long about what we like or don’t like and about our moods. Someone may think I don’t like them simply by my facial expression when I see them. Additionally, our actions serve as another communication vehicle. The same person might assume I don’t like them from the way I behave when we meet. So, as we evaluate if we have sinned in the area of communication, we must look at all these factors.

Last, but not least, we communicate with God and God communicates with us-or at least that’s what is supposed to happen. Some of us feel a short circuit exists somewhere in this system that prevents messages from getting through, though. The question at this point in the Days of Awe remains: have you been broadcasting to God, and have you been listening to the broadcasts God has been sending to you? Or have you even set up a connection so the two of you can have a Divine Communication Network?

In his book The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan, author and Rabbi Mitch Chefitz described how a Kabbalists “tunes” in to God. He says a Kabbalist is like an electronic receiver. (You know, the kind you need to tune into a radio or television station.) The receiver is attached to an antennae or a satellite dish. (Imagine your head like the dish…) You have to turn the dials (figure out the spiritual practice that allows you to tune into the Divine Channel) and your dish or antennae until you get good reception. Only then can you receive messages via the receiver. And you’ll be able to receive them loud and clear-if you listen.

Once you’ve found the channel and gotten good reception, to send a message you don’t really need the receiver per say, which brings the broadcast to you.  You need a transmitter. Imagine the receiver has become a transmitter, and you simply must begin talking. Imagine yourself hooked into the Divine Internet for a podcast or Internet radio show. See our words flowing across some Spiritual Network. Just know that once you have a good connection, your message will be received loud and clear-because God is always listening.

Before the day is out, think about how you communicate (or not). Repent if necessary. Then, set up some better broadcasting and receiving systems for the coming year.