Pisces - The Month of Happiness

The month of Adar (Pisces), which begins today, is a very important one. The Kabbalists teach that as this months begins, the gates of joy and happiness are opened. There is a great opportunity to bring much joy into our lives this month. My father (The Rav’s) teacher taught that, “Happiness is a supernal matter, a gift given to us if we earn it through our spiritual work and growth.”

Happy New Month,

Michael

Happiness is Contagious

This time of year is often filled with much happiness, but also with stress. This article from TIME magazine gives us another reason to maintain our own happiness, and to surround ourselves with happy people. As it turns out, happiness is contagious:

“…What if not only behaviors but also moods and mental states work the same way? Can you catch a case of happy? Increasingly, the answer seems to be yes. That’s the intriguing conclusion from a body of work by Harvard social scientist Dr. Nicholas Christakis and his political-science colleague James Fowler at the University of California at San Diego…”

This is a great article becasue it backs up in scientific terms a spiritual concept Kabbalists have been teaching and practicing for literally thousands of years. Enjoy.

The Happier We Are, the More We Draw the Light

One of the most important aspects of a spiritual life is the need to be happy at all times. This is one of the easiest lessons that there is, but still we find ways to make it complicated.

The kabbalists have taught that joy is one of the most important prerequisites for a connection to the Creator and His Light. It is a wonderful spiritual cycle; the happier we are, the more we draw the Light of the Creator to ourselves, which in turn makes us more joyful and fulfilled.

It is important that we understand the logic of this spiritual law.

In the physical world beings become close or separate through time and space. But spiritual entities become close or separate depending on their similarity of form. If two beings are similar in nature then they are close and united spiritually. And if they are dissimilar in nature then they are separate spiritually. This is a fundamental spiritual rule that has many ramifications.

We know that the innate quality of the Light of the Creator is of fulfillment and joy. There is no energy of sadness in the Creator’s Light. Therefore, to connect and draw Light we need to be similarly joyful and happy. It is only when we are similar in this way that Light can come to us and reveal even greater joy.

Moreover the amount of Light that we can draw through any spiritual action is in exact correlation to the amount of joy that we have in doing the action, the greater our joy the greater the Light that we will receive.

This is a powerful and important lesson. Many great Kabbalists have said that they achieved their greatness mainly through a constant state and focus of joy.

There is one more aspect to joy that can make a big difference. Sometimes we find ourselves in a bad or sad mood. All we need to do is simply tell ourselves to be happy, and we can change our mood in one second. Especially now that we know that sadness actually blocks the Light of the Creator, and that as we change our mood to joy we can draw to ourselves more of the Light and bring ourselves even greater joy and happiness.