The Truth Behind Virgo (Elul)

By Kabbalist Rav Berg

There is a very simple, very powerful kabbalistic prayer that consists of only a few words: “Lead me in the correct path.”  In directing our way along life’s path, we can find guidance and understanding in the spiritual meaning of the months and the holidays.

The Book of Formation, composed by Abraham the Patriarch, is the first kabbalistic document.  Here it is written: “He appointed the letter Resh, and bestowed upon it a crown, and to it He assigned Mercury…”  Further on we read: “He appointed the letter Yud, and bestowed upon it a crown, and to it He assigned Virgo in the world and Elul in the year.”  The phrase “and bestowed upon it a crown” indicates that these Hebrew letters are the seed and root for the planets or the signs that that they created.  They are also the seeds for the channels that connect the planets to the Sefirah of Keter. 

Traditionally, the month of Elul is a time for repentance (“Teshuvah” in Hebrew), for Elul is followed immediately by Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe.  Elul is dedicated to introspection and self-scrutiny, which involves taking a closer look at what has happened over the past ten months.  At this time each year, Jews around the world gather to ensure their destinies on the Day of Judgment.

But Kabbalah teaches that Elul has even greater purpose and meaning.  According to the Zohar, for example Teshuvah is not simply the asking for forgiveness and absolution from the Creator.  Moreover, the holiday of Rosh Hashanah is intended for all the peoples of the world, not just the Jewish people.  Indeed, all of the Torah's hidden wisdom and all kabbalistic festivals exist for humanity as a whole.  The Biblical People of Israel are the “chosen people” only in the sense that they are the channels for bringing the tools and teachings of Kabbalah into the world.  For centuries, there has been a misconception that at the Revelation on Mount Sinai the Torah was given to the Israelites alone.  The Zohar explains that this is a mistaken notion. 

Another mistake as we prepare for the Day of Judgment is misuse of the word repentance, which in a kabbalistic sense has nothing to do with asking forgiveness.  A conventional understanding of repentance suggests that wrongful behavior is acceptable throughout the year, because on Rosh Hashanah we can simply step into the nearest synagogue and ask for forgiveness.  In this way, we can supposedly evade the consequences of whatever we may have done over the past 12 months.  Neither the civil nor criminal justice systems offer such reprieve, but we expect the Creator to be satisfied with merely a request for forgiveness as a basis for a blanket absolution?  But can we really expect pardon for our sins based on the murmuring of prayers on a certain holiday?  In fact, this is not the way to right the wrongs of the past year.  So what is “the correct path” in which Kabbalah can lead us?  What is the true meaning of Teshuvah? 

The Zohar’s cryptic answer is this: “When the Hei goes back to the Vav.”  A correct interpretation of this passage informs us that all the damage we may cause over the course of a year takes place only because we have disconnected from the Creator’s Light.  In Hebrew, Teshuvah is actually Tashuv-hei.  The Hei, as the last of the four letters that make up the Tetragrammaton, alludes to the world of Malchut – which should connect with the Tetragrammaton’s first three letters, altogether representing the Tree of Life.  Through this union we may merit the revelation of Light that will facilitate the correction of the damage we have caused. 

We can now see that repentance, or Teshuvah, is not just a religious ritual or a traditional recitation of prayers.  Rather, it is a fundamental and far-reaching spiritual journey to the source of spiritual energy for the entire world.  Recognizing this rejuvenating connection with the channel that directs the Light of the Creator is in itself a revelation of great Light – and in the presence of the Light, darkness vanishes. 

We do not need force or violence to destroy chaos, nor can we destroy it by those means.  Even the defeat of the Nazi regime in the Second World War by the combined strength of the Allied Forces did not succeed in driving chaos out from the world.  Wars, disease, accidents and hardship remain in the daily experience of all humanity to this very day.  Over the generations, there have been many wars and revolutions whose purpose was to free the masses and offer them the possibility to live happily.  This purpose was never fully realized, despite the military victories.  The problems that are ascribed to dictatorships continue even after the dictator’s fall. 

Here the teachings of the Zohar are striking in their simplicity: Do not fight the darkness, for your battle against darkness has no chance of success.  Instead, turn on the Light and the darkness will disappear.  Dedicate your efforts to the revelation and dissemination of Light through the spiritual work of Teshuvah.  Bringing the Creator’s Light into our lives is the only way to remove all aspects of chaos. 

The most powerful channel for Light is the Tetragrammaton, and Teshuvah is the means for connecting to this channel.  The letter Vav represents the part of the spiritual world that is called Zeir Anpin, the same part that has direct contact and influence in our world.  The final Hei in the Tetragrammaton represents the physical reality with which our minds and our five senses are familiar.  The rejuvenating connection between the letter Hei and the letter Vav bring about a great revelation of Light on the physical plane.  The Zohar urges us to meditate on this connection. 

We can also renew our connection to the Light by converting our material consciousness; that is, by transforming the desire to receive for ourselves alone into the spiritual consciousness of Zeir Anpin, which is receiving for the sake of sharing on a cooperative basis.  This change in consciousness is equal to a journey faster than the speed of Light – a journey “Back to the Future.”  In order to understand this, we first need to examine a few aspects of the month of Elul and the sign of Virgo.

The internal quality of the sign of Virgo is virginity, meaning originality and ingenuity.  A virginal thing is something that has not gone through any change or been influenced by any external forces, something that remains completely intact.  Abraham the Patriarch chose to use this name for the sign that directs the Light to the entire universe for one month in order to hint at the internal quality of the sign, thereby helping us to connect to its Light and reveal it in the world.  A superficial and intellectual look at the world is bound to offer us the faulty conclusion that the Creator planned for the world to be chaotic.  The Zohar reveals to us that the entire purpose of Creation was to solve the problem of chaos and the sign of Virgo is one of the solutions.  The Creator designed the energy of Virgo to be an active channel for the revelation of Light during the month before Rosh Hashanah.  It is, after all, a way to prepare us for the Day of Judgment – but not just for the sake of awakening regret within us over the wrongdoings of the past year.  Obviously, it is not enough to say “Sorry, I apologize for what I have done.”  We must accept full responsibility for our actions as well.  None of us have the right to hurt anyone else, certainly not because of the short visit to the synagogue that will wipe the slate clean on Rosh Hashanah.  We have all come to this world in order to correct our past lives.  Only together can we complete our global correction.

In a previous incarnation, we all took advantage of the opportunity we were given to draw Light to ourselves, each one of us on our own.  This time, we have met up again in order to correct this by converting our desire to receive for the self alone into a desire to receive for the sake of sharing with others, out of true care and concern for our neighbors.  There is no question that in order to achieve control over our destinies, we must all transform our consciousness of desire to receive for the self alone into a consciousness of sharing. 

But once we have understood and accepted this idea, what are we to do?  The Zohar tells us that when Abraham the Patriarch provided us with the cosmic calendar, he informed us that the month of Elul is controlled by the sign of Virgo.  In practical terms, this means that the month of Elul provides us with the opportunity to achieve control over our lives and to form our destinies.  In this month, under the influence of Virgo, we are able to go back in time to those moments in which we erred, and erase those moments along with the chaos they can bring into our lives. 

During Elul, therefore, we are able to cleanse our behaviors and return them back to a virginal state.  At the same time, this also restores the environment that gave rise our past mistakes to a virginal state.  In this way, both the chaos and setting in which it occurred are cleansed of all negativity.  This is the full meaning of “Back to the Future” – a movie categorized as science-fiction, but from a kabbalistic perspective it concerns a very practical aspect of our existence in the universe.

Not only was the universe created with the capability to move forward and backward through time, but it is a Mitzvah to initiate this journey as part of our spiritual connection to the month of Elul and to the act of Teshuvah.  Kabbalah has been familiar with time travel for more than 4000 years, while physicists have seriously considered this phenomenon only in the last 100 years.  Physicists recently have speculated that under certain conditions, elementary particles are able to travel beyond the speed of Light.  The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that the keys to this process have been concealed for 2000 years, and are only now being revealed before our very eyes.  But in order to truly make use of this wisdom, a technical understanding of Teshuvah is required. 

We must understand the process of time travel and the means by which we can actualize this travel.  On Shabbat, for example, we can access the time machine called “Brich Shmae.”  By means of this special excerpt from the Zohar, we can travel back to Mount Sinai in an instant, beyond the speed of Light.  Students of Kabbalah, of course, are already used to this idea: we make this same journey every Shabbat.  In the month of Elul, we make similar journeys through the power of the sign of Virgo, in order to undo our negative actions in the past.  This is the only way to remove their influence over our behavior in preparation for Rosh Hashanah.  Furthermore, it is crucial to do so, for no one in the world can avoid submitting a personal account on this Day of Judgment.

Even though we cannot escape the submission of our personal account of all our past actions on Rosh Hashanah, we are given a gift by special means described by Abraham the Patriarch and explained by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai that enables us to correct our mistakes in advance. 

Teshuvah, therefore, is not a required gesture on our part, but a gift, a unique opportunity to correct the historical process and remove any aspect of chaos from the annals of the universe as well as from our own personal lives.

What exactly takes place during the Teshuvah process?  Our destiny is determined by the negativity that was brought into the universe on the very day of our wrongdoing.  By removing the negativity via Teshuvah, the day on which the negativity was created in the past becomes a turning point for bringing positive energy to our lives.  Quite literally, we have the power to go back in time and transform negative events into positive ones, to change history through the influence of thought, to remove suffering from our lives, and to balance the accounts that remain open between ourselves and others over the course of our lives.  The Creator has not abandoned or deserted us.  He has given us a complete system with which we can control our destinies, and the more we understand this system, the better it works for us. 

Humanity will eventually acknowledge all this, but it would certainly have benefited us all if the acknowledgement had taken place 2000 years ago.  This wisdom was concealed until less than a hundred years ago, when Rabbi Ashlag disclosed to us the kabbalistic wisdom hidden in the Zohar and the Kitvei Ha'Ari.  But now the path is open to all mankind to go back and control the universe with peace and harmony.

With all this in mind, let us try to return to the connection between the letters Hei and Vav – and, as the Zohar explains, we will find additional connections that had previously been overlooked.  For example, the prospect of immortality is now being discussed as a possible reality – not just a dream – in scientific journals as well as news media across the world.  Genetic engineering has caused this possibility to appear more and more feasible.  But no one stops to ask why this sudden awareness and change in approach to immortality is happening now.  Why did this revolution not take place 20 years ago?  The truth is that this development is clearly related to the dissemination of kabbalistic teachings, and the sudden, widespread growth in the study of Kabbalah.

When Rabbi Shimon said, “They brought the Hei back to the Vav,” his meaning was this: “We have renewed the connection between effect and cause, between Malchut and Zeir Anpin.  You have gone back to a virginal state, to the beginning, thereby revealing your true potential.”  As long as we did not reveal Light, the Klipot also had hold on us. Teshuvah, however, is the most powerful means for cleansing ourselves of negative energy, and this cleansing leads us to the Fountain of Youth and immortality. 

In the month of Elul, the entire universe is suffused with Virgo consciousness to the greatest possible degree.  The power of this consciousness enables us to go back in time to an embryonic state, to the root, when we had much more protection against negativity.  An embryo's protection in the womb is much more than we are given in the physical world.

The Rabad referred to Elul as “Et Ratzon” – “a time of goodwill.”  What does this mean?  Et Ratzon is the time in which the Heavenly Gates are open and the Creator happily and lovingly receives all of us and our prayers.  Does this mean that in all other months of the year, the Creator has His back to us?  The answer is obviously no.  Kabbalah teaches that the Creator is with us every day of the year, and that, at every moment and in every month, a different aspect of His beneficence is revealed and influences our lives with only goodness.  If this is true, what point is being made by “Et Ratzon” in connection with the month of Elul? 

In The Kabbalah Centre's siddur, or prayer book, we see that the word ratzon has the same numerical value, plus one, as the mem-hei-shin, the letter combination for healing from the 72 Names of God.  The connection with this Name opens a window of understanding regarding the month of Elul.  This month offers us the possibility of healing both our physical and spiritual selves, of healing others as well as the entire universe from all of the ills that plague it, by means of this special aspect of the Light that is revealed during the balance of the year only on Shabbat.  Kabbalistic healing differs from other healing methods in that the kabbalistic healing process involves going back to the root, a kind of rebirth.  Every doctor knows that cancer does not begin on the day or during the month that it reveals itself in medical examinations, but that it begins years before.  In order to remove the illness, the law of cause and effect absolutely requires that we go back to the day on which we caused damage to ourselves and to others.

Now we can understand how the concept of bi-directional time travel enables us to realize a better future for ourselves.  This realization is dependent upon the removal of the negativity that we have revealed over our lifetime, all of which ultimately causes pain to others and to ourselves.  When we use the mem-hei-shin, we re-focus the Creator’s Light, and by means of this Light we drive out the morbid darkness. This is a truly startling concept, yet there is still more that needs to be understood.

On Rosh Hashanah, we connect to every aspect of the internal qualities of the month of Elul.  In order accomplish this, we feast together and break bread with the blessing of “Hamotzi” as a group.  In this way we unify our efforts and increase our chances of making the New Year the best one yet.  This also ensures our eradication of every aspect of chaos that could plague us throughout the coming months. The only requirement for the success of this effort is knowledge and certainty that it is in fact possible.  If we lose hope and allow doubt to enter our drive to remove chaos, we will not be able to realize Teshuvah, to use the power of Elul, or to eliminate chaos from our midst.  Mind over matter is the only rule.   

We will arrive at Rosh Hashanah with the knowledge that the New Year will be full of all of the beneficence of the Light.  We can only merit this under the condition that we are certain of it.  This is the aspect of personal accountability that Kabbalah teaches us.  Each one of us is personally responsible for our own success or failure to reveal Light in our lives.  There is no free ride, no matter how many other spiritual methodologies we find.  We must take this responsibility upon ourselves from the start.  We have to take responsibility for our negative actions, to commit not to do them again, and then, with the power of our consciousness, move forward and remove every ounce of chaos from our lives in this month.

Rabbi Elazar's Death Anniversary

What is sharing?  A person who is not busy with himself, and instead is busy with others, is considered a sharing person.  Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar knew that they had a responsibility: to share with the entire world and not to give a thought to themselves.  The righteous are not simply “nice people.” “Nice people” who share with others are not considered truly sharing individuals, because this reflexive kind of sharing is their natural inclination.  The righteous, however, rise above their natural inclinations.

To understand this, consider what took place when Rabbi Shimon left the world.  Rabbi Elazar, Rabbi Shimon’s son, felt a different kind of sorrow from what ordinarily is experienced by those who lose a father or a mother.  The sorrow that people feel in this situation comes from a sense of loss that is connected to the desire to receive for the self alone.  A person who feels this sort of sorrow does not have the consciousness of true sharing.  When a spouse dies and the surviving spouse feels sorry, this is not an expression of being true soulmates, but rather concern for the self alone.

The souls of Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar completed one another.  Like Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Elazar busied himself only with sharing.  When he sat with his father in the cave for 13 years, he knew it was a tremendous merit to have the obligation to care for the entire world and all of humanity – past, present, and future – through this act of sharing.  Nothing was outside Rabbi Elazar’s connection.  How can we achieve this consciousness?  Only by true sharing, as exemplified by Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar.

Whoever truly shares achieves control over the entire world.  It is said in the Zohar that once the world had to be destroyed, and the only way to prevent this destruction was to invite Rabbi Elazar to the gravesites of the righteous sages with a Torah scroll.  Rabbi Elazar said that because the entire world was in danger of being destroyed, he had to enlist all of the sages together to bring the world back to its normal balance.  Only Rabbi Elazar had the ability to serve as the instigator for restoration of this kind, for he had a tremendous spiritual vessel.  He was able to stand by Rabbi Shimon's side – in the presence of very powerful Light that – and not be burned.

We must be conscious of the fact that, at the moment we stop thinking about ourselves, we merit being worthy of the Light.  We all came to this world with empty vessels.  Even a king born in a castle comes to this world with empty hands.  When the soul departs from this world it goes up to the World of Truth with a sack full of good deeds in hand.  The only way to rise up to the World of Truth as thoughtful people with a sack full of good deeds is by going out of ourselves, collectively sharing with true concern for others.  We are all so busy looking out for ourselves and making our way in the world that we forget how insignificant our ego needs really are.

What is the difference between sharing and caring?  Caring means seeing the needs of the other person.  The more a person is wrapped up in himself, the more difficult it will be for him to see the needs of others.  The purpose of caring is to identify the needs of others and to truly need to help.  In contrast, sharing is only secondary; it is the manifestation of the “Avchanah” that comes from caring.

When Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar came out of the cave after 13 years, their bodies were covered with sores.  This teaches us that in order to progress and achieve something in our lives, we must be ready to extend ourselves and experience hardship.  One day Rabbi Elazar went to the Upper Worlds, met the Angel Michael, and asked him, “How do the archangels sing?”  Michael answered him, “According to the Aleph-Bet.”  Consequently, all of the songs that Rabbi Elazar wrote thereafter were all written in the order of the Hebrew alphabet.  The world was also created by means of the Aleph-Bet, and Rabbi Elazar's death anniversary takes place on the exact day of the creation of the world.

Rabbi Elazar was the only one of the sages whose prayers are said during the Ten Days of Repentance and the Days of Awe.  Rabbi Elazar died during the time of Slichot, before Rosh Hashanah.  The death of righteous people atones and purifies us.  In this way, Rabbi Elazar's death gives us an opportunity to connect to him. 

In the Gemara it is written, “Man will forever be seen as two parts: one half obligated, one half merited”…half good and half bad – and that is how the entire world is constructed.  Accordingly, a single Mitzvah necessitates that he and the entire world tilt the scales to the positive side.  A single transgression tilts the scales to the negative side.  This is no exaggeration nor is it a joke, but the truth of truths. 

We are not aware of the tremendous importance of our actions, and we waste the merit and responsibility that is placed in our hands as long as we live in this world.  The Maggid of Mezerich said, “The amount of Light that a person reveals is the amount manifested of his soul's power.”  Our sages saw the gravity of a solitary action.  Especially in the month of Elul, we are charged to do every positive action possible, and it is important that each action comes to fruition out of sharing consciousness, of concern and responsibility for the destiny of the entire world.  If we merit this understanding and remember it the year round, this will be a year that is changed for the better.