Our children are beginning to wake us up! We’re seeing the young teenagers demanding action from us in a way we haven’t seen before. They’re feeling their power, and they are questioning our values! And they are eloquently speaking our truth in a way we somehow haven’t been able to do ourselves. When they faced death and survived, they themselves woke up from a sleep we’ve all been in for too many years. They are stating the obvious—that the protection of lives is more important than anything else. This is not about left or right—this is about life or death.

What they are doing is revealing a very important next step that we, as a society, need to take in the expansion of our conscious awareness. When we think of all the activities that have been going on in the US, and many other countries, well before this administration, this next step is possibly leading us toward something that could heal a lot of suffering—a clearer sense of morality. This is not about judgment—this is about coming into a more powerful recognition of the powerful impact our words and our behavior can sometimes have on other people.

Some people can’t see that morality is the missing link. They might see evil, or ignorance, but negative behavior is really not about knowledge. This is about an opening of the heart to recognize the vulnerability within all of us. There is a need within every society to be able to feel compassion for another’s struggles, to respect every single life. For some this might not appear to be so obvious; sometimes it needs to be taught. These lessons are now coming from our children, and will hopefully bring more integrity into the way we experience our world.

Our children are reminding us that there is a need for a clearer way of thinking, of respect for everyone’s life, rather than supporting the financial gain of any industry. Our politicians, as well as the rest of us, are seeing that these children won’t accept “thoughts and prayers” as a sufficient response any more. And in the process, they are waking up all of us.

It’s time we got back to basics. The school shootings, as well as the news that two teachers recently brought guns into schools and had to surrender to police, clearly reveal that something is seriously missing in our society. It’s horrendous enough when shooting deaths are randomly committed in different parts of our country, but when it happens in schools, making our children so desperately vulnerable, we’ve really reached a new low.

What do we do to rise above this kind of frightening, violent behavior? How do we lift ourselves out of this quagmire that has politicians and citizens arguing about any possible solution?

There’s one basic principle that’s clearly been missing so far, and it’s one we’re going to have to learn before we can change our direction in this matter: we must learn how to open our hearts, take a deeper look, and remind ourselves that every individual person is a completely unique and irreplaceable human being. For me, this means that every one of us is completely precious. One of a kind. Priceless.

And until we begin to acknowledge the vital preciousness of our own and every other human life, we will continue to hold material objects, like guns and money, to a higher value, over the essential beauty that exists within every human soul.

Our current confusion on how to change our laws, so that they protect every innocent life, proves that we’ve come to a time when we need to wake up and acknowledge the absolute preciousness of every individual life. Nothing can replace a life once it’s taken away. We’re not numbers—as in social security numbers, or bank account numbers—every precious life is here for a reason that needs to be explored and discovered for ourselves. We’re not expendable. Every one of us is essential. When we are treated with the respect we deserve, we can each feel freer to develop the amazing insight hidden within us that can change the world for the better.

It’s only when we search deeply into our own soul that we can accept such an awesome basic truth: we have far more wisdom hidden within us than we usually realize. And it’s only when we’re ready to reach beneath the surface of our lives that we can find the strength to overcome our challenges and take greater care of each other.

When we acknowledge this simple but basic truth, it will become much easier to develop the necessary laws that can ensure better protection and treatment of our citizens. If we turn away, we separate ourselves from the well-being of humanity. It’s up to every one of us to raise our awareness and acknowledge that every single member of humanity is to be treated as truly precious.

Deep inside every one of us is a source of consciousness that is beyond our usual awareness. This is a greater consciousness that can only be experienced when we are open to receiving its wisdom in the stillness of our being. This inner wisdom is powerful enough to help us overcome our present difficulties, whenever we are ready and willing to experience it. When we explore the deeper facets of our consciousness we can overcome and resolve any challenge that we face.

So the suffering continues. We can see that there is a distinct gap between our ideal world and the world we live within. I doubt there’s a person on earth who doesn’t want some happiness. Which begs the question: Why is there so much pain?
This is the question that began my own quest, many years ago, into the deeper reason for life on this planet. I began with a meditation practice, which opened up a portal in my mind where I could access a clearer view of my own relationship with life on earth. It didn’t take long to realize that most of us are living with “blinders” on, most of the time. Once I became aware that there is more to this life than we can usually see, I began to explore this new realization within the context of religion. I knew then that I had to share this understanding with others who were as inquisitive as I had been. My books and the Listening Room have been created as part of this desire to share what I’ve come to understand.
Obviously, this has not been enough. We are still seeing suffering as we saw yesterday in Florida, and we know that division and hatred are becoming more prevalent in many parts of the world. What’s missing is something that Judaism, and every other sane religion, has been teaching for thousands of years. We can’t just call it “love,” because that doesn’t seem to give us enough inspiration to heal the challenges of the moment. We need to call it “integrity,” which is the “quality of being honest, with respectful, compassionate principles.”
We need to expand our consciousness to move beyond simply understanding how to be the 3-dimensional creatures we are, experiencing life through time (which is the 4th dimension). We need to grow into the 5th dimension of consciousness, called “integrity,” which is the realization that we need each other more than we have ever admitted before. This can only happen when we come to understand that we are all, in fact, part of a planetary ecosystem that doesn’t just affect the land and the vegetation, but also connects every one of us with each other. What needs to be understood now is that every level of time, space, and consciousness, is interconnected in more ways than the human mind can usually fathom.
Judaism has been teaching about integrity through the Torah and the Psalms for thousands of years, but somehow this has not impressed enough people to awaken us into this clearer understanding about life on earth. But this is the time when we can come to the realization that we each have, deep within us, an awesome soul, which is an actual part of the interconnected wisdom of the universe. And this is the time for us to open our hearts and relate to each other with compassion and respect. Only then will we be able to gradually heal the challenges we are facing at the moment.
These teachings are definitely not just for Jews to understand. However, when we’re all able to open up our hearts and let go of the judgment between us, we will more easily be able to move forward into the kind of wholeness that creates integrity, harmony, and yes, love.

If we want to see an end to suffering, if we want the world to calm down and become a safe space for every individual, we are told that we can do something that will make this happen. If we see the struggles in the world around us as something we would like to heal, we are told that there is a way that we can be instrumental in its healing. But how?

Even if we feel helpless in the face of such suffering, once we can recognize this pain, it will start to reach us on a deep, inner level of our being. This realization of such pain and helplessness in the world is the beginning of the solution. These feelings are a way of reaching into our hearts that opens a pathway into our own unique essence, into the center of who we really are.

What we can find there, within the center of our being, is a precious tenderness that longs to create peace, that longs to be loved and cared for, longs to discover our intrinsic connection with the oneness of all that exists. We want to know that deep down we all belong to somewhere safe, somewhere whole, somewhere without want or pain. But this would make us realize how vulnerable we really are, so most of us usually stop our search before we’ve begun, and step aside of that thought, holding on to what we already know, just to be on the safe side of life.

But some of us, when we find this tenderness within, will want to know more, will want to know how we can reach into the unknown space within our hearts. When we’re ready for such a search, a doorway tends to open within us, and a new way forward comes into view. Our deep longing can lead us into a clearer perspective of how we can be true to our own self, of how we can awaken more of the love that’s deep within us, and this can give us more of the joy we long to find.

As we gently grow into the abundance of love that arises from within us, we can find that we have become part of the healing process in the world. Every individual who steps into this clearer awareness becomes an instrument for healing in the world. As more of us take on this inner quest into the essence of our own hearts, we can begin to open up the minds of those around us, and gradually build more of this compassion throughout the world, one soul at a time.

In the Judaic religion we’re guided to say the prayers of the sages, which include many psalms from King David. Many people believe that these prayers will soften God’s intention, and ease the stress that exists in their lives. But kabbalists have a different approach. They realize that the Creator does not change. The oneness of the universe is constantly in flowing harmony with itself. They insist that when we open our hearts and minds to this flow of loving energy, we will be able to experience this oneness in our lives. Then the disharmony will ease. This is our path–to learn how to become more like this flow of loving oneness, to love our fellow as our self.

This is also true of Jerusalem. It takes a deeper spiritual understanding of Jerusalem (city of peace), to ease the stress that has existed there up until now. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the UK, reminds us in this detail from the Tanach (bible):

“Outside the United Nations building in New York is a wall bearing the famous words of Isaiah: ‘He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’ Too often the nations of the world forget the words that immediately precede these: ‘For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ ”

So this is our choice: to learn and grow in our awareness, so that we can assist in the flow of goodness, or stay with the status quo and deal with all the challenges that are in the world today. We are being given the opportunity to discover this loving light within ourselves so that we will then share this love with the rest of the world. It’s up to us.

Maybe it’s time to talk about the next level of development in human society. We’ve seen so many accomplishments, from computers to travels in outer space, which can make us feel like we’ve done all we can do on this planet. But when we look at the disagreements, and economic disparity between the rich and poor all over the world, we can see that there’s still more that needs to be accomplished.

What we need to uncover now is a deeper realization of our capacity for integrity, which the dictionary defines this way:

integrity |in_tegrit_| noun
1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness
2. the state of being whole and undivided
• the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction
• internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data

Integrity is a level of awareness that guides us from within when we’ve learned to develop it through life’s lessons—it’s a sense of responsibility for every word we say and everything we do, to the point where we always want to do the right thing in every situation. This is a huge responsibility, and most of us seem to fall far short of it in many ways for a variety of reasons. So learning about it and coming into this realization usually demands more of what we understand about ourselves than we really want to think about.

But now we’ve come to a time when the rich and famous are being brought down out of the stratosphere of wealth and privilege in a way that couldn’t have been imagined just a short while ago.

The definition from the dictionary can really help us to see how to move forward from here. The “quality of being honest and having strong moral principles” actually comes from a person’s “state of being whole and undivided” within one’s self.

So our next step needs to be one of understanding the unique and precious wholeness of our own being, by conscientiously being respectful of our own self. This appreciation of our own uniqueness, and, of course, our precious vulnerability, can heighten our awareness of the beauty we each carry within us. As we acknowledge the importance of our own unique life, we can begin to recognize that others around us are also unique, and therefore also precious individuals, and we can learn how to respect their vulnerability just as we can learn how to respect our own.

This does take deep, careful thought—contemplation that can gently lead to loving-kindness between us. It does take time to become more aware of our capacity to develop integrity, but we can find that we are all made in a way where this is our next step forward into a more compassionate, integral society. It is possible to uncover the inner knowing that is already hidden within your own heart.

Judaism, as well as many other religions, appears to speak of God as separate from us. In our prayers we often ask for help from “above” to give us what we need for material and spiritual sustenance. But Kabbalah and Chassidus say that God is all there is—Infinity itself, Ayn Sof, without end. So where are we humans in all of this? How can we understand our place in this endless realm of space?

We are used to seeing ourselves as physical creatures who walk on top of the earth. We usually see the world from our own unique perspective, where everything we experience appears to be outside of us, separate from us in every way. All people are separate from each other, the material world is made of different substances, and this can occasionally cause us to feel very distant, even isolated sometimes, from everything else.

But as soon as we consider that we live within our planetary ecosystem, relying on the whole process of air and water and soil on the planet to feed and support our lives, we have to acknowledge that we live in symbiosis with everything that exists here on earth. Our survival literally depends on the continuous sustenance of the planet.

And then, going one step further, our planet can only survive by continuously spinning on its own axis and traveling around the sun. According to astrophysicists, planet earth is traveling at a speed of 18.5 miles per second (30 km/sec), simply to travel around the sun! And the sun—in fact, our whole solar system—is, at the same time, traveling around the Milky Way Galaxy, at a speed of 143 miles per second (230 km/sec)! All of this is happening all of the time, throughout every moment of time.

With all of this occurring without any effort from us, we have to realize that this could not possibly be happening by chance. In reality, nothing is happening by chance—even everything that we create here on earth comes not by chance, but from our own thought. We have to think of an idea before it can come into being. Everything we humans have ever made, from the brilliance of space flight to simply making a cup of tea, comes from our own thought before it can exist. How much more so, then, must the universe have conscious thought to create everything that exists in space?

This is the paradox and the beauty of Kabbalah, which reassures us that even though we didn’t create the planet, or the sun, or the galaxies, we humans are made in a way that we can come into harmony with the Oneness of it all. How awesome is that?! We are creatures existing on just one of the planets in this vast universe, and yet we can each have access to experience the harmony of this amazingly interconnected Oneness!

However, we can only attain this experience when we understand what real harmony is. And this is not as difficult as you might think. We each have the capacity to create it between ourselves, simply by showing respect and compassion to everyone and everything on earth. It requires that we make a commitment to remember not to do any harm to others in the same way that we wouldn’t want any harm done to us. This is often given as the “golden rule” that exists within all religions. When we maintain this compassionate approach toward everyone and everything in life, we can eventually develop the holy intention of loving our fellow human beings as we love our own self. And then, when we are ready to open up our mind and our heart to this clearer vision of our world and everything that exists in it, we can find that the wisdom of the universal Oneness will gently open up more access to the light, so that we can see the loving, harmonious connection we actually already have with each other and with the universe itself.

Looking in wonder at the beautiful double rainbow this morning (Friday, just after 7am), and then experiencing the rain, hearing the thunder, and seeing the lightening, I can only acknowledge that there is no earthly power like this. This powerful force is way beyond any human capacity. Of course, I can think of the logical, physical explanations for all the things I can see and experience, but our human abilities are completely dwarfed by this august power. Primitive people long ago would cower in fear of the great gods they imagined were creating all these natural occurrences, so why are we so blasé about it all now?

Well, we began to understand the scientific reasons that made all these seemingly magical activities happen. We humans could explain the logic behind our magnificent world. We no longer needed to fear such magnificent power. Maybe this is why people fear the Jews. Judaic teachings insist that we still need to realize there is an amazing wisdom beneath the surface of all that we see, even though we do recognize the scientific explanations for everything that occurs. We still know, in our heart of hearts, that we could never explain in earthly, scientific terms, why this planet even exists, or why we all live here on its surface, going through all that we keep going through.

Our Judaic ancestors taught us that the wisdom that brought us here, and made us who we are, is still taking care of us, whenever we are able to pay attention to it. Our prophets and sages insisted that we have to take notice, to make time, every Sabbath, as well as during the week, to acknowledge this higher wisdom, because it takes a great amount of time to connect with this amazing love that is carefully hidden within our hearts.

I believe that the rest of the world is jealous of such a connection as this. Some have gone on to discover it for themselves, and some even think that they can claim we no longer have it, but this is the kind of connection that can never leave us. We can be grateful to those among us who have always known and always continued to honor this wisdom throughout our two thousand years of exile.

So now, with all the craziness that is happening in the world and in the United States at this time, we have to wake up to the blessings that were given to us so many thousands of years ago. We have to learn how to live in the teachings of our sages until we come to realize, once again, that we were given a gift that is the greatest blessing anyone could receive. We have to understand that the Torah is giving us the truth, even though this truth is hidden within the stories we read in every week’s parshah.

We are promised peace: “If you will follow My decrees and observe My commandments and perform them, then I will provide your rains in their time … and you will dwell securely in your land. I will provide peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten you.” (Lev.26:3-6)

Ghandi is known to have said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Judaism demands even more of us: to transcend the physical aspects of the world, while still being in a physical body. This is clearly not a simple matter, but it is what we are designed to ultimately do. Our halachic guidelines have taught us the required behavior to begin our transcendence while still keeping our feet firmly planted on the ground. But this was just a beginning. We now need to understand in more detail the greater plan for our planet, which will give us a more harmonious, cooperative way to experience and enjoy our lives here on earth.

The creative process of life is all about love. When we consider that so many of us yearn for love in our lives, it seems amazing that we’re so hesitant to live in a way that could spread it all over the world. I believe that we’ve resisted creating an open and trusting society because we’ve been limited by a natural, protective layer of fear.

This world has seen so much fear. It’s so easy to create and so hard to undo. Somehow our minds hold on to fear more easily than love. We value fear as a reasonable response. We laugh at love as a vulnerable feeling. So many of us find it hard to believe that love could be a solution for anything, and yet that is what we all crave—even though some don’t want to admit it. That would mean we’d have to acknowledge our own vulnerability. No one likes to see his or her self as vulnerable, but that is really what we are.

It takes courage to look into what’s holding us back from creating a more harmonious world. It takes admitting and confronting our fears on a personal and societal level before we can disentangle ourselves from the dysfunctional complexities in our lives. Only then, when we are each ready to face our own struggles head on, can we begin to ease any suffering and gradually experience relief.

A reason why

It’s natural to wonder why we have to go through this demanding, educational process in life, especially when it can sometimes cause us such distress. It would be so much easier to just live and let live. But this is what we’re given; we didn’t create the way the world works. When these challenges come they usually stretch us in ways we often can’t understand while we’re going through them. It’s only after we’ve resolved any difficulty that we get to see how much we’ve learned and how much better things can be on the other side of it.

Once we’re ready to accept that we’ve each been given a unique and precious life for a reason, we can start to discover—even through the challenges—that there’s a more enlightened way to be our full self and to succeed in whatever we attempt to do.

Every one of us is born into a space that we have to rise above; when we’re ready to learn from our mistakes and gradually overcome any obstacles life sends our way, each new lesson we’re given can increase the possibility that our challenges will finally cease, never to happen again in our own or our children’s lifetime. As we gradually develop the strength to work through and overcome any negative pressures in life, we can create more positive experiences that will allow love to flourish.

(Excerpt from The Way The World Works – Myra Estelle)

The Counting of the Omer is truly inner work. We can’t just say each number and then move on. The kabbalists who declared the need for this counting, every day between Pesach and Shavuot, were asking every person who follows the Judaic path, to reach within for a deeper comprehension of who we really are.

It’s so important to realize who we are at a time like this. When we’re being questioned by so many in the world who ask us why we are Jews, and why do we need Israel, we have to know who we really are. This is not just a personal inquiry—this is also a question for us to understand why the nation of Israel needs to exist. Why, indeed are we here? What, in fact, are we trying to accomplish?

When we learn how to answer these deep questions with clarity, we’ll know how to move forward in a safe, enlightened direction.

To be sure, there are many practical reasons for Israel to exist. When we know that throughout the 2,000 years of exile, when Jews were forced out, so many times, from a country they were in, and had to search for another place to live, a homeland can give us a safe haven. And we know that we can find great comfort just by being observant in Judaism, even if we simply follow the laws without always knowing why they were given.

But this is not enough to explain why we insist on staying in the Middle East, surrounded by countries, with terrorists in their midst, who clearly don’t want us there. We need to know that much more is being demanded of us than simply creating a state so that we can live under our own authority, like every other country.

We Jews are part of a much more awesome story. When we were told that we were to be the “light to the nations,” it wasn’t just to enhance life for everyone in the world on a material level. We can see that even though many in Israel are inventing and creating wonderful solutions for problems in the material world, anti-semitism still exists.

No. We were given teachings that can lift us up above the usual, earthly way of living life, so that we can reach a higher, clearer, much more awesome way of experiencing our lives. This is why the kabbalists set up most of our prayers and holiday rituals, teaching us that we have to rise above the way the world thinks. They say we have to rise “above reason.” This means we have to learn how to see the world from God’s perspective.

The way to do this is to learn how to tune into the inner depths of our soul, as we’re required to do when we count in the way the kabbalists designed for us. We have to reach for the inner part of us that is already connected to the higher, divine wisdom of the universe, and then take the time to patiently listen for the loving words that you can only hear when you sit for a while in absolute silence.

It’s only when we expand our realization that we each carry within us the loving support of the higher consciousness of the universe, that we’ll understand the need to develop our ability to live in harmony with its wisdom. And it helps to know the structure of our own soul, by learning about the seven sephirot of our emotions.

So we can’t just count. If that’s all you’re doing every day, even with the bracha (blessing), just stop and think of what you’re really being asked to do. Remember: you wouldn’t have been given this profound task if you weren’t going to be helped to do it on a deep, awesome level.