THE ART OF SHARING

A beautiful message for ULD!




May 20th - May 26th, 2012

72 Name of the Week Alef Nun Nun NO AGENDA As I cut the strings that I have attached to my giving in the past, I make room for pure sharing, giving to others just for the sake of connecting to the Light. Any favors or payback I have been expecting, I will now drop—because they create false connections. I will give unconditional love and Light to those around me and reap the greater benefit of tapping into the ultimate source of strength.

The kabbalists teach that for us to connect to the Light of the Creator we need to be like the Creator. Like attracts like. As the Creator gives unconditional love and sharing, becoming a being of love and sharing is a tool for us to connect to the Creator. But what does it really mean to become a being of love and sharing? Many people think a simple action of giving is enough, but this is not the case. To share spiritually means we have given up something. This is where the phrase, “Share until it hurts” comes from. Sharing also involves caring so deeply that we don’t feel we are owed anything in return. In other words, to really share like the Light, it needs to be unconditional, without any agenda of our own. I’d like to share with you the story of Rav Aharon of Carlin who smelled the Garden of Eden while passing by a house one day. The scent was so strong, he felt had to enter the home and find out where this incredible smell was coming from. His nose led him straight a room where he saw the clothes of a clown. He asked the owner about the clothes and the owner told him the following story: “Many times, I try to collect money for those in need. A poor person can come to me and I will go out in the city trying to collect whatever I can for them. One night, a man came asking for money and like usual I went looking, but for some reason on this particular night no one would offer me a penny! After I returned home, another person came and begged that I go for him as well, so I went back but again failed. Still later, someone else came asking for help and this time I managed to at least gather up the amount the man had asked for. I gave it to him and collapsed onto my bed, exhausted and ready for sleep. “Suddenly there was a knock on the door. It was an extremely poor man. I wanted to help, but I was so tired and I had already asked everyone I knew. He pleaded with me until finally I had an idea. There was a rich man in the city who loathed giving to charity, but maybe the Light would make him do so just this once. “I went to look for the rich man and found him in a tavern, drunk. When I told him what was happening, he reminded me he never gave to charity. But then he added, ‘Since I am in such a good mood right now, if you do something for me, I will make an exception just this once. All I want is for you to wear these clown clothes and walk around the city!” The rich man laughed loudly. He thought nobody would do such a thing because they would be laughed at and ridiculed. “But I thought to myself, ‘If I don’t do this, there will be a poor man left with nothing.’ So I took the clown’s clothes and put them on. Sure enough, I was laughed at, spat upon and ridiculed. But thank goodness I got the money for the man who was in need.” Upon hearing this story, Rav Aharon told the owner of the house, “If you are buried in those clown’s clothes, your soul will go straight to Heaven.” The lesson here is that the blessing didn’t come to the man just because he had shared. It’s the lengths he went to in order to share! He went so far outside of his comfort zone because he cared so deeply – and for a complete stranger. Try sharing until it hurts this week. We don’t have to get to the level of the man in the story where we are spat on and ridiculed, but we should at least want to achieve that level. The intense desire to share is what really connects us to the Light. All the best, Yehuda