“Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice; ye confident daughters, give ear unto my speech. After a year and days shall ye be troubled, ye confident women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering [harvesting] shall not come.” (Isaiah 32:9-10)
Our Sages refer to women in this metaphor as the cities in Judea and Samaria that were about to be conquered and destroyed by Israel's enemies. Their inhabitants ignored the Prophet's warnings about their imminent doom. We can also understand these warnings referring to the aspects of consciousness that prefer being conquered and subjugated by negative trends represented by Israel's enemies. We rather hear their claims out of envy, lust, greed, pride, indifference, indolence and cruelty, than pursuing goodness as the destiny God wants for us.
“Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye confident ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. Smiting upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine; for the land of my people whereon thorns and briers come up; yea, for all the houses of joy and the joyous city.” (32:11-13)
As long as we remain under the rule of ego's fantasies and illusions we live trapped in trouble, without sowing anything good and uplifting. In our negative predicament there is no hope to be rescued and gathered back into God's ways and attributes as our true freedom and redemption. Life as the land become a field of thorns and briers, where joy and happiness are far from our midst.
“For the palace shall be forsaken; the city with its stir shall be deserted; the mound and the tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.” (32:14-15)
Before sending our Prophets, God warns us in the Torah (Deuteronomy) about the consequences of our estrangement from His ways and attributes, for it solely depends on us. Choosing the idols we make out of ego's fantasies, illusions, obsessions, attachments, addictions, and negative tendencies in consciousness is the premise to forsake our permanent connection with God. The latter, -- as we have said many times -- is represented by the Temple of Jerusalem. This is referred here as the “forsaken palace”, “deserted city”, “mound” and “tower” where “wild asses and flocks” enjoy themselves. These represent recklessness and lack of direction. Until we return to our Essence and true identity God's Love gave us, as the “Spirit poured upon us from high”.
We must understand this re-connection with God as our own individual and collective recognition of who we really are. Returning to our true identity is the beginning of our Final Redemption in “the ends of times”. As we have also mentioned frequently, this as well as “the day of God” represent the moment when we choose to return to our Creator and join Him to fulfill the assigned mission He commanded us in the Torah.
In this awareness we realize that being, having and doing goodness are the seeds, the field, the rain, and also the harvest. Love's ways and attributes are the goodness that turns barren and desolated fields (the negative traits and trends in consciousness) into fruitful fields, abundant as a forest.
“Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever. And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. And it shall hail, in the downfall of the forest; but the city shall descend into the valley.” (32:16-19)
God reminds us once more that justice and righteousness are the premises of our fruitfulness in every aspect and dimension of consciousness we reflect in every facet of life. For both are the foundations of loving kindness and compassion as essential qualities of Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love. Again we learn that by doing what is right we make peace prevail, for righteousness brings along our tranquility and confidence in what is good.
“Happy are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth freely the feet of the ox and the ass.” (32:20)
By being and manifesting the goodness of Love's ways and attributes we live away from the unrest of ego's fantasies and illusions, and we conduct our thoughts, emotions and feelings (“all waters”) in which our passions and instincts (“the ox and the ass”) delight in total freedom. Thus they cooperate to prepare the field of life into sowing goodness to harvest goodness.
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