31. Angels Are Real: How To Identify The Universe’s Messages

In this episode of Spiritually Hungry, Monica and Michael examine the spiritual support system that exists to help us accomplish our purpose in life and become who we are meant to be. Listen as they shed light on the spiritual definition of a messenger and messages, how we can attract their positive influence, and how we ourselves can become messengers for others.

Transcript

If you believe or if you know that there's a whole support system around you,

Physical and spiritual,

You receive that support.

If you do not believe that it is there,

It won't be able to support you.

You have to be aware of the forces that are there to support you in order for them to support you.

I think very often people assign that they're only going to get messages from certain people.

If they're special or they're elevated or they're enlightened or they think they're successful,

When in fact the messages come in every way,

Small,

Big,

All the time from all kinds of people.

You want to have support tomorrow.

You want to wake up tomorrow with more inspiration.

You want to wake up tomorrow with more joy.

You want to make sure that tomorrow you have direction,

That tomorrow you have support.

Create the angels today.

This is what I love about the teaching of Kabbalah.

You can change anything you want to change.

It's completely up to you.

You have the understanding,

The knowledge,

The information,

And hopefully the desire then to actually do something about creating the life that you want.

Welcome to the Spiritually Hungry Podcast,

Episode 31.

I wanted to pick up where we left off last week.

I just wanted to add something to that.

Absolutely.

Something interesting that happened.

Last week's podcast was about the freedom of surrender.

Letting go.

How to let go.

I actually wrote this down for a post that I just wanted to share because I love when we talk about things and then they happen or sometimes things happen,

Then you talk about them later.

But I like when it's the other way around.

It's more of the same message that you need to get,

Which will then segue us into this week's podcast about messengers.

This was what I wrote.

In life,

I have found that climbing up has always been a part of life's process,

Whether climbing up to achieve more in work,

Purpose,

Being,

As a mother,

Wife,

Friend,

And sister.

I understand it and I accept that you need to put hard work into all you want to do and become.

The part that's always been hard for me is letting go.

On this particular Sunday that we had,

I thought it would be fun for my family to challenge themselves physically at a rock climbing ninja-like facility.

Little did I know I would be challenged emotionally and mentally.

It's usually like that,

By the way.

I have great ideas for my family and then I think it would be super fun and then I end up challenging yourself.

Exactly.

After my first descent up this pretty tall wall,

I had the choice to climb back down,

Which is so much harder than climbing up or trust my safety line and jump.

I thought to myself,

Is this rope going to catch me?

Does it ever malfunction?

How much wear and tear has it had to take?

Disc assessment completed,

Down I climbed,

Which is so much harder,

By the way,

Than climbing up.

Back on the ground and broken out into a sweat,

It bothered me that I had a fear of jumping.

I visualized all the times I had let go in my life and trust the creator to have my back.

Like the time I was starving myself when I had anorexia and the time I gave birth to my second child and within hours I was met with the news of his diagnosis or all the times I had faced fear in the face.

So back up I went and this time I took the leap from the top with total certainty that I would be caught.

When I got down this time,

I wasn't met with perspiration,

But rather tears of a familiar feeling,

A feeling of being completely at one with the universe,

Loved,

Protected,

Safe.

The challenge isn't the climbing,

It's the letting go.

So beautiful.

I was excited that I had the opportunity to feel that again in that total trust in the creator.

We were all very impressed.

Yeah,

I didn't see you up there,

My friend.

I did not climb up there.

So I really like this topic we're going to talk about today.

It's about angels,

Signs,

Messengers.

There's this quote from Mr.

Rogers actually.

And he said,

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,

My mother would say to me,

Look for the helpers.

You will always find people who are helping.

Because I want to define what a messenger is.

I think that people are often,

They misunderstand it.

It's something that's assigned to maybe somebody who is very spiritual or who has decided to devote their lives to being a person in a church or in some kind of realm of religion or spirituality.

And we think that that's where we have to get our signs.

Other people go to psychics.

Graphs,

We have some fun stories about those experiences maybe we'll get into.

But really anybody and everybody is a messenger,

Including ourselves.

Now,

The degree to what we can be and how we can evolve and really lead people,

Including ourselves to profound things is totally dependent on how we behave in life.

And how well we're listening.

Yes,

Which I'm sure you're going to add to in just one minute.

And I think also,

Especially now,

When we look in the world,

It's a scary place,

Right?

Things do look confusing.

Like they don't make sense.

They look unfair.

Whether it's in the news,

Social media,

Even in our own communities,

We see chaos and division and violence and destruction.

But what isn't broadcast as much,

I think,

In every news station or on social media are the ways that people rise up and become,

We can call them helpers.

I like that.

Yeah,

Absolutely,

Because it's doing the work that we're meant to do.

The kinds of ways that we give kindness to others,

Courage,

Love to total strangers in times of need and crisis.

So there's two times that really I saw that very clearly.

It was the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings,

Right?

We all know what happened.

But I like this story.

It's about Tim Stan.

He's a father of two and he walked through the grocery store that evening and he noticed that in each person's eyes that he met in the store,

They all had a look of like knowing,

Right?

Of a familiar feeling.

They had all been through the same,

To some degree,

Experience that day.

So he went home that night and he got an idea.

He wrote out a simple message with letters on a green background that said,

We are Sandy Hook.

We choose love.

And the next day he took 200 copies to downtown Sandy Hook asking every shop if they would hang this up in their store.

And the response was overwhelming.

Every shop had it.

And eventually it took up two big highway billboards with this message,

A promise that they would dedicate educating adults and students on gun violence.

Again,

This happened with the Pittsburgh shootings at the synagogue,

Right?

That was not too long ago.

And what we,

I think,

See in those countless messages that were posted and websites and whatever that all these people offering love,

Condolences,

Support,

They were strangers before that,

Right?

But we have this ability to illuminate people's lives everywhere we go in different ways.

The helpers,

The messengers of love,

The rescuers are all normal people,

Regular citizens of communities who offered their love because they wanted to.

They offered their help because they could.

And this is the true spirit of,

I think,

What it means to be a helper or a messenger.

So I'm excited to unpack this with you.

Yes.

Yeah.

And so you're talking about the ability of really each individual,

Each one of us to become a helper,

Right?

To become a messenger.

When I begin my understanding of this,

It comes from the other side.

And it's something I think we touched upon a little bit last episode.

And that is that if any one of us needed to accomplish life on our own,

It would simply be impossible.

And that's not a spiritual statement.

That's just a statement of fact.

You have children.

They need to be educated,

They need to be fed,

They need to be helped in so many different ways.

Obviously,

No one of us or even a couple of parents have the ability to supply our children with everything they need.

We know some things we're not aware of it or appreciate enough of it that it takes a village as the book or the saying goes.

And when you understand that,

Even on the most basic physical ways,

We need messengers,

Helpers,

Support.

Then there's an additional layer,

Which I think is the spiritual view.

And that is that to accomplish what we need to accomplish in our lives,

There is a whole support system that's there.

That's there.

Again,

Some people call it angels.

But regardless of what names you want to assign to it,

I think probably the most important thing is to begin with this understanding.

I am not alone.

And I'm not alone not simply because thankfully there's a village around me helping me raise my kids,

Live life,

Eat and so on and so forth.

But that is also a universal force that is invested in giving me support and messengers and messengers.

So once we begin with that understanding,

Many of us have,

Whether we've come to completely see that understanding,

We know inside that we are not thrown into this world simply to fend for ourselves.

But what's important to understand is that our awareness of the support that is available to us actually affects whether it helps us or not.

Consciousness,

My father would often say again and again,

Consciousness is everything.

And I want to in a bit share how science supports this idea as well.

Because people ask the question,

You just said that there's a whole support system.

Well,

I went through this challenge.

I didn't feel any support.

There was no angel that came to my aid.

There was nothing that came to support me.

Yeah,

I was alone in the dark.

Right.

Well,

The reality is that your consciousness,

Your thought influences whether this support will be there for you or not.

Simply put,

If you believe or if you know that there's a whole support system around you,

Physical and spiritual,

You receive that support.

If you do not believe that it is there,

It won't be able to support you.

That's another quote the rabbis say,

Because most people say seeing is believing,

But the rabbis always say believing is seeing.

Yes.

Yes.

In the 1960s,

My father was going through a very challenging time and his teacher,

Rav Brannwein,

Would often send to him in his letters and his teachings one phrase,

Which was meant as a support,

As a teaching to my father as he was going through his difficulties,

His challenges.

And the phrase in the original Hebrew,

It's a verse from the prophets,

Rabim asher imanu me asher ima hem,

Which literally translated means there is more support on our side with us than in the opposing forces.

There's more force,

More angels,

If you want to call it that,

More energy,

More support with us than against us.

Now the origin of that phrase is a very important one.

It's a story in the prophets of one of the great prophets,

His name was Elisha.

And as prophets often do,

He had upset very powerful people.

And one day he's with his apprentice,

His name was Gehazi.

Why do you say that?

Because they didn't like what he was prophesying?

No,

Because they would speak the truth.

Exactly.

They would speak the truth.

And it wasn't what they wanted to hear.

Exactly.

Right?

I think that often,

And this is something I think we might have mentioned before,

The reality is that when you're doing something important,

When you're giving an important message,

There's going to be opposition.

And sometimes it'll be violent opposition and sometimes- Yes,

You remind me of this a lot when I'm complaining to you.

About opposition.

Yes.

So in this time,

Thousands of years ago,

The prophet Elisha was trying to awaken people and share with people what he saw as the truth.

And many people became very angry with him.

One of them was a king who sent thousands of soldiers to surround Elisha and his apprentice,

Gehazi,

And they surrounded the mountain that he was upon which he was staying.

So his apprentice runs to him and says,

Oh my God,

Now you've done it.

We're going to die because the king that you have angered has sent his soldiers.

They're surrounding our mountain and they're about to take us in.

They're probably going to kill us.

And the story goes that Elisha the prophet took the hand of his apprentice and as he held his hand,

He asked the apprentice,

What do you see?

And suddenly he sees thousands of angels surrounding them to support them.

And so the prophet says to him,

You see,

There is always more energy support angels supporting those who are trying to do the right thing.

So that's the story.

And that phrase,

I think about it very,

Very often.

And I think it's true for each one of us individually.

The question that can be asked about that story is if the angels were there,

Why was it important for Elisha to hold the hand of his apprentice to show him the angels?

The angels would have protected them anyway.

And the answer is no.

The answer is that you have to be aware of the forces that are there to support you in order for them to support you.

Knowing actually awakens.

So when we begin this discussion and we say,

Yes,

There is an entire system set up.

When I woke up this morning,

There were forces,

Energies,

Direction,

Messages that were prepared for me as I live my day to live it in its most elevated state,

In its most blessed state.

But I have to know that.

Because if I don't know that,

They can't give me that support.

And I just want to quickly point out something.

I mentioned this book last time.

It's a beautiful book.

And as I mentioned last time,

I do strongly recommend all of our listeners who are interested either in spirituality or in physics to read the book.

It's called Fundamentals.

It's by a Nobel Prize winning physicist,

Frank Wilczek.

And this is in chapter 10 of the book,

Although I recommend reading all of it.

I'll just read a few lines about what science believes about reality.

They undermine the world model we build up as children,

According to which there's a strict separation between an external world which is out there and has properties that our observations reveal and ourselves.

Accepting the lessons of Heisenberg and Bohr,

Niels Bohr,

We come to realize that there is no such strict separation.

By observing the world,

We participate in making it.

By observing the world,

We participate in making it,

Which I think has many implications,

But as it relates to what we're talking about,

Knowing that around me there are angels,

Knowing that around me as I go through life,

There was an entire forces of energies ready to support me,

Knowing that makes it manifest.

If I am not aware of the support system that is all around me,

I can walk through life thinking I'm all alone.

I can walk through life thinking that I'm not supported.

I can walk through life never getting messages or having any helpers help me.

You have to know it.

It's interesting.

So as you were speaking,

I was thinking that most people wake up and they look around and they especially if they're single or maybe a spouse isn't well or has passed,

They are looking for people,

Right?

They're lonely and they're looking for,

They're very aware that they want another physical body.

So if that's where we're operating from,

The idea of,

Or the awareness of how many angels are around me,

Surrounding us even in this room right now,

As we're speaking,

Talking about angels,

How many are sitting over our shoulders,

Right?

So it's a stretch I think for some,

And that's why I want to bring it up.

It's exactly what you said,

Where you give attention and energy is what you're going to see.

And I remember,

And I shared the story not too long ago somewhere else,

But it was such a profound experience for me.

I can still feel what it felt like.

And I was running and it was just turning dark.

Not the best time to go running,

Especially if you have nothing that is,

What is it called?

GPS?

Navigation?

Oh,

Reflective.

Exactly.

Where was this?

In California and on Los Yen,

Like a really busy,

Busy street at that hour.

And I was lost in thought.

It was a particularly darker time in my life and I was running and the light changed,

It turned green and I had just stepped off the sidewalk to be,

Because I'm running,

Right?

So it'd be like the first one off and this car runs the light and I feel two hands pull my jacket or my shoulder behind me and pull me back up just before I'm about to step down.

Had I stepped down,

I would have been hit by the car.

So right away I turn around to thank the person.

I was in shock.

I look and there's nobody there.

And I felt that.

That's not like I didn't,

I mean,

I was saved,

Right?

And I feel like that experience actually happened for many reasons,

But I think the biggest was for me to always have this awareness that angels are around us,

Protecting us,

Guiding us,

Directing us.

And you have to know they're there.

If you question their existence,

Then how will you be able to see them or feel them?

Yeah.

And I think maybe part of the issue that people have,

There are images of what angels are,

Right?

There are beings with wings and so on and so forth.

I think on the most basic level,

The understanding is that there's energies around us.

And I think most of us will accept that,

Right?

We all walk into a room and we feel good,

We don't feel good.

We walk into a house,

Wow,

There's something weird going on here.

We all have those experiences.

So even with dark.

Yeah,

Positive or negative.

Absolutely.

We have a few of those stories too.

Absolutely,

Yes.

We should probably do an episode on that.

But the point is when you realize that when we're talking about angels,

We don't mean these beings that are sitting around us necessarily with wings,

But rather that there's energy.

Energy and maybe we can talk about it that we create,

That created by others,

But that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about energy that is there to either support.

So in this case,

What that being physically looks like,

Well,

It probably doesn't even have a physical presence.

It's an energy.

But that's what was so powerful.

I felt it so strongly and it might as well have been in a human body.

That's the thing.

You don't need that physical body,

But that energy is stronger.

When we talked about this,

We talked about the tooth fairy with Abigail.

And the idea is that I wanted to make sure that she still believes.

But I was reading this that in the Talmud,

It says that a person's messenger has the same power he has.

So for example,

If a billionaire makes a poor person in his emissary and sends him out to purchase a billion dollar business on his behalf,

The poor person is still poor.

But now he has a billion dollars to play with or work with because this person has sent him out.

The same thing with the power of attorney.

You've given somebody that ability to do X,

Y,

And Z.

So it's the same thing for us that we can be messengers for the creator.

I think we're going to talk about it at both angles today,

How to receive messages and helpers and how to also become one and be one.

And the trick though,

Because if you just understand they're like,

Okay,

Well,

That's my awareness,

So I'll be a messenger.

And the ego can get involved with that.

But the trick here is that I think the only way to really be a messenger for the creator is if we continuously work on removing anger and doubt and hatred and lies.

And if we detach ourselves from those things that make us very physical,

That physical aspect of ourselves,

And we connect to the higher part of ourselves,

Then the ways in which we express ourselves,

The people that we speak to,

Our messages will really be elevated and divine.

Well,

That's an interesting,

Right?

So that's an additional element,

Which I think is also really important,

That part of our purpose in life is to be messengers for other people,

Sometimes conscious and unconscious.

But I think it's important to,

And again,

I think it's always important to point out things that everybody can agree upon.

There are many stories,

Whether it's artists or even scientists,

Who will share the fact that suddenly the song came down in five seconds.

The idea and so much of Einstein's theories,

It wasn't that it was five years of thought,

But in an instant often,

Art comes down,

Music comes down,

Wisdom comes down.

All that is an indication that there is another realm that,

As we said before,

Is there to support us.

So if you understand,

And this is something that a lot of the great spiritual teachers speak about,

That if you view yourself as a conduit for that light message to the world,

So that when even,

For instance,

Even with your own children,

When you're talking to your children,

If the thought is I'm going to give them of my wisdom,

Of my genius,

That's limited.

But if you say,

I want to be open to that other realm where there is endless wisdom,

Where there is endless support,

And I want that to go through me.

I know for instance,

For myself,

Often when I give a lecture,

When I am sharing with other people,

My desire,

My request,

My prayer beforehand is I just want to be a conduit for that light and for that wisdom.

And you live without consciousness trying to limit your own ego from it,

The more likely you are to be sharing from that realm.

Now the other part,

Which goes back to the support that we have and the messages that we can receive and the messengers or helpers that are around us,

There's an interesting story in the Bible that maybe some of or many of our listeners are aware of.

There's a story of two brothers,

Jacob and Esau.

And it's a much more complicated and dramatic story than this,

But there was a lot of animosity between them,

Those of us who know the story.

I love this biblical story.

And at a certain point it says,

After many,

Many years of not seeing each other,

Jacob is coming to greet his brother again.

And it says that Jacob sent angels.

Now it's interesting because the word in the original biblical passage again is translated as angels or messengers,

But the word is the Hebrew word for angels.

And the Tsar explains that when a person is so deeply connected,

Which means that he or she dedicates their lives to sharing with other people,

To elevating themselves,

To transforming themselves,

To growing,

That is how they gain the support of what we call the angels or that whole system that is out there to support us.

And there's a verse in Psalms,

It says,

Which literally can translate it is he will send his angels to watch over you in all of the ways that you go.

And that's something that I'm personally very much aware of.

And it's something that I think exciting for our listeners to be aware of the fact that they can receive the support.

Who doesn't want to live their lives where every step that they take and everywhere that they go,

They are surrounded by the support of the angels or that energy that comes around and support them.

But the Tsar says the only reason,

For instance,

Why Jacob had the support of all those angels was because when he woke up in the morning and the way he lived his life was in a way of separating from his ego,

From what we call the desire to receive the stuff alone.

He limited the selfish desire to take only for oneself.

So if- And he connected to the Creator.

Right.

So there's two things,

Two things that,

Well,

Three things,

But first the understanding that it's out there,

Which means that there is so much,

Any one of our listeners,

And we all have those days,

Sometimes it's weeks,

Sometimes it's months,

Sometimes it's years where we just feel unsupported,

Right?

We just feel overwhelmed by life.

Blah.

Or worse,

Or worse.

There's a whole system out there of helpers,

Messengers,

And messages to help you.

But- To connect to that.

You have to know it.

You have to know it.

You have to wake up every single morning and as you go throughout your day,

And especially I would say during the most challenging times,

Stop and say,

I'm not in this alone.

There's an entire energy around me ready to support me.

And the second important understanding is that if I am to be able to avail myself of that support of the angels as they are called,

Or those energies as they are called,

And to be able to receive the messages that I'm meant to be receiving,

You have to be developing spiritually.

That support comes- Right,

But I want to break that down.

Disconnect from the parts of you that diminish you,

Ego,

Desire to see the stuff alone,

And choose to connect to where you've come from,

To the creator.

Right.

But the first part is to have consciousness.

Awareness,

Yes.

That this force exists,

That this support exists.

And second,

It won't be able to come into our lives unless we're aware that it's there.

And second,

We will not be able to fully access all of that support unless we are developing spiritually.

Because that protection and that those helpers,

Those supporters only come in the fullest extent to the individual that's truly working on themselves,

Developing themselves spiritually.

I love Trampled by Turtles.

You know that song alone?

We like that song.

And I think for some,

It might sound like a sad song.

It's a little dark,

Yeah.

But I like this line.

They say,

You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone.

So I didn't find it sad.

I actually found it inspiring.

It motivated me to live with this consciousness,

Right?

That while we come into the world,

We meet all kinds of people along the way.

And they're all meant to show us something,

To teach us something,

And to really listen.

Right?

I think very often people assign that they're only going to get messages from certain people.

If they're special or they're elevated or they're enlightened or they think they're successful when in fact,

The messages come in every way,

Small,

Big,

All the time from all kinds of people.

And the Rav actually said something along these lines as well.

The Rav said,

You come into this world naked and you leave this world naked.

What remains is the goodness you have done.

So I think that completely supports what we're saying in terms of it's all the goodness you do.

And I think that's a great way to say it,

Is that you are able to be a messenger.

You're able to connect to messengers.

You're in living in that realm throughout the world.

Because if not,

You can look at it as depressing,

Right?

You come alone,

You leave alone.

And it's really about what you do while you're in that process.

And there's also another quote from Evan Almighty.

Do you remember that movie with Steve Carell?

Was it good?

I don't remember.

I didn't really see all of it,

But there is this one part,

Morgan Freeman plays God.

And you actually see him or just the voice of God?

I think you might see him at the end,

Right?

In the cloud or something.

So God says,

Let me ask you something.

If someone prays for patients,

Do you think God gives them patience or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?

If he prayed for courage,

Does God give him courage or does he give him the opportunity to be courageous?

If someone prayed for the family to be closer,

Do you think God zaps them with warm,

Fuzzy feelings or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Those are signs.

The opportunities that we have every day where we encounter people in different ways that can help us transform and elevate.

That's beautiful.

It reminds me of two,

I think really important teachings around angels.

If you call them that,

These energies.

First,

The Kabbalists teach that everything that we do creates an angel.

That's the phrase that Thamud mentioned this as well.

Every thought,

Every word,

Every action.

Good or bad.

Both.

Exactly.

And that those energies or as they're called angels remain with us.

So we're never really alone.

We are always walking around with the energies or angels that we have created.

And so everything we spoke about until now that supports us and that's out there for us,

That those messengers and messengers and helpers are there for us,

They actually are to some extent the angels that we created.

And when you think about life in that way,

Right?

Because these angels,

Again,

Without going too much,

They stay with you.

So today you want to have support tomorrow.

You want to wake up tomorrow with more inspiration.

You want to wake up tomorrow with more joy.

You want to make sure that tomorrow you have direction,

That tomorrow you have support.

Create the angels today.

So when you talk about this for a second,

It may be a little scary,

But I do think it's important to have the awareness of what the alternative is.

So if somebody,

Let's say,

Will be really extreme,

Right?

I slapped somebody.

Stabbed somebody.

You love the slapping business,

But yes.

Now you're getting even darker.

Yes.

And so then they created a negative angel.

So that angel following them around every day and it stays with them for the rest of their life.

So two questions.

Is there a way to remove this angel?

And the second thing is,

Does that explain why people sometimes have a cloud that hangs over them or they never understand why things don't go their way?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And I think it's very,

Very important,

Right?

So we always like to talk about the positive and the exciting and inspiring part,

But the reality of course is- Well,

Sometimes to be inspired,

You need to know what the alternative reality really looks like.

Absolutely.

And this is the point.

If you wake up tomorrow morning,

If any person wakes up tomorrow morning and they're feeling down,

That is an effect of an angel or an action or an energy,

However you want to refer to it,

That they created either yesterday or last year or five years ago.

When you understand that,

And this is again science says this as well,

That no energy ever dissipates.

Everything we do counts.

Everything we do actually remains with us.

On the positive side,

Yes,

That means I will have more support and more direction and more messages and messengers tomorrow,

But it also means that if I hurt somebody today,

I am going to have a harder time tomorrow being supported,

Getting messages and so on because that dark energy that I created also remain with me.

Absolutely.

And then by doing actions of sharing and kindness,

You can remove the dark angels?

Also.

Again,

There is a process of how do I remove any darkness that I created?

Repentance,

Right?

Apologizing.

Going back to the person I hurt and so on,

That's a whole,

Yes.

But the answer is absolutely doing positive actions can overwhelm any of that heaviness or darkness that I have created through my actions.

But I think the salient point here is that we have to live life knowing that everything I do counts.

Every thought,

Every word,

Every action creates an angel,

Creates an energy that stays with me.

And everything we spoke about until now,

Which is to create that there is a support system there for me,

That I don't have to go through life alone.

I need to create that as well.

And I create that by knowing that today,

Knowing I am going to push myself to have more positive thoughts.

I'm going to push myself to have more positive words to say,

I'm going to push myself to do more positive actions because I want to be overwhelmed with angels that support me and go with me and protect me everywhere I go.

And this is what I love about the teaching of Kabbalah.

It's with the information that you have,

You cannot not be responsible for your life.

You can no longer be a victim and you can change anything you want to change.

It's completely up to you.

And you have the understanding,

The knowledge,

The information,

And hopefully the desire then to actually do something about creating the life that you want.

It's interesting because,

And again,

Without any judgment,

But it's sometimes fun and we have these situations where somebody who obviously is not behaving in the most elevated state,

Hurting other people,

Saying nasty things to other people.

And then the next day they're like,

Why do I don't have any support?

Why am I alone?

All these words.

But the reality is we are the cause of either being alone,

And alone again,

Like you said,

Not just human interaction,

But actually not having that support of that system that's meant to be there for us,

Of angels or energies,

However you want to refer to it,

Or creating that.

And when you live your life with the understanding,

I am creating my support system for tomorrow.

I am creating the angels that will go forth around me and protect me and give me messages and support.

It's very,

Very important.

Again,

Empowering,

But also responsibility awakening.

Well,

You can no longer blame anybody else.

I know somebody who does sometimes unkind things and then they say,

I just did that.

That's all.

It wasn't a big deal.

I just slapped that person.

That's all.

I just,

Whatever,

Fill in the blank.

And I always bring their attention.

I'm like,

You can't say that's all because then you take no risk.

Nothing's going to change for you.

Forget about anybody else's feelings.

But if you want it all,

You want to have a happy,

Successful life where you feel supported,

It has to be everything.

It can't be like,

Ah,

That's all.

I think it's such an important point.

And I really hope that our listeners take this away from this discussion that we create our angels.

We create what is around us.

We create our support system.

We create whether we are alone or whether we are supported and we feel that support from the actions,

Thoughts and words that we created.

And one other,

If we have time,

One other- I know you're the timekeeper.

Yes.

Yes,

We have time at least for one more idea.

So this is a little bit of a deep teaching and I hope I shared well that story of Jacob,

One of my favorite of the patriarchs of the biblical patriarchs.

It says there was one point at which he battled an angel.

But can I just ask you really quickly,

Why is he your favorite?

Because he lived the most,

I would say full life.

He had,

Personally we know a lot more about him,

But he had challenges and successes and he had light and darkness and he had pain and joy.

You really get a full measure of his life as opposed to the other patriarchs,

Which maybe you get a little bit less of their life story.

We should do a podcast about that too.

That's a very good idea.

Yes.

Thank you Monica.

But also the rest of our listeners,

Send in your ideas for podcasts to Monica and Michael at kabbalah.

Com.

He's battling the angel.

Yes.

So it says that he battles an angel.

It's a very famous story in the book of Genesis in the Bible.

In talking about what was that angel,

Or more importantly,

What did Jacob see?

Did he see a guy with wings?

Did he see a dark eye?

Did he see the angel of death?

What was he fighting?

Interestingly there are three different answers to that question,

Which seem to be contradictory.

One understanding is that Jacob's battle was with somebody he saw as just another human being who was trying to harm him.

A second understanding is that he was fighting with a dark angel,

Maybe the angel of death.

And the third is that he was battling with the archangel Michael.

Right?

So these would seem to be three very different realities.

Was he fighting a person who he thought was trying to harm him?

Was he battling the angel of death?

Was he battling a beautiful,

Positive angel,

Archangel Michael?

Michael.

We saw a picture of this too,

Right?

Where he's fighting into the Achilles.

Is that the picture?

Yes.

Oh,

There's many.

It's quite beautiful.

And that's why as you're speaking,

I'm picturing.

There's a lot of great art around Jacob's battle.

And all three,

Right?

They represent,

I've seen the one with the dark,

The angel of death.

I think I've seen that one mostly,

Right?

Yeah.

There's a lot of sort of the ancient,

The old masters.

We need to go to a museum.

I'm up for that.

Anyway,

Go ahead.

So what the Kabbalists explain,

Which I think is a beautiful,

Practical understanding.

When we go through life and somebody is standing up to do us harm,

We all have these experiences in life.

The first thought is,

Oh,

I'm so upset that this guy or this woman is trying to do me harm.

And then if you think about it a little bit more,

If you're a little bit more spiritually developed,

You realize nobody can do me harm.

And the purpose of life is not me against the world.

That's me growing,

Changing.

So if this person is coming into my life,

Even if it seems to be of a negative nature,

They're coming to help me grow in some way.

That's the second level of seeing even those in your life who you think are terrible,

Trying to do you harm as an angel.

Yeah,

Negative angel.

They're still trying to do me harm.

But they're not just because they're a person who has decided to do me harm,

But rather as a force,

An angel,

That's meant to help me grow.

The highest level of being is when you realize,

No,

It's not even a negative angel.

It's the most beautiful,

Powerful angel.

They're only here to help me.

Their help might come in a way that challenges me and makes me need to change and grow.

But the ultimate view of life is that there are no negative people.

There are no negative angels.

There's only beautiful angels there to support.

This goes back to what you were saying before.

Everybody who comes into my life is there regardless of what their reasons are.

But for me,

They're for my benefit.

Now it might come in the form that challenges me,

Forces me to change and to grow.

I often refer to that stage hugging all the angels in your life.

You start looking at life in that way.

Let's start with the most challenging people you've ever experienced in your life.

You realize at the end of the day,

They could have been the worst person,

But it's not about who they are.

It's about who they are to you.

You get to a state where you really begin to hug all of your angels,

Realizing that every single person who comes into your life,

Whether your experience of them is,

Oh,

They're amazing or they are the most challenging,

Difficult person.

The reason they're in my life is ultimately only for my benefit.

How do I grow from it?

How do I change from it?

Hugging all the angels that come into our life.

First you have to accept and view it that way.

And I love that.

And so basically for Jacob,

All three were true.

Exactly.

That's what's so powerful.

Exactly.

And the question for us is let's think about somebody who's very difficult,

Challenging person in your life.

Do you want to view them as an angel of death?

Or even just a challenging angel or a beautiful,

Powerful being that is there to help you grow?

Wow.

So if our listeners in this moment think about somebody that's really challenging you and that you would rather be removed from your life,

Picture them as an angel there to help you.

None of that matters anymore,

But you understand the purpose.

To you they are an angel.

Wow.

That's really powerful.

I had actually written this a while ago too.

There's a reason why it's important to be open to others and what they say.

And it's this,

If we come to truly understand and know that we are everyone's teacher,

As well as being everyone's student,

And you can change teacher to helper to angel,

Right?

Criticism would cease to bear the negative stigma that it already does.

Because instead of thinking,

Why me?

We grant ourselves the capability of changing and living tomorrow with a different mindset.

The silver lining is you can choose to take it in or discard it.

The point is to apply your sense of curiosity to it.

So just your whole life,

Just be curious.

If you actually see all of these people that you view as the angel of death or whatever it is,

If you view it with the lens of curiosity,

Why could this person be in my life?

How else could I be seeing it?

What am I meant to learn from it?

Profound.

And I started that actually when I was around 17,

18,

There was somebody in my family that I was like,

Okay,

Why is it so difficult to communicate?

And I already knew that I wanted to do something with my life in terms of helping people.

So communicating effectively is actually very beneficial for me at that point.

So I thought if I can learn to listen,

Really listen,

Even though I felt like the person never listened to me,

And I could really hear them instead of just being quick to offer,

Right?

There's something truly valuable.

I need this.

And as soon as I understood that and I accepted it,

The behavior didn't bother me anymore.

I actually really started to pay attention very closely.

So I was like,

Okay,

I really need to learn this skill,

And that's why this person is here to teach it to me.

And then it was no longer a challenge.

And it's a small example,

But I think that- And I think it also is for any one of us,

And hopefully all of our listeners are serious about their purpose in this world growing,

Changing.

It's probably one of the most clear indications of where each one of us are in our life's journey.

Do we feel supported?

Do we really see all the people that come in,

Especially the challenging ones?

They're just beautiful angels to help me grow.

And the more you are able to view the challenging people in your life in that way,

The more of an indication of how developed you are and how much you are growing and have grown.

So I have a question for you.

Sure.

Oh,

We're almost out of time.

I'll make it short.

Well,

I'll give you two questions and you can choose which one you want to answer.

Oh,

I like that.

And you'll answer one of them.

No,

You said we're out of time.

Okay.

So question one,

Okay,

Pick either.

What was the greatest message you received?

You really felt like you got a divine message.

It could be from a person or an angel or a robber.

Or when did you feel that you were a messenger for somebody else?

I think that's probably the better question.

I've said them out loud.

So okay,

Sasha,

I'll share with you a story.

And again,

I'm a little mindful of time,

But so this is really an amazing story.

So I'm so glad I asked the question.

Yes.

A few weeks ago,

Somebody who I know not very well sent me a text and said,

You know,

I realize now how much of an impact you've had on my life.

I'd like to share it with you.

You know,

So let me know if we can talk.

I said,

Oh,

You know,

I said,

Yes,

I texted him back.

We,

A few days,

Sometime later,

We,

We,

We,

He called me and he told me the following story that he was single at the time of the story.

And he went to a singles event and at the singles event,

He met up with this girl he was interested in.

She gave him her number.

And as he leaves her right there,

They're setting up a date to see her.

As he leaves her,

A friend of his comes over to him and says,

Listen,

Your cousin is talking to the girl.

So he sees,

Wow,

That's weird.

He goes over to his cousin and says,

You know,

I'm going to see that girl.

Oh,

Don't worry,

Don't worry.

We're just talking.

Sometime later at the same event,

He sees his cousin goes back to the girl to talk to her,

Clearly interested in this girl.

He just told his cousin,

Told him he met her and so on.

Not very cousinly.

Not very cousinly.

So he gets really angry.

It's a,

He gets angry with his cousin.

He doesn't talk to him.

He's decided it's not,

He told him this is not how we behave with family.

I told you that I was interested in her.

Wrong what you did.

Not talking to you anymore.

Sometime goes by,

He's not talking to his cousin.

Months now,

I think probably even years.

And it was years.

It was years.

He's in LA.

He's reading one of my books,

The secrets of the Zoro,

Where I bring their story from the Zoro about the power of forgiveness and forgiving even the people who've done you the greatest harm.

And as he's reading his story in his hotel room in Los Angeles,

He remembers his cousin.

Immediately calls up his cousin.

He says,

Listen,

It's been a long time.

I wanted you to know that I forgive you completely.

Sometime later,

His cousin and him,

His cousin invites him to a single,

The same cousin I was talking to,

They're a singles event.

And the cousin meets a girl who he thinks would be good for our friend,

For our student.

And he calls somebody and says,

Listen,

I'd like you to meet this girl.

Long story short,

This is the girl that he winds up marrying and they're now happily married.

Of course,

Had he not reconnected with his cousin,

Had he not forgiven his cousin,

He would never have met his wife.

And of course,

In some way I'm part of that story because had he not read my book in that hotel room in Los Angeles,

He would not have been awakened to forgive his cousin.

And by the way,

The first girl wasn't even for him.

That's what's so funny,

Right?

To have a whole not.

.

.

Imagine he didn't read your book,

Right?

And he never spoke to his cousin and he would have thought that that was the one that got away.

Exactly.

Spent the rest of his life.

Looking for her.

And wow.

Exactly.

So obviously there's so many beautiful lessons from the story,

But for me,

It was like,

And I get these every so often and even our listeners to this podcast,

That's what makes me the happiest because really that's why we're in this world.

We're in this world,

Of course,

For our own development,

But also our development comes from doing everything that we can to the degree that we can to give messages to other people,

To give support to other people.

And when a story like this happens,

When I hear about it,

It fills me with so much inspiration and desire to do more because I mean,

Just how beautiful is that?

I love that.

Yeah.

And speaking of,

We have a listener that wrote something so beautiful.

Do you want to share it?

Yeah.

Last podcast,

As Monica mentioned,

Was on letting go.

And one of our listeners sent a poem.

I'll read the beginning of the message.

He says,

Hi Monica and Michael.

During your podcast,

Number 29,

You stated a quote that resonated with me.

Also,

You said it may have been a song.

So I made a poem inspired by it.

It's called Stronger in the Broken Places.

You guys have a great podcast.

Hope you like it.

So Todd,

I hope you're okay with us sharing this poem that you wrote.

Did you not ask his permission?

I did not ask his permission,

But I'm assuming he's fine.

I didn't say his last name.

I did not say his last name.

We all try to be strong.

Humans,

Well,

We just want to belong.

A kind word here,

A good deed there.

Spreading just a little light can go a long way.

Consistency is the key,

You see.

But what happens when we trip and stumble,

That's when life can teach you to be humble.

The world isn't always pretty.

Many times it's a mess.

I'll be the first to admit mine is,

I must confess.

So allow yourself to spread your light.

It's okay to aid others in their fight.

Help to turn frowns into smiling faces and never ever fear to be stronger in the broken places.

I love it.

And he ends with,

Thank you,

Thank you Todd for sharing your poem and I hope all of our listeners enjoyed it as much as Monica and I did.

So as usual,

Please continue to send now your poems,

Stories,

Questions,

Comments to Monica and Michael at cabala.

Com.

If you get anything out of this podcast,

And I know so many of you do,

Make sure that you share with your friends and family.

Make sure you go to Apple Podcasts and give five star reviews and write a review and to Spotify podcasts and everywhere else you receive your podcasts.

If you get anything for this podcast,

We ask that you give back by sharing it with other people and by making sure that more and more people have access to it.

As always,

I hope you enjoyed listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording.

Bye.

Bye.

Reviews

Wonderful podcast! So full of message and positive help! Thank you 💟💜💟❣️

Thank you. A lot to process. Think about. My challenging person is a family member and i will try to think about her as an-“angel.” And try to understand what it is I have to learn. (A lot )…but specifically from her. 🙏

So many nuggets of wisdom. 😇Thank you! I will definitely listen to this episode again.

Listened to this at exactl the moment I was ready for it 😉

Thank you for being my angels this morning ~ inspiring deep remembrance of my angels surrounding me 🙏🏼❤️

Thank you, listening to this
was a “message” for me.

Loved it 😍

Just love is everywhere ! I believe and Angeles ! Thank for your support

Worth listening to entire session. Thank you!

This was amazing. I've always heard "everything you do creates an angel," but couldn't really wrap my mind around it or accept it as truth. NOW I really understand it. Thank you!

Very interesting! Thank you!

Loved it thank you. Added to my survey of things Abrahamic.

Thanks! I enjoyed listening about angels..messengers and awareness. I even pay attention about angel numbers too! Namaste!