Matot & Masaei

This week there are two Torah portions Matot & Masaei.

The portion of Matot has several lessons for us to learn.

1. Feeling Superior We all feel like we are better than someone else for some reason of the other. Maybe you might say you can drive better, sing better, or just plain look better. We learn this week to work on our selfish pride. A truly spiritual person would not see him/herself as better or above anyone else. They understand that we are all equal. When one person has something that someone else does not it simply means they have more responsibility to share and affect others with that gift. This changes the way we live. Our lives are not about getting more, but are about giving more with what we have been blessed with! Don't think in terms of better/worse or more/less, just different jobs.

2. The Power of Words This lesson carries over from last week. Like your mother always said, "Watch your mouth!" Every word has the power to heal or destroy. I know it sounds corny, but it is true. This lesson is expanded this week by considering what our words mean when we "promise" something. It is very easy to say you'll be there or you've got your friends back or you are going to volunteer. Actually showing up and following through on your promise is harder. This does not mean we should not speak our promises, because voicing these commitments gives us the energy we need to act on them. All you need to do is think before you make a promise to a friend, coworker, or even yourself!

The portion of Masaei, which does not have a Zohar portion, is very powerful. In this section of Torah we find a summary of the Israelites journey in the desert and lists the 42 places that they stopped along the way.

1. Rav Berg, the spiritual leader of the Kabbalah Centre, teaches that whenever we travel we elevate our consciousness. We need to remember why we are going and what we can accomplish along the way. By doing this we can discover what sparks of Light we can reveal along the way by connecting to G-d and exercising restriction in our actions and interactions.

2. The number 42 in this section is also very important. The number 42 represents the Ana Bekoach, an ancient kabbalistic prayer that gives us the ability to rise above the chaos of the world around us. The 42 letters of the Ana Bekoach have the power to control all of creation, because G-d used them in the creating of the world. The prayer itself is derived from the beginning of the book of Bereshith (Genesis). This portion's connection to the number 42 takes us back to the moment of creation and allows us to control what happened back then. This gives us the power to control the seed level of the world and our lives in it.

Special thanks to Miriam Levi for opening my eyes to this wisdom.

Kol Tuv,

Matthew