May God bless all women

In the heavenly fields of the Lord there are two classrooms, one for women souls and one for men souls, and He is the Teacher in both. The course that He teaches lasts one year, and the final exam takes place in the Earth and throughout a lifetime. It is not a final exam that may take only an hour, but the entire life. The year-long study in the heavenly classrooms is about the Torah and the Commandments, and the way we implement them in the material world during our lifetime as Jews.

In the women's classroom, all the students without exception got an A+ in all the weekly quizzes given by the Teacher throughout the school year. The Teacher was very happy and pleased with them, and at the end of the course He gathered them around Him, and told them: 'You are my best students. I have seen that you are not only smart but totally committed to My Torah and My Commandments, and I am not the only One who confirms this but My Torah, the writings of My beloved Kings, Prophets and Sages, as well as the history of My People throughout the centuries. I am so pleased with you all, that you deserve to be exempt from the final exam.' After hearing these words, the women were so happy that they started to celebrate and danced around their Teacher, singing praises and exultations in His honor.

The next day, the Teacher went to the men's classroom and in a circumspect mood addressed them in this way: 'Among all of you, I see that the best students are the Kohanim and the Levites. All of them got A+ in all the weekly quizzes and became the "honor students". The Tribes of Joseph, Judah and Benjamin followed with an A, and the rest of the Tribes shared B, C, D, and F; and most of the underachievers among the Tribe of Shimon. My expectations from all of you were to get A+, but I can see that it did not happen. Then He addressed the Levites, and asked them how they achieved such excellence with their grades. They said, 'Because we are smarter than the rest'; and the Kohanim added, 'And more committed, too'. The rest of the students yelled at them saying, 'How dare you to call us less smart than you? What make you think that you are better than us? In the eyes of the Teacher we all are the same! Besides, we all study as much and understand everything the Teacher says!' Then, the Kohanim replied, 'Well, you may be smart as well but it is clear that you are not committed enough!'

The Teacher asked the whole classroom to be quiet, and He said: 'I am aware that you all will not get me the A+ that I want in the final exam, but I will be pleased if, at least, you pass the test even with a D-. What matters to me is that you all pass the test, and it should matter to you, too. I am also aware that you need help from those who got the best grades', and He turned His eyes to the Levites and Kohanim who said, 'Teacher, we can appeal to their intelligence and wit, but not to their commitment to Your Teachings because it is an issue related to their free will. We can't force them to make a choice that is entitled to them. For that they will need more help. Our teaching and guidance may not be enough, as You will understand.'

The Teacher closed His eyes and the classroom was in a deep silence. After a few long seconds, He opened the eyes and said: 'I shall give you the helpers that you will need to study My Torah and fulfill My Commandments while you live on Earth. Tomorrow we will have a general meeting in the open field, and I will make My announcement.

The next morning there were two groups gathered in the field, the women on the left, the men on the right, and the Teacher in the middle. Both men and women were looking at each other, like trying to find their soul mates among them. It was happening one after the other, knowing that they will be united in marriage when the time would come. The Teacher looked at them with His infinite Love and kindness, and told them:

'I will share with you some very good news. First of all, with all My heart I congratulate the women for their individual and collective excellence throughout the year in their studies of My Torah and My Commandments. All of them got A+, and because of that they deserved to be exempt from the final exam.' Some crying sighs were heard among the women, and the Teacher looked at them and asked, 'Why are you sad and crying? You must be rejoiced, because you have demonstrated that you are, and will be always with Me, and this is true to Me as it is for you. You are and will be always by My side, then be happy and rejoice!' There was one woman who asked the Teacher, 'If we are exempt, does that mean that we are not going to Earth as part of the final exam?' The Teacher replied, 'Indeed, you do not need to go to Earth to prove your loyalty and committed to My Torah and My Commandments. However, I must tell you that the men in the other classroom did not get your grades in the quizzes throughout the year, and actually some failed many of them. This means that I am not completely sure about sending them to take the final test, because I don't want them to fail. I want all of them to pass, even with the minimum passing grade. They don't have the faithfulness and devotion of the Levites and Kohanim, neither the women's. Therefore, I want to ask all the women here if they want to help the men here to pass the final exam.

The women looked at each other, and then looked at the men on the other side of the field. They looked at each other, and the men asked, 'Do you want to help us going through a lifetime of Torah study and fulfillment of all the Commandments that our Teacher taught us? Would you be our helpers in the adversity of the material illusions in the world? Would you help us living in the Truth of the Teacher moment to moment, day by day, year by year, until we complete His exam assigned to us? Would you?' All the women in the heavenly field responded with a unanimous 'Yes!'

The Teacher smiled and blinked His eye to the women, and He told them quietly in their ears, 'Always keep in your heart that you are beside Me, that I listen to you first, that I hear your prayers and praises first, and that I fulfill your requests first than from anybody else. Remember this, because you are exempt, and as I said to you before, that means that you already are by My side.

Only the women in the heavenly field heard these words of the Teacher in an invisible dialogue that the men in the field could not hear. The women said to Him, 'If we are exempt to study the Torah as commanded to men, then we need Commandments in order to live on Earth and to help them fulfill their part.' The Teacher said, 'As I said earlier, I will listen to you first and this means that, through your prayers, I will give you the assistance that you may need in your Commandments to help your men. Also, light the Shabbat candles to illuminate your homes, bake the challah to renew My Covenant with you, your men and your children, and most of all give birth to children who will honor My Name. When the men forget My Covenant, you will remind them and your children of this alliance that will keep us united forever.'

May God bless all women.

Parshat Vayelech: The Choice to Return to God

Our highest knowledge of the Creator (represented by Moses) is our natural guide toward our permanent connection with Him (represented by Aaron, the High Priest). Moses sets up the tabernacle for Aaron to officiate in it, and in this sequence of action we allow God to direct every aspect of our life because He is the means and the end in which we must conduct ourselves; as Moses teaches us.

"The Lord, your God, He will cross before you; He will destroy these nations from before you so that you will possess them. The Lord He is the One who goes before you; He will be with you; He will neither fail you, nor forsake you. Do not fear, and do not be dismayed." (Deuteronomy 31:3, 8)

The psalmist and all our prophets remind us of this truth, which we must enthrone in all levels and dimensions of consciousness. Hence it is our choice either to do so, or follow ego's illusions and fantasies as the idols that we create out of a false sense of lack.

Trusting God's love is trusting love as our true essence and identity, as well as the power and strength that fights for us against the idols of materialism.

"And the Lord will do to them, as He did to the Amorite kings, Sichon and Og, and to their land, [all of] which He destroyed." (31:4)

This awareness we understand that only by living in love's ways and attributes we indeed are delivered from ego's illusions.

"And [when] the Lord delivers them before you, you shall do to them according to all the commandment that I have commanded you." (31:5)

If we can't trust God's love as our Creator and our essence, we are probably trusting illusions that ultimately lead us to our estrangement from who we truly are, along with its negative consequences. Therefore, we must be unshakable.

"Be strong and courageous! Neither fear nor be dismayed of them, for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will neither fail you, nor forsake you." (31:6)

Fantasies and illusions, by their nature, always forsake us because they are as insatiable as ego's desires, like the eyes that are never filled with what they see.

We have to unite all traits, qualities, levels, aspects and dimensions of consciousness around God's ways and attributes, and harmonize them toward His service.

"Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities, in order that they hear, and in order that they learn and revere the Lord, your God, and they will observe to do all the words of this Torah." (31:12)

We have to reiterate again that love, as the material manifestation of God's love, does not dwell with anything different from its ways and attributes. This is an immutable principle that we must be aware of every moment in what we think, feel, sense, and do.

"And I will hide My face on that day, because of all the evil they have committed, when they turned to other deities." (31:18)

If this awareness is not present anymore (represented by Moses' death) we are at the mercy of our own materialistic illusions.

"For I know that after my death, you will surely become corrupted, and deviate from the way which I had commanded you. Consequently, the evil will befall you at the end of days, because you did evil in the eyes of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands." (31:29)

Our actions, "the work of our hands", illustrate what we believe and what we follow. If they are not love's ways, they are probably something that does not dwell with love.

We know quite well that we love selectively, and according to our ego's agenda. We condition love to be what we want it to be, and not what it is; in the same way that many condition God to be their own "personal" god. They usually call it "my God" at their service, without ethics or moral values attached to it, a god of fanaticism.

We all know that it doesn't work that way. Love inherently means and implies ethics, as God's attributes also imply ethics. He is the God of the Torah and the Jewish Scriptures, the God whose Creation is an emanation of His love. The God who knows and loves His creation, including our human nature, the way He made us.

In His love, God gives us free will to choose between love and our illusions. He loves us unconditionally because He gives us free will. In His unconditional love, He awaits our return to Him as the essence of who we truly are.

Our prophets reiterate this truth in the haftarah for this portion.

"Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. Take words with yourselves and return to the Lord. Say, "You shall forgive all iniquity and teach us [the] good [way], and let us render [for] bulls [the offering of] our lips." (Hosea 14:2-3)

"Who is a God like You, who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not maintain His anger forever, for He desires loving kindness. He shall return and grant us compassion. He shall hide our iniquities, and You shall cast into the depths of the sea all their sins. You shall give the truth of Jacob, the loving kindness of Abraham, which You swore to our forefathers from days of yore." (Micah 7:18-20)

Parshat Nitzavim: God's Love as our True Identity

Why do we have to love God? The answer is a matter of identity, meaning that it is more about us than about Him. After all, we are unable to conceive Him, understand Him or comprehend Him. Hence whatever we conceive and comprehend about the Creator is what attaches us to Him. It quite sounds as a common sense approach, and that is exactly what it is.

The more we know who we are and understand what we are, have and do, the more we are able to know Him because in our true essence we indeed know Him due to the fact that we are His creation. If we come from Him, what else can we be but His essence! Yes, there are issues related to good and evil, right and wrong, true and false, free will stuff that actually enables us to discern what we may be. 

Our choices may not entirely define who we are, but what we think, believe, feel and do indeed define us. This is the context of the following verses.

"For this commandment which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?" Rather, [this] thing is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it." (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

Can we hide our true essence and identity from ourselves? Only if we give power to such illusion! Situations and circumstances sometimes lead us to believe negative traits and qualities about ourselves, and again we must ponder if our actions define who we truly are. This also can turn into a matter of choice between living in negative illusions or in the positive reality that love is.

Love is not concealed or far way because love is who we are. We just have to be aware of this divine gift we enjoy by being, experiencing, doing, manifesting its ways and attributes.

"Inasmuch as I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, to walk in His ways, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His ordinances, so that you will live and increase, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the Land to which you are coming to take possession of it." (30:16)

Loving God is the way to become aware of our own identity, our purpose in life. The blessings of love are not just a divine promise but their own effect.

"And the Lord, your God, will bring you to the Land which your forefathers possessed, and you [too] will take possession of it, and He will do good to you, and He will make you more numerous than your forefathers." (30:5)

We may wonder why Moses says that God's blessings "do good" to us if it is quite obvious that such is always the case. Why it is primordial to emphasize that over and over again? The answer is the same indicated above as a reminder to embrace all that make us grow, develop, improve, and be happy, fruitful, abundant, prosperous, and all the attributes that only Love can give, that which will make us "more numerous" than the ones who forged the legacy of God's Love as our true identity.

How great or big could ever be the goodness that Love brings to us? Can we really quantify it? No wonder the sand of the seas and the stars in the sky are only a pale illustration of it; because, as the essence that created us, love is endless. In the awareness of this essence in all levels of consciousness, we stand up before our Creator (29:9-10) to reclaim and reaffirm love as our common bond with Him.

"(...) that you may enter the covenant of the Lord, your God, and His oath, which the Lord, your God, is making with you this day." (29:11)

Let's bear in mind that both our spiritual and material awareness are the dimensions for which we are accountable for the choices we make.

"This day, I call upon the heavens and the earth as witnesses [that I have warned] you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse." (30:19)

Hence we realize the well known results of either choice.

The Prophet reminds us that Zion and Jerusalem represent this sublime awareness of God's love as the identity we have to claim out loud, confronting and overcoming the material illusions that keep us in the dark, because His love is our redeemer.

"For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest, until her righteousness comes out like brilliance, and her Redemption burns like a torch." (Isaiah 62:1)

"The acts of loving kindness of the Lord I will mention, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord bestowed upon us, and lots of goodness to the house of Israel, which He bestowed upon them according to His compassion and according to His many acts of loving kindness." (63:7)

Because the goodness of the Creator is also the goodness of love.

Parshat Ki Tavo: The Heritage of God's Love

The second verse of this portion commands...

"(…) that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you will bring from your land, which the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 26:2)

Our mystic sages refer to two levels of awareness represented by the vegetable and animal realms. Contrary to what we may think, they explain that the former depicts sensuality and sexual activity (symbolized by the perennial blossoming and fruitfulness of some plants and trees), and the latter purposefulness and movement (symbolized of the instinctual animal behavior to act according to their purpose in nature).

In this sense we may have a better understanding of the sacrifices (offerings) made by Cain and Abel. In the context of this portion, the "fruit of the ground" (the expression of our individual creative process in every aspect of consciousness, particularly those related to the senses, sensuality, passions, and instincts) must be elevated towards the mission the Creator has commanded to Israel.

The previous verses in Ki Teitzei and the followings in Ki Tavo are related to the ethical values aimed to promote individual and collective harmony among different social levels and economic conditions among the people of Israel. Hence, the verse above is just another reminder that we have to direct all aspects of consciousness toward God's ways and attributes, because we have to be aware that all creation, our individual lives included, belong to the Creator.

By acknowledging this, we are indeed willing to fulfill God's will.

"I declare this day to the Lord, your God, that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us." (26:3)

This land is the awareness that God's love made us, and we also must be and do according to love's ways as individuals and as the nation we are.

Our true freedom takes place in this level of consciousness opposite to slavery under ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions. These are the mirages for which we enslave our life to "work hard" to keep them as "real".

"And the Egyptians treated us cruelly and afflicted us, and they imposed hard labor upon us." (26:6)

This is why we have to remember every day our Exodus from Egypt in order to make the choice every moment, either to live in the slavery of ego's illusions or in the freedom of love's attributes.

After all, God's love is our true essence and redemption from the miseries of living by and for the illusions of the material world.

"So we cried out to the Lord, God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression." (26:7)

We become truly free in the land that He offers us.

"And He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." (26:9)

That is the place in every levels of consciousness where we all are happy.

"Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord, your God, has granted you and your household you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you." (26:11)

The place where every level and dimension of consciousness dwell in the transcendence of God's love as our essence and identity.

For this we ask God constantly to keep us aware of love's attributes as His heritage for us.

"Look down from Your holy dwelling, from the heavens, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given to us, as You swore to our forefathers a land flowing with milk and honey." (26:15)

"And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments, and to make you supreme above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke." (26:18-19)

Hence we have to choose back to Him by exercising and manifesting the identity He has bestowed upon us, the honor and privilege of being and manifesting love's ways and attributes as the inheritance of the greatest love of all, God's love.

The prophet again recalls for us the awareness of our heritage in the haftarah for this portion.

"And nations shall go by your light and kings by the brilliance of your shine. Lift up your eyes all around and see, they all have gathered, they have come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be raised on [their] side. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall be amazed and become enlarged, for the abundance of the sea shall be turned over to you, the wealth of the nations that will come to you." (Isaiah 60:3-5)

In this awareness we realize our purpose and destiny.

"Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither robbery nor destruction within your borders, and you shall call redemption your walls and your gates praise. You shall no longer have the sun for light by day, and for brightness, the moon shall not give you light, but the Lord shall be to you for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory." (60:18-19)

Reflections on Elul

Our Jewish tradition tells us that Elul is the month of returning to our Creator. Some of our Sages call this process "repentance", a term that implies a return to the way things were before we made the choice of separating from Him. Some of our contemporaries compare it to rebooting a personal computer, and it may be so. After all, life as with computers, work with a "program" designed to function according to the information that it contains or that is provided. But we know that life is more complex than that, otherwise we would live as androids; though many people live like preprogrammed, preconditioned machines. The issue here is what kind of program or conditioning are those that make irrelevant free will and freedom, due to the fact that they turn people into responding and reacting entities based on how they were told to think, feel, behave and act.

This preamble is an invitation to reflect in who we really are, in our true identity as reasoning, thinking individuals endowed with emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. Where have we gone that we need to return to the Creator? How far are we from who we truly are? These are the questions that we ponder in Elul prior to stand before the One who created all there is. What "reality" is that which takes us away from Him, that makes us doubt and be uncertain about who we are? What is the original "program" set in the Essence of who we are? In the book "God as Love" we say countless times that God's Love is our Essence because we, as well as all His Creation, are an emanation of His Love; and Love is the ways and means to relate to Him and His Creation. Love is the program, the input and the outcome, the cause and the effect. Anything different from Love is what separates us from Love itself; and therefore from our Creator and all there is, because all comes from Him. Only with our full awareness of Love as our cause and effect in our lives are we able to stand up before God.

At this point in our reflections we realize that what is different from Love are the fantasies and illusions of ego's materialistic desires, the wrong "data" and the "viruses" that harm and damage the original program of human life, and life in general as well. In this sense, "repentance" implies a thorough, thoughtful and mindful process of detailed inventory of the things that harms and damages our life, the lives of others, and our environment. These things encompass thoughts, ideas, beliefs, social-cultural values, behavioral patterns, emotions, feelings and psychic/physical addictions. After we are done with the inventory of discerning the negative things that we do not want in our life and our surroundings, we must have the courage and determination to separate from them; simply because they were the choices made out of ego's illusions and feelings of lack. On one hand, we realize that lack is the belief and feeling of incompleteness; and on the other, that Love is what keeps our cup always full. This is the awareness (the anointment) that we need to bear constantly in our mind and heart, so our life (the cup) will be constantly full of Love: "You have anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows" (Psalms 23:5) after all, if God's Love is our sustenance and guidance, what shall we lack? "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack" (23:1)

It is not an easy process after an entire lifetime of conditioning based on the wrong education we have received throughout thousands of years. Neither easy to wipe out within a month. However, if we have the courage not only to face our ego's fantasies and illusions but also to endure their outcome, there is indeed a blessing in our pain and suffering because through them we realize that negativity is what we don't need in our individual and collective lives. How much pain and suffering, sadness and depression have we created and still create in the world as if it is not already enough? In "God as Love" we say that we believe that life and the world are to be lived and enjoyed as the original Garden of Eden that was meant to be and it is meant to be, and Love is the way to return there.

Let's then return together as the Psalmist reminds us how in the six verses of one of his praises to the Creator:

"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack. In lush meadows He lays me down [in the abundance of His Love as our Essence and identity]; beside tranquil waters He leads me [Love's thoughts directing our actions]. He restores my soul [Love sustains and nurtures our consciousness of God's Love even when we separate from Him]. He leads me on paths of righteousness for His Name's sake [Love's ways are all righteous because they are inherent to Him]. Though I walk in the valley overshadow by death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me [even if we walk in the darkness of negative desires and illusions, Love as our true Essence does not forsake us because Love is who we are]. Your rod and your staff [Love's ways and attributes], they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in full view of my tormentors [we are able to recognize that Love is greater than any material illusion, because Love transcends the material world. Love is the table full of His attributes in contrast to the lack derived from negativity, our tormentor]. You anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows [when we become aware of God's Love as our own Love we are totally fulfilled]. [And in this sublime knowledge may we always live in the awareness of Love in every dimension of our consciousness:] May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the House of the Lord for long years" (Psalm 23)

May our reflections on returning to God's Love, to Love as our true identity lead us to remove all negativity from our lives and our surroundings, and from that which is unnecessary in the world we live in. And may only Love and His attributes fill the world with His Glory, as it is and as it always has been. Amén.

Parshat Ki Teitzei: Ethics of Love's Ways and Attributes

"When you go out to war on your enemies, the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands." (Deuteronomy 21:10)

This verse contains the assurance that when love's ways and attributes confront ego's materialistic illusions, love as the attitude and altitude from which we approach the pain, and suffering as their result, God delivers them in our hands.

In our hands, because in the same way that our negative behavior takes our hands to do and experience harmful thoughts, hurtful emotions and destructive passions, also with our hands we rectify and enhance our deeds and actions under the guidance of love's attributes.

As we mention often, love is the catalyst to transform and refine the negative traits, conceptions and habits when we live under ego's rule.

This transformation starts when we are able to see the potential goodness, righteousness and virtues of our thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts; the beauty we can embrace when we live in love's ways.

"If you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her (…)" (21:11)

The same emotions, feelings, passions and instincts we experience negatively such as depression, sadness, anger, greed, indolence, etc. we also can experience the opposite when love fills them all.

We start doing it with our own life, and once we are strengthened with the complete awareness of God's love in our consciousness, we help those in our immediate surroundings, our loved ones including our fellow Jews.

"You shall not see your brother's ox or sheep straying, and ignore them. [Rather,] You shall return them to your brother." (22:1)

We must not be indifferent to our brother's ego's lower desires and passions (their strayed "ox" and "sheep").

Regarding the issue of gender identity, we are by birth endowed with two polarities, male and female, that we are summoned to develop and direct under God's will in His Torah, the commandments of God's love for Israel.

These two polarities must coexist in a working and purposeful harmony. We know that we all strive to balance them the best way we can in order to live individually as well as collectively in harmony. Both polarities, as well as the rest of our levels and dimensions of consciousness, must be guided and directed by love's ways and attributes and not to be led strayed by ego's fantasies and illusions.

Masculine and feminine are the two fundamental principles of material creation, and we have to "dress" them with their own respective inherent traits and qualities, in order to cultivate them as the enhancing complementing energies that keep the balance of our material existence.

"A man's attire shall not be on a woman, nor may a man wear a woman's garment because whoever does these [things] is detestable to the Lord, your God." (22:5)

The ethical lessons continue in this portion, and compassion among them as one of the essential ways and attributes of love.

"You shall send away the mother, and [then] you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you, and you should lengthen your days." (22:7)

Also to remark that the commandments (the rational and the supra-rational as well) are given for us to refine and enhance our individual and collective lives, as ethical and moral principles that ensure a life dedicated to justice, peace, and happiness for all, and not simply to please the Creator. We are reminded of this.

"If you sin, how have you affected Him? If your transgressions multiply, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give Him? What can He possible receive from your hand? (Job 35:6-7)

Our sages say that even if (God forbid!) He is not with us, we have to live by the truth of justice and righteousness for our own individual and collective sake. In this sense, life is a matter of ethics in order to coexist and survive as loving human beings and not as wild beasts.

We are talking about the ethics of love's ways and attributes, that we must preserve and protect by being and manifesting love as our identity.

"When you build a new house, you shall make a guardrail for your roof, so that you shall not cause blood [to be spilled] in your house, that the one who falls should fall from it [the roof]." (Deuteronomy 22:8)

In the process of building love's values in our consciousness (the house) we have to make them prevail in every aspect of what we are, have and do, thus we guard and protect ourselves from falling down into negative illusions that end up destroying the foundations of love's ways and attributes by letting illusions take over our consciousness, and bringing disgrace to what we consider the most cherished and sacred asset of all.

We must walk in the ways of the blessings of love, God's love in our consciousness, and separate from the curses of a loveless life represented by Canaanite nations.

"But the Lord, your God, did not want to listen to Balaam. So the Lord, your God, transformed the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord, your God, loves you." (23:6)

As we already know, His love is with us as long as we allow Him in all aspects of consciousness.

"For the Lord, your God, goes along in the midst of your camp, to rescue you and to deliver your enemies before you. [Therefore,] Your camp shall be holy, so that He should not see anything unseemly among you and would turn away from you."(23:15)

Hence selling our awareness of love to materialistic illusions is how we separate from the Creator.

This portion with its many commandments ends reminding us to destroy the memory, the thought, the feeling and the emotion of doubt, uncertainty and hesitation regarding the only true choice of all that is living in love's ways and attributes.

"[Therefore,] it will be, when the Lord your God grants you respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget!" (25:19)

Let's be aware always that God is our Creator, and His love is our essence and identity for which we have to live every moment. Love is what we are made of, love is who we are, and love is what we have to manifest.

Ego's fantasies are ephemeral and they abandon us in their illusion, while love's ways always remain and are waiting for us to return to them.