חַיֵּי שָׂרָה
Portion Chayei SaraMichael Berg
The Fire of Renewal
Michael Berg's teaching on the fire
that breaks through the concealment of each day
Michael Berg's teaching on the fire
that breaks through the concealment of each day
This page is a synthesis of Michael Berg's class on the portion Chayei Sara. He starts from a simple question: if the Light of the Creator promises a life full of miracles and blessings, why are so many days not like that? The answer he brings from Rabi Akiva, Rabi Shimon and the Zohar fits in two words: renewal and fire.
Every day dawns with its own hastarah, a veil of concealment that hides the blessings and the Light of that day. Michael Berg teaches that the only way through it is the fire of renewal.
Doing what we always do, the way we always do it, leaves the day hidden. Doing something new, kindled from within, lets the Light in.
Michael Berg opens with a paradox most of us live. The promise of the Light of the Creator is a life of fulfillment, where miracles occur when we need them and blessings manifest. Yet that is rarely our daily experience. This Shabbat, he says, holds the secret of how to live the life the Light of the Creator wants for us.
He tells a midrash. Rabi Akiva, the teacher of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai, was teaching the secrets of this portion and noticed the audience dozing off. To wake them, he asked: through what merit did Esther come to rule 127 countries? And he answered: because Sarah lived 127 years.
Michael reads this as a message straight to us. Rabi Akiva is telling each of us: you are asleep. The Light of this Shabbat is the way to wake up and begin to gain mastery over the physical world, awakening miracles and blessings when we need them.
The portion speaks of Sarah's death, yet it is called “the life of Sarah” because it holds the secret of life. Michael recalls an ancient word, chayut, life force. There are days we wake up with that chayut, full of excitement. And there are days we do not. Perhaps too many.
Everything Rabi Akiva wants to awaken in us fits in two words: renewal and fire. Our connection to the Light of the Creator needs to be full of fire, and the actions we do to connect need to be done with renewal.
What if that is not my experience? Michael says he will return to that at the end. First he wants to show what happens to those who live this way and to those who do not. Any spiritual life without this fire, he says, avoiding the word “worthless,” does not have the purpose for which we were given the teachings.
The Sefer HaTemunim explains that Sarah lived a hundred years, twenty years and seven years. Shanah, year, comes from the idea of a cycle of time. And the problem with time in this world, Michael says, is that every day has its own hastarah, its own concealment.
When you woke up today, a unique concealment was created for this day. Imagine a film of concealment around your whole day. If we follow the natural state, the day stays hidden, and with it the blessings and the Light of the day.
Hence the question so many ask: I am on the spiritual path, why am I not seeing the blessings? Because we live in the world of time and space, a world of illusion, and every day it dawns hidden. The only way through that concealment is something truly new, done with fire. Sarah lived every day knowing this.
King Shlomo teaches: ein kol chadash tachat hashemesh, there is nothing new under the sun. Michael reads the sun as the most intense and burning matter in the universe. Whoever lives below that fire, without renewal, sees nothing new happen.
We can read a lot of Zohar, pray a lot, meditate a lot, come to Shabbat every time. If it is done under the sun, without renewal and fire, Michael says we should not expect miracles. And what is old is hastarah, concealment. Good, beautiful actions done this way awaken nothing new.
The Zohar returns to this verse to remind us that if we place ourselves above the sun, we can draw down and manifest endless blessings and miracles. That is what the Shabbat psalm sings: shir chadash, a new song. If the song of your day is new, you will see miracles all the time.
I do everything right, the same way as always. Nothing new can happen.
Every day is a new song. From the fire of renewal, miracles are born.
In the Idra Zuta, Rabi Shimon is about to leave this world and wants to reveal the secrets. He sits up, covers his head and quotes the psalm: lo hametim yehalelu, the dead do not praise. He is not speaking of those who have departed, because the righteous remain connected to the Light of the Creator. He speaks of those who are considered dead while still in this world.
The Light of the Creator dwells among the living, those who live every day with fire and renewal. And who are those called dead? Those who wake up wanting to connect, make connections, do spiritual actions through the day, but without the fire of renewal. It is not a lack of desire. It is a lack of fire.
Michael admits Rabi Shimon is scarier than King Shlomo. King Shlomo says nothing new happens. Rabi Shimon says the Light of the Creator cannot even rest. Every morning each of us chooses: will I be dead today or alive? And he recommends this section of the Idra Zuta, perhaps every morning, for anyone struggling to find the fire of the day.
In the Zohar Chadash, in Bereshit (section 275), the question is: what is the foundational covenant, the unbreakable bond between the soul and the Light of the Creator? There is circumcision and other powerful covenants. But the Zohar answers: lo hayta habrit ela esh, the covenant could only exist with fire.
When Avraham connected, the Torah speaks of a smoking furnace and a flaming torch. Michael says this is not only physical fire. In the years before, Avraham was already spiritual, studying and acting, but he reached a point where he realized this was not getting him to his place. So he began to kindle a fire from within, and on that day the Light of the Creator made a covenant with him.
That is why, the Zohar teaches, the first word of the Torah, Bereshit, contains brit esh, a covenant of fire. We can spend a whole life studying and practicing and not even have begun. The question Michael leaves is uncomfortable: how much of my life is lived with this covenant of fire?
Michael quotes Isaiah: meha'esh yatsau, they came out of fire. Humanity was created with one purpose: to live with a burning fire of connection to the Light of the Creator. Not merely to wish to connect, not merely to do what we can. The first foundation is knowing we were created for fire.
Whoever lives with this fire sees miracles and, like Sarah and Esther, comes to govern the physical world: the concealment dissolves. Whoever does not, Isaiah says, ve'esh tochalim, is consumed by fire. Even someone who wants to be spiritual, but does not renew the fire, ends up consumed by the fires of this world, the ones that destroy and do not build.
The Zohar shows the same at Sinai. The revelation there was a revelation of fire: the mountain burned up to the heart of the heavens. For Michael, the people felt this fire collectively and renewed the covenant: we will not live a lukewarm spiritual life, we will live a flame that reaches the heart of the heavens.
Michael shares something personal. The week before, speaking to the teachers from around the world, he had said that whoever does not wake up with fire and renewal should not be involved in this work. Then pipes burst at the New York center, the prayers moved to another place and some people were upset. He was excited: after so many years, something new, a new place to pray.
He asks the audience who was disappointed to walk into a different space, and says he is more excited about that Shabbat than he has been in a long time, because they were doing something new. Renewal with fire can begin like this, when we receive the new with joy instead of resistance.
And for those who listen and say “I believe, but I do not have it,” Michael gives three simple steps: imitate the actions of someone with fire, refuse to live without it, and ask the Light of the Creator. They are in this week's practice, right below.
Where, today, will my fire break through the concealment of the day?
Original class: Michael Berg, portion Chayei Sarah, The Kabbalah Centre, available on Onehouse. This page is a synthesis in my own words, not a transcript or a translation. Quotations from the class are paraphrased. For the complete teaching, listen to Michael Berg directly.
Sources cited in the class: the midrash on Rabi Akiva and Esther · the Sefer HaTemunim, on Sarah's years · King Shlomo (Ecclesiastes), ein kol chadash tachat hashemesh · the Zohar, in the Idra Zuta, on Rabi Shimon and those dead while alive · the Zohar Chadash, Bereshit, section 275, on the covenant of fire · Isaiah, meha'esh yatsau · the Zohar, on the revelation at Sinai.
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