You have probably experienced how Kabbalah can improve your life in a personal way - in your relationships, how you see the world, how you can control chaos, or with your health. But there is another area where Kabbalah can help you, one that most people don't consider the realm of spirituality, but it is. It has to do with fulfillment in the area of financial sustenance - money.
In the same way that you would enter into a partnership in business to make more money, you can enter into a partnership with the Light to make your personal finances grow. When you work with the Light, you take on more of a "silent partner." You are in the forefront of running the show, but you have someone in the background to protect you and help you increase your wealth.
Why, in the course of spiritual study, are we talking about money? Because money is just another one of the Creator's greatest gifts that provides us with fulfillment, and it's a very powerful way that enables us to share with others. Money is one of the purest forms of energy there is because money is energy in potential - it can be a seed and used positively and proactively, it can reveal enormous Light.
So how do you find true prosperity? One way is to make more money and the other is to protect the money you've already received. What do we know about the universal principle of receiving?
In order to receive you have to share.
Sharing creates room in your vessel for more Light, or sustenance, to come in. Sharing also makes us like the Light, which is essential for true prosperity. Giving creates circuitry, even in the world of business and finance. You earn, you give, you earn more, you give more, and so on.
Kabbalah offers a very specific and powerful way to protect the money you have and bring more sustenance to your life. It's called tithing. The word "tithe" comes from the Hebrew word Eser, which means "ten." Tithing is giving away 10% - 20% of the net profit you earn.
Sounds scary, right? Giving away 10% of your net income may seem like a strange way to go about increasing your wealth! But tithing is a technology that ensures the money we have is protected. This is a complex concept; stay with me here...
The foundation of tithing is based on the kabbalistic principle that reality is divided into ten levels of consciousness. The lowest level is material reality, called Malchut, which is an expression of desire for oneself alone. These ten levels exist within our financial sustenance, so giving away 10% of everything we earn allows us to disconnect from the desire to receive for the self alone, the Malchut level, and just connect to the elevated levels of spiritual energy in your money.
By tithing, you're really freeing yourself from the negative energy force that creates obstacles and challenges in our lives.
So the primary motivation for tithing is to get rid of the negative presence in our earnings, the Malchut (limited) portion. In this way, the remaining 90% of our wealth is infused with the power of the Light.
To take the concept to another level, tithing is not really even about giving in the sense you might initially expect. It's more about getting rid of something that's going to hold you back. Kabbalah teaches that the 10%, Malkhut portion of our money doesn't even belong to us. By giving it away, you're assuring that the rest of your money is not touched by darkness and chaos. This is what we mean by entering into a silent partnership with the Light. You could think of it as an insurance policy.
Plenty of people, including me, were initially resistant to this idea of tithing. At first it doesn't make sense, and it certainly takes us out of our comfort zone. Yet tithing has been an accepted practice for at least the last 2,000 years (as written about in the Kabbalah literature), and Mormons have been doing it since their church began. In fact, the biggest winner on "Jeopardy" stated from the beginning that ten percent of whatever he earned on the show would go to the Mormon Church - and he went on to win more than any game show contestant in history!
I suggest you try it. Just try it for two months.
The truth is that the dark side has a way of making you tithe, regardless of whether you're aware of it. So think about whether you want to be in control of it. You can share proactively and spread Light to the world, or tithing can happen to you. Think about all the money you lose each month -in parking tickets, home repairs, overpaying for something you find on sale elsewhere, or missing out on that great price for a plane ticket you ended up paying more for! Tithing creates a realm where your wealth is protected, and you won't find yourself "wasting" your money.
"But what if I can't afford to tithe 10%?" many students ask me. I remind them that money is merely a form of energy. Another valuable form of energy is time. So, you can tithe a combination of money and time, as long as it's 10%.
There are countless worthwhile organizations out there that need help at every level. You should tithe to any cause that you believe can bring Light into the world. You can of course also tithe to the Kabbalah Centre, as we have many programs that need your support.
You may have reservations about the practice of tithing, but I hope you’ll give it a try. It can remove enormous blockages to your sustenance and help you protect the money that is already yours.