Spiritual Healing is Required to fulfill the Mitzvah “Love your fellow as yourself…”

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This Thursday we celebrate Yom Haatzmaut, which is not just a matter of national independence and security, but on this day we have passed the border (מחסום) that separates between exile and redemption. The way is still long, but we are on the other side of the barricade. The period of exile is behind us, and we are stepping on the way of redemption. Even if we are still far from the peak, still, with G-d’s grace, the main obstacles of the last two thousand years have been removed. Now we need to infuse the physical independence in our Land with true love for our fellow Jews. It is not by chance that we read the famous mitzvah “to love your fellow as yourself” during the week of Israel’s Independence Day. In order to attain our goal of establishing a Jewish country that reflects the Divine ideals for Israel, we need to learn to truly love one another. Read on to learn a meditative practice that helps us engender and integrate true love to all the people in our lives! Happy celebrations!

With Blessings of the Torah and the Land
Chana Bracha Siegelbaum 

Outside Israel, Parshat Taria-Metzora is read this week.  Click here to read Rebbetzin's Parsha Meditation Tazria-Metzora

Click here to read Rebbetzin's Haftorah Commentary on Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

Parasha Meditation
Acharei Mot, Vayikra 16:1-18:30
Kedoshim, Vayikra 19:10-20:27

Printable Version

Spiritual Healing is Required to fulfill the Mitzvah “Love your fellow as yourself…”

Introduction:
In Parashat Kedoshim – about how to become holy, we learn about the prerequisite, to love others like we love ourselves. True holiness is not just about what we do outwardly, but even more about how we feel inwardly. A real holy person has learned to control his feelings, to think only holy thoughts about others, and to feel love and compassion for every creature. To be holy is to let go of all the big and even small resentments we may carry with us. Only then will we be able to truly love each other with a full heart as the Torah states:

לֹא תִקֹּם וְלֹא תִטֹּר אֶת בְּנֵי עַמֶּךָ וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ אֲנִי הָשֵם

ספר ויקרא פרק יט: יח

“Do not revenge, and do not bear a grudge against the children of your people. Love your fellow as yourself, I am G-d.”[1]

The Torah verse requires us to love our fellow like we love ourselves. In order to give and receive love, we need to begin by learning to love ourselves, if we don’t have love for ourselves, all our relationships will suffer. It is impossible to fulfill this mitzvah from the Torah, and rid ourselves of holding on to grudges, without deep inner spiritual healing work. Most of the people who come to me for emunahealing have difficulty loving themselves. They may be filled with guilt and shame and must learn to forgive themselves. In order to forgive ourselves we need to go into a meditative state, to get in touch with our guilt and its underlying causes. The next step is then to work on forgiving others truly with all our hearts, and sending them love. This too, requires the meditative work of spiritual healing. In my upcoming teleseminar I teach more details on how to learn to forgive and love.
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Meditation:
Sit comfortably in your chair, close your eyes and take deep breaths several times and let go of anything you are may be holding on to. Try to connect with the light of Hashem which always comes down from Above. Our body is continually filled with Hashem’s light and love even when we don’t see it or feel it; we know that we are filled with Hashem’s light. Imagine Hashem’s light filling your head and spreading down your shoulders and to the rest of your body. Your entire body is as if made of the material of a light bulb filled with light. Now try to get in touch with where your old feelings of guilt and resentment. Visualize these feelings as dark clouds within you. Try to locate these dark clouds in your body. Are there any in your head, in your throat or perhaps in your heart region. Send Hashem’s light and love to each of the dark clouds within you. Keep breathing into them, one by one until you feel them evaporate or burst.

Think about a person that you feel badly about for whatever reason. Visualize your bad feelings/resentments/grudges as dark clouds within you, within the person, or on an imaginary string connecting the two of you. Take Hashem’s light and send it to all of these dark clouds, one by one until each of them evaporate or bursts. You can repeat this spiritual healing exercise with as many people as you can focus on at any given time. If necessary, you can continue at a different time.

Now send Hashem’s light and love to the person towards whom you had resentment. By sending light to someone that you have difficulty with, you have the ability to rectify your relationship with that person. You may also send light to any person close to you. It could be a person you love very much, and who is in need of light and healing. See if you can feel where the person most needs this light from you, and direct your light to that place. Keep sending light as long as you are able, before wiggling your toes and fingers and opening your eyes. It is wonderful to repeat this meditation daily, opening yourself to receive Hashem’s light and sending it to different people in your life.

Notes:
The gematria (numerical value) of the Hebrew word for love – אהבה – ahava is 13. This is the same gematria as the Hebrew word for one – אחד – echad. The number 13 also alludes to the 13 principles of mercy. Only when we are one with someone can we really love that person. This is why the greatest love is between a mother and her baby, as they were one in her womb. To feel love, we need to reveal the aspect with which we unify with our fellow Jew.

The body is a vessel for the soul; the soul is a vessel for the Divine. Every Jew has a Divine spark of light and love, emanating directly from Hashem. This is the source and power of our love – Hashem’s love which is beyond our reality. Hashem surprises us with endless love, if we only open for Him, even a small opening to receive.

פתחי לי פתח כחודה של מחט ואני אפתח לכם פתח שיהיו עגלות נכנס  

ילקוט שמעוני שיר השירים, ה, רמז תתקפח

“Open for Me like the opening of a needle, and I will open for you an opening for wagons to enter.”[2]

It is important to send love to everyone, especially to those that we have a hard time relating to. A friend of mine once had a difficulty relating to one of her neighbors. They had had a dispute over trivialities. She decided to work on this by continually sending her neighbor love and light. One day, her neighbor sent her two challot for Shabbat. The power of sending love to someone is so great it can materialize in two Shabbat challot. This proves that sending love and light can overcome any tension and difficulty we may have with another person. This is what King Shlomo alluded to in his proverbs:

כַּמַּיִם הַפָּנִים לַפָּנִים כֵּן לֵב הָאָדָם לָאָדָם ספר משלי פרק כז: יט

“As in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man.[3]

[1] Vayikra 19:18.
[2] Yalkut Shimoni, Song of Songs, Chapter 5, Allusion 989.
[3] Proverbs, 27:19.