There is a very dramatic moment in the story of the book of Genesis:
Yehuda is confronting Joseph over the accusation that Benjamin stole Joseph’s silver cup, though Benjamin actually didn’t steal it. Joseph himself had actually put the cup in Benjamin’s bag, as a test, before they left Joseph’s lands in Egypt. Yehuda had sold Joseph into slavery some 20 years prior, and didn’t know the Egyptian Vizier he was talking to was actually his brother Joseph, who had worked himself into a comfortable position as Pharaoh’s advisor.
Sounds like a good movie.
Rav Berg taught that this story is all about overcoming conflicts in our life. We all have many conflicts with many people in our life – whether it’s with a mother or father, brother or sister, work colleague or good friend – that we feel are against us. Why do we have all of these conflicts, and why do they take so much from our life and our energy?
Kabbalah teaches that we come to this world to correct ourselves, to work on our tikun (our correction). What does it mean work on our correction? What is it that is broken that we need to correct or fix?
Among the many fields of teachings in Kabbalah, we study reincarnation because we want to understand what we did in the past that might be affecting us today. Oftentimes we have dreams and fantasies in which maybe we are a king or a queen, a General in the army, or just a very important rich person that does good for others.
Maybe we were these people who did good deeds in past lives, but we certainly also created damage, and we hurt certain people, causing them pain and discomfort.
In the same way that we are coming back to this world, the people we have hurt are coming back as well. The Light of the Creator makes a large effort to ensure that we meet these people again, so that we can fix the damage we did in the past.
Rav Berg taught us that any time that we are in uncomfortable situation, the Light is really giving us an opportunity to fix mistakes from the past, whether from this lifetime or before.
Think for a moment on a conflict that you have now or had in the past. Try to see the conflict through the eyes of Kabbalah. Why has the Light sent you this conflict? What is the deeper reason?
Most of the time, conflicts are with people that we love and care about, with people whose opinions we respect. If we take one of the key lessons of Kabbalah, and we know that everything – even conflicts – comes from the Light, and that people we are in conflict with are only messengers for us to fix something and to transform ourselves, if we see it like that, it is not a conflict, it’s a big GIFT.
The energy of the Zohar portion Vayigash helps us to see the gift in every conflict.
It would be great for you to speak with a Kabbalah teacher this week about the key conflict in your life, and based on your story the teacher can you give tools on how to solve the conflict.
