Birthdays

Practice and Theory

Recalling Your Foundation

If we are to appreciate the fruits of life, we must first appreciate the tree that bears the fruit: birth itself.

Birth is your beginning. It is a window to the chance of a lifetime; the chance to fulfill your unique mission.

So a birthday is a momentous occasion, to be commemorated just as a nation commemorates its birth or as an organization celebrates its founding.

A birthday is a chance to remember the day that a major event occurred, to celebrate and give thanks and to reflect upon how well we are fulfilling our calling.

Practice and Theory

The renewed capacity for your successful spiritual mission in life

Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on our birthday each year: The same energy that G-d invested in you at birth is present once again. It is our duty to be receptive to that spiritual energy.

By committing to a life guided by G-d’s will and by using the abilities and resources we were born with to perfect ourselves and society, and to make the world a good and special home for G-d, we become receptive to the this force.

Practice and Theory

• A birthday is a time to celebrate birth itself, the joy of life.
• A birthday is also an occasion to rethink your life: How great is the disparity between what I have accomplished and what I can accomplish?
• On your birthday think about: Am I spending my time properly or am I involved in things that distract me from my higher calling?
• How can I strengthen the thread that connects my outer (body) and inner (soul) life?
• A birthday can also teach us the concept of rebirth.
• To recall our birthday is to recall a new beginning.
• No matter how things went yesterday, or last year, we always have the capacity to try again.
• Your birthday is a refresher, a chance for regeneration – not just materially but also spiritually.
• On your birthday, gather with family and friends and study something meaningful together.
• There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than to commit to a new special act of goodness.
• It is easy enough to say you are grateful; it is far better to show it. You show your Creator you are grateful by helping out someone else.

Practice and Theory

On your birthday do something kind, something that you did not do yesterday.

Do it, not because someone suggests it; But simply because your inner goodness, your soul wants to express its thanks for being born and alive.

Wisdom

Such an act of kindness gives G-d great pleasure, because He sees that the child in whom He invested, the particular child he wanted to be born on a particular day, is living up to its potential.

Of course nothing gives a parent greater joy than to see one of His children helping another.

This is the true experience of birth, the true beginning of a life of meaning.