Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm very sensitive to the energy, especially the negative one, of people and surroundings. I easily absorb it and may transmit it to others in turn. It was only a few years ago that I became aware of this sensitivity of mine. Several months ago I started to work on this in order to protect myself from the negative energy of people, especially when they speak or behave negatively.
I've started detoxing the accumulated negative energy once a week by spending the last hour before the end of Sabbath by secluding myself in nature. Recently I felt that the negative energy I had absorbed reached my limit, so I was looking for some one-time solution to detox it more fundementally.
Last week I had two signs showing that I should visit the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Luria (also known as "Haari"), who is considered the greatest Kabbalist in them middle ages, in Safed. I always (like to) plan trips well in advance, but this time I improvised a two-day trip to Safed to visit his tomb, hoping that not only the visit itself but other chance encounters in this trip would help me detox the accumulated negative energy.
I reserved a hotel room this Tuesday, went on a 4.5-hour trip the day before yesterday from my apartment on Haari (!) St. in Jerusalem to Safed, and returned here yesterday. I also decided to stay away from news and social media in order to maximize the benefit of this trip.
Upon my arrival in Safed I headed for the Old Cemetery of the city, where Haari is buried. I only checked the place then in preparation for my revisit on the early morning of the following day. As I had expected, there were too many visitors in the afternoon. When I revisided Haari's tomb at the sunrise, I was the only visitor as I had hoped.
There was a sign near his tomb asking all the visitors to follow my commandment when they pray there. I did follow it during my solitary prayer there and decide to do my best to continue to follow it afterwards.
One of the greatest pleasures of any trip for me is to meeting local people "by chance". I was hoping this time that my visit to Haari's tomb and my preparation for it might help me attract people with higher spiritual frequency that I usually encounter. I was right, and the two people I "attracted" far surpassed my expectation.
One is the owner of a Jewish bookstore in the Old City of Safed. I've never entered any other bookstore matching my interest so much as this one - it was full of Chabad books not only Hebrew and English but also in Russian, French and Spanish. It didn't take me long to discover that we have several common acquaintances.
While waiting for my bus at the central bus station of Safed, one woman in my age approached me and started to speak to me in Russian, presumably seeing one of my shoulder bags with contents in Russian. We had a very short conversation in Russian on Kabbalah books in general and her Russian translations in particular. It was a pleasant surprise to see that my spoken Russian had improved, perhaps thanks to my continued daily study of reading aloud Russian texts on Chabad Chassidus and Russian culture. After my return to Jerusalem I checked her website as she had asked me to and found she is not only a translator but also a prolific writer on Kabbalah and Chabad Chassidus.
In short I "attracted" two amazing people in Safed who are closely related to Chabad! Speaking with each of them for several minutes was even enough for me to be affected profoundly. Their presence mattered no less than their spoken words.
Hoping that my visit to Haari's tomb and "chance" encounters would raise the level of my consciousness, I had planned to read on my way back to Jerusalem one profound but difficult teaching by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, who is the teacher of some of my Chabad teachers in Jerusalem. It concerns what I consider one of the most important topic in the teachings of Chabad Chassidus - faith and confidence. I was right. This time I could understand this teaching not only conceptually but also, hopefully, non-conceptually. I had to come all the way to the tomb of Isaac Luria in Safed to better understand this important teaching, which will accompany me the rest of my life as my lamplight.
The most important thing I've learned from this trip is my decision to start following one interpersonal commandment written near the tomb as a request for its visitors. It didn't take me long to see its positive effect upon me. When I went out for shopping in preparation for Sabbath, I was surprised to see how my attitude to other people, including strangers, had fundementally changed for the better!
I saw so clearly what the Book of Proverbs says - כמים הפנים לפנים כן לב האדם לאדם 'As water reflects a face [back] to the face [that looks into it], so does the heart of a person [reflect his feelings] to a person [who faces him]', that is, "One who looks into water will see his own face, as in a mirror, and every distortion of his features, whether due to affection or anger, will appear there. Similarly, one's heart reflects back the feelings of another, as a person treats a friend in the same manner in which he is treated by his friend." (commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz)