Issue 15 | Parshat Ki Tavo | Do People Get the Real You?

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Revealing Your Essence

Have you ever felt frustrated that people don’t get you – the real you? That you project an image which does not reflect who you truly are? Can the depths of your soul and your innermost feelings ever express themselves in this world, or are they destined to remain buried in our psyches?

Thinkers and mystics, psychologists and prophets have always wondered whether we can bridge the unconscious and the conscious, or are they diametrically unbridgeable.

Every person has three dimensions: 1) Your essence. 2) Your conscious and defined faculties. 3) Your interaction with the world around you. Can these dimensions be integrated, or is each relegated to its own compartmentalized experience?

In this insight, based on the opening verse in this week’s Torah portion, the Baal Shem Tov teaches us (in a Torah he delivered on his birthday, Shabbos Parshas Ki Tavo, Chai Elul 5652) one of the most unique and revolutionary elements of Jewish mysticism: How the deepest spiritual experiences can – and must be – experienced in our simple day to day activities. How the most intimate depths of your soul can find expression in your conscious faculties, and in the world in which you travel.