Staying Open to the Light

Main Menu

Events & Classes


Main Menu

Membership


Become a Member

Find more wisdom and practices to elevate your self, your life, and the people around you. From weekly articles and videos to live-streamed and in-Centre classes and events, there is a membership plan for everyone.

View Membership Plans
Featured Membership:
Onehouse Community
  • Benefits include:
  • Join interactive webinars each week
  • Watch full-length courses on-demand
  • Enjoy discounts on events, guidance services & products*
  • And much more...
  • Join Today
  • *At participating locations. Restrictions apply.
Main Menu

Guidance


Go even deeper into the wisdom of Kabbalah with personalized guidance and chart readings.
Free Consultation With a Teacher

Our dedicated instructors are here to help you navigate your spiritual journey.

Request Yours
Kabbalistic Astrology Chart Reading

Learning about our soul through an astrological chart helps to give more meaning and greater understanding to the experiences we face, the people we know, the work we do, and the forks in the road.

Book a Chart Reading
Personal Guidance – Kabbalah Centre Services

One-on-one personalized sessions with an instructor to delve deeply into an area that interests you or support where you need it most. Meetings span from relationships to tikkune to deep Zohar study, all customized especially for you.

Book a Guidance Session

Staying Open to the Light

Kabbalah Centre
January 3, 2014
Like Comments Share

In the beginning of the Bo portion of the Torah, the Creator tells Moses to go to Pharaoh. The Creator also, curiously, tells Moses that he has ‘hardened Pharaoh’s heart’. The question then comes up: if the Creator has ‘hardened’ the heart of Pharaoh, what is the point of Moses going to speak with Pharaoh?

In order to understand this question and its answer, we need to understand something about spirituality. There is a cosmic law that deals with what Kabbalah calls ‘spiritual purity’ and ‘spiritual impurity’. Spiritual impurity is a blockage caused by negative actions and consciousness, such as the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone, which prevents a person from getting closer to the Light of the Creator. This is what happened to Pharaoh; he witnessed the 7 plagues in the Torah parashah (portion) of Va’era – and was not moved by them because he had a huge spiritual blockage in the way.

So Moses was wondering, Why am I to go to Pharaoh now, when God has hardened his heart? And the explanation was given to Moses so there would be no doubts: The Creator had not given Pharaoh a choice as to releasing the Israelites or not, but had instead hardened his heart after the first 7 plagues, when he did not move towards softening it on his own.

Pharaoh witnessed acts of nature from the Creator and was not impressed. He still believed he had control over nature and thought he was calling the shots. The Creator, however, explained to Moses that Pharaoh had in fact given up his free will – Pharaoh had opportunity after opportunity, in the form of the 7 plagues, to soften his heart and change his ways, but he never did. In the end, Pharaoh relinquished his free will by refusing to consider the moral ramifications of his actions, by acting in cruelty rather than compassion. Moses witnessed Pharaoh as a man who had closed himself off so much that he had lost even the possibility of redemption and freedom.

This is what happens to us when we close ourselves off from the Light; it becomes harder and harder to come back, although there is always an opening left (except for Pharaoh). It is therefore very important that we consciously fight closing ourselves off by striving to be constantly open to the Light, no matter our situation. By simply being open to the Light, we actively restrict the buildup of any spiritual impurities that would form blockages, allowing us to thrive along our spiritual path.


Comments