Discovering Our Destiny

Kabbalah teaches that every single one of us came into this world with a specific job, a specific destiny, and more often than not, we don’t have clarity about what that is. But on Shabbat Ha’Azinu, we have the incredible opportunity to discover exactly what our soul’s destiny is.

"We have the incredible opportunity to discover exactly what our soul’s destiny is."

There are a few readings in the Torah that the kabbalists say encapsulate within them the entire history of humanity, from the beginning of time until the End of the Correction. And the portion of Ha’Azinu, this Shabbat, is one of them. Therefore, every single soul’s destiny appears in this reading; each of our souls made a promise to the Creator before it came into this world, and the promise of what that is lies in this reading.

So, what does “destiny” actually mean? Often, we think we know exactly what we want to do, physically or spiritually, and how we are going to do it. However, that is not our destiny. Destiny is not something we even have a choice about. Before our soul came into this world, the Creator said, “This is what you need to do in the world,” and we understood it and accepted it. And the Creator told us that even if we have everybody all over the world telling us we have done amazing things, and pointing out how much we have accomplished, we cannot believe it, because what we are doing is not our destiny.

It’s very important to understand the difference between doing, and fulfilling our destiny, because while we may be good, spiritual people, that’s not our purpose for being here. The question we need to ask ourselves, therefore, isn’t: Am I doing good things? Rather, we need to ask ourselves: Am I fulfilling the promise that I gave my soul? Am I fulfilling the promise I made to the Creator before I came into this world? Does it make no difference to me how much I do, or if everybody else is praising me?

"We want to dial into the promise that our soul made before it came into this world."

So, as we begin this new year, our consciousness needs to be clear that we don’t want to use all the Light we just received to simply, for example, get blessings for our family and those around us, or to help people. We want, instead, to dial into the promise that our soul made before it came into this world. And on this Shabbat, we can discover what that promise is. How? Through desiring to have it revealed to us.

That’s what Shabbat Ha’Azinu is about: discovering our destiny and returning to the promise that our soul made before it came into this world. Again, this is not to be confused with being a good person, or a sharing person; all those things are nice, but they are not necessarily the totality of our destiny.

Shabbat Ha’Azinu offers us the opportunity to begin receiving the direction and messages that will guide us towards clarity on what our destiny is, but we have to desire it more than anything else, more than being a good or a spiritual person. I hope we all stay good, spiritual people, of course, but above everything else, our desire needs to be to find our destiny, without being distracted by what anybody else is saying about what we’re doing, whether good or bad. On this Shabbat, we want to be focused solely on finding out what the promise was that our soul made to the Creator before we came into this world, and then, begin to live that promise.