College for many is a rite of passage; a paradigm shifting rollercoaster wherein one is handed a golden permission slip to wildly experiment, brazenly challenge, and utterly defy every known law of nature – basically an exercise in total chaos. I mean come on; you force thousands of post adolescent lust filled minds to coexist in the ant colony known as “campus”, but not before telling them, “Now listen hear, you must ignore the opposite sex and study”…….what can possibly go wrong? It’s not all bad though; some of the greatest discoveries/innovations in science, technology, math, and philosophy have been achieved by those same young impassioned souls that find Friday night cow tipping and binge drinking preferable to a romantic dinner and movie – clearly God has a sense of humor! Speaking of philosophical innovativeness, ever hear of the born again virgin movement? I know, I know, I know; no way a college guy had anything to do with that – probably true, but I have another point. Sometime during the beginning of my second year, I became aware of reclaiming virginity movement when I met a beautiful young lady who only recently (my luck) took a vow to abstain from any and all intimacy until such time that she would enter into the covenant of marriage. After many months of begging her to marry me (kidding of course) I learned, that this vow was precipitated by her discovering God and committing, body and soul, to a spiritual path. She patiently explained to me, that though she truly loved and missed physical intimacy she whole heartedly believed that her sacrifice in the present would enable her to reclaim the sacred passion she once felt in the past, so that she might experience it yet again (albeit at a much higher level) with her soul mate in the future. It was the “magic” of intimacy she was so desperately questing for, the touch “behind” the touch. It got me thinking, can a spiritual person who has lost that sense of magic and wonder (present when they first began serving God) be “born again”? This is an important question because according to Kabbalah, serving God should be uplifting, pleasurable, and transformational like physical intimacy! This in fact is intimated in the Hebrew word for “prayer” (“Tefilah”), a word which also connotes “bonding” (“Naftali”) -  i.e. bonding/coupling with God.  However, similar to the ecstasy of physical touch, it’s very easy to become disenchanted if the magic isn’t continuously renewed. But how does one do it? How is it possible to stay interested and passionate about spiritual cultivation when one is immersed in the same rituals and practices daily? The answer, explains Kabbalah, is our “distance” i.e. the sense of distance we all at times feel from God. In the terminology of Kabbalah, feeling close to God is termed “expanded consciousness”, whereas feeling distant from God is termed “constricted consciousness”. It is the moments of “constricted consciousness” – when we feel at a distance and long for Divine closeness, that allows for renewed passion. Would it be, that we experience the same degree of closeness/intimacy continuously, our interest level would rapidly deteriorate, as “pleasure that is eternal is not pleasurable” (Kabbalah). Hence, it is precisely in our lonely moments – when we feel isolated and detached from our Divine source, that the spark to set ablaze the passion we felt so very long ago is found. This is what a “born again spiritualist” is, someone who rediscovers his/her lust for God even after many years of committed service. To do so, you need only remember that your moments of separation provide great opportunity; opportunity to sink or fly, to lose love or rediscover it all over again. This is called in Kabbalah, “Decent for the sake of accent” i.e. going down only to rise much much higher!