Are you feeling squeezed, compressed or overwhelmed right now?
I've been feeling those things a lot lately - and I know I'm far from the only one.
It's a weird sensation - like something you can't really name is pressing in on your body, your nervous system and your life.
I want to tell you what I believe is actually happening beneath the surface, and why it is so important to understand right now.
In 1991, the Lubavitcher Rebbe made a quiet declaration that shifted the entire spiritual landscape of our era. He said that the the millennia-long work of refining and elevating the Divine sparks hidden within our physical world (birurim), is fundamentally complete.
You may not have ever learned this - but according to the Divine blueprint for creation, for thousands of years, the central spiritual work of souls was birurim. Throughout this era, our souls came down to learn how to rectify the world - and reveal God and our true selves - by sorting good from evil, right from wrong, and truth from lies.
Every mitzvah (Divine act), every act of kindness, every heartfelt prayer, and every moment of struggle, learning, falling or triumph has been part of this cosmic refinement. Most of this work has been done in the dark, where consciousness is low, and pressure high.
And suddenly, in 1991, the Rebbe said that this phase, as the primary work of our souls, is done.
Not because the mitzvot no longer apply, or because kindness, wisdom, integrity and truth no longer matters - quite the contrary.
But because enough of the deep sparks have been elevated - collectively - for a fundamental shift in reality to occur.
And that brings us to the unprecedented explosion of chaos and potential that we are living in today.
We have entered a new era, and everything is changing because for the new to take hold, the old must break down. Part of this shift is a new kind of Divine service - that will help to reveal this aching planet as the glorious, loving, abundant Divine world it was always meant to be.
The Rebbe called this new service Yichud Yichudim, "the unification of unifications."
Here's what it means:
Mystical Torah explains that God relates to His creation in two primary, but very different ways.
The first - which we have been living inside of since creation began - is called Memaleh Kol Almin, the Divine light that fills the worlds. In Memaleh Kol Almin, God's light and presence is hidden, even though it is here within everything, making us and our world come alive.
Like the hand within a sock puppet, from this field of reality the Creator shows up hidden within the "costumes", or vessels, of this world. These are the garments of nature, logic, biology, reward and punishment, cause and effect, which make the world look and feel like its running on its own.
From this field, there are hard laws - and hard limits on what is possible.
What is good for our true growth on a soul level often feels anything but good.
We intrinsically feel judged, undeserving or alone.
Life is filled with challenges and lack - whether of money, health, love, peace, or any of the things that we so deeply and legitimately crave.
And, even though there is always the potential for miracles, you have to be worthy of them - and they are few and far between.
The second field of reality is called Sovev Kol Almin, the Divine light that encompasses and transcends each and every aspect of creation. This light is infinitely more powerful, but is far too vast and sublime for us to see or feel.
At least - until now.
Sovev Kol Almin is truly infinite. It is not just God as Creator and Master of the world. It is God, intimately present and powerful, but loving, accessible and revealed.
Sovev operates way beyond any known limits, rules, vessels, or natural laws. When we are able to connect to this far deeper level, even imperfectly, we open to the supernatural - to the impossible made real in our lives.
For all of history, these two fields have operated separately. Nature versus miracles. Body versus soul. Physical versus spiritual. Possible versus impossible.
But the age of separation is coming to an end. Now, God and creation, spiritual and physical, potential and manifestation, now must become one.
This is Yichud Yichudim. It is the process of bringing the infinite potential of Sovev into our finite Memaleh lives. It may start slowly, as most radically new things do. But it will continue until the boundary between these quantum fields dissolves.
As this happens, the supernatural becomes natural. The miraculous becomes our ordinary way of being. Our souls come out of hiding. And we learn to relate to God, our Divine Source, in far more personal, intimate and loving ways.
This is the shift we are in right now.
Throughout our history, Sovev stayed transcendent and hidden. Because if it had ever fully entered the vessels of the finite world - our bodies, our consciousness, our lives - they would have shattered.
The world was not yet mature enough to relate to this level of light - and still remain a world.
But now the world is ready, and so are we. The time has come for the birth. The pressure is rising because the infinite light is pressing into the finite with more presence and force every day.
That's why we are feeling so squeezed. That's why so many things are changing. That's why our predictable world seems to be so quickly breaking down.
That's why things are as weird as they seem to be right now.
If you feel compressed right now, if you feel the pressure in your body, your life and your nervous system, if you feel like everything is harder than it should be, please hear this:
This pressure is not a sign that something is wrong. It is a sign that something unprecedented is trying to emerge through you.
Like the shell cracking as the chick breaks through, like the birth canal opening when the womb has become too small, compression is the primal force of expansion.
When its time for the quantum shift, for a birth to occur, or the infinite to find its way into the finite, it doesn't start with opening.
It starts with squeeze.
We are not here to escape the compression. We are here to let the infinite in.
Human history has been all about effort and struggle. About earning our existence through discipline, sacrifice and hard knocks. Through doing the right thing, even when it was hard.
That was noble work. It refined our souls and tilled the soil of a Divine world.
But the new era of Yichud Yichudim is fundamentally different.
It is no longer about suppressing ourselves and reaching beyond, but about embodying our souls and making space for God to come in.
It's no longer about earning the light and blessings that we so desire, but about aligning with our true selves and a new era of reality, to receive the light that is already here.
It's not about fixing what is broken, but about recognizing and embodying what is already whole.
It's not about enduring the exile, but about learning to inhabit a new reality that most of the world cannot yet see.
This does not happen through more effort. It happens through a different kind of consciousness, connection and way of being, which most of us know nothing of.
This is why so many of us feel stuck right now.
We are still living within Memaleh consciousness, and using Memaleh tools, in a world where only Sovev will get us through.
It is time - NOT to stop growing - but to stop trying to earn what has already been given, and to walk through a doorway that has already been opened.
And to do those things, we have to learn how to see, and be, in a whole new way.
There are two kinds of miracles - nissim and niflaot.
Nissim are miracles that break through nature, but leave nature itself unchanged. The sea splits, and then it closes back up. You're rescued from a crisis, but your struggles continue.
Niflaot, wonders, change the nature of nature in a way that leaves reality permanently transformed. These are the kinds of miracles we are now meant to reveal.
If you are feeling the pressure right now, if your body feels compressed, if your symptoms have increased, if it feels like your old life is cracking, if nothing feels stable the way it used to, know that you are not failing, not broken and not alone.
You are simply inside the squeeze.
The infinite is pressing against you, and you are being asked to let it in.
The work that we have done throughout millennia was sacred, and it has done the job it was designed to do.
Now, a new relationship with ourselves, our souls, and God, is required.
This is the what the Gate of Unity is here to support.
It is the primary work of our times.
With love and blessings,
Shifra Chana
