Discover Kabbalah Part 2 Class 8 : Karen Berg on Certainty

What is certainty? You know, we hear the word like for instance, I am certain, I have ten fingers. Really? If I was on a trip, I might not think so. But when we talk about certainty, we are discussing, on a spiritual plane, what is certainty. In other words, do we really believe that there is a Divine Spirit? And that Divine Spirit is something that we need to attain to? When something happens in our lives that is real bad, someone gets seriously ill, or we go bankrupt or many of the other ills that are too wide to enumerate. Do we feel always, "I know there is another reason for this, I know that something better has to come". Or do we say to ourselves, "After so much good that I have done, why is it coming to me? Why do I need this? I mean after all, haven't I been a good person all my life? Haven't I done things for other people? Why have I been affected in such a way?" And it brings me to the story which maybe you know, that once the Rav went to see a friend with his teacher, Rabbi Brandwein, who was dying of cancer. And the man, as Rabbi Brandwein approached him said, "Why do I deserve this? After all my life? My children have been raised in the community, I have always given charity, I have always been a sharing human being. How come I got affected in such a way?" When they left, Rabbi Brandwein of course told him some niceties, but when he walked out with the Rav, he said to him, "What a foolish man. Who put him in that role all of his life? The fact that he grew up in a community, that is where he was. Or that the children went in the same manner. Well, that was norm for that time. He grew up in that way. The time he was being tested in his faith was now". And what happened? Basically, what he was saying is, "God why have you forsaken me? Why do I have to suffer like this?" It reminds me, of when the student came to Rabbi Akiva and said to him, "They are going to take the skin off your body, Rabbi Akiva. How could they do that to you?" And Rabbi Akiva answered him, "Go away snake! All my life, I have been waiting for the opportunity to show my certainty in the Light. And if this is the way that I can find the cleansing for the world, if this is what needs to happen so that others will not suffer, then I'm prepared"! The end of the story, it says, is that as they were combing the flesh off his body, he was reciting a prayer, and it is said that he left and was able to see his body from a different space. Why? Because he knew as most of us in our lives, would never reach unfortunately, but he knew that whatever was happening in that space in his life, was happening for a purpose. That he had the message that the Divine would never leave him. How many of us can say the same? How many of us when somebody falls ill, how many of us, when we lose our business, how many of us, when we lose our girlfriend say, "Okay, they've just closed the window, there must be a door some place. I may not see it this moment, But I do have the certainty, that there is another door that will open for me". Because if we did, then there isn't anything in life that can really throw us. Yes, we can be sad when the loved one leaves, we can be sad when things happen in our lives that are very negative. But at least to say, "Now I understand why they call this the Game of Life". Because it is a game. And the game is either you believe ... and I don't even like the word believe, because I was thinking about what the Rav said. The Rav says I don't believe, because believing means maybe? ... I believe. I am sure that there is a God. And I am sure that whatever happens in my life is something either I need to change, something that I have done to create that to happen, something that I have motivated in a way, maybe of this life or the former life that allows the situation to come into play. And who knows if it's not to elevate me to a higher level of spirituality. If I can go with that consciousness, if I can feel that way, in all things, then I can never be thrown into the corner in the darkness. Because I have a certainty that there is existence and there is a reason and a cause which perhaps I don't see, perhaps I am walking with blinders. But I know that some place there's an end to that tunnel. Thank you.