Tubshvat- and the BIGGER picture
We have to normalize strong emotions, normalize going through hard things, normalize having breakdowns. It’s all part of the process of being human.
We all go through hard times and we all struggle and we all break down! It’s part of life!
It’s how life is designed to make us out best self. Crush the grape to make wine, more mature, potent and powerful Version of ourselves, through time and experience. Crush the olive, to make pure oil, the substance that can light peoples souls on fire and ignite the world with love and passion for truth. Crush and grind the wheat, strip it of its external layer, it’s protections, it’s boundaries, it’s ego fears and selfishness - then take that sensitive vulnerable kernel and grind it to power. Grind it to nothing, bittul, nothingness for the sake of becoming something bigger and greater. Mixed with something external, something other than its self, it becomes something totally different, and dare I say greater.
The date drips with sweetness, tastes like natures Carmel candy created by gd, yet it takes hours under brutal sun dying in the heat as the sugars break down and carmalize. It looses all its natural tough fibers and juices (wait but those are mine! That’s who i am! Don’t take those away from me! Don’t make me change, or loose myself!) maybe you will become sweeter, softer, more appealing to touch the souls of the ones you love and wish to connect with. Maybe the time in the sun is what created and brought out your natural sweetness that was not revealed or seen at first.
We are all composites of another. We have millions of parts just to make us, and we are one of millions that make up the world. If you have tasted a fig, just with one bite you are crunching down millions of seeds. It’s the seeds that make up the fig! Each one is so delicate, and tiny, yet all of them together make up the insides of the fig. We are all important, and really, all the same. We all make up the landscape of humanity, and at the end of the day, we are all the same creature with the same purpose - here to glorify G-ds name and revel Gds presences in the world. Every seed can do that. Ever seed is needed to do that. No matter how tiny. Same with the Pomegranate. The differences is we can eat the outside of the fig, we can enjoy the whole pictures knowing it’s is the reality- seeds and outside, people and existence. It’s all one, it’s all connected, it makes up reality. We cannot eat the outsides of a pomegranate. The outside is there solely for the
Purpose of creating and protecting the gems inside. Each seed is its own universe and reality, and each seed is a gem. Each is an exquisite experience meant to be enjoyed singularly. Each can stand on its own, for the purpose of just that one the whole pomegranate could have been created.
And then barley.
Last, most humble, and lowly. Yet I believe the most important, and the key to all success. Animal fodder. Animal food. No husk, easy to eat and enjoy. Practical. Simple. Humble. Lower level actions, choices and feelings. It’s elevating these that make you into who you are. It’s our animalistic behaviors that if we can just elevate, hack, use, embrace, and accept - these traits were given to us for a reason for us to overcome and Excell in these areas. We have to embrace all parts of ourselves. It takes humility, confidence, bravery and strength to look at our seemingly animalistic side in the eye and say, i love you too. You make me who i am, as i over come you through acceptance and love on the stepping stone to becoming my best self. It is because of you, my lowly, lazy, lame and nothingness side of me- it is because of you i will become who i am mean to be. My flaws are the pathway to my growth.
25th of kislev our ideal self was conceived
Tubshavat our ideal self has germinated to the point of just beginning to realize there is something going on under the surface, something happening inside.
From now to pesach we will begin to grow and define our ideal self, strengthening it, supporting it with love and kindness, and fueling it with growth and clarity.
And from pesach to shavout we do the final refining of that beautiful baby, who really could have been born before, but now from this process of refining and sharpening our traits and personalities both inside and outside, we will be ready to be born - born as our greatest selves, the self that is finally able to have the greatest relationship of all, the relationship between Us and Gd- as shavuos is the marriage ceremony, the wedding night, the moment of complete and total accomplishment of everything we’ve been trying to achieve, and everything we’ve been out here to do.
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