Flow of Abundance

In the Garden of Gratitude, Rav Arush outlines the four channels wherein material and spiritual abundance flows into our lives:

• our parents
• the Tzaddikim of our generation, and/or through our Rabbi
• our spouse
• the Nation of Israel

We clog these channels and close off the abundance that we need for our physical and spiritual vitality by harboring anger, resentment, pain, sorrow, distress, or fears as a result of situations that occurred in these relationships.
 
Honoring your father and mother brings a person untold blessings. Many people are suffering because they are disconnected from their parents, and are angry and resentful for things that occurred during their childhood. This closes the artery of abundance. No matter how badly our parents treated us, we must always focus on the good that they did, even if it was simply bringing us into the world. Try to remember only the good, and be grateful for it.  If you can do this, you will heal your soul, and create a cosmic rectification.
 
It is important to be connected with your Rabbi and the Rabbis and Tzaddikim of our generation. It is our Rabbi that will escort us into the World to Come (wow, Rav Brody will be really busy!!). In addition, we are sustained by the merit of our Rabbi, and his guidance protects us from untold troubles in this world! Our entire soul correction depends on this relationship! We must be connected with bonds of love to all the sages of Israel , and never engage in a dispute with any of them. How can we separate ourselves from the source of our vitality? We must accustom ourselves to thanking Hashem for our Rabbi every single day, and pray that Hashem give them strength, health and wisdom!!!
 
Photo right: Sofia Garden in Uman, Ukraine – image courtesy of Emuna Outreach
 
Our spouse is the channel of abundance that is closest to us. Anger, criticism, or insult closes this channel and brings pain and suffering. We must learn to accept our spouse’s shortcomings with love, as everything about our spouse is for the good. As the Talmud says, blessings reside in a person’s house based on the honor that a husband shows his wife (see Garden of Peace for men, and Women’s Wisdom) wherein the wife’s soul is illuminated through the honor he gives her. This illumination is the source of all abundance, both spiritual and physical, in the marriage.
 
Can you imagine, every Jew is a channel by which abundance flows into the world?! The Nation of Israel is one body and one soul. When a person resents a Jew anywhere in the world, he closes the flow of abundance that he received from that Jew’s channel. If a person feels anger or resentment against a Jew, she must work on her emuna and teshuva, and thank Hashem for the suffering from the Jewish person. She must believe the suffering is from Hashem, and for her best. The person who caused her pain was there for HER, to obliterate any anger or resentment she harbored toward anyone in the world.
 
We must review our lives, and start doing some serious thanking for all of the situations that we perceived as “bad”. A person must work hard to have a clean heart, removing all the resentment, anger, and sorrow from his past. Knowing now with complete emuna, that everything is from Hashem and everything is for the best (see The Garden of Emuna), we rectify all those details for which we did not thank Hashem for when they occurred. This is how we repent for our lack of faith. Remember, the person, abuser, teacher, or neighbor or spouse, was only a stick, so to speak, in Hashem’s hand, as a rod of reproof. If not this particular person, Hashem could have chosen someone else willing to do the deed (yes, they are accountable for being willing to do harm/evil). We now see that the main reason for our suffering is lack of emuna. So why be angry, hurt, resentful, or sad about the “stick”. It was Hashem all along who set it up, knowing that the Heavenly Court judged you in the most exacting way, and that this suffering is part of your soul correction according to your past incarnations.
 
We have to thank and thank and thank Hashem until we are certain that there is not a crack or crevice in our heart that feels any negative emotions. We thus sweeten the entire situation, and no longer suffer. We must focus on the truth that there is nothing but G-d, and all suffering is G-d’s will, and for our very best. This is why hitbodedut is so important. It is where our transformation takes place, by Hashem’s side.
 
This type of thanksgiving heals the soul and opens all the channels of spiritual and physical abundance that were clogged. We are then showered with prosperity! We can live a tranquil and fulfilled life, close to Hashem, with a smile on our face at all times!