A birthday, as it has been celebrated for ages in all cultures, is a most peculiar day… Why?
Because it is a day when the ego is given permission to reveal what it wishes would happen every single day: to be the center of attention, to feel special, to receive compliments, gifts, and applause, in short: to receive, receive, and receive!
The ego cannot admit that this is what it truly wants every single day of the year — to draw power from others for itself!
And so, it must play the part of a kind and loving person, wearing a mask meant to conceal its true desire — for approval, recognition, and control.
But the truth is that the ego can love no one, because it is focused solely on itself!
Only one clue of the way the ego operates on a daily basis remains on a birthday: the candle-blowing ritual, during which a wish is made — yet in secret! (Yes… the ego always operates in secrecy. It is truly the “shadow government” of our inner world.)
In contrast, people with spiritual consciousness celebrate their earthly birthday focusing on a completely different question. Instead of asking “What have I come to receive and take?” the focus becomes: “What have I come to give to the world?”
In Hebrew, the word for celebration (“chag”) also carries the meaning of “swinging upward,” and therefore every celebration — not only a birthday — is meant to be a time of spiritual ascent.
The spirit, once freed from the binding pressure of the ego, naturally rises upward — like a helium balloon that quickly rises into the air the moment one lets it go.
And in this upward swing, the spirit experiences the supreme joy embodied in the commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” — calling us to place God first in our lives, as the only source of power!
As a result, a spirit such as this will also know how to truly love, because it will never see another person as a source of energy to draw from — just as a vampire seeks to drain the power from anyone who allows it!
And so, naturally, such a spirit will also be able to truly fulfill the commandment: “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
On the occasion of my birthday, a prayer rises within me:
God, Grant me the strength to give all the gifts and blessings I have been privileged to receive — to all human beings whose spirits, too, yearn for closeness to You. Please grant me the strength to bring the “Word of the Lord” to the ends of the earth, so that more human spirits may find the path to a life of happiness, joy, and gratitude — as I was blessed to find when I found Your Word! Amen!