Recognizing Our Negativity

This week we have the unique energy of Pinchas that comes to assist us in bringing more protection and healing into our life. What does that mean? Why do we need a specific moment of connection to healing and protection? We want it all the time, not just in a specific moment. This week gives us an opportunity to connect to Light that is related to our soul, to the aspect of the Creator within us. The kabbalists teach that when you study about healing and protection, you awaken that Light of healing and protection. You are where your consciousness is.

This week we find a very interesting story about one of the priests – who is mentioned only in this particular passage, not before or after. The Light that this priest left behind provided healing and protection for generations to come. We learn through this priest that you can be a ‘nobody’ and still reveal tremendous Light in the world. This priest, Pinchas, seemingly acted in a very negative way: He killed two people who were engaging in sinful acts. Yet, in the big picture, that action – even though on the surface it looked very negative – is considered to be the most important act that he could do in his life. How many times in our life are we sure we did something good, only to watch it turn out to be something bad? We had all the good intentions, but it somehow turned sour.

One of the most fundamental teachings from the founder of The Kabbalah Centre, Rav Ashlag, is that one should develop a second nature: ‘recognizing the evil within me’. We know that the root of all chaos in this world is the evil within us. Rav Ashlag calls it the ‘Desire to Receive for the Self Alone’. We are all good people, nice people, kind people – but at the same time we are holding on to our Desire to Receive for the Self Alone. The Light, the energy, the strength that our soul has, cannot be maximized if one still holds on to that type of desire. A righteous person or an evil person is not an example of people that do good or bad, according to the kabbalists. A righteous person is someone who can actually see the negativity within him/herself, and at the same time see the Light and goodness in everything around them, even in negative people, chaos, catastrophes, etc. Hard work, huh? But humanity absolutely can achieve this level of enlightenment. If you are capable of seeing the good within a negative person, you awaken that Light in the world. At the same time, if you see the negative, if you are sure that everything around you is negative, you awaken more chaos and negativity in the world.

Pinchas was one of the people who awoke that ability of seeing the good in everything by seeing his own negativity. He did so in order to stop a plague, heal the world and bring protection through this consciousness. Rav Ashlag teaches that if a person is able to recognize the negativity within him in every situation – even if the situation looks bad – only Light will be revealed from that recognition. Spiritual expansion can come much faster when I reject and remove the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone from every thought, emotion or action. Our responsibility is to spread this wisdom, not just for us, but for everything around us. And through that we will bring healing and protection to the entire world.