When we decide to take a path or a quest for the truth, the truth that we seek could be finding who we truly are, or the truth about the people we surround ourselves with, or the truth of the path itself. If someone makes a decision to live a truly spiritual life, he/she will go through many challenges, many tests. As Rav Ashlag, the founder of The Kabbalah Centre, says, “For the truth to be revealed, there are many, many good reasons. But for lies there is not even one good reason.”
Sometimes we find ourselves arguing with people, trying to convince people of our truth. Yet if we are connected to the truth, we don’t need to convince anyone – we just have to stick to it. You must connect to your truth strongly and then everything else will follow.
In the Torah portion of Beshalach, the Israelites were presented with a test: they could either stick to their spiritual path, or go back to their old lives. The challenge for them was to either split the Red Sea – which represents, in each one of our lives, the huge challenge of sticking to our spiritual path – or go back to Egypt, which represents the 1%, physical life.
A true spiritual path will come with rejections, uncertainty, discouragement, hatred, etc. Some people will try to convince you to go back to your old ways. But it’s all just a test, a test of your conviction in your desire for truth. As it gets difficult some of us look for an outlet, such as complaining, complacence and blaming others. Ask yourself how many times you complain when things get difficult; that’s how much you reduce the excitement and enthusiasm for your spiritual path. Rav Berg said, “Whoever complained for no reason, the Creator will find him a good reason to complain. But if you are happy for no reason, the Creator will find a good reason for you to be happy.”
The Israelites performed a miracle with the help of the 72 Names of God, which is a spiritual instrument provided by Moses composed of 72 sequences of Hebrew letters that have the power to overcome the laws of nature. That miracle occurred when they decided to drop all complaints and let go of the idea of going back to Egypt, i.e. the 1% physical reality. They completely surrendered to the Light Force of the Creator.
During the week of Beshalach, we want to strengthen our decisions to stay on a spiritual path, and on this path we want to make sure we are doing our true spiritual work. The next time you’re about to complain about something or other, ask yourself, Is it worth it to take away from my happiness/excitement? And if you still decide to complain, write it down and give it to a friend of yours to read it back to you. Just know that resisting our need to complain is where the miracle really is.
