Spiritual Mind Games - Weekly Energy Boost

Good morning,

Everyone.

Good evening,

Good afternoon,

Wherever you are,

And welcome to this week's Weekly Energy Boost.

My name is Ellie Sheva,

And I'm here this lovely Monday morning with David.

And we are entering the last of these three weeks that we spoke about a couple weeks ago.

And today's topic,

Again,

It's one of those funny,

Funny titles,

It's spiritual mind games.

And it's really referring to the need for us to trick ourselves.

Spiritually speaking,

A lot of the teachings and the wisdom even that we share on Weekly Energy Boost are about taking our thoughts,

Our preconceived notions,

The way we were raised,

What our natural tendencies are,

And to trick ourselves and to turn what we think is real,

Basically on its ear,

And from that place,

Draw to us the reality that we really want.

I'm sure a lot of us that are listening right now can say,

You know,

My life is chaotic,

Or even if my life isn't chaotic,

The world is chaotic.

And it doesn't seem like there's very much I can do to make a difference with all my good intentions with all of the spiritual content,

The uplifting content I consume.

Everybody's out to get,

You know,

For themselves.

Nobody's really,

They're throwing more daggers than they are hugging and comforting one another out there in the world.

So what what what difference can I make?

And today we're going to talk about where the real work is,

How to play the mind games with yourself that result in true and lasting change,

And how not to fall to what everyone else is doing and what's what the masses are up to and what seems to be the trend.

It's always to go the opposite of that.

And that's that I think is the biggest mind game.

The Weekly Energy Boost is a seven day spiritual weather forecast where David and I and sometimes our guests,

We aim to provide our listeners with the most powerful and practical wisdom and tools from the teachings of Kabbalah,

That is an ancient spiritual technology.

It's a wisdom that is as old as time itself.

And inevitably,

When we unpack this week's conversation,

We end up sharing life,

Life lessons,

Tools and wisdom that can help you anytime.

And this week is no different.

Now,

Many times I end the episode reading something from our teacher Karen Berg,

I actually thought to start with that this week.

Turn things a little on their ear,

As I said before,

And and then we'll get into what this week is really all about.

So Karen often shares or writes articles on on our website that you can find as well this week,

In 2020,

She wrote an article called,

Or she posted an article called the power of togetherness.

We're entering into what is known to be,

We're entering into the last of what is known to be three of the most negative weeks of the year.

And so I'd like to ask,

How are you doing?

If you're going through a tough time,

Hang in there.

It's always darkest just before the dawn,

And things are soon to get better.

In this week's portion of Devarim,

Moses gathers all the people together to admonish them,

To remind them of the many instances in which they complained,

Lost their trust,

Worship false idols,

And so on and so forth.

I'm going to pause this is Eli Shevan,

Now not Karen writing,

To remind everybody that the wisdom of Kabbalah is biblically based,

Which means that the when we look at the Zohar and the writings of the Kabbalists,

I know that David's going to share some stuff from one of the Kabbalists who elevated this week the the Rava'e Zechariah,

The Ari,

It basically takes the wisdom of the five books of Moses of the Old Testament and says,

In this word,

In this sentence,

There is a secret,

There is a principle,

There is a law of the universe.

So we're not only looking at the story and what happened,

But really what we're more interested in is what happened beneath it,

What was the intention,

What's the secret in there,

And Karen will get to that in a second.

There are so many details describing how Moses spoke to the people,

Many of which we can take heed of in how to behave towards others.

For instance,

Before Moses says anything,

He inquires,

Did I take something from you?

Did I hurt you?

Because before we can tell someone what they need to change,

We should first look at what we need to change.

Honestly,

There are so many beautiful aspects to this portion,

However,

I think focusing on only one strengthens our ability to internalize the learning.

Moses doesn't just gather some of the people,

He gathered all of the people.

And many had not taken part in the activities that were the subject of his criticism.

An entire generation had come and gone.

Why did Moses gather even those who were not participants in all the negativity that he was describing?

It may be hard to understand this practically,

But spiritually,

Moses was only interested in revealing light,

Not scolding the people to relieve his own frustration.

The more massive the group,

The more massive the light he would be able to reveal,

Thereby transforming the negativity that had been created into positivity.

It is written in the Zohar that regardless of our individual negative actions or character traits,

Every person in the world is full of light.

Therefore,

The more people that are gathered together for the sake of transformation and good,

The greater the Creator's light shines in the world.

This is in fact why we have international events during the major Kabbalistic holidays where we can gather together virtually from all the corners of the world as a global,

Diverse spiritual community.

It is why we created centers and study groups in various locations so that we may not only learn,

But also practice what we learn together.

It is such an important spiritual understanding.

Being that this is the last of the three negative weeks,

It is a wonderful time to seek this way to reveal the light,

Where we tend to want to go inside our shells,

Hide from the world,

Or just crawl into bed and say,

Leave me alone.

Instead,

We can learn from this week's portion.

For as long as we are together,

We have the power to bring light to any darkness and transform the negative into positive.

For the next seven days,

Let's stand together for the good.

Let's get out of our comfort zones and by doing so connect with new people,

Beautiful sparks of light with whom we may not have otherwise connected.

Let's look for ways to reach out to the people in our lives who we know are lonely or suffering.

And I love that article,

That post,

Because it's really instructing us to do the opposite of what makes sense.

And that is the biggest spiritual mind game of all.

In a time where you feel like hiding,

Go out there and give.

Actually David and I were talking on the way here.

When we come to the studio to record episodes,

We try not to talk about the subject,

But sometimes we do talk about what are people going through and how to speak to what's going on around us and with the people that we interact with.

And one of the things I shared is that the theme that I keep hearing from the individuals that I work with is how much longer,

How much worse is it going to get?

We were talking about the recession and just there's so much challenge out there and it doesn't,

Logically speaking the end doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

And people are just basically saying,

How long do I have to take it?

I can't take it anymore.

And David kind of tongue in cheek said,

Well,

You just answered your own question.

It's not about taking it,

It's how much you can give.

When you can't take it anymore,

Start giving is the Kabbalah cliche.

So part of I think what Karen's message was in 2020 and what I think the message is for us here today,

Is the solution is usually the opposite of what it seems to be.

And for years in our courses the first concept we used to teach is not to trust our five senses.

Now,

Even as I hear the words come out of my mouth,

I'm thinking,

Gosh,

That sounds so strange.

But what we really mean is that we understand that in the physical reality,

There is so much information that we're given that is rooted in illusion.

And I can give you thousands of examples.

We show optical illusions.

There's this very interesting phenomenon out there that science uses called the McGurk effect.

You can Google it to see what it's about.

It's basically how our eyes and our ears trick us.

There's so much,

If a car accident,

God forbid happens and there's 20 witnesses,

There's 20 different accounts of what happened.

So the Kabbalists teach out the gate,

Don't trust your five senses.

Don't believe what you see and you hear and you think.

And especially in this time where we have all the evidence to gather in a,

You know,

Take shelter and wait for the storm to pass.

The message is really don't recede.

Don't hide,

Don't escape,

Don't crawl into bed.

Go out there and be and do and give in a way that transforms and not only the immediate surroundings around you personally,

Don't worry about somebody thanking you or giving you a pat on the back or saying,

Wow,

You made a difference.

Just know that you are contributing to the collective.

And the second part is the concept of the collective,

That the idea of being able to come together.

What's funny is even as you're listening to my words,

I know it doesn't sound like it or doesn't seem like it,

But you are listening,

Maybe not simultaneously,

If you're listening live,

It's simultaneously,

But thousands of people are hearing this as you're listening to it.

And if those thousands of people take action,

Do something with what they're hearing or reading or listening to,

We're doing it together.

And that I think is one of the most powerful things.

I don't want to,

It kind of sounds like a shameless plug,

But that's one of the most powerful things about how technology is helping people connect to spirituality and wisdom is that the thousands of you who are hearing my words right now and taking note and,

And planning to do something with it,

We're doing it together.

And that force of unity,

Even if it's not simultaneous on a chronological level,

But it's simultaneous in terms of energy,

We are making that much more of a difference.

And the,

One of the biggest messages I can leave you with this week is do not discount anything you do,

Because especially in that,

The frame of the darkness that's out there,

The actions that you do have that much more power to brighten the world.

And just to pivot for a moment,

I know I stepped out for a moment,

So I don't know if you shared,

Did you share about the,

About tonight?

No,

No,

No.

I set it up for you to do that.

Okay.

So the fifth of Leo,

Which is tonight,

Monday night,

If I'm not mistaken,

Is an auspicious time for,

For it's,

It's the,

It's actually one of the most positive days in these three weeks.

That's right.

That's important to mention.

With a tremendous amount of support because what we always teach is when a great soul elevates,

Any soul that elevates,

His or her light is revealed on that day in the lunar calendar every year.

And so tonight is a great soul,

The reincarnation of Rosh Yisrael,

The author of the Zohar,

And the spark of the soul of Moses.

So obviously there's a lineage here of this soul that opens a gateway.

The specific gateway that it opens for anyone who desires to connect is this ability to not only see that which I came to the world to correct,

But also to have the strength to overcome it and the certainty to know that I can overcome it.

Because the,

What is this power that we're looking for?

Because if you want to know what you need to change,

You know,

You just,

You just get in a relationship and you'll find out quickly what you need to change.

Because it's pretty much whatever is bothering you is what you need to change.

So it's less about,

Oh,

What's my tikkun,

What's my correction?

But it's more about the tikkun,

The correction that we all have,

Which is mainly two things.

Number one is we don't believe in ourselves and we don't believe that the Creator believes in us.

So it's two main tikkun,

Two main corrections that all problems stem from this.

Because think about it.

Why do we choose relationships that are mediocre?

Why do we choose to be in abusive situations?

Why do we stay at jobs or careers that are unfulfilling?

Why do we do things for momentary pleasure,

But long term pain?

Why do we just eat things without really thinking about what it's going to do to my body or how I'm going to feel later on?

I just want to feel good right now.

We do all these things because ultimately we don't believe in who we are.

We don't know the power of our soul.

And it's almost like if the Creator revealed the unique aspect of each one of us,

We wouldn't be rolling around in the mud like a pig.

Because oftentimes we associate ourselves with certain friends.

We spend time with people.

And if you knew that you were royalty,

You probably wouldn't be spending your time the way you do or saying the things that we say or even getting in relationships with people we get into.

But we're not sure who we are.

We're afraid.

We're insecure.

The only baseline we have is how we grew up,

Maybe our parents,

How we feel about ourselves,

How high school was,

How scholarly,

Whatever.

So we create this movie about ourselves and most of us think that we're damaged.

And because we think we're damaged,

We associate ourselves as a result into a damaged environment because we don't know the power of our soul.

So to reveal,

And this is only a gift from the Creator and it comes from special nights like this,

It's tonight leading into tomorrow night and we can ask for this and we should pray for it and meditate on it,

That I see the royalty of my soul because this will give you the strength now to make the reactive.

.

.

How else can you overcome your addictions?

There's no way.

There's no way to overcome addicted behavior.

The negative side is so strong.

Even I know,

Decades of studying Kabbalah between Elusheva and I,

When our tikkun or I addiction reveals itself,

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter how much you've learned.

Nothing matters.

The only way to overcome a true challenge is a gift from the Creator to show us what we're destroying by taking that path.

That's number one and number two,

The flip side is we all think,

Consciously or unconsciously,

The Creator doesn't think well of us.

We think that the Creator thinks I'm not a good person or whatever it is.

We may not say that out loud,

But we don't believe that,

Especially after we make a mistake or we do something we're ashamed of,

We think we're being judged,

The Creator's judging me,

The world is judging me,

People are judging me,

And all of that nonsense actually depletes us of energy and we can't move forward with our spiritual work.

But it's like,

Imagine a son comes to his father and says,

Dad,

You probably hate me because I didn't do well in school.

You hate me.

You hate me,

Don't you?

I can't stand when my kids project onto me like that.

You probably hate me,

Mom.

You probably think I'm a horrible kid.

Obviously any kid would say,

I can't imagine a parent saying,

You know what?

Now you understand me.

I've hated you all this time.

You're right,

I'm so disappointed.

I wish you were not my child.

Why couldn't you be more like your friend,

Bill?

Bill,

Not Bill.

There's no friend.

No kid has a friend named Bill.

It's Billy.

Can you imagine an eight year old has a friend named Bill?

Anyways,

Just to make it a little lighter,

But the point is,

The point is that we have to remember that because we get lost.

This physical world is so treacherous and it seems so sweet.

The Zohar says that the negative side,

How it seduces each person is it appears very soft and sweet.

We were talking about the illusion of the physical reality before.

So it's funny you say that.

So we're in sync.

We're in sync because I had stepped out and then I came in midway here.

So I wasn't quite sure what L.

A.

Sheva started with,

But that's kind of the magic of we don't like to prepare for these things.

So it starts off soft and sweet.

That's always how it is.

And then it turns into death.

And so that's what maturity is because you think of the younger generation.

They don't know.

They don't know.

They just think something that starts off soft and sweet will end soft and sweet.

But it actually ends up in death.

And that's where people get hurt and they lose things and they lose their money.

You don't mean literal death.

You mean end.

Yeah.

It's like something ends.

Right.

It's a painful lesson.

And it kind of reminds me of these articles about the generation that started to make a lot of money in the last couple of years,

Whatever it could be in stock market and crypto and all these different things.

And then all of a sudden it all kind of fell apart.

And no one ever lived through that.

I remember when I lived through that in 2001,

Kind of making a lot of money for no reason.

And then thinking,

Well,

I guess the stock market just always goes up.

I mean,

In that case,

I'll spend here.

I mean,

It was insanity.

And then when we lost everything and then some,

It was kind of a wake up call of,

Okay,

It was a painful lesson.

The point is that everything that usually starts soft and sweet will end bitter and dark.

And anything that starts bitter and dark often ends soft and sweet.

It's kind of like going to the gym.

It never feels good in the first day.

And you don't see the results even in the first week,

But in the third or fourth month,

As long as you're diligent,

It becomes soft and sweet.

So it's always like that with everything that's good and good in life.

I always tell students kind of on their way to class.

And I know sometimes we're on our way to do the podcast that I'm thinking to myself,

Gosh,

You know,

I would like to be doing something else right now.

And it's those times I don't want to come.

Really?

Which times are those?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's a rare thing.

It's a rare thing.

But it's always after the fact,

It's soft and sweet.

I'm like,

I'm really happy we did that.

And I always tell my students when they're coming to the live class here in Los Angeles,

I said,

There will be times you're sitting comfortably at home or whatever it is,

And you don't want to drive down Olympic and traffic and 405 and all these things.

And you're like,

You know what?

I'm not going to come.

That's the bitterness that you have to go through.

And then always,

Always in the end,

It will be the class you were meant to hear.

And in fact,

More so than any class that you just decided you did want to come to.

So it's always like that.

And we have to remember that the illusion of this world is something that we have the strength to rise above in this week,

But especially in the nine days of Leo.

David,

I think what you said is really powerful,

Especially considering you didn't hear what I said before,

But the part that I think.

.

.

We should do that more often.

I have no idea.

I just come in the middle and I don't know what you said.

Okay,

Maybe next week.

You can go to the bathroom in the middle instead of waiting.

I think like a phone call in the middle of the podcast,

Just come back and be like,

Well,

I don't know what was said,

But here's what I feel and I'm channeling it.

It was perfect.

But,

Not but,

However,

One thing I know I struggle with and I know a lot of people struggle with is what you spoke about.

Part of what you spoke about was like,

Yeah,

Uh huh,

I get it,

High five.

And then the other part was a little bit painful and difficult to swallow.

And that part is the.

.

.

How do you trick yourself into believing?

And I use those words on purpose because initially you're not going to feel it.

You need to trick yourself into feeling like you deserve,

Into feeling like you are worthy of the light force of the creator.

Because I can tell you for me personally,

I tell it to myself in meditation.

I believe it as I'm out there sharing and making an effort to make a difference in the world.

I feel it when I'm standing here,

Sitting here behind the microphone and sharing wisdom.

But there's other moments in my life that I allow myself to behave or treat myself in certain ways that are the opposite of that.

So how do you replace that cassette?

How do you replace that belief system when it's so,

Like you said,

Because of childhood or whatever else,

It's so deeply ingrained.

How do you get rid of it?

How do you trick yourself into not having it anymore?

So I'll tell you what I think in this generation,

We've all been so programmed to have to feel good about everything that we do.

That within two hours of,

Well,

How do I believe in this and love this?

You know what I tell myself when I'm swallowing that bitter pill?

I said,

I haven't even earned enjoying this yet.

Like who said I need to enjoy it?

If you know something is the right thing to do,

Just do it.

Train your body to do it.

Train your mind to do it.

But then you say,

But I'm not enjoying it.

You haven't earned that yet.

How long will it take?

This voice is the satan.

It is the negative side.

It is the opponent.

Because what he wants to know is,

Hey,

Look,

I'll give you five minutes of this proactive thing you want to do.

Maybe I'll give you an hour,

But that's it.

You're thinking of an Olympic athlete and his training.

They train 10 hours,

12 hours a day.

The way they eat,

The way they sleep,

The way they avoid alcohol,

The way they train their mind and the conditioning that goes on.

What are they telling themselves?

They're basically telling themselves,

I will suffer for two years.

And they're not dropping out of the Olympics because they're not enjoying some part of it.

They know the goal.

There's a decision that's made,

Which is I will not enjoy in order to do the right thing.

And you have to tell your body to take a vacation for two years or one year or whatever,

Or forever.

Otherwise the body will keep asking.

It's kind of like your kids after like five minutes in the car,

Like,

When are we going to get there?

So I tell them,

I tell them,

We're never getting there.

There is no there.

You want to know where we're going?

It's right here in the car.

That's where you're going.

David Guillaume,

The Disneyland dad.

Suffer children.

My wife's like,

We're almost there,

It's five more minutes.

And I look at him like,

You know,

It's another hour.

And I can't stand,

I can't stand the,

They're just milking them in.

David's kids can't tell time yet.

So they don't know five minutes,

An hour.

I've trained them that I don't even answer them anymore.

Just look at them and they just don't talk anymore.

This is the training,

Not just milking,

Tricking them every five minutes.

I can't stand the tricking.

Do you trick?

You don't trick.

You don't.

You're very good at this.

I tell them it's one,

We're going to be there in a TV show.

See that's,

That's interesting.

If they can't tell time,

They do know how long a TV show lasts between 20 and 25 minutes.

I'm even training them not to have the TV show,

But to be okay with,

With death,

With darkness and death.

Two parenting styles on the weekly energy list.

When I,

When I asked,

When I say every morning they say good morning and they say good morning,

But they're not looking at me.

I said,

No,

You gotta look at my eyes.

You gotta say good morning.

It's like the most painful thing in the world for them.

But I just feel like it's gotta be conditioned at some point.

Like who else is gonna?

Olympic athletes in training folks.

David Kim's gonna have Olympic athletes.

My three year old said,

I said,

She said,

She said,

I want mom,

Mommy to come right now.

I said,

I said,

Mom,

Isn't working.

She's like,

Why,

Why can't she come right now?

I said,

She's making money.

And she's like,

Well,

Well,

Start,

Tell her to stop.

I said,

Well,

Who's going to buy your toys?

Why don't you,

You want to go buy her toys with,

You want,

You want to make money?

And he's like,

I'll make money.

He's almost four.

I said,

All right,

So I want you to do this,

This and this,

And I'll give you money.

He's like,

I don't want to make money.

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

The point is,

The point is nobody starts off young that we are so conditioned to not tolerate the pain,

The discomfort,

Right?

We just,

We just want what we want right now.

And I think that's the difference between a child and a spiritual mature adult is the ability you are able to tolerate.

I don't think adults are much different than kids.

They're just certain kids.

I said spiritual mature.

Okay,

Yeah,

Yeah.

It's a training is what you're saying.

And what's powerful,

I realized this concept about myself is I have a tolerance for certain things that I can go probably forever.

And I know the ones that can go forever are I finished my tikkun in that area.

And then there's things that maybe I have 10 minutes before I get upset,

Right?

And I know like kind of grow,

I remember growing up,

One of the things that we were conditioned,

Which I'm so grateful for in the Kabbalah system is the need for let's say,

Approval and recognition.

Oh my gosh,

The need.

If you want,

It's not coming.

If you want to overcome your need for approval and recognition,

You need to do what Elisheva and I did,

Which is just become a full time volunteer at the Kabbalah Center.

Because the training and by the way,

It's not like it's not training that just happens like in happenstance way.

It's actually by design.

And I see that they do this kind of stuff in like elite infantry,

Navy Seals.

Yeah,

They don't,

You know,

You might get a medal if you die.

Okay,

You're making it look really bad.

You want to know when you get a thank you,

It's when you're no longer alive,

You'll be celebrated.

It's kind of like,

But what was amazing is if something now if something bad happened,

Everybody's there for you.

But when something good happens,

It's kind of like to be conditioned.

So now it gets to a point where if your reputation is tarnished or someone says something bad,

It's kind of like,

It doesn't even matter,

Right?

Because we've been conditioned.

It's to not need the external is really what David is saying that we're not looking for the measuring stick of are we okay?

Are we not okay?

Are we doing well?

Are we not doing well?

Are we where we need to be?

It's not external.

We were in real time educated to not measure ourselves.

And as soon as we measure it,

It would be an immediate like feedback about it.

And it's powerful because it's an addiction that we all have.

And I'm happy that they helped with this.

Now granted,

There's other areas,

Right?

All of a sudden,

I remember getting married,

It kind of came back in the different words,

A different thing.

It's like a dormant part.

Oh,

I want the approval of my spouse or I want the approval.

And then you have kids and your kids don't look at you and you're like,

Oh,

You don't like me.

So it's kind of like,

You can make your own mac and cheese.

If you don't like my mac and cheese,

You can go make your own money.

Four year old.

So I think we just went off the beaten path.

A little bit.

But you bring me to something I actually I wanted to bring up and I saved it because I wanted to make sure you were going to be in the room for it.

So as David said,

Monday night to Tuesday night is the day that Rava'e Zechariah,

Who we we I think at every episode we share at least one teaching from his writings.

He's really the middleman and from the very esoteric writings,

He brought it down to a little bit more of a relatable,

Practical table of contents style,

Kabbalistic writing.

And then this Saturday,

Friday night to Saturday is actually the day of elevation of our teacher Karen Berg.

It'll be two years this Saturday,

Which is pretty hard to believe.

And David,

I read in the beginning of the episode an article that Karen that Karen posted in 2020,

Which now I think about it about 10 days before Karen decided to move onward and go to the upstairs office and direct from there.

And I wanted to ask you if I don't not putting you on the spot.

What's the most powerful thing you learned from Karen?

Let's say the most powerful thing.

There's a couple there's a couple of personal things that happen that were just kind of divine and miraculous.

But I would think there's a practical life lesson.

I said,

I'll share the one I think that's going to be most practical for people.

I said,

What is the purpose of what I do as a what we call a hebraic term for someone who's kind of part of the system of full time volunteering to help people.

And I was expecting like a spiritual answer,

You know,

Bring something about the world.

So he said,

Look,

He said,

She said to me,

Look,

Doesn't matter whether you're using Kabbalah or not,

Or whatever it is,

But I want you to help.

I just want you to make people happy.

And it was for me,

It kind of just took this,

This mystical pressure off of me of what I need to be doing.

And it was it kind of became simple.

And I said,

In every meeting in every whatever,

How can I move a person closer to being happy because all those little things then add up into something that's life changing for people.

And that was the practicality of the way she spoke to us.

And the advice she,

She would give is kind of,

It was always result oriented advice.

That's also something else I learned is she was what we call in Kabbalah the Malchut,

Like everything led to a manifestation.

And to me,

Actually,

It trained me to realize all the other stuff that we tell people to do.

If it's all just like conceptual up in the air ideas,

And it doesn't lead to manifestation doesn't really mean anything.

It's always being intercepted by the negative side.

But the really powerful person is a person who's able to bring something across the finish line.

Otherwise,

Who cares?

Right?

It's all kind of theory.

So I think this was this was a great gift that I know that with every Kabbalist,

You know,

You draw a different power from and if there's the power of manifestation I need,

Power of practicality,

How do I make things simple for people?

This is this is where I meditate on it from from my point of view.

Can I share mine?

I know you're not gonna ask.

I'm not gonna ask because you're over the 30 minute threshold.

But yes,

Please.

This it's a very special episode.

So what I one of the most powerful things I don't know that I could order them.

But one of the most powerful things I learned from Karen is that the most powerful thing you can do for someone else is to believe in them.

And that I learned not only in her talking about it,

Karen saying,

Listen,

They just need someone who believes in them or if you really want to help your kids out,

Just believe in them.

But also in how Karen believed in us.

I remember,

I think it was 1999.

Karen asked me to take some of the stories from the Zohar and make them into children's books.

This is a true story.

Okay,

1999.

How old was I?

You were two.

Yes,

I was 22.

Actually,

No,

I was I was very young,

Two little kids at home.

And totally doable thing.

By the way,

One of the things that Karen even told me to study in school was writing for children.

And truth be told,

I did a terrible job.

And Karen used to joke about it with me.

Remember those books you wrote?

That was funny,

Right?

That was the approval.

That was the approval I got.

I wrote five stories,

I think.

And what was amazing for me is that Karen turned right around after I did that miserable job and told me to do something else.

And there was no there was no criticism.

There was no it was just kind of a,

Well,

That was that's not we're not going to print that.

Here's something else you can do.

And it happened to me again in I don't know,

2005.

Karen asked me to do something.

I did it.

It worked.

But I got transferred like in a heartbeat after completing that project.

And it was to do something that I didn't think I could do if you had asked me.

But Karen believed in me and sort of threw me in the water and time after time,

Even when you know,

People say when they're up and Karen walk in the room,

We feel the energy,

Right?

You just know they're there.

They have this presence.

And the presence is not arrogant presence.

It's not we're better than you presence.

It's we're in the room,

And you can do better.

You can be better.

We're in the room and we're reminding you there is an even better version of yourself that you could be right this second.

And so for me,

Connecting like David said before,

If on Tuesday,

We're connecting to all of the light that the Arie revealed on Saturday,

Friday night to Saturday,

We're connecting to all of that light that Karen revealed,

Which is this podcast.

Karen was a super,

I think every conversation I had in the last three years with Karen had something to do with this podcast,

Which makes me even more excited.

Even when I those Monday mornings,

I don't want to be in the car driving over here.

That's why I do it.

I in closing,

You know,

Usually close I just want to say something because I know we have people who listen to us from all over the world,

But also from different spiritual paths as well.

And I think something I've realized,

Talking to different people and connecting with people who are different paths,

But maybe they appreciate Kabbalah because it enhances their path,

Is that there are people in this world who are like beacons of light,

Who managed also not to fall on their path,

Fall to the point of no return,

I think everybody falls.

And it's a lucky thing.

And there are people out there on different paths that you're on spiritually and you happen to listen to our podcast and you probably know who are those great mentors or spiritual leaders that you have,

That have broken down walls,

That have flipped negatively systems up on its head,

And have guided you whether directly or indirectly through those gates of hell.

And when you hear the Kabbalah teachers talking about our lineage,

That for us has been the majority of our lives being guided by them.

And I think if you are someone in this world that has someone like that,

Whether it's personal or from afar,

You're very lucky.

And for those of you who have never experienced something like that,

I think it is much more like grappling in a dark room and trying to,

You can eventually figure out where the door is.

And like sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night,

You want to use the bathroom or whatever,

And you're disoriented.

You don't want to turn on that light because you know it's not going to work.

You're not going to be able to go back to bed.

But you're not going to recover from your spouse's being upset.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Hold on,

I got to turn on the lights,

See what's going on.

So it is when you don't have someone like that,

It is kind of like walking through a dark room and you're just grabbing at the walls and eventually you'll get there,

But it's painful.

And so when we talk on this show about our lineage and the great Kabbalists,

And whether it's Karen Berg,

Robert Berg,

Who are more closer to our generation,

Or the RE,

Which was 500 years ago,

Or Rav Shubin Barak,

So many souls,

Hundreds,

Thousands of souls,

We talk about maybe the top 10 all the time.

It's important.

That's why we talk about it.

Because it's not about connecting to David and Ellie Shubin on a podcast.

Something else I've learned is we have to keep talking about the people before so that we keep the flow of energy going.

For sure.

Right?

So that is where we come from.

That's why we say it.

That's why we share our stories.

And why I read sometimes from the writings.

Because we want to get it from the horse's mouth and not just.

.

.

And I think it's important to say that we don't teach Kabbalah as if this is the only thing that is good.

And this is the only path that has a lineage and whatnot.

And I think what people love about Kabbalah is its universality.

And I just want to always be able to distinguish that.

And I think how they all work together.

Karen's other superpower was she went and talked to every different spiritual,

Religious leader almost to the point that it was kind of like she brought in this leader from this and this.

I mean it was things that were.

.

.

It was from a little.

.

.

We had like a 30 day.

Karen brought somebody in every day for 30 days one month.

Yeah.

Did videos with them.

I was like,

Can we.

.

.

At some point I got.

.

.

Can we get back to just teaching Kabbalah?

Because it was like a different spiritual leader from a different part of the world was coming in and telling us.

And I'm like,

This is nice,

But I want my Kabbalah back.

So that was also Karen's superpower of embracing all these paths and bringing them together.

And that's part of what we hope to be able to pass on.

So I started with reading that message from Karen,

David ended with speaking that message because that's really how we opened up today's episode.

That was perfect.

Thank you,

David.

And please continue to like,

Rate,

Review and share what you're listening to.

It makes a big difference as we talked about in the beginning of this week's episode.

The more light you can put out there,

The more light there's gonna be in the world.

So thank you for that.

And we'll see you next week on the Weekly Energy Boost.