Have you ever asked yourself what it is you truly desire? It is such a simple and common question, yet the answer seems to elude us day in and day out. What do you truly desire?
Simply put, kabbalists define us as ‘desires on foot craving fulfillment’. From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, we have a yearning to be fulfilled by some sort of energy. We literally spend every waking moment of our lives seeking happiness and a sense of purpose, but at the end of the day we still feel something is lacking!
Why?
This week’s portion, Ki Tisa, sheds “Light” (pun intended) on why we do not receive the return on investment that we often expect to receive in our lives, and by return on investment I mean long-lasting happiness.
All of us who are students in The Kabbalah Center are well aware that the Bible is not meant to be taken literally, but rather contains all the secrets of how the universe operates.
In this week’s Torah portion, the Israelites commit the infamous sin of the golden calf and by doing so sacrifice their permanent connection to the Light of the Creator.
What is the sin of the golden calf all about, and how does it relate to my life today?
From a historical point of view, we are told that the Israelites received the Torah on Mount Sinai and experienced what is called “the removal of the angel of death”.
The angel of death is not a physical entity we can see with our five senses, but is rather the force that is behind all the chaos in our physical existence.
Whether it is the deterioration of a friendship, career, marriage, or country, you can rest assured that “the angel of death” had his hand in the pot.
After receiving this awesome consciousness on Mount Sinai, the Israelites were instructed to wait 40 days for Moses to come down the mountain to permanently manifest the removal of “the angel of death”.
39 days and 18 hours passed when the Israelites gave into their desire for immediate gratification and created the golden calf!
This is what the golden calf represents in our life today, the need to be fulfilled by what I want right now!
It is a universal law that the only energy that will bring true fulfillment is energy that is earned.
How do I earn my intimate relationship? How do I earn my spiritual connection? How do I earn lasting success in my business?
The answer is very simple: by overcoming my inner Opponent in each of these specific playing fields in the game of life.
My inner Opponent may manifest as the voice that tells me: “It’s okay to cheat just this once”, or “I can be selfish, after all it’s the weekend”, or “So what if I hurt all those people, I will be making a lot of money”.
The Opponent convinced the Israelites to commit the sin of the golden calf, and the Opponent is who convinces us to look for the short cuts in our life today.
Fortunately and unfortunately, there is no such thing as a short cut when it comes to receiving true and lasting fulfillment in life.
However, there is such a thing as a ‘shorter’ cut, and that is what the spiritual path is all about.
By embracing discomfort, confronting challenges with excitement, and overcoming my need to be fulfilled right now, I embark on a journey in which I can receive the true fulfillment my soul is longing for in a smoother and faster way.
Sounds fun right? Care to join me?
