Inspiring Change by Michael Berg

Every day, week, and month has a different energy. By learning and knowing the unique Light and gifts that are available in specific times, we can avail ourselves of the unique Light and gifts that are available. Learn about the Light, blessings, and healing that we will draw during the month of Taurus (Iyar in Hebrew) in this lecture recorded on the New Moon of Taurus.

The kabbalists call this month Iyar, spelled Alef, Yud, Yud, Reish. These letters are a coded message that reveals the month’s internal energy. The word Iyar is actually an acronym for Ani Hashem Rofecha (I, God, am your healer). During Iyar, therefore, we receive the gift of true and lasting healing.

The month of Aries offers us the gift of lessening the grip of the ego, allowing us to grow closer to the Light of the Creator. If we truly desire to be close to the Light, and to be vessels through which it can flow, we must clearly understand that everything we do is only through the power of the Creator. We must maintain this awareness no matter how important or powerful we become in the material world.

The gates of happiness open when Pisces begins. We need to take advantage of this, not only because we want to be happy, but because we want more Light. We want more abundance. So at the beginning of Adar, we need to say, “This is the month that I’m going to dedicate myself to simple happiness.”

As we create a vessel for happiness, all the other blessings and abundance will come. But it can happen only after we create the vessel.

When most of us look at the world, we believe that things exist. Trees exist, nature exists, we exist, and our family exists. Everything remains intact until something negative comes along and changes it; everything has a shelf life. A tree can last for hundreds of years. A human being can last for 80, 90, 100 years. Things in our world exist, until something happens that discontinues their existence.

But this is not true.

One day a man onboard a ship walks by one of the cabins and notices a man drilling a hole in the floor. He shouts, “What are you doing? Are you crazy?!” The man looks up bewildered and says, “This is my cabin, and I can do whatever I want in it.” The other man becomes irate. “You fool, a hole in your cabin will sink the whole ship.”

This seems like a simple story, but The Zohar uses it to clarify a deeper secret of life: we’re each responsible for one another.

Frequently things in life are exciting in the beginning and then they lose their excitement over time. Most people are more in love on the first date than they are 15 years into marriage, or more enthusiastic about a job in the first week than three years into that job.

Sometimes it breaks over us like a slow-moving wave, other times it strikes as suddenly as lightning. The cause may be hidden or all too obvious: someone says the wrong thing or says nothing at all. In an instant we’re red-faced, unable to speak, perhaps close to violence. Overcome, we not only forget who we are, but we literally become someone else.

We are now entering the month of miracles, and soon opening the gift of Chanukah, referred to by kabbalists this way because there is almost nothing required of us.

It is simply a gift. All that’s required is the desire and knowledge to receive it. On other holidays there are many prayers, meditations, and physical actions designed for drawing the Light.