Annul Yourself Before the Light

A story of destruction that teaches how to build

Michael Berg opens the class by saying these first portions of the year are deeply significant. After Beresheet, we arrive at Noach and find so much Light, so many secrets, so much consciousness, that you wish you could stay several weeks with each one.

This portion speaks of a moment when the whole world was destroyed. But, as the kabalists teach and as the Zohar makes clear, the purpose of the Torah is never to give us history lessons. It is to show me and you, every day, which consciousness keeps us in constant and complete connection with the Light of the Creator.

So when we read a story of destruction, what the Creator wants to hand us is the secret of the opposite: construction, connection, only Light and blessings.

One single seed of destruction, in the world and in you

Michael Berg's question is direct: what brought the world, thousands of years ago, to a state of connection with the Light of the Creator so low that destruction was awakened?

The answer holds for each person's life too. The same cause that brings the whole world to destruction brings an individual to destruction. When we live, at times, some level of pain or darkness, the cause is the same.

According to him, the Kabbalah answers with something very simple, and probably one of the most powerful lessons there is.

I cannot do anything without the Light of the Creator

The kabalists teach that, for generations, there was Adam, who had consciousness. Then came ten generations, and the consciousness declined. They forgot one thing: all of life, every action, every true manifestation is one single thing, the Light of the Creator. Then the ego walks in.

The only way to create, to connect with the Light and to have miracles is hitbatlut: annulling yourself before the force of the Light of the Creator. The person wakes up in the morning and says: I cannot work, pray, be a friend, be a parent, I cannot be anything. Only the Light of the Creator can.

Michael reminds us that Adam knew this and, for that reason, lived almost a thousand years. It is a consciousness lived all day long, not a beautiful idea to keep on a shelf.

A secret that is only worth something if it is used

Michael Berg shares that, preparing for this Shabbat, it became very clear to him that the most important element is not hearing, learning or receiving wisdom. The question has to be: how much am I using this wisdom, daily, constantly?

This secret is almost useless if used once a year, once a month, once a week, or even once a day. For its Light to shine with full power, the measure is a hundred times a day. Either it changes your life and brings miracles, or it is something you hear, find beautiful and move on from.

What the generation of the flood stopped using

Across the ten generations, even while hearing the lesson, it became less and less real to them. They stopped using it as a tool, as a meditation throughout the day. And in the generation of the flood, the portion describes that the end of all flesh had come: no life, Light or vital force was left, neither in each person nor in humanity as a whole.

Michael sums it up: destruction is when the individual, or the collective, stops living with a constant consciousness of hitbatlut. The question was never whether they knew. Perhaps we all know. The question is whether we are using it.

When, on the contrary, we live with hitbatlut, remembering all the time to annul ourselves before the Light of the Creator, the Light flows without end, and a renewal of Light is drawn into everything.

Annul yourself, and then wait

Michael Berg brought a section of the Zohar he loves. The Zohar asks: who among you has the power to turn darkness into Light, and to taste as sweetness what others taste as bitterness? And it answers: the one who waits, every day, for the Light of the Creator to shine.

To wait, here, does not mean having prepared well. When Michael is about to share wisdom with the community, the consciousness is not “I have prepared”, but knowing he cannot open his mouth, not even to say one letter, without the Light. After annulling himself, he waits for the revelation of a new Light and new miracles. Without hitbatlut, you cannot wait.

The kabalists also teach that, when a person leaves this world, the soul is asked questions. One of them is tzipita liyeshua: did you await redemption? In the literal sense, it means awaiting the Gmar HaTikun, the End of Correction, when pain, suffering and death will be removed from the world. Michael teaches that the question goes deeper: did you use this tool?

Two steps: first, hitbatlut, annulling yourself before the Light of the Creator. Second, telling It: now that I know I can do nothing alone, I wait for Your Light to be revealed. Done a hundred times a day, he assures us, from practice, that you will see pelaot, miracles coming from the Light of the Creator.

The angel of the blade of grass is your true self

Michael Berg goes deeper with a teaching Rav Ashlag cites often: every blade of grass that grows has an angel above it that commands it to grow. Everything that exists in this world has angels in charge of ensuring its growth.

But that angel is not a separate force. Every human being is like an inverted triangle: there is the small man or small woman here, however great, and there is the unlimited reality of who we are in the Upper World. The angel that pushes us to grow is ourselves, our true self, which is not satisfied with how we manifest today.

Every disappointment, annoyance or darkness, big or small, is only an effect of that true you pushing you to grow. So, besides annulling yourself before the Light, Michael proposes a second bitul: annulling yourself before your true self, to allow an even greater flow of your true Light into your present being.

The community holds more Light than you do alone

The third bitul is before the community. The kabalists teach that klal Yisrael, the community, holds far more Light than the individual. When I come to connect with a group awakened by one shared desire, I annul my individual expression within it, and I receive far more Light.

Whether through the online broadcast, in person, or at any center, you need to place yourself actively within the community to receive more Light than you can awaken alone.