“Sixty are queens and
eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is My dove, My wholesome
one. One is she of her mother, she is pure to the one who begot her. Daughters
saw her and acclaimed her, queens and concubines, and they praise her.” (Song of Songs 6:8-9)
God's love also yearns for
Israel's love, and distinguishes her among the nations (queens, concubines, and
countless maidens). He exalts her as the true inheritor of her mother
Jerusalem, as the highest level of our awareness of God's love.
The Torah that defines
Israel's identity introduces her to the nations to respect, acclaim and praise
her for what she is and represents for humankind and the world. This respect,
acclaim and praise will be complete in the advent of the final redemption, and
encompassing in the Messianic era.
“Who is this [she] looking
forth as [compared to] the morning? Beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun,
awe inspiring as an army with banners.” (6:10)
God continues praising
Israel as His chosen nation to make for Him a place to dwell in the material
world. Israel is destined to be the light of the nations as clear as the sun in
the morning, bright and beautiful as the moon at night. Shinning as the sun,
revered for the goodness of her traits and qualities with their awe inspiring
material and spiritual expressions as banners of the Messianic era.
“I descended to the garden
of nuts to look on the buds of the valley, to see whether the vine has budded,
the pomegranates in flower.” (6:11)
God also “descends” to
evaluate how much the nations and humankind have learned from Israel's
contributions to make human life a more pleasant and joyful journey in the
world. In this verse God refers to Israel as His garden of nuts, vines and
pomegranates to see her blossoming and flourishing amid her exile among the
nations.
The Creator knows the
qualities, traits and trends of human consciousness, for He endowed it with
free will to choose between the goodness of love’s ways and attributes or the
negative expressions of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions.
We have mentioned often
that we truly exercise free will as long as we are properly informed about the
choices we have and their effects, results and consequences. Thus we
realize that life is indeed a learning process, whose ultimate destiny is to
be, to have and manifest goodness as the sole purpose of God’s creation.
We also become aware that
evil exists as a reference to choose goodness, and that wickedness is something
we can overcome and eliminate from us and our midst. One of the most
misunderstood verses in the Torah speaks about this.
“For the desire of man’s
heart is evil from his youth.” (Genesis 8:21)
The context of “youth” is
presented here as ignorance, inexperience, clumsiness, foolishness, inability
and incapacity as lack of knowledge to make the right choices, and to fully
assimilate the dynamics of human consciousness in the material world.
Thus we understand evil as
a negative tendency based or generated by poor judgment on what is supposed to
be right or wrong. However, this may not be applicable for those who knowingly
and purposely make evil a choice and not a reference, and see nothing valuable
in goodness even being fully aware that they can’t live without it.
This does not mean that man
has the natural tendency to be evil or do evil from his birth or youth, but to
make negative choices based on immaturity, lack of knowledge or adequate
information to wisely exercise his free will.
This verse is a direct
admonition and warning that since early childhood we must receive and/or give
the best possible intellectual, moral, ethical, mental and emotional education
the Torah commands us to acquire for ourselves, our offspring and others, in
order to make goodness “the desire of our heart” since the moment we are
conscious of life.
Goodness is our essence,
true identity and common bond with our Creator, and what we are destined to be
and do in the world. Thus we also understand why God created man in His image
and likeness. This is the foundation of His covenant with Israel, as an eternal
bond of love, in order to harvest “the budded vine and blossomed pomegranates”
as the future expressions of goodness once we enter the fields and gardens
awaiting us in our final redemption. Thus we realize goodness as the light the
Torah and our prophets refer to.
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I hold in your hand
and keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, and a light of the
nations.” (Isaiah 42:6)
“And He said, ‘It has been a light thing that you are to Me for a
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and the preserved of Israel to bring
back. And I have given you for a light of the nations, to be My redemption to
the ends of the earth’.” (Ibid. 49:6)
“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your
rising.” (Ibid. 60:3)
Israel is close and dear to
God for precisely embracing her mission to be a light for the nations, for she
has been commanded to make a place for Him to dwell among (in) us.
“And they have made for Me a sanctuary, and I have dwell among [in]
them.” (Exodus 25:8)
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