Before embarking on a chronicle of my tour of Israel with The Kabbalah Centre, I must disclose that what I recount and attempt to capture here is less than a sliver of the experience. Israel is the energy center of the world. To walk on the ground in the footsteps of the most righteous souls in history causes a stirring within, an awakening that is still processing over a week later now back at home in Los Angeles. (I’m also sure that I will get a few facts wrong along the way and I’m relying on my fellow students to correct me please when needed!)

You don’t need much sleep in Israel, but when you do, you sleep like a rock. The Kabbalah Centre had our itinerary truly packed with back to back activities. Some of the days were busier than my most hectic work days at home — and I tend to be a workaholic! I felt a great deal of empathy for anyone who was looking at this trip as a “vacation.” Fortunately, I had been taught better before agreeing to the trip. As Shalom Sharabi said early on in the journey, “You’ve paid to come here and be uncomfortable.”

That is exactly what I wanted. To get out of my comfort zone, confront the most negative aspects of my ego (traveling with a large group of people will always do that, much less in Israel!) and begin implementing the changes I wanted to make in myself and my life.

I was told that I had to experience the beach before leaving Tel Aviv and so I awakened early on Wednesday morning to do mikveh in the Mediterranean Sea before heading with the group to Jerusalem. The sun had just risen and few people were on the beach. The sand was soft, the water was clear and there were tiny fish swimming right up to the shore. It felt full of life and so did I. I didn’t want to leave.

Alas, I had a bus to catch to Jerusalem and feared I’d spent so much time in the water and on the sand that I might have missed the bus altogether! Of course, I should have known better. The Centre runs on what is lovingly referred to by students and staff as “Kabbalah time” and per usual, our departure was to be delayed by several hours.

I took the opportunity to walk the streets of Tel Aviv and do some window shopping.

I found myself feeling more “connected” than usual. I would see things that weren’t really there — or at least not in the 1% physical reality. The night I was at the Tower of David I saw a sheep walking the streets only to do a double take and see it wasn’t really there. Today, I saw children and families that upon a second glance also seemed to disappear.

The feeling of being “connected,” being in a world of answers, didn’t end there. Sometimes I would be looking for a specific kind of store and somehow in a foreign land knew exactly where to go. At one point, I found myself wondering if I would spot anyone wearing red string on the streets and sure enough, across the way was a fellow student struggling to carry too many bags of laundry back to his apartment. I jumped at the opportunity and ran across the street to help him.

Opportunities like that were abundant. If anyone was looking to share, there was never a shortage or someone who wasn’t in need. I felt so useful that I never once felt lost. It was like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I was able to sit next to Tarise on the ride to our hotel in Jerusalem. She told me about her favorite places to visit from past trips and pointed out things on the drive for me to know what I was looking at. Once in Jerusalem, I was in awe at its ancient beauty. Aesthetically, it’s everything you would think it to look like. The only thing missing is Charlton Heston.

I checked into the hotel, but was told that my roommate had yet to arrive so I had an hour to myself to unpack and decompress before getting back on the bus to head to our first site. Decompressing, however, was not on the menu as I discovered I had left all of my dress clothes in my hotel closet in Tel Aviv. I had to call the hotel and have them pay a driver to deliver it all the way to Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, many others downstairs were experiencing their own stress and drama. Some did not get the room they wanted or the roommate they wanted or the bed they wanted or were directed to another nearby hotel due to being sold out. This was of no surprise to a few of us. These kinds of challenges always come just before something truly incredible is about to happen to try to affect our consciousness or deter us from a path.

What was originally supposed to be only 800 people on this trip ended up being 1200 in what became their biggest tour to date. It seems in the final weeks there was a flood of people wanting to attend and even days after registration ended, many were still wanting to sign up. The Centre decided instead of turning people away, they would accommodate absolutely every person who wanted to go, even if it meant having to divide into three different hotels.

I also have to add for students who, like myself, may have been skeptical upon seeing the price of the trip: Not only is it worth it for the spiritual experience that no money could buy, but on a more practical level I sometimes found myself wondering how they were even able to turn a profit from this thing! The food was fantastic and massive, three meals a day with a huge dinner each night. There were over 20 buses and the hotels were all four or five star, most of which had the entire property it seemed booked just for us. For the amount of time you’re spending and the accommodations you receive, trust someone who has now been there, the price is surprisingly way more than fair!

5C. That was my bus and my group. Each bus had several leaders: A tour guide to discuss what we’d see as we were driving, a teacher from the Centre who would inject consciousness while explaining the sites we were about to visit and a security guard with a machine gun! It was the first of many guns we’d see and though at first it seemed daunting, it quickly became “the norm” and we felt grateful for those protecting us. Some of the territory we would visit over the next few days is no place that any of us would have wanted to go on our own without permission from The Palestinian Authority.

My bus’s teacher happened to be my own teacher, Shalom Sharabi.

I was also fortunate enough to be seated next to a woman named Tracey on the bus whose inner strength was truly inspiring to me throughout the trip. We hit it off immediately. Tracey was from Vancouver, a city that doesn’t have a Centre but instead a study group of students who connect together via books and courses online.

“We had a few members for a while,” she said, “and then when we actively tried to recruit more, we grew to about 12 or so. But they fell off or lost interest after time and then it was just two of us.”

Only here was it beginning to dawn on me how blessed I am to not only live near a Centre, but to live near THE Centre! I just hop in my car and drive five minutes to pretty much any class I want at this world famous building called The Kabbalah Centre Los Angeles and think nothing of it most of the time! In fact, I usually think about how tired I am of Los Angeles and how I wouldn’t mind moving somewhere else. Meanwhile, there are students who would do anything to be able to live where I live or in any city with a Kabbalah Centre!

Not only do I live near THE Centre, but I have Shalom as my teacher and here I am in Israel with him as the leader on my bus !

“Wait a minute,” I thought to myself, in a complete state of awe. “Why me?”

The bus let us off at a cliff that looks out over all of Old Jerusalem in this panoramic view with The Temple Mount right in the middle.

As everyone else approached, I was stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t move any further. It felt like I had been there before, but more than that a feeling of helplessness washed over me. I felt so small and knew there was nothing I could ever achieve, no destiny I could meet, that would merit any of what I’ve been given in my life much less what I was about to experience on the trip. I felt completely unworthy to walk any closer and I knew I was truly in the presence of God.

The wind was so strong. My clothes flew like crazy and yet I was able to stand centered. Looking at the two domes, the gold and the black, felt like I was looking at the two moons on Tatooine. I could actually hear that music in my ears. And I felt such a huge sense of responsibility and no idea how to live up to it much less what I’m supposed to do about it.

I started to cry and through my tears I received an answer. The answer was that I was correct; there’s nothing I can do that would merit any of it and no way I could live up to the responsibility, which is why I need to take a higher version of myself with me into everything I do in my life. I accomplish nothing. It’s all from the Creator and I am just a manager. To be the best manager I can be of what I’m given in my life, I must connect to something higher than myself in all that I do. Life through my own narrowed lens will not cut it. For example, when I can step out of the story I think should be told, I can connect to the story the Creator wants me to tell.

There is a higher, perfected version of myself that I can borrow from in all the work that I do — and from that moment on the trip, I had complete access to it from that moment forward.

It shut off any negative voices. It gave me a peace in the middle of what seemed like chaos. It gave me certainty and faith when I thought I had none. It was truly incredible. I always knew it existed, but never had access to it like that.

Overwhelming.

Only when I connected to that higher self could I move forward with not a sense of merit, but responsibility and certainty that I can accomplish anything the Creator puts before me.

Again, words can’t really do it justice. Nor can these pics or video.

But as a writer, I had to try to share.

The humility and holding back tears was still happening by the time we reached the castle of the patriarchs Abraham, Issac and Jacob at The Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. The were dozens and dozens of soldiers with rifles to protect us, staked out everywhere you looked and in the middle of all the guns was this gorgeous wedding of two chevre (teachers at the Centre) as the sun was setting. The wedding was then followed by a dinner with live music right outside the castle itself. What a welcome to Israel!

Then the unthinkable happened. All 1200 of us were not only let into The Cave of Machpelah, but at the last minute, Yehuda Berg convinced the army of the West Bank to allow us into their half of the castle. Years back, war broke out and many were killed here in the castle at which time it was divided, one half being Israeli territory and the other half belonging to the Muslims on the West Bank. It is on the West Bank’s side that the tomb of Issac (“left column” energy), the tomb of Rebecca and the entrance to The Garden of Eden resides.

The Garden’s entrance, also known as the entrance to the caves below where all these righteous souls are buried, is truly majestic, shaped like a flower with holes in the metal — and when you breathe in from it, after a few seconds, you can literally smell a garden. It is also said to be the “tunnel” we see when we pass from this world to the next, which is why anyone who has ever tried to go down there has never come back.

Though in past trips, a small group of three or four select individuals have been allowed in, the room has never been open the 1200 individuals. It was only because they were so moved by The Kabbalah Centre’s quest for true peace and unity that they allowed us in.

Kabbalists believe, of course, that everything is energy and even inanimate objects are imbued with the energy of the people who have used them. A guitar played by Jimmy Hendrix carries some pretty powerful stuff, right? So the Kabbalists believe that connecting with these tombs of the righteous souls, the Tzadikim, imbues us with their energy, to help us achieve and create the miracles and wonders they did. This is achieved not only by visiting these sites, but even by looking at and meditating on pictures of them.

And so I took these photos just for you. (Click on the images for a “big picture” look.)

While it was amazing to be let into previously uncharted territory in Hebron, nothing would come close to preparing me for the miracle of peace and unity that we experienced the next day as we were led into Shechem.

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