Sefirat Ha'omer - Regenerate your animal soul - Rabbi Alon Anava

[Music] we're halfway through to the not halfway but a little bit over than half and we learned a few times a more spiritual significance of the OM why we count it and what we really need to focus on what we need to do but the OM is not only necessarily about counting days the is a very specific and special time I mentioned in the previous class that the explains that this is the time that we can rip or ripe what's the right word to say it the the energy for the entire year to work on ourselves it is a time of working and what would be the right word to say to rip you what do you when you uh no when you let's say you plant fruit rip no ripen then you reap your fruit reap that's how you saying so this is the time when we reap the the benefits the energy the power for the rest of the year to be able to work on ourselves cuz this 50 days we're supposed to work on ourselves and one needs to focus on that now the has many things many ways how to look at it in general the teachings of cabala explains that there are three periods that really represent the journeys of my life the first period is called MIT the Exile of MIT the second period is called om and the third period is called Matan T and this represents three Journeys or three periods in my life that I will constantly go backwards and forth the first part is galut MIT is the Exile of Egypt when I'm in Exile when I'm in my state of limitation The Next Period will be the time when I work on myself this is the motion of what's called a b Chua that's when I do Chua that will correspond to the OM and then there will be the period of Matan of a spiritual enlightenment and I will constantly go backwards and forth and a cycle in between these three Journeys and these are three not only three Journeys are three levels in my life that I have to constantly go and it's not that it's I achieved one of them and I'm over I will constantly go back to my MIT my MIT is my Exile and MIT is is is compared to an exile I mean you say the word MIT you know this is exile this is galut this is representing my limitations the zor calls galut the Exile of dat now dat can be comprehension that is also the SP of that of understanding and we also know that the tree where we get so to say our Essence from it's called etat thee of knowledge so that can also be knowledge but in is rooted our entire everything the whole DNA of the world story of the world is inat the tree of knowledge which the terminology in cabala cabala doesn't call it rather calls it the secret of good and bad that something is mixed in each other which is basically the secret of the entire existence of the world that the good and the bad are mixed together so the zor takes MIT and it says MIT this is called galut that my DOT is in Exile and sometimes a person can think that they're in one place but they're actually not they're they're in a completely different place and we'll explain that what I mean but there are three periods so to say and it's not a period of a time frame it's a a and just try to picture in your mind a spiritual period that first I will start in a in a state of limitation of an an exile then I have to go out of this Exile and will be a period of of refinement of of work and the point is to reach the level of Matan of the spiritual enlightenment now some days I'm sure you notice it sometimes there's a special spiritual light that shines on us and my day looks completely different I'm in a good mood things are working well for me everything is special and better and some days they don't some days the spiritual light is not shining on me now when I'm saying a spiritual light shining on me the wrong way to picture it is a light shining on me when you say a a a spiritual light people tend to to imagine a light that comes out of a light bulb but light in Hebrew is or and or comes from the word who is to in light so a spiritual light is not necessarily that you take a dark room and you light it it's some type of elevation an inspiration an Enlightenment there nothing to do if it's dark or light so a Godly Revelation a spiritual enlightenment is not necess necessarily the the the physical light is the shift is the change of a spiritual state is it giving to others being to that's a whole different thing if you give light to somebody else if you have the right motion you will share the light that you got but when I'm talking about a spiritual enlightenment is not that some I mean we sometimes talk about very broad terms especially when you come to learn orala Z you talk about very big terms and people find it very hard to picture in their mind what does it mean so you're talking about a Godly Revelation right away you try to picture what's The Godly Revelation okay a lot of light a room full of light or you say sometimes the soul experiences pleasure I right away try to say what's pleasure oh for me pleasure is sleeping for me pleasure is eating ice cream or for me pleasure is I don't know having a good cup of wine I need to relate it with something that's why their way to relate with with spiritual teachings is you have to work with some Parables to kind of understand what does it mean cuz we're looking at a spiritual a a a spiritual form something a detail coming from the spiritual world but I need to somehow relate with it for example it says that the The Souls of the sadim are sitting in Ganan with crowns on their head and enjoying the the shine of the rise of the glory of hem now we need to somehow relate with it what does it mean what they're sitting there on in a in a on a deck chair with the margarita what do they mean they're they're enjoying they're getting some pleasure what does it mean so in everything that we learn in the mystical teachings whether it's cabala it's talking about certain terms now we need to relate with it somehow so it can talk about a a Godly Revelation like Matan Tora the giving of the Torah so we picture in Matan Tora that we got like a book with a ribbon and here's your book that's what not what happened in mat that's the that's not we just relate with it so same thing when I'm saying that we have three levels three periods in our life doesn't mean that it's summer winter and spring it means that I have some type of a cycle that I constantly will find myself I will find myself in a state of limitation in a MIT that's when there's a Sila then this Godly light this Revelation is removed why it's removed that's not the point right now it can be removed from my own actions by doing a sin or it can be removed because that's what hasem wants right now for me to be away from the spotlight cuz he wants me right now to struggle and to climb up I'm not going to work on myself if I'm constantly in the same level I'm only going to work on myself when things are bad if everything would be good and I have millions of dollars in my bank account and a beautiful home healthy like an ox everything is exactly how I wish for myself I wouldn't do any spiritual work I would not pray I would not learn I know everybody says yeah yeah yeah yeah if I had everything was comfortable I would all day long be learning no you won't you would be sitting in a restaurant now drinking these Margaritas because you have a lot of money why need to pray we pray because we have problems that's usually the case I go to the Sho when when I need something when I need health when I need parasa when I need to get married so and I know people will say no no no no if I had a lot of money I would be all day long do charity and all day long I would learn Torah and usually it's not the case usually we we act when we're squeezed if everything is good we don't really act so these Cycles they change there's constantly a change this is this is usually the definition of exile is in Hebrew it's called that you're going from one place to the other but very extreme one day here one day here this is the the root of the Exile that when you really dissect the concept of Exile is that you change from one place to the other but very very extreme and when I'm in a place of Exile it means that right now there the the concept is that there's a removal of the light why right now again we're not going to talk about today why I can tell you that one of the reasons can be because of me doing a negative act a sin I push the light away and it can be because that's the will of the kadosh and it can be many other things but when there's going to be a removal of The Godly light from me The Godly light is not shining on me then that's where I'm going to find myself I'm going to find myself in a much lower level spiritually of course needless to say that when The Godly light is being removed what will come instead the yet is going to come in a very more very powerful way now there is these three stat that I will go through a is the Exile then is the is the time of refinement and then mat which is The Godly Revelation the the inspiration the spiritual enlightenment that I will gain now sometimes I can't say sometimes a lot of the times we find ourselves in the state of limitation in our MIT I might have a good month everything works well and then I'm back to square one and I'm back battling my my Exile and it's hard work and in this time I find it very hard to serve AEM it's very hard to pray it's very hard to do anything cuz I'm pulled down in back into MIT they weren't so spiritual when they're in Egypt and sometimes people don't understand that is sometimes their aod their spiritual work is just to live just to live another day another day another day and some people get to such Low Places is that that their daily struggle is just to live is not to do a Mitzvah right now if they able to squeeze in a Mitzvah that's they wanton the lottery their struggle right now just to keep their head up just to live just to pull another day and we do find oursel in these situations one is going to be struggling with health another is going to be struggling with livelihood another is going to be struggling with a lawsuit anybody we all struggle with something sometimes it comes you know they say when it rains it pours pores it rains however you say that sometimes you get a whole storm of problems but the reality is that we find ourself in some type of a state that we have to struggle and this is our MIT we have to go out of our MIT this is the name of the game hasem will put me in a situation to struggle there's going to be a struggle here I need to pull myself out of this MIT and then we'll start coming the work of the refinement now usually when I'm in the state of MIT I mean a very low level then that's where the is going to come the most most powerful to squeeze me and usually what's going to happen then when I'm in the state of MIT then there's not going to be energy to do anything not to do I don't want to do anything I don't want to do nothing I don't feel like doing anything I'm talking about spiritual work I don't want to pray I don't want to do mitv I don't want to observe Shabbat right now just let me be just need to get out of this now unfortunately sometimes we find oursel in a place that I feel that I'm in a very high place spiritually this is another level of MIT but my desire for forbidden things is is even greater I am performing I'm doing a lot of mitzvot I observe Shabbat I eat kosher I I do everything that I need to do but the desire the to do something forbidden is even greater and greater and greater and I find myself in a contradiction in one way I'm very religious but on the other hand I'm doing very bad things that maybe I did in my past or something that I can't control myself so usually the state of uh of of Exile is going to be that I'm in a place of limitation but then I find myself every now and then that I experience a I go out of my state of limitation PTO I get a boost doesn't matter right now how it happened but I have a very bad period PTO I get extra powers and I'm able to go out of it and this is called I go out of my limitation out of my spiritual limitation and usually that will come with a a very high spiritual Revelation this is the motion of a Chua that Chua gets a very high spiritual Revelation and suddenly they're operating in a in a completely different level they do everything in one shot they just grab as much as they can with a big excitement and this is the the spiritual high but then at some point it where off cuz the B cha always will take off very very strong and then slowly slowly it will start wearing off now we see physically that sometimes The Godly light is removed from us last month I would wake up every morning at 5:00 a.m. to pray now I don't I don't I don't have this energy once a month ago every person that asked my my help I was their first time right away and now I don't feel like helping anybody so I do find myself constantly that one time I'm in a very high spiritual level that I'm very excited to do the mitvah sometimes I not I can physically feel the Sila when the light comes and when the light goes it's almost like you have a beautiful sunny day then you feel like going out you go for a walk you're in a good mood it's going to be a cloudy day you want to be at home you don't want to leave your mood is is off so we can very easily feel when this Godly light is being removed from us and when it's being brought back but here I have again the period of Exile of then the the motion of of going out of M and then I have the period of the now usually what happens is on PES I get a boost because on L is a very Godly a very high Godly Revelation a very and then it disappears and then I have 50 days to slowly slowly start getting it back till sh but in the mystical explanation of now I have to work on myself I have to pick myself up so to say now comes from the word in Hebrew to count but also comes from the word in Hebrew sap and sap is to Enlighten this is the time the period that I have to take The Godly light and to Enlighten my with some Godly light mainly it's to Enlighten the ne is my animal soul to pump it up with some spirituality is to able to Enlighten that part in me that's why it's not necessarily just counting the days is bringing the light in because s in Hebrew is to light the the stone s that the the the commentaries explained that Noah in the ark how did he have light a whole year he was in a closed Ark he didn't have a generator making light so one commentary says they had a window on the top but even in the window of the top the ark was so huge and there was three levels even if there was a window on the top how would it light the lower level so there is a commentary that says that he had a special stone like a I don't know if to say a SA fire but it's called sapir and he had that stone in the ark and that stone lit up the entire Ark and this stone is called sapir so sapir is to Enlighten so is not counting necessarily is rather to Enlighten and I have to take this Godly light and to Enlighten my mainly the dark parts of my which will be my animal soul my now really the whole concept of is the concept of Chua is a Chua now Chua is not necessarily A person who was born secular and became religious Bal Chua can be a person that was born into a very religious family he can also be a BAL Chua a person who converted in the middle of their life this is also B Chua this is a broad definition B cha is a person that does Chua for their acts even a convert that converts in the middle of their life they need to correct what they did in in their previous life so to say not long ago somebody answered asked me and told me I I I recently converted but before I converted I did a b and c and this is against the Torah is my conversion resetting everything or do I need to do a tun for what I did 20 years ago said of course you need to do a tun 20 years ago there's no connection you did something you know it's bad you have to you have to fix it the actual conversion the dipping in the mik that doesn't erase what you did in the past so Chua a convert a person who was born religious and changed their their path you know many people who were born religious they they went off the D so to say became not observant they came back we all B CH we all have to do CH and the period of is doing CH is to do CH and the main part the main of is called there's two that we have to do during it's refinement of character trait and because we have a problem with is believe believe in the and Trust in the because most people don't havea they might have a black suit we talked about it before they might have a black suit but they don't have belief in AEM I told you once there was once a story that there was a certain individual that he became closer to the K he doing his CH so they decided in sh to test him so they made him lose $5 so he lost $5 you know what he said it's all for the good everything that hasem does is good it's all good so in Sham in the heavens they were very impressed W look the Hasa he didn't get excited that his $5 dis beard that he lost $5 he said it's all for the benefit of the it's good so they decided to try him again this time he lost $50 he was very strong in hisa and he was like a it's all for the good everything that hasem does is good it's all good so they were very impressed by his attitude in sham so he said okay let's try now a big one so now he lost $50,000 then it was not Leta anymore then it was not for the good then it's not everything that hasem does is for the good then the attitude was completely different why CU now it was a big amount $5 a $50 everything hasem does is good $50,000 P the attitude changed completely now it's not good now it's not fine now when Hashem is punishing me everything changed so and this just comes to symbolizes that we have amuna belief till a certain level and then when it crosses a certain line P the amuna goes out of the window so we constantly need to strengthen our amuna because I will be able to hold my belief till a certain place and then when it crosses and I can't handle it anymore then I don't believe in hasm anymore and and in everything else that comes with it so we have a problem that we think that we have a belief but our belief is only in very simple things when it's tested P you get bad news the flies out of the window P you hey why you doing it to me I'm such a good person P you don't come with all the fancy titles of everything is for the good and hasem is good for us so in we have to correct or more to say to refine two ways of service of hem one of them is refinement of character which is called that's why we're mentioning all the midot all the time we're not just counting days every day I can refine one aspect of my midot so not for nothing I say I mean we throwing these fancy words and most people don't even know what they're saying I mean it's good to say it even though without knowing but you if you really want to dwell into it you ask a person why did you say today I don't even know what I'm saying wow the point is that we are not required to understand what does it mean the tun of this particular mid what we need to understand that we have to refine our character traits now I don't know what it means I don't know what it means don't even try to understand what it means nobody knows what it means trust me if somebody tells you they know what they mean nobody knows what it means know what it means knows what it means I don't know what means I just take two words that I have no idea what it's talking about and I say oh today we're we're fighting it's very interesting so the point is that I need to know how to refine my character tra so I don't know it's I know what's anger I know what's jealousy I know what's frustration and I know what's sadness and I know what's depression that's what I know so instead of saying I say I need to work on my anger today I need to work on my frustration today I need to work my depression my jealousy my everything I need to work on my character traits happens to be that the says I can learn a little bit some more in what it means but to really relate with it I don't know how to refine theid of in me ioose you no you don't choose I'm talking now in a what no what I mean is that you still have to say if you're asking me I don't know how to refine the theid of I don't even know what it means but if I have have a problem with anger so I need to work on my anger today and if I have a problem with jealousy I need to work on my jealousy I don't know what's your problem or your problem we all have problems I can be impatient I can be jealous I can be depressed I can be you know going you know above somebody I can have G I can have so many you know how many mult there are so there are many different types of character traits that I can I recognize in me so I need to it doesn't mean that today oh today's a Monday it's anger I need to recognize in me what are the midot that I need to refine and I need to work on them and this is an apicius time to do that I have 49 days that I will get an assistance from above to work on myself now first of all in order for me to go out of MIT I have to understand that I'm in MIT I have to understand and acknowledge what's my limitation now if I have a problem with anger I need to acknowledge that I have a problem with anger that's it is you know sometimes you come to a person you tell them you know I have a problem with anger me I don't have a problem with anger you have a problem I'm sorry to tell you so usually in order to be to First recognize what's my Exile I have to admit we had a beautiful class here before PES that that we learned about how to admit the p is about admitting I I need to admit yeah I have a problem with lying I have a problem with stealing whatever it is I have to admit in order to correct something I have to admit it in order for me to go out of MIT I have to realize what's my MIT is a state of limitation so if I have a problem with with G or with anger or with sadness or whatever it is I need to First realize that that's my problem because if not I'm not going to be able to go of my Egypt and I'm not coming to put anybody down we all have we came here with this baggage we have to refine it that's our job in this world now if I don't know how to recognize my faults that's already a problem I need to recognize my faults I know what's my faults I can be lazy I can be loud I can be angry I can be jealous I whatever it is so I need to recognize what's the mid that I have to work on but to take to consideration that the time of taking all this energy to work on myself is is the time of the it's the time of this are the two things that I need to work on in this 49 days is building my imuna and building my and correcting my midot and why do we want to do that because we want to reach to the level of Matan of this Godly Revelation now it can be a Godly Revelation within me what's called my personal Redemption but I also want to reach my Global Redemption it's the coming of mashiah and with my effort I'm affecting the entire world if I have a problem with anger and I really work on myself and today I didn't get angry because somebody did something small to me I now affected the entire world if I have a problem with jealousy and today I was able to hold myself or to accept somebody else's success I now not only did I ref Define my own mid I affected the entire world that I was able to bring a little bit closer the revelation of mashia so I have a personal work to do and I have a general work to do so when I work on Mya you know what we say about the coming ofia I believe in a complete faith that mashiah is coming doesn't say an says so it means that I want to haste in the Redemption I have to work on my this is the time where I have to focus on it this is the spicious time the same way that I explained to you in the class before that in the time of the period the the commentary Abu said that it was the time where all the farmers would pray their kishkas it was a a period that they had to put all their prayers because this is the time it's almost like a a woman wants to get pregnant at the time that she's trying to get pregnant everybody's preg praying and pring to and giving charity once she's pregnant after she has a few kids nobody's praying in the same level a person is now going into an operation P everybody's praying their hearts out giving money to charity learning Torah then the person is saved everybody going back to square one so there's always a period that we put a lot of effort this is the period to put the effort into refine my character and to to work on Mya and when I do that I'm able to make space to bring the ultimate Matan and that's The Godly Revelation that we are expecting now in my personal level it's the Revelation that I want in in me I I need to be I want to be inspired I want to reach to a level of inspiration and Redemption but if I want to look it in a very Global way then I want to hasten the Gul up now how do you do that if you remember what when the Jews went out of MIT they reached to the ocean and the ocean closed on them they were they were cornered to the ocean and when mosenu didn't know what to do if you remember there was four groups one group wanted to go back to MIT one group wanted to commit suicide and jump in the water one group wanted to fight and one group said let's just pray when mosu approached and asked him what should I do so says just talk to them and move just keep on going just jump in and what did they have to do jump in the water with just jumped into the water he had belief and the fact that he jumped in the water opened so we need to strengthen oura is to believe and where do we start working on that is to believe that hem loves us because when I'm in a very bad place I was thrown out out of my house if I just lost my money my wife just kicked me out of the house whatever it is I mean my wife didn't kick me out of the house don't worry but if I'm just giving you examples if I'm going through something real bad right now I lost my belief in Hashem why are you doing this to me why why am I now going through this in one second my went back I don't believe so I have to I have to build back thisa Hashem has a plan for me he wants me to jump into the water he wants me to believe 100% that yeah time is bad right now but I still love you you know that if you try to go into the mind of a six-year-old when his parent is screaming at him because he did something bad now the parent is trying to educate the child if you will go into the mind of the six-year-old my mommy hates me right now why is she screaming at me why is she punishing me she doesn't love me anymore that's what you hear from a little kid that after you punish the little kid the kid says you don't love me anymore no I didn't stop loving you because I punched you on your hand I didn't stop loving you because I I I put you in timeout that's why just as a side note in education when you rebuking the child right away has to come after that some affection says my love didn't stop I just have to put you in your spot or I have to do something hasem says listen I didn't stop loving you because now I kicked you in your butt and that's what is required this is Thea that is required that I have to believe a loves me doesn't matter what I'm going through right now Hashem loves me and he's not stomping to love me he just needs me to go through this cycle through my Egypt through my MIT go out of my Exile work on myself has wants me to work on myself and I'm only going to work on myself when I'm when I'm qued we learned about this when the Torah says that you have to take the purest olive oil when when you C When you crush the olive so the K crushes us but he says don't think for a second I don't love you so we have to work in the to know that loves me and it's the yet that will bring me into sadness I'm now being in the motion of being crushed it's good it's my workout that's when the yet is going to come and bring in the sadness and depression and being heavy and all that why because he's he's jumping on the opportunity but that's when I need to work on my I say no loves me that's part of the process and that's what I need to work on so to summarize it is that we're right now we have three periods we said the Egypt the Exile the the time of refinement and the time of mat when I'm reaching my inspiration and Revelation and I'm now in the time of refinement I have to refine my character trait and I have to work on my and that's an supicious time it's a time that I'm able to do that so when you read I know there's a lot of explanations what does it mean and all the but the reality is without hurting anybody's feelings nobody really knows how to refine the in their neish will be able to understand what it means we do not understand that so I'm not putting anybody down I'm not saying anybody's hurt trying to hurt anybody's intelligence I'm tell saying it about myself that even as much as books as you're going to read we're not going to be able to understand really what it means to refine the Mida in a Mida I don't even know I I can relate with anger tell me the word anger I know what it is somebody pushed my butt and I exploded this is what I can relate with I can relate with jealousy I can relate with with pride I can relate with laziness I can't relate with so not to take the air out of the babble but really I need to focus on what is familiar to me and I have to recognize what I need to work on and this is the time that I need to work on it I have a problem then that's the time and why now because this is the period this is the period where says now you have an assistance you have a me that you have to refine now is the time and if you do it the right way you will reach your Matan T you will reach your Godly Revelation the ultimate Redemption you can reach it in your personal level and you can reach it in a very Global level and just that you know that every little act that you do affects the entire world you might not see the steps you can walk like you know walking on a treadmill you don't see the benefit I'm like I'm walking 10 minutes I'm on the same spot you don't notice that you're actually working out and your your heart is getting a good exercise and your muscles if you're looking it in a very superficial way hey I'm walking here for 10 minutes I I'm in the same spot where I started so we don't see our our efforts but our efforts affect the entire world and when I'm working on a certain Mida in a very Global way it's affecting that mid in the world so if I'm able to really really overcome my anger it will affect a lot of other people that they have a problem with anger and our main point is to bring the Redemption so with my little effort I'm affecting the entire world so one thing I want to take out of this we're halfway through it's an asici time it's a good time to put the the information on the table and say t what am I what's my problem and it's very hard to admit and say you know yeah I'm I'm a grouch I'm very grouchy I'm I'm I have a problem with anger I told you not too long ago when I was in my last SCH in America I had two individuals I had a day of meetings one individual walks into me and he tells me my wife she's out of control everything I say she answers back she screams she's this she's that okay after 10 minutes of complaining about his wife and my kids they're completely out of control they answer back they scream they this and my boss and my neighbor he complained about the entire world the next guy who walked into the room you know what he told me Rabbi I don't know what to do I have a problem with anger I keep screaming at my wife and kids and then he tells me I know you know I have a problem with with being patient I I don't have patience to my kids and you know RAB I have a problem with honesty and I have a problem I told him wow unbelievable the first guy said my wife has a problem my kids have a problem my boss this guy says I have a problem with anger I have a problem with patience I have a problem something wow this is this is aad he comes and says I have a problem so most people say my wife has a problem you know there's a joke in Israel this that they say say they say Israelis are very hot tempered so when they asked Israelis why you so so so hot tempered so the answer is I'm I'm not a hot tempered just people annoy me so it's very hard to admit when I have a problem but I need to do I need to do an account and be say you know I have a problem because if I don't know how to recognize my problem I will never work on it I'll never refine it so this is the time to do it and I need to work on my midot and I have 50 days I mean we passed already half to work on my midot and if I have if I know I have a problem with pride then every day I have to work on myself I have a problem with anger I'm going to really control myself not to answer back not to to to to to say what I really want to say and that's the the time to do it if we're able to refine our midot which are it is the main that we need to do it's the main job to do I told you many times the student of says that the main thing we need to do in this world is is refinement of character and it can take years to refine one Mida but that's the time that we actually focus in it and we can basically pump so to say as much as energy to carry with us for the rest of the year is in this period we should fulfill this part to be able to refine our character trait we we will be able to receive the Torah again in very soon in Matan Tora and more than that we'll be able to make space for mashia to come and as it says a new Torah is going to become is is going to come with mashia and we should with our hard work Merit to see and to to benefit our hard work and to see the coming of mhia that he redeems everybody not only myself he redeems everybody the main thing I need to to focus on is is that everybody's in the same place it's very easy to see in myself that it's only me suffering right but everybody's suffering in their level and my point is to bring mhia to bring the G and the way to do it is really to make space for everybody we spoke about before is respecting everybody Jud judging every person to that's what's going to bring the Redemption because this is really what's going to take us out of the Exile should see it with our own eyes very soon [Music]