One of the most significant paths towards a life of purpose and joy is the path of moral clarity. To be able to sift through the distractions and confusion that society places in our path and to follow the path of light and truth.

In this week’s Torah portion, G-d commands the Jewish people to sanctify themselves, for G-d is sanctified. Sanctification is a process of separation. One takes pause prior to entering a holy space. Here G-d is commanding us to take pause as we transform ourselves into a holy space, a vessel to contain G-d’s light. In order to do this, we must first separate ourselves from impurity.

First, we must be clear on what is pure and what is impure, what is holy, and what is unholy. G-d commands us to refrain from idol worship. Idol worship is a way of walking blindly through life, lost, without direction. Seeking to hold onto what appears to be salvation but is just a mirage.

In our society, one of the biggest idols that we serve is money. Money is a blessing, having financial stability, being able to give charity, not worrying constantly about how to pay the bills. We all want that. Yet we often get lost in the worship of money. We see it as our ticket out of our struggles, we see it as freedom, we see it as a god.

And that is where we must pause. Where we take a moment to remind ourselves that G-d is our channel for blessing, health, wealth and all of our other physical needs.

In this moment of pause, we find sanctity, separation from the endless rat race.

As we make our way towards the holiday of Shavuot, the holiday of receiving the Torah, we slowly open our inner receptors. We cannot receive blessing, cannot receive the Torah, if we are blocked or disconnected.  Therefore, we slowly make our way, week by week, through the counting of the Omer, the process of working on our character traits one by one. This week we worked on the character trait of severity, which is, in Kabbalistic terms, the trait of judgement and limitation. We must judge and study the path that we are on in life, part by part, and see what may be blocking our personal growth. Once we have acknowledged this block, we are ready to find creative ways to overcome it. Seek new opportunities, pray with more fervor, beseeching G-d to fill this lack with blessing.  Through this, we create fresh new channels for drawing down G-d’s expansive blessings into our lives.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Zushe Cunin