This week on the Shabbat of Sukkot, we will read from the same portion that we read during Chol Hamoed of Pesach. On the surface, this would seem a bit redundant. Didn’t we already read about this six months ago? Why would we need to hear it read again?
"These are considered the months of manifestation."
The kabbalists teach that the months from Nissan (Aries) to Elul (Virgo) are considered male months, a time for planting seeds, a time for new ideas and for planning. The female months, Tishrei (Libra) through Adar (Pisces), is the time we have just entered into, as of Rosh Hashanah. These are considered the months of manifestation.
We have all been on our own journey for the past six months. The spiritual study and inner work we have done has hopefully given us all certain ideas about who we want to be, how we want to behave, what kind of a future we want to create for ourselves and possibly even for the world. Now is the time to take those ideas, those seeds that we planted with our consciousness, and to start to act upon them.
"All it takes is a first step."
How do we do this? Well, thankfully we have help from the universe. The reason we read the same portion now, at the beginning of the female months, as we did at the start of the male months, is to give us an extra boost of energy to help us kick off this new period of time on the right footing.
On a practical level, for you and I, all it takes is a first step. Oftentimes when it comes to manifesting the many ideas we have, we try to take on everything at once. Usually this leads us to a burning out which takes us back again to square one; whereas, if we had simply taken a first step we would have made progress towards our goal.
In these coming seven days, figure out one thing you can do to inch towards your ideas and act upon them. For instance, let’s say one decides to start studying the Zohar. The first step might be to get the Zohar! The second step might be to unwrap the Zohar, to hold it in your hands, to feel its energy, and to see what it brings to mind. The third step may be scanning it, then reading it, and eventually studying from its wisdom.
This is how great change is made… one small step at a time.
This article was originally published in 2016.
