Parshat Vaeira: Love, the Sovereign of Life

“I appeared (lit. was seen, vaeira) to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as the Almighty G-d, but My Name YHWH I did not become known to them.” (Exodus 6:3). Our Sages teach that all the Divine Names mentioned in the Torah represent a particular quality with which the Creator relates to His Creation. Regarding YHWH they indicate that it is related to loving kindness and compassion, hence we can understand it as Divine Love that sustains, relieves and redeems us from the bondage of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions. As we have said often, the essential message of the book God as Love is to conceive (from our human consciousness) the Creator as Love and relate to Him through Love. The message is quite simple. If Creation is a clear manifestation of G-d’s Love, therefore the Essence of Creation is also His Love and such as we must conceive it and relate to it. It is also written that we humans were created at His image and likeness, thus we must understand our human identity as Love and also relate to our Creator through Love as our common Essence.

This is the context in which we have to understand “And I will take you to Me as a people, and I will be a G-d to you, and you will know that I am the Lord your G-d, who has brought you out from under the burdens of Egypt.” (6:7). It is G-d’s Love that summons us as our Redeemer simply because He is our Creator and the only One that we have to know in order to understand who we are in His Divine Plan. “Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not hearken to Moses because of shortness of breath and because of hard labor.” (6:9): when we achieve higher consciousness and realize the message presented above we become the Moses of our own awareness, and our purpose is to gather every aspect of consciousness (the children of Israel) and convey this message to them. This task is extremely difficult when these aspects are subjugated to the negativity of ego’s materialistic desires (“shortness of breath” and “hard labor”).

“(…) the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘I am the Lord. Speak to Pharaoh everything that I speak to you. But Moses said before the Lord: ‘Behold, I am of closed lips; so how will Pharaoh hearken to me’?” (6:29-30). Here we see the dynamics of the Divine Plan when we have to fulfill the will of the Creator. He is the One that is as Love manifested in His Creation and He shows the way to walk before Him as the true sovereign of all dimensions of consciousness, ego included. It is important to realize that the task to harmonize our consciousness starts with directing our ego because it is the most powerful force in human life. As we mentioned in our previous commentary on parshat Shemot, Pharaoh (ego) does not recognize any other power besides him and the whole process of the Exodus from Egypt is about teaching Pharaoh who is the real G-d in our life. When we realize G-d’s Love as our Essence and identity He is the One who speaks to us and to our ego when we cry out to be released from darkness and return to Light. But sometimes even if we are aware of G-d’s Love in our lives we don’t fully believe that He can subjugate and direct our basic human driving force. Indeed ego is a powerful ruler hard to be dominated, even by Love.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘See! I have made you a lord over Pharaoh; and Aaron, your brother, will be your speaker’.” (7:1). In this verse the appearance of Aaron as the complementary quality to fully embrace G-d's Love is clearly indicated. Our awareness of Divine Love (represented by Moses, our teacher) is indeed the natural ruler over ego and it is our constant connection with G-d’s Love (represented by Aaron the High Priest) that executes this action (see commentaries on the book of Leviticus in this blog). We have said before that Moses and Aaron represent two aspects of the highest awareness of G-d’s Love in our consciousness. We also learned that in Jacob’s final blessings to his children three dimensions of Israel’s identity were defined: Joseph became the First Born, Levi the Priesthood, and Judah the Kingship. Joseph encompasses Israel’s Divine inheritance and legacy which are G-d’s Love in humankind manifested through Israel; Levi represents the spiritual connection with G-d’s Love as the highest awareness of Him in our consciousness; and Judah represents the material manifestation of G-d’s Love in the physical world.

The portion continues with seven of the ten plagues that afflicted the land of Egypt in the process of making G-d’s Love the One and only Ruler over Creation, and the portion ends with ego’s obstinacy to give in to Love’s ways and attributes as the true conductors of life: “And Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased; so he (Pharaoh) continued to sin, and he strengthened his heart, he and his servants. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not let the children of Israel go out, as the Lord had spoken through the hand of Moses.” (9:34-35). Once again we are reminded of the power of ego in our consciousness and the struggle that we face to subdue it to Love as the key to redeem ourselves from the bondage of materialism in this world.

Parshat Shemot: Awakening to the awareness of Divine Love

"And these are the names (shemot) of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt (…)" (Exodus 1:1). Our Sages teach that one counts and names each thing that is precious to him, and Israel is indeed as precious as a son to his father, as it is written: "So said the Lord, 'My firstborn son is Israel'." (4:22). The Hebrew scriptures tell us about the Love of G-d for Israel and all His Creation, but have we considered our Love for Him? In the book "God as Love" we do not pretend to define with a human consciousness the indefinable Essence of the Divine, but to approach with our human traits the inherent and intrinsic Divine Love that creates and sustains us, and all His Creation. If Creation is certainly an act of G-d's Love, it is what we conceive and understand as love the means to relate and communicate with His Love. We frequently mention the thirteen attributes of Divine compassion (34:6-7) as specific references for us to comprehend the Creator through our human consciousness. Ultimately, it is our individual choice to conceive Him and approach Him either as the loving and compassionate Creator or else. Common sense and the obvious plainly demonstrate the former, and every chapter of the Torah, and every assessment of our Sages illustrate and reiterate this Truth. The book of Exodus is clearly the living proof of G-d's Love for Israel.

"Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying: 'Every son that is born you shall cast into the River'." (1:22). Our Mystic Sages explain that every male child born both from Israelites and Egyptians was subject to this decree, and that the River (Nile) represents the materialistic lifestyle derived from ego's lower desires and fantasies. Pharaoh (egocentric approach to material life) wanted every trait and aspect of human consciousness submerged (put to death) into the waters of materialism, and becoming virtually dead to the upper waters of higher consciousness represented by Love's ways and attributes. From this passage we learn that without a rest from the world's materiality in the place of the Creator (a place called Shabbat), life is meaningless. Without the awareness of the Creator, especially His Love, Creation is meaningless.

It is at this crucial moment of human development that a key aspect of consciousness needs to be born in order to guide its remaining aspects. This is what we refer as the highest awareness of the Creator in our consciousness, the awareness of the goodness that He is, as we are able to conceive it in our limited human perception. And it is represented by Moses: "And she (Moses' mother) saw him that he was good" (2:2). It is also the awareness of Love that reaches out to all Creation, and particularly to our brethren: "He (Moses) went out to his brothers, and looked on their suffering (2:11), and this ordeal is not only the result of living under the duress of gross materialism but the division and separation that we suffer in our exile from G-d's Love. Division, strife, quarreling, violence and hatred are illusions that trap us in the darkness of the absence of Love. "And Moses feared, and said: 'Indeed, the thing is known'." (2:14). Our Sages say that Moses saw that gossiping and tale-bearing were obstacles for the children of Israel's Redemption, and he concluded that those were the "known" causes of their bondage.

"(…) the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry ascended to G-d by reason of the bondage." (2:23). Mystic Sages explain that Pharaoh was dead to the awareness of G-d's Love, and His constant rule over His Creation; and it is in the darkness of this spiritual death when our cry certainly reaches up to Him. Rashi complements this fact when he questions why G-d appeared to Moses in a thorn-bush and not in a different tree, and he answers that it was in order to illustrate and demonstrate that "In all their distress He too was distressed, and the Angel of His presence saved them. In His Love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." (Isaiah 63:9). And His Love is indeed the fire that is never consumed: "The bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed" (Exodus 3:2).

"And Moses said to G-d: 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?' And He said: 'I (My Love) will be with you, and this is your sign (humility) that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt (after they their attachment to lower consciousness), they shall serve G-d upon this mountain (the highest awareness of Divine Love, also the Temple of Jerusalem)'. (3:11-12); because Love is the Name of the Creator of all, the One and only true and real Essence that sustains all, and there is nothing else besides Him. Hence, as Love that He is, is also the Redeemer that delivers us from the darkness of ego's materialism and negative aspects of consciousness: "This is My Name forever, and this is how I should be mentioned in every generation." (3:15), the One that was, is, and will be forever.

"However, I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except through a mighty hand." (3:19), because it is the power of Love that rules over all His Creation, as it is the Ruler over all levels, aspects and dimensions of consciousness. "And G-d said to Aaron: 'Go to the wilderness to meet Moses'. And he went, and met him in the mount of G-d, and kissed him." (4:27). It is in the mount of G-d, the highest awareness of Divine Love, where both loving kindness (Aaron) and righteousness (Moses) kiss, as it is recalled by King David: "Loving kindness and Truth are met together; Justice and Peace have kissed." (Psalms 85:11). Truth and justice are inherent to each other (Moses), and so too Love and Peace (Aaron).

"And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the Lord that I should hearken to His voice to let Israel go'? I know not the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go'." (5:2). Ego's pretension is to direct our existence as a separate, independent entity in order to control all aspects of consciousness (the children of Israel). In this illusory separation, ego disregards Love as the all-encompassing and integrating Essence of Creation. Ego creates its own individual "separated" reality based on desires derived from negative thoughts and misconceptions rooted in a sense of lack. This lack is the result of the illusory absence of Love in any of the aspects and dimensions of intellect, mind, emotions, feelings, passions, and instincts. Lack of food and the essential resources to fulfill our basic material needs (body needs related to instincts), lack of an object for our desires and carnal urges (passions), lack of recognition and fulfillment of our feelings and emotions in our relationship with our surroundings, lack of interest and concern based on lack of knowledge in our mind and intellect. These lacks are all triggers for ego's frustration and consequent engagement in negative behavior and actions that darken and enslave our awareness in the lowest levels of existence. Then, in this predicament, ego does not know or recognize anything different than its own image, including rejecting Love as the Redeemer from its darkness.

The portion ends with this verse: "And the Lord said to Moses: 'Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, because by a strong hand shall he let them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land'." (6:1), because it is the will of Love what creates and sustains everything, what transforms and transmutes our consciousness for us to know Him.

Parshat Vayechi: Recognizing and embracing G-d's Love

The last three portions of the book of Genesis are the most emotional of the Torah. The story of Joseph and his brothers makes us shed tears, indeed the same tears we shed when we yearn for G-d’s Love as our sole Redeemer. Joseph is the keystone that maintains the unity of Israel in their coming down to Egypt and their consequent slavery under Pharaoh’s rule. Joseph reaffirms his prophecy of Divine Redemption: “G-d will surely remember you” (Genesis 50:24) because our Father surely remembers us not only in times of affliction and ordeals, or as a fact in the future, but He always remembers us. The time of our individual and collective Redemption depends on our own initiative by choosing the blessings and not the curses that we face every day in life. How long is going to take us to recognize Joseph our brother who represents Love’s ways and attributes? What does it take to choose Love over ego’s negative and ephemeral fantasies and illusions that cause us pain, suffering, disillusionment, separation, isolation, sadness, depression and everything that causes affliction in life?

The story also reminds us that as it is Love the subject in the relationship of Joseph and his brothers, it is also Love the object of our relationship with the Creator. Israel’s connection and unity with Him are based on His Love, and it is through Love that we relate to our Father in our coming back to our true home with Him. We said many times that we acquire knowledge through trial and error, true and false, right and wrong, and through this experiential process we learn to discern good from evil. In this predicament we must integrate into our consciousness the Essence of goodness and discard the negativity derived from falsehood and evil. This is the fundamental message and that the Torah teaches us in all its words, and our Sages explain that it is G-d’s Love the cause of Creation and it is Love what we have to experience and embrace in order to know our Father.

In this final portion of the book of Genesis Jacob blesses all his children with words full of symbolic meanings that are not easy to understand even for our wisest Sages. This difficulty is explained by several reasons, being the most complex the Divine context of these blessings that we as humans can’t fully grasp: Jacob’s words for his sons were uttered by Divine inspiration. Our Sages teach that some of the blessings are related to the near future of Israel as a Nation and the conquest of its enemies, and the symbolic meanings of the Tribes (lion, snake, wolf, ox, gazelle, gate, ship, etc.) represent not only human traits, skills or qualities, but also deeper dimensions and potentialities of Israel in his connection with G-d’s Love. Hence Israel’s mission is to know and to be aware of his relationship with Him through Torah study and good deeds, as the dynamic process of learning Love’s ways and attributes.

Let’s take a look of parts of these blessings. “Shimon and Levi are brothers” (49:5) and our Sages quote Jacob saying to them: “You were brothers to Dinah, but you were not brothers to Joseph” (Midrash Rabbah). They ran to defend their sister’s honor (after she was raped in Shechem) because it was also their family’s honor. But they didn’t comprehend that acknowledging Joseph’s spiritual prevalence and leadership in the family was also a way of defending their honor and paying respect to their father’s will. “Instruments of violence are their weapons” (49:5) and our Sages explain that these are not Israel’s instruments to fulfill his mission commanded by the Creator but Esau's, as his father Isaac said to him: “And by your sword shall you live” (27:40).

The negative potential aspects of our consciousness, represented by Esau and the Canaanite nations, are the instruments of violence and affliction to us and our fellow man; and Israel is destined to conquer them and subjugate them. This means that all aspects and dimensions of consciousness must be subservient to Love’s ways and attributes. “Cursed be their anger” (49:7) because in anger our vision is lost. Sages teach that living in anger is equated to idol worship because it is like living in one of ego’s illusion (as well as pride, envy, lust, greed, indolence, etc.) instead of living in the Truth of G-d’s Love. Hence anger must be cursed and vanished from our consciousness.

Let’s see now a part of Jacob’s blessing for Joseph: “(…) from the G-d of your father, and He will help you, and with the Almighty, and He will bless you (with) the blessings of the Heavens above, the blessings of the deep, lying below, the blessings of father and mother.” (49:25) because G-d’s Love is indeed in every dimension of life and in every aspect of consciousness, never separated from us. At the end of this portion again Joseph is not recognized by his brothers: “And when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph will hate us, and will pay us back the evil which we did to him’?” (50:15), “And Joseph wept when they spoke to him” (50:17), “And Joseph said to them: ‘Fear not; for am I in the place of G-d’?” (50:19). It is Love the place of G-d and that is the place that we have to know, to recognize, to embrace and to cherish. Love is the place that also yearns for us to be with Him, weeping sometimes loudly and sometimes quietly.

The haftorah for this parshah makes a parallel between Jacob’s final blessings and David’s blessing to Salomon before he died: “That the Lord may continue His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children take heed to their way, to walk before Me in Truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you’, said He, ‘a man on the throne of Israel’.” (I Kings 2:4). This is Love’s promise and Love’s manifestation when we cleave to Him.

Parshat Vayigash: Being aware of Love as the ruler of all

"And Judah approached (vayigash) him (Joseph) and said, 'Please my lord, let now your servant speak something to my lord's ears, and let not your wrath be kindled against your servant, because you are like Pharaoh." (Genesis 44:18). The traits of consciousness (represented by Judah and his brothers) recognize the power of Love (represented by Joseph as the highest human awareness of Divine Love) as they recognize the power of ego (represented by Pharaoh) and it is to Love that they appeal to bestow His kindness and blessings. They know quite well that wrath and other negative qualities are the result of Love's absence in our lives. G-d's Love is the Truth and it is through truth that we cleave to Him. In this episode of the Torah's narrative it is essential to make the truth prevail in order to clear all negative thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts.

Joseph, as the epitome of Love's ways and attributes, can't allow his brothers to continue bearing cruelty, jealousy and envy in their hearts. He has to make sure that they are totally cleared from the dominion of ego's negative illusions. Then it is Judah who proves to Joseph that he is willing to give his own life for the sake of his youngest brother, as well as for his other brothers for the sake of the unity of Israel: "And now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy (Benjamin) is not with us (because) his soul (my father's) is attached to his (Benjamin's) soul (…)", "Because, how will I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? Let me not see the misery that will befall my father (Israel)!" (43:30, 34). This ultimate proof of love among their brothers is indeed the unity that the children of Israel need to forge permanently in order to be able to embrace G-d's Love whose louder voice can be heard as the ruler of all, including ego's domains: "And he (Joseph) wept out loud, so the Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard." (45:2).

"But now do not be sad, and let it not trouble you that you sold me here, for it was to preserve life that G-d sent me before you.", "And G-d sent me before you to make for you a remnant in the land, and to preserve life for you for a great deliverance." (45:5, 7). Joseph's love is already free from negative traits because it is Divine Love, the Spirit of G-d, who is with him. This is Love that creates, sustains and preserves life, the One that also will deliver us from ego's materialistic desires when we cry out loud to Him. This is the great deliverance, the Exodus from Egypt foreseen by Joseph and told to his brothers. Again, Love reaffirms its prevalence over all aspects and dimensions of consciousness, including ego: "And now, you did not send me here, but G-d; and He made me a father to Pharaoh, a lord over all his household, and a ruler over all the land of Egypt." (45:8). It is G-d's Love that directs His Creation and all that there is in it.

Though we believe in our Creator and in His Love as our sustainer and Redeemer, we fear the gross materialism of darkness and the mirages, fantasies and illusions in which we are trapped when Love is absent in our consciousness. Consequently we have to trust G-d's Love in addition to being faithful to Him. It is indeed easier to have faith in the Creator than to trust Him. We believe that He is our sole Provider and even though we are fully aware of His constant sustenance for us, we still trust more the power of money than the Divine Providence. Our fear of lacking the material resources to ease our basic needs is more powerful than our trust in His deliverance. "And He said, 'I am G-d, the G-d of your father. Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again, and Joseph will place his hand on your eyes'." (46:3-4) because it is Love that opens our eyes to His ways and attributes.

We must be aware that G-d's Love pervades all His Creation and with the same Love from which He created us we have to open our eyes to Him. "(…) and they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him. (...) and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt." (46:6-7). "And Joseph's sons, who were born to him in Egypt, two souls; all the souls of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy." (46:27). Our Sages say that after counting every member of Jacob's family, the total was sixty nine; and our Father joined them to become seventy. With this fact we learn that the Divine Presence is an integral part of Israel's identity. Divine Love is part of our Essence in order for us to be and manifest His ways and attributes amid the darkness in the world.

"And Jacob said to Pharaoh: "The days of the years of my sojourning are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable, and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my forefathers in the days of their sojourning." (47:9). This is the predicament of Israel's spiritual mission in terms of his relation to the material world: a life of struggle with the limitations of physicality, the rigors and perils of nature, and the material difficulties that we face and must overcome in order to secure our survival and well being as individuals and as a Nation. This predicament is the limiting "few" in our lifespan, while the "miserable" (lit. "evil") refers to the negative traits and aspects of human consciousness that we have to confront and battle every moment: ego's fantasies, negative illusions and lower desires that challenge our free will in every decision we make. Although there is a feeling of sadness and pessimism in Jacob's answer to Pharaoh, it is so when we have to confront ego's illusions for the sake of revealing the Truth, the Light, G-d's Love concealed in the darkness of those illusions.

"And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the land of Goshen, and they acquired property in it, and they were prolific and multiplied greatly." (47:27). The Divine prophecy is fulfilled and Israel develops and expands the horizon of his consciousness taking advantage of the positive potential that ego can reach amid the perils and dangers of losing his true identity as the Chosen People. In parshat Mikeitz we learned that ego has two sides and two faces as part of the dualities that we face in the material world in order to exercise our free will. Also, as we have mentioned before, all in Creation is filled with G-d's Love and this Love also is concealed in what we perceive as dark or negative. Ultimately G-d's Light will be fully revealed and it depends on us to realize this ultimate reality. We can do it if we choose to see the Light that is concealed in darkness by having a positive attitude toward life and embracing Love as the Truth that can ease the negative thoughts, emotions, feelings and passions in which we seem to be trapped. Pain, suffering, anger, sadness, depression and the lower expressions of consciousness can only be redeemed by allowing Love to lead every aspect of our life.