Soulmates

I was sitting with a friend once and she mentioned she felt like eating chocolate, and a second later someone came into the room and offered
chocolate. She and I were single then and were busy and obsessed with the concept of a soulmate. The next thing she said was: “why didn’t I ask for my soulmate?”
The first thought coming to mind is – she’s right. But is she? A kabbalah teacher happened to be there and taught us a lesson that stayed with me and will stay with me forever.  What he said was this, The creator loves us – therefore the creator wants to fulfill our desires. If what we ask for again and again is a soulmate, then the creator will provide it. So, what is the catch, why shouldn’t I ask for it? The answer is – what if you are not ready for it? What if what you have in your mind as a soulmate and the reality of your soul mate are different? YOU WILL NOT SEE HIM OR HER. What if this person is married right now, what if he’s not in the age group you expect him to be? What if he doesn’t look like “your type”? The kabbalah teacher said, you should be asking for more Light. You should be asking for more fulfillment, happiness and excitement in your life. If getting this wish fulfilled means
that you can achieve it better with a soulmate, then the creator will provide you with a soulmate. But before that you will have the blessing of receiving the tools to change, in a way that will allow you to see your soulmate.
Many times it means working harder. It means getting out of yourself to do something for someone else. To go the extra mile. Whatever it is that is more difficult for you. Maybe sharing money is what’s hard for you, maybe time, maybe a smile. The 72 names of God has combinations of letters in Hebrew/Aramaic, that can help the soul wake up and connect to its own power to control life and
receive what’s there for you to enjoy. Just looking at these names will not help without an effort. The names can help create the change we need to make from within so we can receive the blessing the name can evoke.
When I met the man who is now my husband, one of the things he shared was how he meditates on soulmate combination often and did so when he was still married to his ex wife, so he and she will be with their soulmate, whether it is each other, or a new person. I was captivated, and knew this guy is for me. I was able to see him, although at first glance he “wasn’t my type”, because I have made changes in my life. I wanted more Light, and I have meditated on this name, A LOT.

Pleasures

This week I had a few little pleasures:

Yard sale – Last Sunday we had a yard sale. A few weeks ago I have started putting Passover in mind, and that means cleaning (a lot of cleaning). How long can something be in front of your eyes, and you will not even realize it is just there with no purpose, BUT, it is already a part of you. If you are lucky enough you WILL actually see it, and will have a choice to get rid of it.

Beyond my clothing, key chains, CD’s, and other items was a divider screen. I had to buy it when I lived in my previous apartment, to hide something really ugly. The screen was actually pretty, and functional, and I always thought – “Oh, I will need it for SOMETHING”. Then these past weeks have came, and I was on my husband’s case, asking him to get rid of stuff he is not using. He did a great job, and said good bye to some really good stuff, that he didn’t use for maybe 10 years (antenna). Then, to be fair, I was looking around the house, trying to open my eyes to see what is the thing I can’t say good bye to, but actually not using, and the screen smiled at me.

The beauty is that so many people actually paid money for our stuff, so not only we were able to get rid of them, someone actually needs them.

The screen ended up in good hands (our friends and neighbors).

Guys; look around, there is something, it’s right in front of you – maybe it represent something in your heart that you also MUST get rid of. Ex apartment, ex job, ex relationship? Trust me, it feels good, and new things will come.

Igor the truck driver

My little escape and mind clearing treats include a show on TV – called “Undercover Boss” – This show is about CEO’s who go “undercover” into their own company’s operations, and see what it is like to work for themselves. I find this show truly interesting and almost always, there is an employee introduced that inspires me in very strong ways.

This guy’s name is Igor. Igor is a night shift truck driver, who works for Seven Eleven. Igor is married, and sees his family ocasionally and gets a chance to really spend time with his wife on the weekends, otherwise they don’t get a chance to see each other.

The CEO who joined him, had wondered about Igor’s AMAZING positive attitude to life, and his job. Igor in reply said he feels like a very very lucky man. He said he is constantly grateful for his situation, being an immigrant from Kazakhstan (“where Borat is from”, “this feels like a summer in my country” – in the walk in refrigerator…) Igor was so genuine expressing his gratitude, you couldn’t let it pass you without being so inspired. Seriously? The guy is working night shifts for Seven Eleven as a truck driver! What is so wonderful about that? He spoke like he was the CEO.

In the end of the show, the CEO was so impressed by Igor and his attitude, that he actually made him a franchise owner, and a regional supervisor (as well as giving him a resort vacation with his wife).

There was such a clear and amazing link between his attitude, which had so much appreciation and gratitude, and the no expectations attitude, that made it clear, THIS IS THE WAY. This is the way to get everything you want, and more. Why is it so easy to miss out on this simple point?

Thank you Igor, I hope you will continue to succeed and inspire, and I wish my self to remember your story always.

http://www.odehya.com/Product_109.html

Fear and Raef

Well, in English it doesn’t work as well as it does in Hebrew. In Hebrew, the word Fear – is PAHAD and when you read it backwards it reads – DAHAF which means motivation, desire.

Did you notice how many times you had a motivation or a desire for something, but you were almost paralyzed when you actually had to act on it? There is a connection between the words, and it is up to you. The Hebrew language is trying to tell us something, to teach us a message, if we are willing, and open to hear it.

When you have fear of something you want to achieve, dream of, desire -  usually it is because if you really pursued it, you will succeed. We all have different things that frighten us. Some have emotional issues, some relational, some physical, and some intellectual. But what if? What if you do transform, go AGAINST yourself, go backwards. You create a new reality and your fear transforms into a desire, to great motivation. What is the worst that will happen? You will fail? So here is what I learned from history, and from my own life and close people. When you REALLY want something, and we all did in our life, whether it’s a job, a spouse, knowledge – YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN. You don’t let your fear control you. You laugh at it’s face, take a deep breath and transform. You usually find out there was nothing to be afraid of…

Hebrew, is truly a wonderful mystirious and fascination language. It has so many secrets. The more you find out about it the more you want to know.

People think it is just the language the Israelis speak, well it is the language the Israelis speak, but they (we, ok, I am one) don’t even know half of the secrets and knowledge underneath every letter and every word.

I feel blessed to understand the Hebrew that I do, and enjoy sharing it through my art work.

take a look and see if you get inspired to:

www.odehya.com

I like to complain

So why exactly am I sharing this? Because I’m proud of it? That is defiantly not the way I feel about it. I am sharing it because I know you like to complain to. But now I do want to stop there and ask why, why do we like to complain? There must be something satisfying about it. But what do I mean by “I like to complain?” I mean that even if I don’t with my words, I do it in my head. And oh, trust me, I have great reasons to.

So then comes the times where you have a chance to pick into someone’s else life, for example, I donate blood every once in a while – and as part of the process, you have to answer tons of questions where usually the answer for them is NO.

Then you think about it seriously, there are people who actually say YES to those questions. People go through some serious reasons to complain. And I wonder if that is all I need. A wake up call. A wake up call to put things in proportion, and really get how blessed I am. How rich I am, and how much I love every part of it.

There are a few things that keeps me in touch with this appreciation, they are spiritual tools. one of them is through a special morning meditation where my own name, is combined with the name neshama (soul) in Hebrew. In the following link you can see what I am talking about, and it might inspire you also to connect to the power of your soul.

http://www.odehya.com/Product_106.html

I work with Hebrew letters so…

Does that make me a Judaica artist? I actually had always rejected the idea of religion. And a lot of the things I make has nothing to do with Judaism. At the same time, I do mainly work with the Hebrew letters. This is confusing. I guess I never liked beeing categorized at all, and now, that I am studying Kabbalah, I definatly am doing what seems to be like religious rituals. I keep the Shabbat, Kosher, Holidays and everything that seems Jewish, but at the same time, feel as turned off as I always was by religion.

Many of my friends will testify the same way about themselves. To me, religion is putting things in a box – it’s saying what’s forbidden, and what you HAVE to do. There’s no sense of freedom, or open-mindedness. There’s a lot of feeling of obligation, and following tradition – because “this is how we do it for generations”, and the worst, it creates serious separation and justify wars and bloodshed.

What I believe in is in asking questions, Is asking the question “Why”, is creating MORE connections with ANYONE around me, and not finding more reasons for why I am better, or how I am different – so I will have a good excuse to judge others.

And that is why I use the Hebrew letters. Because they have enourmos energy. They are a tool, and a very powerful one, to bring more unity between people, without preconception of who they are, because of their origin, looks, income, or anything else. The Hebrew letters are identified as the letters of the Jewish people, but we don’t own them, they are universal. They were meant to be used by any one who wishes. And so is all the wisdom that lies in the wisdom that Judaism originated from, before it was corrupted by man.

Back to my little conflict…, I do make a bunch of functional things such as Trivets, and Clocks, Magnets, and Greeting cards. They do fall under the category of Judaica. So, I embrace it, and do my best to inject as much concioussness to my work and art. After all, I have no desire to judge anyone for their paths, or beliefs. We are all connected.

Into every piece I create, I inject love and desire to get the customer the most energy through the letters, Jews or not.

To see those items you can find them here:

http://www.odehya.com/Catalog_1.html

Piece of Love

In my previous post I shared my Journey to Arizona, and how I began my work in wood, and yes, some about my very private experience with an ex.

This time I want to share the story of that first piece, and I will let the piece do the writing.

- I was a plain and simple 20″ wide, 8″ tall 2″ thick of an ignored piece of Pine wood, in the Scottsdale Community College. I was part of a pile, and no one thought I was good for anything for a while.

One day, a warm, curious hand picked me up and two eyes stared at me. I knew it was a match. I knew there is something in me that wants to be revealed and I couldn’t hold it inside me any more. The extension to the hand and eyes was a girl named Rahel.

She wanted to make a box with some kind of a statement of eternal love to her fiance with both her names in it. But I knew it was the wrong thing to do, and I knew if one thing was for sure it was; this relationship is defiantly NOT representing an eternal love, and I whispered as strong as I could to her, to forget this idea, and do something that IS eternal – she heard me, and that isn’t easy, some people whisper to trees, but not many hear them!

She has decided to expose the word LOVE in Hebrew AHAVA, that was in me, and she figured out a way, with some guidance from her teacher Joey, to cut the letters OUT of me, exactly the way I wanted it to be. When she was done, and I could feel her excitement when she was doing it, she matched other special types of wood, which I found out later were really special. These woods were foreign, and spoke different languages, I felt like I am hanging out with royalty! She managed to match them as letters, right into my letters.

Since then, we feel very close, and we are practically family. Every one who see us wants to take us, but we insist on staying with Rahel.

WOW, I never knew my pieces had so much to say! I will ask more of them to write next time!

It is true though, everyone wants this piece, and that is why I have created many more other pieces with the word LOVE – AHAVA, the one thing any body wants.

You can find it on my website www.odehya.com

All the best,

Rahel

Why

Where did it all start? How come I ended up doing this kind of art work?

Since I remember my self I have always been creative. Studied Graphic Design for four years which included drawing, painting and sculpture. Any creative person reading this now, knows, there’s nothing compared to the feeling of creation.

In the year 2003 I met a guy at the Kabbalah Center, his name was David. Three months later he proposed, it was my 33rd birthday, and Rosh Hashanah. I said yes.

Before I continue, I want to make it clear now; we did not get married and thank God, I am now happily married to my husband Elimelech Tennenbaum.

Back to the David / Rahel episode… David and I were very much in love, he seemed like everything I wanted, and everything every woman would want. Funny, smart, creative, not gay (ladies, admit it – not easy in today’s world), good looking, has two dogs (one used to bite me, and that made him laugh – God bless my blindness) and spiritual.

He suggested I moved in with him to his home in Arizona. I said yes again, and five months after we met I made the move. The house was beautiful, he even build a special deck specially for me in the back yard (Awww).

Arizona was charming, and I knew that, as we agreed we will do our best – to be every weekend in Los Angeles for the Kabbalah connections (happened maybe once in six months – where he abandoned me because I said something the wrong way, God bless my blindness again).

For the ones who got lost and wonder – what does all this have to do with anything? I will connect the dots right now.

I have expressed my desire to get back to my creativity and manifest more of that passion. David suggested he’ll pay for me to take classes (after we broke up the school called and said it was never paid – so I ended up paying…)

All excited and thrilled, I registered to a sculpture class, and watercolor in the Scottsdale Community College (SCC).

The journey of self discovery and the seeds of ODEHYA were planted. In the sculpture class we used different materials, plaster, bronze, and my favorite – Wood!

I have made my first piece, titled “LOVE” – “AHAVA” in Hebrew letters. I think I will leave this story for another post entry.

David and I broke up after less than a year since we met. It’s not fair to bitch about him, because for sure I had my share of the destruction. Sometimes you just want to believe in something so hard, you pretend things are different then what they are. You convince yourself that when you find your soul mate it is supposed to be hard, and you just have to be prepared to fight for it. But let me just say this, when you find yourself in a breakdown – crying on the floor, multiple times a week, when about 85% of the time you feel sad and miserable – face it, be strong, and LEAVE. It doesn’t feel this way with your soul mate, I know it now, and I’m happy for David we are not together.

I believe he is also happily married today (to his best friend, that happened to be in a weird coincidence – another ex boyfriend’s ex girlfriend of mine, I know, truly weird, she gets to be with the guys I wasn’t able to work it out with. If you’re confused I don’t blame you, and it’s not relevant anyways).

The morale of the story is that even when you think life go’s against you – like I felt David was a BIG mistake – good things can be born at the same time.

My businees ODEHYA, and odehya.com is all based on that initial LOVE piece I made back in SCC, and if you want to connect to your soul mate, then use the help of the 72 names of God for soul mates. It worked for me!

Bye for now,

Rahel

My name is…

Hi,

When I was born (in Jerusalem / Israel), my parents gave me the name “Odeya”. I grew up with this name, and always loved it. It has a beautiful meaning; Odeh – I will thank, Y’a – God. It sounds beautiful, it has a great meaning.

Around 1999 I was introduced to the wisdom of Kabbalah, at the Kabbalah Center in Philadelphia, PA. At first I was very intrigued, but only later on I took it more seriously. It was in 2001 that I have moved back to Israel after almost a year in New York, where I took my first class of Kabbalah.

That time was very meaningful to me with my spiritual work, and the only thing I had a desire for was to receive a call from the volunteer coordinator at the center, giving me a volunteering job. At the time I had a nice job as a Graphic artist/designer at the famous Israeli women magazine “AT”.

At that time I have made a decision – I want to become a full staff member – a full time volunteer.

Kabbalah wisdom teaches among many other things that we are here for a reason, and one of the ways to reach our full potential is to connect to a high soul, therefore, changing the name would be a way to do it.

Okay… sounds good, FOR ANYBODY ELSE! not me! I love my name, it has a great meaning, a beautiful sound, it’s rare, it makes me so special! AND if you add up the numerical value of the Hebrew letters, it has the same value as the Holiest name of God – 26! All these rejections made me realize – I HAVE to change my name – why? because we usually strongly object anything good for us… My name is not a name, it is a combination of words, it’s a phrase! So… I let go, and asked the Rav Berg, the leader of the Kabbalah Center to change my name, and connect me to a higher.

A very common name women got when they changed their names, was – Rahel. The one name I really hoped it won’t be!

The day came, it was my turn to make breakfast to all my buddies. Alone in the kitchen – a phone call. “Good morning Rahel” – I almost dropped. RAHEL?! from all names?

I felt a huge burden coming off my shoulders, the new name IS a name, of a person, not God, but at the same time almost disappointed that I (me, special me) got the most common name…

I realized since, whether I like my name or not, it IS my name, and I am going to use it, and if you are special, you are special with or without a special name.

And I stick to Rahel and not Rachel, since the correct pronunciation is this way, and Rachel is a corrupted version.

If I want to call my self anything but Rahel, might as well it be Odeya!

2007 came along, and I opened my business ODEHYA, and a year later launched my website odehya.com.

I thought – why waste such a beautiful name? I will still be connected to it, but be detached from it at the same time.