A beshert is the Jewish notion of a soul mate. Beshert means destiny or your predestined spouse. Some rabbis teach that according to the Talmud, 40 days before a male child is born, God announces whose daughter he will marry.
According to Kabbalah, God divides a soul in half, into male and female. When they finally meet in holy matrimony, their bond returns.
Some people believe you can go to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to pray for 40 days to attract your soul mate. I once read an article about someone who did this and got married. There are even websites like www.jerusalemtempleprayers.com that will send someone to the Wailing Wall to pray for you for 40 days, for a fee.
But do people believe in soul mates these days? According to a recent poll taken by Spark Networks, Inc., the owner and operator of JDate, 46 percent of singles believe there is one right person in the world for them, compared to 34 percent who disagreed and 20 percent who were undecided.
Recognizing Your Beshert
If you believe in soul mates, how might you recognize yours?
Here are seven common things I’ve heard people report feeling when they first meet their soul mate:
- Time stands still.
- You get a feeling like you’ve known each other before.
- There are many commonalities.
- You have similar values.
- There is a deep mutual acceptance.
- You have an ability to help each other grow.
- Obstacles don’t matter – you still want to be together.
In the end, finding your soul mate may feel joyous, wonderful and otherworldly, but marriage and long-term relationships are still work and a constant dose of reality. In fact, the very nature of soul mates is to help each other grow on a spiritual level, so these relationships can be even more challenging than having a regular companion.
Tips To Find Your Soul Mate
A good way to attract your soul mate is to be spiritually open and willing to grow and learn.
You need to be mature enough to know yourself on a deep level so you can recognize who will complement you – and to look beyond any external factors to the soul level of your date.
You also need to be ready to work on a relationship that will ultimately bring up challenging karmic issues for you both. Your soul mate will know you more deeply than others, and this can be both blissful and miserable at times.
Yet if you’re both willing to own your weaknesses and to work on them, this relationship can be a place to grow tremendously, both in wholeness and in love.
Editorial Team is a contributor to JDATE. See more of Editorial Team's articles here.
