The Intelligent Universe:  

Albert Einstein explained the basic structure of our universe:

“Everything is energy,” he said, “and that’s all there is to it.”

He saw this universe as a symphony … where everything is flowing in harmony.

It’s all one infinite field of interconnected energy.

This infinite, creative energy field is the source that creates every star and every planet, 

and our world is just one planet within the flow of this energy.

We didn’t create our planet  … we didn’t decide to live here …

This is simply where we exist.

We know that our planet continuously spins on its axis as it travels around the sun.

We understand that every plant and every creature existing here … stays alive because the universe’s energy flows throughout our planet, within and around every one of us.

In fact, this constant flow of energy affects all of us. It affects us in a more profound way than we could ever see on the surface …

We don’t just live within this universe … every one of us is a conscious, active part of this creative process here on earth.

Every action that we take is an expression of this conscious energy. 

We’re all creative beings here on earth living a smaller version of the universe’s creative process.

We experience our own conscious awareness—our creativity—

through the power of the universe.

This power influences the way we live our lives.

We’re all part of this infinite field of creative energy.

Everything in life is completely interconnected

Creativity & Love Part 1:  https://youtu.be/NKNaHHMODcY

Creativity & Love Part 2:  https://youtu.be/v0mU7nVicGI

Creativity & Love Part 3:  https://youtu.be/zCNkgELHhHc

CREATIVITY & LOVE Texts

Genesis: 1

  In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth—when the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983): A World of Love: The Purpose of Creation:

  Why did God create the world? … God had absolutely no need to create the world. God Himself is absolute perfection, and has no need for anything, even creation. When He created the world, He therefore performed the most perfect possible act of altruism and love. … God has no needs or wants, and therefore, there was nothing about Him that creation could satisfy. It was therefore the most perfect possible act of love.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935): Creation and study: Lights of Holiness,Vol.I,p 179.

  Whoever is endowed with the soul of a creator must create works of imagination and thought. He cannot confine himself in shallow studies alone. For the flame of the soul rises by itself and one cannot impede it on its course.

  Scope for thought—this is the constant claim that a thinking person addresses to himself.

  Superficial study sometimes narrows thought, it aborts it at birth. It is this that aggravates the sickness of narrowness of thought. 

With all one’s strength, one must  liberate oneself from this, in order to free the soul from its narrow confines, to redeem it from its Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935): The Inner Spark: Lights of Holiness, Vol.I, p. 179.

  The inner essence of the soul, which reflects, which lives the true spiritual life, must have absolute inner freedom. It experiences its freedom, which is life, through its originality in thought, which is its inner spark that can be fanned to a flame through study and concentration. But the inner spark is the basis of imagination and thought. If the autonomous spark should not be given scope to express itself, then whatever may be acquired from the outside will be of no avail.  

  This spark must be guarded in its purity, and the thought expressing the inner self, in its profound truth, its greatness and majesty, must be aroused. This holy spark must not be quenched through any study or probing.

  The uniqueness of the inner soul, in its own authenticity—this is the highest expression of the seed of divine light, the light planted for the righteous, from which will bud and blossom the fruit of the tree of life.

  Knowledge in our inner being continues to stream forth. It creates, it acts.

  The higher creative individual does not create. He only transfers.

Dr. Rollo May  (1909-1994): The Courage to Create:

   If you do not express your own original [creative] ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself. Also you will have betrayed our community in failing to make your contribution to the whole.

   A chief characteristic of this courage is that it requires a centeredness within our own being, without which we would feel ourselves to be in a vacuum. The “emptiness” within corresponds to an apathy without; and apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice. That is why we must always base our commitment in the center of our own being, or else no commitment will be ultimately authentic.

In parshah Vaera we’re shown the whole plan: Moses is told to speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and demand that he “send the Children of Israel from his land.” (Exodus 6:11)

It sounds impossible! But there’s more to this plan than can be seen from our earthly point of view. There’s a strategy here that is not limited to a practical, physical perspective. The higher wisdom of the universe explains:

“See, I have made you master over Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your spokesman. … But I shall harden Pharaoh’s heart and I shall multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh will not heed you, and I shall put My hand upon Egypt; and I shall take out My legions—My people the Children of Israel—from the land of Egypt, with great judgments. And Egypt shall know that I am God.” (Exodus 7:1-5)

Obviously we know that their subsequent journey was full of challenges and struggles, until they did finally reach the Promised Land. What we’re being shown in this teaching is that even when we know where we need to go, there will still be many challenges along the way. We need to remember that even though God is always on our side, it is the same God who is “hardening Pharaoh’s heart” by placing challenges before us, in a way that’s meant to stretch us and open up our mind and our heart as we go forward.

This means that we are not on this journey of life alone. When we listen carefully from within, we can notice that the higher wisdom of the universe is always within us, loving us, and continuously expanding our awareness through life lessons that we don’t always want to learn. When we’re ready to listen, this inner guidance can empower us with greater understanding, and eventually bring us into the “promised land” of a more enlightened way of being.

When Moses was simply shepherding the sheep of Jethro, in this week’s parshah Shemos, he turned to see a bush that continued to burn without being consumed. He looked more closely and then heard a voice call his name. “Moses, Moses,” and he replied, “Here I am!” (Exodus 3:4)

He was being called to take on a mission that was completely new to him. He had no idea how to do it, and was simply promised that he would be able to do it and that he would be protected along the way.

How many of us would dare to follow through with this kind of job interview? But thankfully Moses did. He gradually learned to trust the many twists and turns that God put in his way, and eventually led a trusting community through the wilderness of the desert, right up to the Promised Land.

The Torah has given us an amazing role model to follow—to trust the higher wisdom of an inner guidance we can’t see, as long as we make sure that our guidance is true. This is where the teachings in Judaism come to support us on this inner quest. When we know, for sure, that the Judaic sages are teaching us an honest understanding of the higher wisdom of the universe, from having consistently lived in this understanding themselves, we can see from their experience that we, too, can be ready to trust.

We’ve been celebrating ourselves as Jews this week. On Sunday, we marched with 25,000 others over the Brooklyn Bridge to declare our unity. On Tuesday evening, hundreds gathered at Central Synagogue in Manhattan to hear speakers share how we can move forward in this endeavor. These were just two examples of our expression of unity between us. And this is how we can empower ourselves to counteract any anti-semitism that is occurring right now.

So when Jacob, in this week’s parshah, Vayechi, is blessing his grandsons and his sons, and speaks of the strength of each one of them, is he separating them from each other? Why is he speaking of their differences? Aren’t they supposed to be together as a family? What is he teaching us through this?

Just as Jacob is pointing out the uniqueness of each of his sons, we need to acknowledge that each of us is, in fact, completely unique. When we state this fact, we can start to realize that every one of us has our own unique path in this world. However, we will still always need each other. Jacob is telling his sons that when the brothers’ unique gifts function in harmony with one another, they will be strong, but if they work against each other, they will be weak.

We, as Jews, are starting to speak of coming together, to create unity between us. When we can recognize everyone’s uniqueness, and combine every individual strength, nothing can break us. May the year 2020 be the one when we come into complete unity, standing together, with respect and compassion for all. When we do this, we will come to realize that the higher power of the universe is, in fact, always supporting us in our unity, whenever we work together to do good in the world.

As our neighborhood becomes more vulnerable, there is, understandably, a state of concern throughout our community.

In this week’s Torah parshah, Vayigash, Joseph’s brothers are also feeling nervous. They think they’re in a terrifying position. How could they possibly leave their youngest brother, Benjamin, in Egypt, with this powerful Egyptian? How could they ever explain this terrifying situation to their father?

So this is when we have to recognize the similarity with our own state of fear. This is when Judah realizes that he can’t just give up his younger brother. He has to step forward to offer his own self—his own service—in place of Benjamin. And it is only because Judah lets go of his own sense of control in this situation—when he surrenders to this Egyptian leader, who appears to have complete control over his life—that he can learn that he is safe. Only then can Joseph finally reveal the fact that Judah and his brothers are, in fact, safely in the protection of their own brother. What relief!

This is where we Jews find ourselves right now. We think that this increase in violence against our people is a terrible, frightening situation. We’re waking up to something we have to admit: we’re not as safe as we thought we were. Of course it’s not good.

But this is when we have to recognize the similarity between our own situation and that of Judah. We need to remind ourselves that there is a higher power who can see us, who knows what we’re going through, and who can take care of us.  And this protection can only happen when we realize that we are not completely in control of what is happening in our midst. We need to let go of who we think we are, to discover how much more strength we really have within us.

There is a higher wisdom who made a covenant with us many years ago, and this covenant still stands. When we are able to surrender our needs into the loving arms of this higher wisdom, we will find that we really are safe. Even though these occurrences can be quite frightening, our trust in the higher wisdom can become the stimulant to wake us up to a new, more enlightening, more empowering awareness of our own true self.

Our Torah parshah, Miketz, brings us to an auspicious time when Joseph is released from his confinement in prison. He is immediately brought before Pharaoh and asked to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. This release from imprisonment is so sudden and so surprising, that it turns the whole view of Joseph’s life around, lifting him out from all his challenges into the absolute light of becoming the governor of Egypt.

This sudden surprise can remind us that whenever we go through any challenges, without knowing what the outcome will be, we need to trust that there is an overall plan that will eventually benefit us, even though it’s beyond our usual awareness.

In fact, the stories in the Torah unfold to show us how Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, each overcame their many challenges, and ultimately entered into a more peaceful way of being.

In Joseph’s case, it looked like there was no way out for him, and yet the end of his troubles turned into a whole new beginning. The Komarno Rebbe explains that God is in the beginning and in the end. He encourages us to realize that whenever we think we’re at the end, it’s not really the end … there’s already the possibility of a whole new beginning.

As we face anti-semitism and anti-zionism, and all the other violence and suffering that exists in so many places right now, we need to remember that everything is given to us by the higher wisdom of the creative universe. May this secular new year bring us a heartfelt, uplifting time, when we can visibly start to see a more enlightened new beginning of real peace in the world.

This week’s parshah, Vayeshev, is like a blueprint for understanding the way the world works. Life is not simple. It always has challenges, in one way or another. When we see that Joseph is treated cruelly by his brothers, we can relate to the times where life has challenged us. But these challenges are not meant to pull us down—they’re meant to expand our awareness as we overcome them.

As we read about the gradual process of Joseph’s journey, we can see him learning how to respond to his difficulties with patience and understanding. Wherever he is placed is what he has to deal with at that moment, for that period of time. His story teaches us to recognize that as we go through each day’s experience we are building more understanding of our own life’s work. We might think we’re deciding for ourselves how we will express who we are, but this always depends on which opportunities are available at every stage in our life.

No one decides where they’re born or which family they’re born into. Then the opportunities within each country vary depending on the political climate in that country. If we’ve been discriminated against, we have to overcome more challenges than if we’re allowed to develop naturally, in a safe political environment.

Once we realize that this creation of the world is something that we have to learn to relate to, we can respond more readily to whatever is placed in our path. When we understand that we can develop a sense of inner strength, by patiently listening from within, we can deal with challenges in our life much more easily.

The Torah is giving us a route, a path, into a more direct awareness of the structure of our consciousness, so that we can confront our challenges from a clearer recognition of why each difficulty has shown up in our lives.

When we’re ready to delve into the psychological insights that the Torah gives us, on a very subtle level, we can gradually develop a more profound awareness of what we need to do in each situation. Then we’ll be able to realize that we all live within an amazing matrix that is always ready to help us travel through any challenges in our life.

Most of us feel like we know who we are, most of the time. But in this week’s Torah reading, we’re told something different—that there’s more to life than we can at first see. By speaking of Jacob’s struggle with the angel, we can come to understand that there are two levels to who we really are. Jacob is told:

“No longer shall your name be called Jacob; rather, Israel shall be your name. For you have struggled with the divine and with men, and you have prevailed” (Genesis 32:29).

One level of who we are is like Jacob, working to survive the physical reality. The other level is that of Israel, which is the part of us that can come into a higher awareness of the wisdom of the universe. It might take some time to discover this level of awareness, but it can gradually be realized when we take the time to listen for it from within.

However, this does not mean that we change from one level of our self to the other and leave the first level behind. We’re still in both levels. So life challenges us to discover the subtlety of knowing when to be at the earthly level of these two levels and when to relate to life from the higher, more enlightened perspective.

The story of the Akeida, in parshah Vayeira, can appear to be a very frightening situation: the patriarch Abraham is being guided by his higher awareness of God to sacrifice his only son, the one he loves, on Mount Moriah. This request is so outrageous that the natural response would clearly be “No!” But the Torah is not just a story—it’s giving us insight into how we can deal with any challenges we face in the present day. There are many valid interpretations about this drama, and there’s much relief that Isaac survived and went on to marry Rebecca; but I want to share my own interpretation of this story, and show how it can help every one of us whenever we find our self in a very challenging situation.

This is all about the intensity of life that can sometimes show up in our lives, at a moment when we’re being seriously challenged but we don’t know how to get out of it. Clearly, the whole concept of sacrificing his son must have made Abraham intense with fear. He had waited so long for his son to be born, and now he was being asked to take his life! At the same time, Isaac was obviously terrified at the possibility of giving up his life. How intensely he must have questioned his own father’s love for him, at the prospect of being sacrificed. So how can this story help us today?

In the present day, no one is being asked to sacrifice his or her child. It’s unthinkable! But many of us might, at some time, find our self in such a difficult situation that we have no idea how we can come through our challenge safely.

This is when we have to remember the story of the Akeida, because, at the beginning, it looked like everyone was about to suffer, and yet, in the end, it turned out that everything was OK. That’s because of one incident … The ram!

At the strategic moment when Abraham was about to perform this action against his son, he was told that he must stop! Because Abraham had been ready to show that he surrendered his will to the higher wisdom of God, through his willingness to sacrifice the most precious son that he loved so much, he no longer had to prove his love for God. So when he was told that he could stop what he was going to do, he looked up at a growth of bushes on the hillside, and could see the ram! The ram’s horns were trapped in the bushes, and he could not break free. And there, Abraham realized, was the sacrifice he would give on Mount Moriah!

As a vegetarian, I’m not so happy with this part of the story, but as a spiritual traveler I find it inspirational.

Whenever we are struggling to come through any difficulty, we have to remember the ram. When we are able to realize, through our inner path, that everything we experience is actually coordinated by the higher wisdom of the universe, we need to remember that the metaphorical ram will always show up in some unexpected way, and create the perfect solution to whatever difficulty we are facing.

We’re not here on this earth to suffer, even though it can sometimes feel like we are. The Inner Torah teaches that we’re all on a path to notice and discover the actions of the higher wisdom that created and continues to support every life on this planet, as well as everything beyond it.

This Torah parshah, Vayeira, has given us something to remember whenever we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: Remember the ram!