Parshat Terumah: Elevating Life to God's Love

“Speak to the children of Israel, that they should take to Me an offering from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering.” (Exodus 25:2)

Our sages question this request from the Creator, considering that He is the owner and master of all His Creation. They conclude that His request is about us in our relationship with Him. This offering is actually something we have to elevate to Him. This elevation is necessary because it comes from the material world, and must be sublimated in order for us to be united with Him.

We call God's ways and attributes the means by which we conceive Him and relate to Him. We do this when all aspects, levels and dimensions of consciousness act according to those ways and attributes. God's love is our essence and through this essence we are able to relate and communicate with Him, for love is the means and the message in our hearts that inspire us to elevate what comes from His love as the offering that He asks from us.

Is this offering something ethereal and abstract like our soul in order to be sublimated to Him? Not really, because all aspects, levels and dimensions of our existence are as spiritual as our own Soul. This is what the Creator wants us to be aware of. Hence asks from us that every part of our being must be essential elements in our offering, which is our elevation in order to be with Him.

“And this is the offering that you shall take from them: gold, silver, and copper (...)” (25:3-7)

Our sages reveal that the items mentioned in those five verses represent particular traits and qualities of every part of our being. Gold symbolizes the highest level of consciousness as the Soul through which we conceive and know the Creator. Silver represents our awareness of the material world and the means to grasp His ways and attributes.

Copper symbolizes feelings, emotions, passions and instincts bound to the material aspects of life. Similarly, “blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair” (25:4) represent spiritual inspiration, creative material thoughts, as well as revitalizing emotions, feelings, and passions.

In this context soul, mind and heart encompass multiple levels and dimensions inherent to their own nature. These, from the children of Israel, are summoned by the Creator to ascend to Him.

“And they shall make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell amid them [lit. in them].” (25:8)

The Sanctuary achieves a dual purpose because by elevating our lives to the Creator we simultaneously fulfill His desire to dwell (be revealed by us) in the dimensions of the material world.

Our sages teach this as the entire task of man in the world: to reveal the hidden Divine Presence in every aspect and dimension of God's creation. After all, His Presence pervades everything and it is our endeavor to make it tangible for us [Israel] in order to proclaim His oneness.

This is the profound meaning of His words, “and I will dwell in them”, which means within each one of us and also in our midst, in our surrounding reality. The Sanctuary represents the highest awareness of our connection to God, and the Torah within the ark is the means to connect to Him.

“And you shall place into the ark of the Testimony, which I will give you.” (25:16, 21)

Once the connection is established, “I will arrange My meetings with you there, and I will speak with you, (…) all that I will command you unto the children of Israel.” (25:22). We mentioned in previous commentaries that Moses symbolizes our highest knowledge of the Creator, and only through it we communicate with Him. In this capacity Moses directs the construction of the Sanctuary, and also guides all aspects of consciousness (the children of Israel) for that purpose.

One of the fundamental elements of this awareness is the manifestation of divine consciousness as the guiding light in our life, and the tasks and duties in every aspect of our relation with the material world.

“And you shall make a menorah of pure gold (...)” (25:31)

Pure gold is the way we grasp the pristine quality of our awareness of God. Let's remind ourselves that silver and copper are also fundamental parts in the construction of the Sanctuary. We are not made only with a soul but also with body, mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts, symbolized by silver and copper.

In the entire chapter 27 of the book of Exodus, copper is highlighted as the metal for the base of the altar where the Ark of the Testimony rests, and the metal for its utensils. This is later emphasized in the last verse of this portion.

“All the implements of the Sanctuary for all its labor, and all its pegs, and all the pegs of the courtyard [shall be made of] copper.” (27:19)

Let's be aware that besides our soul and intellect, our body is mostly dominated by the senses, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts we can't put aside or separate from us. These are clearly the foundation where our higher consciousness rests, and as such we must integrate them under the guidance of love's ways and attributes as the harmonized unity we need to permanently connect with our Creator.

Some of our mystic sages advice that instead of fighting darkness our duty is to create light, as it is commanded to kindle the menorah every day in the Sanctuary. Living in the light of God's love is the way to create a place for Him to dwell (to be revealed) in the world.

The haftarah for this portion reminds us how to do it.

“(…) if you walk in My statutes, and execute My ordinances, and keep all My Commandments to walk in them; then will I establish My word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will not forsake My people, Israel.” (I Kings 5:12-13)

Parshat Mishpatim: The Laws of God's Love

This portion is juxtaposed to the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the laws that follow remind us that everything in this material world is about how we relate to our fellow humans and God’s Creation.

“And these are the laws (mishpatim) which you [Moses] shall set before them [the children of Israel]” (Exodus 21:1)

In the Oneness that He is and we must comprehend, all in His Creation is connected and related to each aspect and dimension comprised by it. Complying with His laws is an essential part of our connection to the Creator. There are inner meanings that we may not grasp in how we relate to the material world, but it is essential to follow His laws as explained and taught by our Sages throughout Israel’s history.

“If you purchase a Hebrew slave (...).” (21:2)

We have said that the children of Israel, in their multidimensional facets and qualities, form the unity that reflects the ultimate Unity that the Creator is. In this encompassing identity and spiritual unity we as Jews are not enslaved to anybody or anything different to our own common identity. This means that we have to serve each other in our common reality and destiny.

We are the image and likeness of the Creator, and our existence must reflect His ways, attributes and deeds. Our Sages explain that the six years of servitude correspond to the six days of Creation. In this time we create goodness and abundance in the material world in order to achieve the ultimate awareness of God in the seventh day, the Shabbat.

There were times of slavery or servitude within the people of Israel which derived from circumstances when, according to our Sages, not everyone was fulfilling their responsibility to themselves, to their fellow Jews, and to the laws of the Torah.

This lack of commitment leads to transgressions that can only be corrected through “forced” guidance and education among the people. This educational process is aimed for the well being of the people as a whole to maintain their united peace, love and harmony.

We must understand Hebrew slavery or servitude within the people of Israel as a social and educational mechanism to guarantee the permanent Covenant with the Creator. Our Sages teach that the intention of both the Written and the Oral Torah is to forge in every Jew (regardless of his/her social, economical or educational condition) the highest possible knowledge and awareness of the Creator. This includes their individual and collective attachment to His Love, His ways and attributes.

In these laws or decrees compensation is the primordial expression of care and protection demanded from any form of transgression caused by a person to another. Any form of retaliation or vengeance is completely forbidden because these are precisely the opposites of what compensation means. In the same vein, lending money without interest to a fellow Jew must also be understood beyond the material aspect of it.

Lending money must be equalize to manifest brotherly love for those who have depleted their own self-love, self-esteem and self-appreciation. As we have indicated, living in the darkness of material fantasies and illusions is the most typical way to deplete Love in our lives. Love is what sustains all our spiritual and physical endeavors, including ego’s materialistic and potentially destructive desires.

Love is the main “capital” that God entrusts us because His Love is what He gives us to sustain life in the material world. Hence we have to care for this capital and expand it by investing it in Love’s ways and attributes: good deeds, enhancing tasks, positive works, uplifting thoughts, speech and actions for our individual and collective well being. This is the capital that we have to lend free of “strings attached”, because it is about renewing Love in our fellow’s heart and Soul.

Love is also returned as Love from the receiver to the giver as the dynamic process the Creator conceived for us. Thus we have to return to Him what belongs to Him: Love with which He created us. In this context it is about being and manifesting Love’s attributes for our own sake and for the sake of our fellow humans who are in need under the darkness of their materialistic illusions.

Love, as the material manifestation of God’s Love, is our Redeemer. Love liberates us from Egypt’s consciousness, and brings us out and up to the richness of the awareness of God’s Love. Our Love for each other is the freedom from the darkness of negative traits and trends, because Love is the strength and sustenance that keep our spiritual and material well being as we are born and destined to be.

In this process we must not sale our consciousness to the idolatry of ego’s fantasies and illusions. Instead we must live in Love’s ways and attributes as the dynamic revitalizing forces they are.

“You shall not prostrate yourself before their gods, and you shall not worship them, and you shall not follow their practices, but you shall tear them down and you shall utterly shatter their monuments.” (23:24)

This is also reminded earlier.

“Concerning all that I have said to you, you shall be aware, and the name of the gods of others you shall not mention; it shall not be heard through your mouth.” (23:13)

Only God’s Love is our life and sustenance through His blessings.

“And you shall worship [serve] the Lord, your God, and He will bless your food and your drink, and I will remove illness from your midst.” (23:25)

The portion ends with these two verses:

“And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses came within the cloud, and he went up to the mountain, and Moses was upon the mountain forty days and forty nights.” (24:17)

Divine glory is described here as a devouring fire, because with God’s Love we are empowered to “devour” and shatter the illusions of the material world. This empowerment is achieved through the awareness of God, and we know that Moses represents such awareness. This allows him to “go up” and be in permanent connection with God.

Allegorically, we have to ascend to the top of the mountain as our individual highest level of consciousness in order to be able to “see” and “know” what God’s Love is. Then we allow His fire to transform every aspect, level and dimension of our existence in order to fulfill our collective destiny: to create a place in the material world for our Creator to dwell among us.

Parshat Yitro: The Commandments in God's Love

Our Sages reflect on why this portion is named Yitro, considering that in it the Ten Commandments were presented along with the Torah to the children of Israel.

 

“Now Moses' father in law, Yitro, the priest of Midian, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, His people that the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt.” (18:1)

 

They point out among other things that the Torah had to be given to Israel and the converts who joined them, including Yitro, who said,

 

“Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the deities, for with the thing that they plotted [Pharaoh and the Egyptians], [the Lord came] upon them.” (18:11)

 

In this context, Yitro is considered the epitome of the idolatrous consciousness who later recognized the Oneness of God.

 

“In the third month of the children of Israel's departure from Egypt, on this day they arrived in the desert of Sinai.” (19:1)

 

Our Sages explain that seven weeks had to pass before the giving of the Torah, as a period of self-purification in which the children of Israel refined and redirected all aspects, levels and dimension of consciousness that were subjugated under the dominion of Pharaoh (ego) and the bondage in Egypt (attachment to lower passions and instincts).

 

After this self-refinement, the most transcendental event in Jewish history and consciousness took place: the embrace between the Creator and His Chosen People in which the Torah establishes that connection, the Oneness with Him.

 

“I am the Lord, your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (20:2)

 

This is one of the foremost and fundamental statements in which Judaism recognizes and acknowledges that only the Creator is, and His Creation exists because of Him and it is sustained only by Him; therefore He is our God.

 

We also must comprehend this statement in the context that it is written, meaning that He is the One who takes us from the bondage in the land of ego and its illusions to bring us to His reality, which is the only true reality.

 

The second as well as the remaining Ten Commandments are obvious implications of the first.

 

“You shall not have the gods of others in My presence. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness which is in the Heavens above, which is on the Earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth. You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, because I, the Lord your God, am a zealous God who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, and perform loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and to those who keep My Commandments.” (20:2-5)

 

The Creator is our One and only reality that we have to know through His Torah and Commandments. As we have mentioned before, He is a zealous God because His Love does not cohabit with anything different than His ways and attributes. This again is reminded.

 

“You shall not make [images of anything] with Me. Gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.” (20:19)

 

Hence we must not create any individual or collective fantasies and illusions for ourselves based on ego’s materialistic desires.

 

“You shall not take the Name of the Lord, your God, in vain, because the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His Name in vain.” (20:6)

 

How can we afford the luxury of tampering or transgressing the Essence that is the Name with which we are created and sustained? We are responsible for the life we were given and for the Love of God that conceived it along with all His Creation.

 

“Remember the Shabbat day to sanctify it. Six days may you work and perform all your labor, but the seventh day is a Shabbat to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor your stranger who is in your cities. Because [in] six days the Lord made the Heavens and the Earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Shabbat day and sanctified it.” (20:7-10)

 

We have mentioned in previous commentaries that God, the Shabbat, the Torah and Israel are One. Hence as co-creators with God we must emulate His ways and attributes, including working six days by being and doing His Commandments in order to prepare our way to be in His Presence and Oneness that is this special Day of Rest.

 

“Honor your father and your mother, in order that your days be lengthened on the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you.” (20:11)

 

Again, life is reminded to be honored and respected through the ones who give it. Our mystic Sages teach that father and mother represent wisdom and understanding, and we as their offspring represent knowledge as the synthesis of both.

 

In this context our parents also represent the tradition, legacy and heritage we received from our ancestors and forefathers. Therefore we have to honor them.

 

This Commandment is clearly related to our life within the Land that God has given us which includes not only our history but our unification with Him.

 

“You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (20:12)

 

Our Sages explain that the first five Commandments are linked to our relationship with God and the remaining five to the relationship with our fellow man. This points out that indeed all of them are related to the Creator because we are His image and likeness. Murder negates life that is given and sustained by God’s Love as His manifest reality.

Adultery is one of the many forms of idolatry with which one rather lives in his/her own individual illusion than the one true reality that is God’s Love. Stealing falls into the same category in which the feeling of lack leads one to take what is not his/hers.

 

As we have said often, feeling lack is the manifestation of our separation of the Oneness that God's Love is, and it is equalized to taking His Name in vain. We must be responsible to be permanently aware of our constant connection with the Creator as an individual and collective awareness. That includes living in this Truth for ourselves and others, not allowing negative thoughts that make us fall into ego’s fantasies and illusions which may lead us to bear false statements against our fellow man.

 

Again we are reminded to be eternally zealous and vigilant of our connection with the Creator and not allowing any thought, emotion or feeling of lack.

 

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor.” (20:13)

 

In our awareness of God’s Love we are provided in order to live in His ways and attributes, as it is written in this portion and reiterated countless times in the Torah.

 

“But Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, because God has come in order to exalt you, and in order that His awe shall be upon your faces, so that you shall not sin’.” (20:16)

 

Thus we realize that “sin” is the choice that we make instead of living in Love’s ways and attributes. Love is goodness and we emanate from by God’s Love with the goodness of His blessings.

 

“(…) wherever I allow My Name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you.” (20:20)

 

 

Parshat Beshalach: Always Cleaving to God's Love

“It came to pass when Pharaoh sent (beshalach) the people, that God did not lead them [by] way of the land of the Philistines that was near, because God said: ‘Lest the people reconsider when they see war and return to Egypt’.” (Exodus 13:17)

It is a natural reaction of our sense of survival to avoid anything that threatens our life, but in the context of this verse it is about our reaction against leaving the “comfort zone” created by ego’s fantasies and illusions.

Our oral tradition tells that the Tribe of Ephraim decided to leave Egypt on their own without Moses’ leadership, and were decimated when caught in their way to the Promised Land through the land of the Philistines. This means that it is not enough to have a clear sense of spiritual destination but to cleave always to the guidance of our constant awareness of the Creator's will. As we have said, this permanent awareness is represented by Moses.

“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to cause it to lead them on the way, and at night in a pillar of fire to give them light, [that they may] travel day and night. He did not move away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire at night before the people.” (13:21-22)

The war against the illusions derived from gross materialism is indeed permanent. In order to win all the battles the most important weapon is to be aware of Love’s ways and attributes in all aspects of our life, because they protect us always.

“And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will be glorified through Pharaoh and through his entire force, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. And they did so.” (14:4)

The complete glorification of our Creator certainly encompasses every aspect of consciousness, and ego’s powerful driving force is included, because they all have to sense and experience in their own dimension who is the Ruler of all. Once we sense and experience God’s Love in every layer of our existence, we have to embrace Him and trust Him as the true Ruler.

“Moses said to the people: ‘Don't be afraid! Stand firm and see the Lord's Redemption that He will wreak for you today, because the way you have seen the Egyptians today, you shall no longer continue to see them for eternity.” (14:13)

In the awareness of Love in our entire consciousness we will never see material illusions again. When Love leads, our consciousness quietly follows without questioning His will because “The Lord will fight for you, but you shall remain quiet.” (14:14)

Again this is reaffirmed.

“(…) and I will be glorified through Pharaoh, and through all his force, through his chariots, and through his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I will be glorified through Pharaoh, through his chariots, and through his horsemen.” (14:17-18).

“And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, the entire force of Pharaoh coming after them into the sea; not even one of them survived. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the water was to them like a wall from their right and from their left.” (14:28-29).

The waters in this sense represent the understanding of separating our clear intention to follow Love’s ways from ego’s fantasies and illusions. These are drowned in this new awareness brought by “letting go and letting God”.

“And Israel saw the great hand, which the Lord had used upon the Egyptians, and the people were in awe of the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in Moses, His servant.” (14:31)

At this height of awareness (represented by Moses) we are finally completely conscious of the Creator’s living presence in our life.

“Your right hand, O Lord, is most powerful; Your right hand, O Lord, crushes the foe. And with Your great pride You tear down those who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning wrath; it devours them like straw.” (15:6-7)

Once again the Torah reminds us that Love does not cohabit with anything different than God’s ways and attributes. This is the context in which we understand God’s “pride”, “wrath”, “fire” and “jealousy”. These simply refer to Love’s incompatibility with fantasies, illusions, and negative expressions of human consciousness.

Let’s be aware that this process of cleansing and transformation is always through God’s Love.

“With Your loving kindness You led the people You redeemed; You led [them] with Your might to Your holy abode.” (15:13)

Our Divine destiny is to dwell in the Love of our Creator and being led by Him to His Place.

“You shall bring them (the children of Israel: our entire consciousness with its traits and dimensions) and plant them on the mount of Your heritage, directed toward Your habitation, which You made, O Lord; the Sanctuary, O Lord, [that] Your hands founded. The Lord shall reign forever and ever.” (15:17-18)

As we have said in previous commentaries, the Sanctuary (Temple of Jerusalem) represents the highest awareness of our connection with the Creator.

The following are essential words that are continuously repeated throughout the rest of the Torah because their message must be permanently present in our consciousness.

“And He said: ‘If you hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and you do what is proper in His eyes, and you listen closely to His Commandments and observe all His statutes, all the sicknesses that I have visited upon Egypt I will not visit upon you; because I, the Lord, heal you.” (15:26)

It’s up to us to choose this constant awareness if want to live in the delights of God’s Love. The portion ends with the admonition to be always aware of our constant connection with the Creator of all.

“Then Moses built an altar, and he named it ‘The Lord is my Miracle’. And he said: ‘Because there is a hand on the throne of the Eternal, a war for the Lord against Amalek from generation to generation.” (17:15-16)

Our Sages teach that Amalek represents hesitation, uncertainty and doubt. These are the enemy we are commanded by Love's attributes to defeat in every moment of our life. Doubt is what makes us hesitate when choosing between ego’s materialistic desires and Love’s ways and attributes, from which our connection with God's Love depends. Once we empty our awareness from doubt, our choice will be clear between darkness and Light.

Parshat Bo: Freedom as Our Destination

Our sages broadly discuss the use of “coming” instead of “going” to Pharaoh, and conclude that coming implies that Moses would do so accompanied by the Creator of all.

“The Lord said to Moses: ‘Come (Bo) to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may place these signs of Mine in his midst’.” (Exodus 10:1)

In fact, there is no other way to either go or come to anywhere or anything we personally don’t have the power to transmute or transform, because any possible power only comes from the Creator. Dealing with ego is not an exception.

Ego, as well as our basic human instincts, is one of the most complex aspects of our consciousness we can’t completely control. This is not about controlling them but to direct them toward our individual and collective well being. Regarding these aspects we need in particular the company and guidance of God’s ways and attributes.

Our sages reveal for us that the “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart is what contemporary psychiatry calls “the losing of free will”. This happens when one is unable to distinguish between good and evil.

It is a critical point in human consciousness when one only perceives negativity and does harm to others and himself because he can’t see any goodness at all. This is the result of obsessive negative patterns of perception and behavior that lead to one-sided approach to life.

The lesson to be learned in this biblical passage is not easy to grasp because it involves a deeper comprehension of the dynamics of our relationship with the Creator and His creation.

Losing free will as an impairment of perception has to be indeed extreme in order to make a clear contrast between darkness and light. In other words, darkness must be obscure enough to be able to fully recognize the light when it is fully manifest.

The primordial message here is that we have to be accompanied by God’s love in our dealings with material illusions and potentially negative aspects of our own consciousness, simply because we can’t do it on our individual understanding. There are material fantasies and illusions that are too far beyond our “control”.

This is the risk one takes by allowing his/her ego to be in control of those illusions. Hence the Creator “hardened” the hearts of Pharaoh and his servants to tell us that He is in charge and in control of His Creation. God does it in His ways, not ego’s ways.

“(…) and in order that you tell to the ears of your son and your son's son how I made a mockery of the Egyptians, and My signs that I placed in them, and you will know that I am the Lord.” (10:2)

Our oral tradition tells us that four fifths of the Israelites “died” in the darkness of their selfishness and egotism, which didn’t let them help those in need around them.

“They did not see each other, and no one rose from his place for three days, but for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.” (10:23)

Egotism in its darkest expression is a real killer of anything considered cherished and loved in the eyes of human consciousness.

The story of the Exodus is indeed the confrontation of total darkness with total light, with no penumbra or “gray” in between. It is either one or the other as widely stated in Judaism’s ethics. This is why Moses did not compromise on Pharaoh’s requests.

“But Moses said: ‘You too shall give sacrifices and burnt offerings into our hands, and we will make them for the Lord our God. And also our cattle will go with us; not a hoof will remain, for we will take from it to worship the Lord our God (…)’.” (10:25-26)

With no exceptions, all aspects, traits, and dimensions of our consciousness (higher and lower) must be united and together under the guidance of God’s ways and attributes. This occurs when we allow (Moses) our highest awareness of God to guide the entire consciousness in consonance with His will.

“So the Lord gave the people favor in Pharaoh’s eyes; also the man Moses was highly esteemed in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants and in the eyes of the people.” (11:3)

Again we are reminded that every aspect of God’s creation is under His will.

“This month shall be to you the head of the months; to you it shall be the first of the months of the year.” (12:2)

This commandment joins our daily prayers to remember our exit and redemption from Egypt. It also reminds us that in every moment of our life we have to make the right choice. It is the choice between remaining in the bondage of ego’s materialistic illusions, and exiting from them through the redemption that only God's love can give us in the midst of our worst ordeals.

It is the reminder that we must always keep in our hearts and souls.

“And this day shall be for you as a memorial, and you shall celebrate it as a festival for the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall celebrate it as an everlasting statute.” (12:14)

Humbleness is the vessel represented by the unleavened bread that our ancestors ate in their transition from darkness to light.

“And you shall watch over the unleavened cakes, for on this very day I have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt (…), you shall not eat any leavening; throughout all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened cakes.” (12:17-20)

This is remarked again (13:3-7).

The unleavened bread is reiterated as the essential symbol of the way in which we abandon the land of egotism and gross materialism.

“And you shall tell your son on that day, saying: ‘Because of this, the Lord did for me when I went out of Egypt’.” (13:8)

The portion ends telling us to permanently bear this awareness in mind, heart and soul.

“And it shall be for a sign upon your hand and for ornaments between your eyes, for with a mighty hand did the Lord take us out of Egypt.” (13:16)

Only God’s love takes us from our darkness into His light.