CHANA MARGULIES
AUTHOR, RELATIONSHIP COUNSELOR, KABBALIST
Raised on an organic farm in Canada, Chana now lives in the mystical city of Tzfat with her husband, Rabbi Ariel Margulies. She is a shlucha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Chana is a sought-after international motivational speaker. Her words touch every heart, regardless of background, religious affiliation, age, or gender. She is available to speak for Shabbatons, events, travel programs, summer camps, conferences, and corporate events.
She gives life-changing interactive online dating and marriage courses and provides individual coaching.
Chana is a prolific writer, with articles featured on Chabad.org and in various magazines. Her memoir, Jumping in Puddles, is available on Amazon.
Chana runs GeulaWives, a program that helps women transform their marriages. Be in touch to learn how to join a circle in your community, for online support, to become a facilitator.
Feel free to reach out with any personal question you may have, or to join the Margulies family for a Shabbat meal in Tzfat. For Chana’s latest courses, books, and videos, be in touch via chanamargulies.org; chana@chanamargulies.org; or @chanamargulies.
You are the Gatekeeper
CHANA MARGULIES
Does God exist? That depends on you. God is reality. Life occurs within a reality called “God.” God is infinite, which means God can express all possible realities, including both revelation and concealment.
If you are an all-pervading, omnipresent being, where can you hide, where can you express your ability to conceal? God created infinite worlds; every person is a small world, each living in a private universe. If you are aware of God, God exists in your World. If not, God is expressing God’s ability to hide, while simultaneously bringing you into existence.
Imagine a person being breathed into existence ex nihilo, something from nothing, and yet believes itself to be independent. Like a cartoon being drawn and believing that it drew itself.
What is God’s greatest magic trick? Two people discussing whether God exists. You can almost hear the silent echo of a cosmic laugh at the irony of God hiding himself within himself, like a turtle within its shell.
What sparked God’s desire to create a world? Kabbalah teaches that it started when God perceived the delight God would have of sharing a home with you. God’s ever-present vulnerable desire is for you to invite God into your home, that home being your mind and heart, your subjective reality. God could barge in with a miracle, but it is intimacy, not power that God is craving. For intimacy, you must be wanted and sought after. The most vulnerable act in history was the Ten Commandments, where God told us his love language and simultaneously gave us free will, to choose God, or not.
God’s greatest delight is to be found in the places where God’s light is the most hidden. When we find God there, we have won at this cosmic hide and seek, and God couldn’t be happier. God is revealed the same way God is hidden - within our consciousness. For example, take a crispy fry, raise it heavenward, and say a blessing thanking God, thereby putting it into the context of existing in God, and “presto,” God is revealed. God is everything, so how can God be revealed or concealed? The answer is in your own life and world. Your world went from a black “whole” to endless light. The truth of God’s all-pervading existence was revealed for you.
Does God exist? Yes. But for God, that’s not a big deal. God wants to exist in your world. You are the gatekeeper. You can allow God to exist in your inner world of thoughts, speech, and actions. For example, we can say, “Thank God” when things go well, instead of solely crediting our own efforts.
The most powerful expression of God existing in your world is in your actions. When you do a good deed, channeling the Almighty’s wishes into action, then God becomes a physical, tangible reality for everyone to experience and see.
And that is our mission; to open the gates and become partners with God.