This article was originally published in 2021.
One of the great gifts of the month of Kislev, or Sagittarius, is the ability to create and draw miracles for ourselves and others. And whenever I think about miracles, I think of a letter from Rav Brandwein to my father, Rav Berg, in which he reveals to him the secret of miracles. Rav Brandwein refers to the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea, and how from there we can learn to awaken miracles throughout our lives.
"We can learn to awaken miracles throughout our lives."
There is a nature to the way the world operates - just as the sun rises in a certain way, so does it set; the same is true for the way in which each of us operates. Our basic nature is the ego, the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone, the constant desire to take for ourselves. Miracles are created when the nature of the world gets broken, and since we know that as we behave, so the Light of the Creator behave with us, it would then make sense that in order for us to draw miracles, we, too, have to break our nature; and this is what Rav Brandwein teaches. Unless we are actively breaking our own nature, forcefully going against our Desire to Receive for the Self Alone, we will not truly be able to awaken and manifest great miracles in our lives.
If all the spiritual work that we do - and it can be great work - is within the realm of our nature, then it will not bring miracles. There can be, for example, an individual who spends a tremendous amount of time in spiritual work and actions of sharing, and this, yes, will bring a certain amount of Light into his life; however, if that person desires miracles that are beyond nature, then that work he is doing is not enough. Why? Because he has to be breaking his nature.
"The greater the breaking of our innate nature, the greater the miracles we can draw."
How do we do break our nature? We start by assessing our spiritual work, not allowing ourselves to be fooled by it. Just because we make our daily connections and study or share, it is not enough; we need to find what our nature is, and then find active ways of breaking that nature. And in this month of Sagittarius, the month of miracles, the greater the breaking of our innate nature, the greater the miracles we can draw for ourselves and others. Therefore, as we enter into this month, the focus needs to be not on how much spiritual work we do, or how many connections we make, but rather on how we are breaking our innate ego nature. Because to the degree that we break our nature is to the degree the Creator will break the nature of this world for us.
This is the secret that Rav Brandwein taught Rav Berg about how to awaken and manifest miracles. And while it is not easy, it gives us an opening; if we can understand, appreciate, and act upon it, we can then be able to enter into a realm of miracles the likes of which we have never experienced before. In this month of Sagittarius, there are change of nature miracles just ready and waiting to come down to every single one of us; in order to manifest them we have to find ways to break our ego nature. Therefore, during this month of miracles, our job is to find what our nature is, and then break it, over and over.
