tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85633091781371337922024-02-20T18:25:26.332+02:00GOD'S LOVEAriel Ben Avraham's book on the Jewish conception of God's love according to the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish theology. How we relate to God's love as our common bond with Him. You can order the book directly from the author at godaslove@gmail.com.
From the book:
"Let's be aware that we are emanated from God' love. Whatever we are and have come from Him and it is His, including the love that we are and give. Love is our essence and identity."Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.comBlogger400125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-15915799108587182962020-05-07T16:00:00.001+03:002020-05-07T17:05:59.453+03:00THE LESSONS OF A PLAGUE<div align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-left: 0.0000pt; margin-right: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-autospace: ideograph-numeric; text-indent: 0.0000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">A well known Rabbi in Israel recently said that the crisis derived from the Corona virus would pass when people learn its lessons. Yet, he didn’t elaborate on such “lessons”, as if he would let everyone to figure them out. As an observant Jew, my first thoughts about this Rabbi’s admonition took me to the Ten Plagues of Egypt, and their impacts as the prelude of the people of Israel’s Exodus from that land. These had their inner and outer effects according to the Jewish people’s nefarious circumstances under a kind of slavery without precedent.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">If the Rabbi’s words had any connection with that pivotal moment in Jewish history, I should inquire about what are the current circumstances that may relate to the Corona virus pandemic. Particularly, about the measures globally taken to prevent or mitigate its effects or dying from the virus. These are generally identify as fever, cough, shortness of breath with difficulty breathing, muscle pain, headache and loss of taste or smell.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">In one way of another, most people have the same symptoms with the seasonal flu, except for the loss of taste and smell. So, in general, we all have probably experience those in an intense or less intense way, without thinking or pondering about the “lessons” we should learn or not from them. Still, the Rabbi’s words suggested we should.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Fever may invite to reflect on how obsessed one can become about that he lusts or desire that he is not able to get. Coughing as a compelling reaction to expel or remove something that obstructs the proper function of an organ of the body, as one should do with thoughts, feelings and emotions that negatively affect a well balanced consciousness.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Shortness of breath shows one’s inability to acquire the necessary vitality to move and act, like being deprived with the desired ability to live. Breathing easily is fundamental to feel alive. If one is not taking “in” what is essentially vital in life, sooner than later he will perish. The question here is, what one values as “essential” to be alive, besides breathing easily, eating, sleeping and being clothed under a roof. What one has become “shortened” to live is the point. Body or muscle aches can be translated as the excessive and unwanted pains one suffers by being “shortchanged” with the life he has, either by their wrong choices and decisions or not.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Headaches seem to appear as the effect of over thinking or obsessing about something one can’t get the way he wants. These may be an extreme physical reaction to unhealthy neurotic reactions, for not all of the latter are unhealthy. Mental or emotional discomfort do not necessarily have to be labeled as neurotic, when the minimal norms of decency and decor are broken and cause one’s spirited reaction.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Losing the sense of taste and smell is a hard way to learn how precious is the “taste of life” with its scents and fragrances we can call the good times to be gladly enjoyed when living the best way possible.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">These reflections are about the symptoms of the Corona virus. Let’s now focus on the treatment or measures taken to cope with it.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Social isolation has been indicated as the way to “mitigate” (another term to say “avoiding” being infected), as well as “social distancing”. In an “inner” level, this is about avoiding getting infected from others who may be. By association, what we already said about the symptoms is what we are supposed to avoid from others. Yet, we are not holier than others to believe that we may become exempt from having negative thoughts, being obsessed, lusting, and feeling frustrated.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">In this sense, the “isolation” and “distancing” are more a about us individually than others around. This is probably what the Rabbi may have meant to say. The lessons of this plague are about what one has to identify as the “symptoms” inside consciousness, in order to avoid them, correct them, and later procure to live the well balanced consciousness we mentioned above.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">The case we also must consider is the “asymptomatic” that is not aware of what is going on in his consciousness and infect those around him. This one requires a much deeper reflection, for most of the hideous crimes committed in history were made by those who became totally insensitive about the preciousness of life, its diversity, its beauty, and above all, its goodness. Hence, “testing” them for the virus of evil is utmost necessary, so they may be isolated until the rest are not at risk to be harmed by their “hidden” symptoms.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">In sum, the encompassing “lesson” of this plague is to frequently take some time in “isolation” and “distancing” ourselves from the threats of negative ideas, thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and actions, either inside or around us. This may keep us “away” from harming ourselves and other as we interact with each other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">In comparison with the Ten Plagues, let’s all hope that, as the Rabbi warned, we learn the lessons of this current plague so that we may avoid others that may force us even further to finally separate human consciousness from all forms and ways of evil, and approach life the way it deserves to be lived: only in goodness.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-88186457530028482102018-09-23T00:00:00.000+03:002018-09-23T00:00:02.214+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXXII)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the
congregation of loving ones. May Israel rejoice in his Maker, the children of
Zion joyful in their King.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (Psalms 149:1-2)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The “new song” is the expression of the new consciousness that awaits us
in the Messianic era, indeed a praise of the loving ones, for love is the
reigning principle that bonding with God’s love will manifest new expressions
of goodness in all aspects of life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The goodness of love has the power to unite
and assemble in congregation God’s gathered tribes, which will interact as the functional
harmonic unity we have mentioned before.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We will rejoice in our Creator, for we finally will fully bond with Him,
whose goodness is the utmost of all joys. This is the sacredness that we will
praise forever, for we will be living in it for eternity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sacredness [Temple]; praise Him in
the firmament of His power.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (150:1)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">King David tells us for the final time in his book of Psalms that our
relationship, bond and connection with God culminates in the sacredness of His
house, the Temple of Jerusalem, Zion the place of His dwelling in this world
for eternity, which is the firmament of His power.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have seen in all the verses King David writes about Jerusalem the
many facets of God’s house, to realize that this awareness called Zion is our
bond with Him, in which we live the final redemption He promised us; as long as
we embrace goodness as our essence and true identity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is the primordial
message we are destined to live, for goodness is the cause, the purpose and the
end.</span></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-86309312730443942692018-09-16T00:00:00.000+03:002018-09-16T00:00:10.312+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXXI)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“The Lord reigns forever, the God of Zion, forever and ever. Praise the
Lord.”</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">(Psalms 146:10)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Eternity is the reward for bonding in God’s love through the blessings
He constantly bestows in us with His goodness. Thus we realize that it is as
eternal as Him, and this happiness beyond possible description is only manifest
in Zion, Jerusalem; the utmost joy of all hearts. Hence we will praise Him for
eternity, for this praise is as infinite as Him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the dispersed of
Israel.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (147:2)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This realization will be factual when all the dispersed children of
Israel are gathered by their God. Our Sages understand this as the prelude to
the rise of the Third Temple that God builds along with Jerusalem, for these
are irrelevant without the entire gathering of the Jewish people in the land of
their divine inheritance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This last and eternal Temple and its city are rebuilt with spiritual materials and qualities that will reflect the new consciousness the Creator
promised for the Messianic era. Hence the edifices and towers of the city are already
made of light columns and beams with compartments made to last forever, as the
verse suggests in regards to eternity. Likewise, human and material life will
be also spiritual as it was originally created at the beginning of God’s
creation in the Garden of Eden.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Glorify the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For He has strengthened
the bars of your gates, He has blessed your children in your midst. He
established peace in your borders; He fulfills you with the best of wheat.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (147:12-14)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These verses reiterate the previous ones in regards to Jerusalem, as it
was originally created by God; and as is going to be in the Jewish final
redemption and the advent of the Messianic era.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The strengthening of the bars that protect Jerusalem tells
us about the strong spiritual qualities that dissipate wickedness in all forms,
for evil will fade before them. Goodness is the blessing that spreads out in levels,
aspects, dimensions and expressions of our new future consciousness dwelling in
the city of God. Hence peace is the air we will breathe in its midst. Our food
will be from the best of wheat that can only be God’s love.</span></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-19549113373508877422018-09-09T00:00:00.000+03:002018-09-09T00:00:06.580+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXX)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom the day of
Jerusalem; who say, ‘Raze it, raze it, down to its foundation’.”</span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">(Psalms 137:7)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The psalmist knows very well the enemies of Jerusalem, the children of
the heathen nations descendant from Esau/Edom. They represent the lowest
thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts, that prey on goodness to
satisfy their insatiable materialistic fantasies and illusions, and fight to
impose the rule of wickedness and the destruction of human dignity, making
goodness subservient to evil. Here, the “day of Jerusalem” refers to the final
redemption of the Jewish people, and the day when the Messianic era begins.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“I bow down toward Your sacredness [Temple], and give thanks to Your
Name, for Your loving kindness and for Your truth. For You have magnified Your
promise above all Your Name. In the day that I called, You have answered me,
You have encouraged me in my soul with strength.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (138:2-3)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Creator’s promised final redemption, to make goodness rule and
prevail in the material world, is evoked again to the point that the psalmist
calls it greater than His Name.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is a clear allegory to the greatness of
God’s goodness that He will reveal in the Messianic era. It will be bigger than
what we already know about His goodness, which is His Name.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He hears David’s prayer and answers him with the assurance that
encourages him to live with a strengthened soul for the Messianic era, when we
will see the magnificence of unfathomable qualities of His goodness. Being the
Jewish people the inheritors of this divine promise, led the psalmist to exalt
this sublime reality.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Happy are the people whose destiny is this, happy are the people whose
God is the Lord.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (144:15)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This verse summarizes the origin,
essence, purpose and fate of Israel, with the exact words in their exact
meaning. In this awareness we only have words of thankfulness and praise, also
stated in the next verse.</span></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-66334830255957944762018-09-02T00:00:00.000+03:002018-09-02T00:00:06.252+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXIX)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Blessed is the Lord from Zion that dwells in Jerusalem, praise the
Lord.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (Psalms 135:21)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once again, the psalmist proclaims God’s presence in Jerusalem. He blesses
Him, for He is the Source of all blessings. In this awareness we praise Him
forever.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept when we remembered
Zion.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (137:1)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In prophecy, the psalmist evokes the children of Israel’s exile in
Babylon, where they lamented their estrangement from the house of their God.
The remembrance of Zion was all they had, hoping to return to their permanent
bond that will be fully fulfilled in the Messianic era.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“For there [in Babylon], our captors requested from us words of song.
‘Sing for us the songs of Zion’.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (137:3)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The captors of the Jewish people are aware of the qualities inherent in Israel’s
spirituality. The nations can recognize them in the praises to their God. They
know that these songs are a soothing balm that harmonizes thoughts, emotions
and feelings, something unique to the traits of goodness all the nations covet.
Yet, to subject them to their materialistic attachments, obsessions and
addictions.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ultimately, in Israel’s final redemption, they will appreciate goodness
in its ethical and moral principles, aimed to elevate the dignity they owe to
the human condition in this world. The fact that they recognize the beauty of
the “songs of Zion” is a first step to later embrace the essence that makes
these songs the way they are.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The “songs” that Israel sings are pure praise of
the traits and attributes of goodness, when it manifests in life, making it an
exultation of God’s love.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign soil? If I forget you, O
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill. Let my tongue cleave to my
palate, if I don’t remember you; if I set not Jerusalem above my greatest
joy.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (137:4-6)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">God’s song is also Israel’s, therefore it must be sung for each other,
and no one else; neither in a place other than His house. In the name of the
children of Israel, King David wonders about the aberration of trying to bond
with God’s love out of His Promised Land, Jerusalem, and the Temple, the place
of His dwelling.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This bond is referred here as God’s “song”. Hence forgetting Jerusalem
is equivalent to forget our Father in Heaven, which means to live without the
goodness represented by the ‘skill” of the right hand. The same goes for our
speech, for without God’s goodness in our thoughts, words are meaningless. These
verses reveal why Jerusalem is the greatest joy, for His loving kindness dwells
in her.</span></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-35936706674910305592018-08-26T00:00:00.000+03:002018-08-26T00:00:12.737+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXVIII)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Like the dew of [mount]
Hermon that comes down on the hills of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the
blessing of life for eternity.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">(Psalms 133:3)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mount Hermon is the highest peak in the land of Israel, and symbolizes another
of the elevated positive traits and qualities of goodness, joining the ones
that surround Zion, our connection with God.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In this bond, He bestows goodness
for all as His blessing for life, eternally. The verse reiterates that the
highest and most sublime traits, “hills” and “mountains”, particularly those
around Zion, are inherent to her as the vessel of God’s love.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Bless the Lord all servants of the Lord that stand in the House of the
Lord in the nights. Lift your hands in sacredness and bless the Lord. May the
Lord bless you from Zion, who made the heavens and the earth.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (134:1-3)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Those who stand in the Temple of Jerusalem in the nights are its
guardians and watchmen. King David invites them to evoke His protection, for
which they bless Him, knowing that He cares for them as they care to share the
source of goodness that His house is.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The action of sharing is represented by the lifting of their hands, by
which we receive goodness and give it. This becomes a sacred action, for all
related to goodness is certainly sacred due to its Source.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him servants of
the Lord. [Those] standing in the house of the Lord, in the courtyards of the
house of our God. Praise the Lord because goodness is the Lord. Sing to His
name because He is pleasant.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (135:1-3)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We truly praise the name of God by emulating and
manifesting His ways and attributes, His “Name”, by which we know our bond with
Him. Hence we are His servants to do what He wants from us. Thus we “stand in
His house and its courtyards”.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also praise Him for His goodness that is pleasant to us. Reciting and
singing His praise are an individual or collective token of our constant
exercise of living in and for goodness, as He wants us to.</span></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-85578018206989840082018-08-19T00:00:00.000+03:002018-08-19T00:00:06.784+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXVII)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“We come
to His sanctuaries, we bow at His footstool.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> Arise,
O Lord, to Your sanctuaries, You and the ark of Your might. Your priests
clothed with righteousness and Your loving ones singing of joy.”</span></i></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (Psalms
132:7-9)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Our Sages refer to the
Temple of Jerusalem as God’s footstool, where the majesty of His goodness rests
and touches the world. In this context, the Temple is where His “sanctuaries”
are, and these are indeed His ways and attributes. Their sacredness is such
that they are actually sanctuaries for us to meditate, contemplate and to dwell
in.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">When we
allow God’s ways to inspire us in every mode, we pray to Him to take charge and
turn us into vessels, worthy enough to keep up to His goodness, in order to
make it ours to be, to have and to manifest it. This is the way God “arises” in
us.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">We have to
call our Creator to dwell again in the sanctuaries of the Temple He once built
in us, and for us to bond permanently with Him. This bond is the “ark of God’s
might”, understood as the covenant that He sealed forever with His people.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
priests represent our connecting good traits that establish the bond, and these
are good as long as they remain loyal to their ethical ways, mentioned here as
righteousness, for they must be righteous as part of what goodness is.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">God’s
“loving ones” (the term is usually translated from the original Hebrew as
“pious”) are the complementary qualities for being righteous, for they go hand
in hand when true love is given. A loving action is
expressed in the same way a joyful song is chanted, as we will see it in the
next verses.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“For the
Lord, He has chosen Zion for a seat for Him: ‘This one of My eternal rest, here
I shall dwell because I desired it. Her provision I have blessed and shall
bless. Her needy ones I satisfy with bread. And her priests dressed of
redemption, and her loving ones singing of praise. There shall soot the vine
for David, I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one’.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (132:13-17)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">These
verses reaffirm what Jerusalem and its Temple are for the Creator in relation
to His eternal bond with Israel. The psalmist remarks the city of God as the
vessel where He bestows His sustenance for the world.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">This is the reason for
His continuous blessings to her, and those who keep it sacred for Him. These
are the priests that represent our best traits and qualities in the highest
level of our consciousness, for these are the means through which we find our
redemption.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here redemption is called the vine of David, which represents the
Messianic consciousness, destined to prevail for eternity. It is also the lamp
that will enlighten all aspects and expressions of life, all dedicate to pursue
the endless knowledge of our Creator.</span></span></div>
</div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-14811389700235603662018-08-12T00:00:00.000+03:002018-08-12T00:00:01.299+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXVI)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If the Lord does not build
the house, in vain its builders labor on it. If the Lord does not guard a city,
in vain a watchman wakes.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">” </span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">(Psalms 127:1)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our Sages say that God is the place of the world, and the world is not
God’s place. This conception encompasses the purpose of God’s creation, for all
comes from Him and sustained by Him. In that regard, the place as the reason
for the world to exist is God. Hence we depend on Him and not all the way
around.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With this premise we approach the quoted verse. If God’s doesn’t give us
a reason for His creation, how can we make anything of it? The “house” here
represents what He gives us to make something out of it, and that is goodness.
We live in vain if we have a life without meaning.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If we disregard goodness as the cause and purpose of God’s creation,
what can we build with anything different from it? The “house” also means our consciousness,
and is our duty to build it from that of which the Creator also sustains us. Again,
if there is no goodness, what can we build?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also have mentioned that “mountains” and “cities” represent strong
beliefs and ruling principles or ideas by which we conduct our thought, mind,
emotions, feelings and instincts. If these are not sustained on God’s ways and
attributes, how can we sustain them? In conclusion, we are vain, meaningless
and irrelevant passers-by in this world if we have a life absent of what really
matters.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“May the Lord bless you from Zion, and see in goodness Jerusalem all the
days of your life.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (128:5)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">God’s blessings come out of our connection and bond with His ways and
attributes. As long as we keep this awareness permanently, goodness flows in
every way we approach the moments and circumstances we face every day.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jerusalem once more is pointed out as the highest level of consciousness,
completely free from anything different from goodness. In this sense, Jerusalem
is the place in and from which we want to live in this world.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Turned back and ashamed will be those who hate Zion.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (129:5)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anything alien to goodness leads us to our falling down to the negative
traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions. The verse can be understood
in another way. At some point, those who demise and reject goodness will realize
the destructiveness of their predicament, and in their shame eventually turn
back to it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All the prophetic references about “returning” or “turning back”
are related to regaining the awareness that living in goodness is what truly
matters.</span></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-7604443200109538312018-08-05T00:00:00.000+03:002018-08-05T00:00:08.022+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXV)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“In the return of the Lord with
the tribes of Zion, we would be like dreamers. Then our mouth would be filled
of laughter and our language a song of joy. And in the nations they would say,
‘greatness the Lord has made for them’.”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (Psalms 126:1-2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">King David writes again about the
Jewish final redemption and the Messianic era. Let’s note that all Jewish
prophecies are written in the past tense for two reasons.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Once the Jewish prophets
receive their messages from God, they narrate them as something revealed to
them. Therefore they refer to them as what already took place, yet will be
fully manifested in the future.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The other reason is that God
already declared the purpose of His creation since He made it. Hence the final
redemption is at our reach as soon as we become fully aware of it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">This total
awareness is achieved by allowing goodness to conduct our discernment, mind,
thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and action, for goodness is the ruling
principle in God’s creation, and it is destined to prevail in human
consciousness. However, it is up to us to initiate the constant awareness of
goodness in what we are, have and do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Let’s reflect on the first
sentence of these two verses. God and the tribes are returning <i>together</i>, and that
action implies a time and space that once existed. They left with the
dispersion of the children of Israel in exile among the nations. The psalmist
is referring to the return of the lost tribes by the will of God as the Jewish
prophets later confirm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We have pointed out often that Zion
is the bond that unites the Creator with the people of Israel as the tribes of this connection. Also that the tribes of
Israel represent the positive creative potentials in all aspects, dimensions,
facets and expressions of human consciousness. These are the talents and skills
inherent in the diversity of our individual potential.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We can be artists, builders,
merchants, farmers, shepherds, warriors, gardeners, judges, healers, teachers,
scientists, spiritual guides, care givers, cleaners, writers, wood gatherers,
facilitators, administrators, etc., whose lives are ruled by positive creative
expressions in whatever we do. The common denominator of our diversity must always be goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The tribes of Zion are certainly
the tribes of Israel gathered together by God in their return with Him, with a new
consciousness to be manifest in the Messianic times. We call it the Messianic
consciousness because it is a collective quality that will be shared by the
people of Israel with the rest of the nations, when the latter fully accept
that Israel is the chosen people to fulfill God’s will in the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">King David characterizes this new
consciousness where only goodness reigns with its typical qualities, “laughter”
and “joy”, for it can’t be less than that. Actually, these are more effects of
goodness than its causes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">It’s relevant to remark the
participation of the nations in the advent of the Messianic times. As we
indicated before, they must recognize the goodness of Israel’s contributions to
the world as their first step to partake in the coming final redemption. The
last sentence of the second verse confirms this premise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">In this context, the “greatness”
mentioned by the psalmist is the goodness the Creator commanded the children of
Israel to share with the rest of the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">It is the same goodness that in the
final redemption all humankind will share by the hand of Israel, as the Creator
established in His Torah and through His prophets.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-52107799047781062372018-07-29T00:00:00.000+03:002018-07-29T00:00:13.529+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXIV)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
the sake of my brethren and my loved ones, I will say now, ‘Peace be in you’.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Psalms 122:8)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">King David tells us that in Jerusalem converges all
that unites and bonds everything and everyone. In this unity and togetherness
we live in the awareness of peace.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our brothers, sisters and loved ones are those who in
their own individual diversity share goodness as the bond that connects us with
each other, and peace is its utmost expression. Hence we pursue peace as the
encompassing and integrating awareness that makes us also connected to God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I seek goodness for you!</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (122:9)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God’s house is the Sanctuary that He has established
for Him to dwell among (in) us here in this world, and as King David has
pointed out often, goodness is our bond with Him. Hence we pursue goodness for
the sake of our connection with the Creator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Those
who trust in the Lord are like mount Zion that is not moved, [for] it sits
forever.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (125:1)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Trust is based on what we know or believe as something
by which we live and conduct our life. Trusting God is living by what He
represents that keeps us alive to prosper with it and for it. Therefore our
Creator is the ethical ruling principle by which we exist to live it and
experience it in this world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The psalmist compares this principle to the unmovable
mountain named Zion and to its eternal quality, for the fact that God’s
eternity sits on it; as it is reiterated in the next verse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jerusalem!
Mountains surround her, and the Lord surrounds His people from here to
eternity.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (125:2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mountains represent unshakable beliefs, ground rules
and guidelines by which we direct our lives. As our connecting bond with God,
Jerusalem is set on a mountain surrounded by a wall, and also by mountains that
reaffirm the prevalence of goodness as the primordial principle in which all
levels, aspects and dimensions of human consciousness are destined to be
conducted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the same way that we are guided by goodness, and
protected by its ethical qualities, God also guides His people eternally.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here
we must understand that His will, as well as His ways and attributes exist
forever; and, as long as we live in their goodness, we are indeed protected by
Him.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-29282806118431367132018-07-22T00:00:00.000+03:002018-07-22T00:00:03.540+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXIII)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Pray
for Jerusalem of peace, in abundance those who love you.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (Psalms 122:6)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We refer often to praying and praising, not as a passive
but a dynamic process by which we attune our consciousness with what we do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We pray to evoke God as the ruler of the best in us, in
order to allow goodness to be with us, and provide us with what we need us and for
those who benefit from us. We certainly pray for goodness to be with us, not
with a selfish approach but to make us better to ourselves, and as a source of
goodness for others.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We praise, not to experience an emotional or passionate
feeling of closeness and attachment to God, but to evoke His ways and
attributes and emulate them in what we say and do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We say “praise the Lord” as
the invocation of His loving kindness to awaken our goodness, and be able to
manifest it in what we are and do. In this sense praising is acknowledging,
thanking and recognizing God’s presence in us, and to express it in our moment to
moment engagement to life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In this verse the Psalmist invites us to evoke the
peace of Jerusalem as what makes it complete, wholesome, total, eternal and
undivided. As we have said, peace in Hebrew means all these words, for this
wholesomeness is the culmination of unifying our consciousness through
goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Loving the peace of Jerusalem is living in goodness as
the abundance that makes us constantly fulfilled in plenitude. Thus we realize
again that love and goodness belong to each other as the source of what we
truly are, our essence and identity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Peace
is in your bulwark, abundance in your strongholds.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (122:7)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Bulwarks and strongholds share the same qualities,
whose function is to protect something. Peace encompasses these qualities as
our strongholds, for these are our strength as well as the bulwarks that shield
us against anything opposite to goodness, hence abundance is the outcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Once we achieve the committed and diligent process of
unifying the diverse traits, trends, dimensions and aspects of our
consciousness, the end result is peace as the functional harmonized unity
that Jerusalem represents.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-65316327239039252782018-07-15T00:00:00.000+03:002018-07-15T00:00:09.527+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXII)<b style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #fdfeff; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jerusalem, built as a city that
is together, united.</span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> (Psalms 122:3)</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This verse is the answer to those
who want to divide it as the capital of two different peoples that don’t share
the same connection and relationship with the Creator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The divine establishment
of Jerusalem, called here “built”, is meant to reflect the oneness of the God
that calls her His house on earth.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This is the same oneness of
goodness, which is not a divided or disperse ethical ruling principle as the
head (in Latin, “capital” means “head”) that can’t be split into parts because
it is a unit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In Jerusalem everything is not only “together” but also “united”, forming
a functional harmonic unity where all is bound by goodness which purpose is to
unite the diversity in all levels, aspects and expressions of human
consciousness through goodness, for the sake of goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #fdfeff; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For there have tribes gone up,
the tribes of the Lord, companies of Israel to acknowledge [thank] the name of
the Lord.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> (122:4)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As we have mentioned, the tribes
of Israel represent the potential of goodness in what comprises human
consciousness, including creativity, inventiveness, skills and talents that
must be elevated by and for goodness in order to ascend to God, from whom emanates all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In this ascent we acknowledge what
God is for us, and that compels us to revere Him in gratitude because
thankfulness is the immediate response to goodness when we receive it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The verse relates also to the
offerings the children of Israel brought thrice a year to the Temple of
Jerusalem, commanded by God in the Torah, as the means to renew their bond with
Him in a united and harmonized fashion, consonant with the unity of Jerusalem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #fdfeff; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For there [in Jerusalem] are set
thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> (122:5)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The verse clearly states that judgment as the outcome of discernment must come from the highest level of consciousness
that Jerusalem represents, for it is the “place” were we connect with our
Creator through goodness as our bond with Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here we understand judgment as the
righteous approach we must have in every instance of living. Hence, having a “good
judgment” means letting goodness direct our thoughts, emotions, feelings,
speech and actions. Thus we assimilate that goodness is the throne as the seat
from which we rule all aspects and expressions of life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The “thrones” mentioned in the
verse refer to the ways and attributes of goodness that delineate its ethical
qualities. From these we harmonize the necessary interaction of intellect,
mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passion and instincts, in order to live a
unified consciousness destined to function by and for goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In this context, the house of
David represents the willingness, commitment and determination to lead in
goodness the tribes of Israel that, as we have said, encompass the positive
creative potentials in human consciousness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">King David is the paradigm of the
leading and ruling expressions of goodness, also called the Messianic
consciousness destined to reign forever after the Jewish final redemption.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jerusalem
is the place where this new transforming consciousness is manifest to reign in
the same chosen dwelling place of the Creator in this world.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-87307574013642183912018-07-08T00:00:00.000+03:002018-07-08T00:00:13.659+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXI)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all His people. In the courts of the house of the Lord, in
your midst Jerusalem, praise the Lord.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (Psalms 116:18-19)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Jerusalem is where we integrate through,
in, with and for goodness, all levels and aspects of consciousness (“God’s
people, the tribes of Israel”) with conviction and determination (“vows”).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The “courts” and the “midst” of
the city of God are His ways and attributes, with which we “praise” Him by what
we are and do in the material world. Living in the premises of goodness is
dwelling in the house of God that is built in Jerusalem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I have rejoiced in those saying
to me, ‘Let’s go to the house of the Lord’.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (122:1)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We can read this verse in several
ways. King David is happy because of those who invite him to visit the Temple
of Jerusalem. They certainly are not only his friends but also those in whom he
rejoices, as his source or cause for happiness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">These are the positive traits and
qualities that define goodness by their expressions in what we do for our
individual and collective well being, hence the best reasons to rejoice, for
they are destined to direct our lives as God’s will, which is His “house”.
Going to God’s house is what the best in us does when live permanently in
goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Our feet have been standing in
your gates, Jerusalem!</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (122:2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Coming to Jerusalem, as well as
anywhere, requires from us the full awareness and determination to move in that
direction. Our feet indeed take us to where we need or want to go, but they
only respond to our will. Once we stand where we want to be, it becomes our
accomplishment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The Psalmist makes the words in
this verse sound as the culmination of a long journey, which is about leaving
behind the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions, in
order to commit to permanently live in the ways and attributes of goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is not an easy task, for it is an ongoing process of transforming our
consciousness to redirect it in the right path. Once we complete this
challenging journey we will be literally at the gates of the city of God,
calling at her name to let us in and dwell in it bonding with our Creator.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-14176461986115640572018-07-01T00:00:00.000+03:002018-07-01T00:00:06.791+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XX)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
scepter of your strength the Lord sends from Zion, [to] rule in the midst of
your enemies.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (Psalms 110:2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This is another of the most profound verses in the
Hebrew Bible, related to the Jewish final redemption and the Messianic era. We
must understand it only in the context of God’s promised new consciousness in
the advent of the end of times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">King David addresses the promised Messianic
consciousness to Israel as his “lord”, telling us that its leading power is the
ruling principle (“the scepter”) that comes from the Creator through Zion as
the connecting point with Him and His creation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We understand the Jewish final redemption as God’s
fulfilled promise to Israel as the chosen people to become “a nation of priests”
(Exodus 19:6) and “a light for the nations” (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, 51:4).
Therefore, Israel is the bearer of the Messianic consciousness, as it is
addressed by King David.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Hence we assimilate that the quality of this future
revealed consciousness will rule over the negative traits and trends,
redirecting them to serve the ways and attributes of goodness. The verse that
precedes this one confirms it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“God </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; color: #001320; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until
I make your enemies your footstool’.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">
(110:1)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As long as we remain permanently close to goodness,
which is His “right hand” to prevail in His creation, He will turn all that is
against goodness into servants as a footstool.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Thus we realize that Israel
represents the traits, trends and qualities of goodness destined to prevail in
human consciousness forever, as it is later reiterated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This means that evil won’t exist in the way we know it,
but as another aspect of human consciousness that will be manifested in
positive and constructive expressions. This is so under the direct emanation of
the goodness God promised to reign forever from Zion as His dwelling place in the
material world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“The Lord </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; color: #001320; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">has sworn and will not change his mind. You
are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (110:4)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This is Israel’s priesthood established by God as an
eternal decree.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Torah and the Jewish oral tradition tell us that Melchizedek
was the king of Salem (later called Jerusalem) who received Abraham after his
victory over four kings of Canaan and gave him the tithe of all (Genesis 14:18-20),
officially passing the eternal priesthood to Abraham and Israel his descendant.
Hence the kingdom of peace (Salem) was given to Israel as their divine inheritance,
as King David states in this verse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Thus we realize that Jerusalem and Zion represent the
full awareness of peace as the means to bond with the Creator, who gives it to
us as the utmost expression of goodness.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-63224491641854303162018-06-24T00:00:00.000+03:002018-06-24T00:00:10.991+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XIX)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You [God] have risen, You have
had compassion for Zion for it is the time to grace her, for the appointed time
has come. Because Your servants desire her stones, and in her dust they grace
themselves.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">(Psalms 102:13-14)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The allegory of God’s “rising”
suggests the culmination of His will, as a lengthy process through which we
learn how to integrate in our individual and collective consciousness His ways
and attributes. The ways God relates to His creation are indeed His will. Hence
rising implies a dynamic action in contrast to the apparent stillness of
sitting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We mention often the reason why
the Hebrew prophets present their visions or revelations in past tense, because
they speak about what already happened in their perception. As they witness the
Jewish final redemption, they foretell it as an already accomplished prophecy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">For us is just a matter of
assimilating the aspects and conditions for their prophecies to happen, and
from them we begin to live the foretold “end of the times”, in regards to the
transformation needed to acquire the new consciousness where only goodness
reigns in all facets and expressions of life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">This transformation can only take
place in Zion as the full awareness of our permanent connection with the
Creator of all. At some point in time, hopefully in our times, by His
compassion He puts an end to the dual “good and evil” approach of human
consciousness, and makes Zion to rise with Him towards new heights where only
goodness rules us to engage in new paths unfathomable in our long standing
conditioned understanding of life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">King David tells us that the appointed
time for our final redemption is already established for us to also rise and
elevate our thoughts, emotions and feelings to the highest expressions of
goodness, as God commands us to be, to have and do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Those who serve goodness desire is
stones as its foundations, which are the ethical ruling principles that define
its nature. As we live by them, gracefulness is their outcome. The more we live
in goodness, the more we are graced with it as the permanent blessing bestowed
by the Creator in His creation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So the nations shall revere the
name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For the Lord has
built Zion, He has been seen in His glory.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (102:15-16)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Jerusalem again is reaffirmed as
the place where God is acknowledged as the only ruler in our consciousness. We
have said that His “name” is how He relates to His creation. This name
encompasses His ways and attributes by which we also relate to Him, as the ways
in which we “revere” Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Nations”, “peoples” and “kings”
represent our human traits, trends, qualities, talents, skills, along with intellect,
mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passion and instinct. All are destined to
honor God’s “glory” by fully living in His will, for this is His glory.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We
accomplished His will in complete awareness of the goodness that we “see” in
Zion as the highest level of consciousness from which we bond with the goodness
that emanates from Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“[In order] To</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> declare in Zion the name of the
Lord and His praise in Jerusalem. In the peoples gathered together and the
kingdoms to serve the Lord.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (102:21-22)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We praise and honor God by the way
we relate to Him, which as we said is by emulating the goodness He bestows in
His creation, for this is how we “serve” Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We are destined to gather
together all that our consciousness encompasses (“the nations”) in order to be
manifested as a functioning harmonic unity ruled by goodness for the sake of
goodness.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-81081140837962712932018-06-17T00:00:00.000+03:002018-06-17T00:00:06.677+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVIII)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Zion has heard and rejoiced, and the daughters of Judah are
joyful because of Your judgments, O Lord.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">(Psalms 97:8)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Many of King David’s psalms are clearly prophetic; some
in a specific way, others in a veiled way like this one. The veiling is an
invitation for us to consider the meanings of Zion, Jerusalem and the Temple,
and how these resonate in our consciousness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Zion is the highest level of consciousness in which we
permanently bond with our Creator, and “hearing” and “rejoicing” are
complementary situations where one leads to the other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We often relate hearing
to understanding, and seeing to knowing. As we fully understand goodness as our
bond with God, the immediate outcome is enjoyment, for what would be more
rejoicing than bonding with Him? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The “daughters” of Judah, as well as the ones of
Jerusalem mentioned in other passages of the Hebrew Bible, are the positive traits,
qualities, trends and expressions related to goodness as our connection with God.
Hence these rejoice while emulating and sharing His ways and attributes, which
are also His “judgments”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“The Lord</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> in Zion is great, and high He is over all the
peoples.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (99:2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Zion is where God dwells in us, for it is the highest
awareness of His presence in our consciousness. God’s greatness is indeed His
presence that encompasses His entire creation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">God is high over all,
including the “peoples”, which usually also represent the negative traits and
trends that separate us from the ways and attributes of goodness, that are
higher and above to rule over all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Exalt the Lord our God and bow
at the sacredness of His mountain, for sacred is the Lord our God!</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (99:9)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">We bow to sacredness in reverence
to what is higher and above us, without which we can’t exist. Awe and reverence
is the least we can have before what we completely depend on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Knowing and
understanding otherwise is pure arrogance, disdain and total lack of
appreciation and gratitude for the sacredness that gives us life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">“Constantly (lit. all mornings)</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> I cut off all the wicked of the
land, to cut off from the city of God all the doers of evil.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"> (101:8)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">In this verse King David pioneered
the phrases “not deviating from a straight path requires eternal vigilance” and
“eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”, and he actually goes beyond what
these mean.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">The constant vigilance to live
free from negative traits and evil ways requires keeping them away from us, by cutting
them off our thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and actions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">All the “doers
of evil” do not belong to the city of God, for His ways and attributes do not
dwell with wickedness.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-47182651568972990812018-06-10T00:00:00.000+03:002018-06-10T00:00:11.622+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVII)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Honorable
things are spoken about you, O city of God, forever.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(Psalms 87:3)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">All that is related to Jerusalem is of the highest nature and
quality, as it is all related to goodness, simply because is “the city of God”
as its immutable ruling principle for His creation. Hence, it is an eternal,
absolute, self-sufficient entity destined to direct all aspects and expressions
of life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“But about </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that one were born in
her’; the Most High himself establishes her.”</span></i></b><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (87:5)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Here, the verse equates the place of birth to the essence
of one’s identity. Therefore Zion, as well as the Torah, defines the Jewish
identity as the bonding quality that the Creator of all with Israel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The essence of this identity is goodness as the expression
of every aspect and facet of Jewish life. Thus we are recognized by the principle
that guides our actions, for it is what identifies who we are, that has been
established for us by our Creator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Those
that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our
God.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> (92:13)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Jewish identity is deeply rooted in the principle that
encompasses all the principles inherent in God’s commandments, decrees, statutes
and ordinances presented in the Torah.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Goodness as the absolute ruling principle is the expression
of the positive ideas, beliefs, feelings and emotions that “flourish in the
courts of our God”, which are His ways and attributes that we strive to emulate
as the source of our plenitude.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This verse reminds us that we flourish only in goodness.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Your
statutes stand firm. Sacredness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> (93:5)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">God’s commandments, decrees, statutes and ordinances are the
firm foundation that delineates the purpose of goodness in the material world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Thus
we realize that in order to grasp this, first we must fully assimilate goodness
in our consciousness where we also must stand firm. In this awareness we
realize the sacredness of goodness as the eternal splendor and beauty of God’s radiance
in His creation.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-47544472750599174042018-06-03T00:00:00.000+03:002018-06-03T00:00:08.682+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVI)<br />
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<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: rgb(253 , 254 , 255); font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I have chosen
rather to be at the threshold in the house of my God, than to dwell in tents of
wickedness.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">(Psalms 84:10)</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">In this verse we learn again that Jerusalem is the
highest state of consciousness where we fully experience goodness as the common
bond with our Creator. It is the time and place where we want to live forever,
for if we are in God’s presence; what can we lack, miss or yearn for?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Even standing in the proximity of goodness is better
than living out in the open of the negative traits and trends of ego’s
fantasies and illusions that make life meaningless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Wickedness is the outcome of our weaknesses to reject
the unnecessary beliefs and feelings of lack that pretend to undermine goodness
as something incomplete, insufficient, deficient, and lacking that leads to
failure. These are precisely the traits and trends of anything opposed to
goodness, for it encompasses plenitude.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">The ethical ways, means and attributes inherent in
goodness are the courtyards of God’s will for His creation, the tents that give
meaning to life in contrast to the tents of lower emotions, feelings, passions
and instincts that trample the dignity of life, which is goodness.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: rgb(253 , 254 , 255); font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">His [God’s] foundation is in sacred mountains. God loves the gates of
Zion from all the dwellings of Jacob.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> (87:1-2)</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">As we have mentioned, in the Jewish tradition,
“mountains”, “hills” and “high places” represent the highest values, principles
and beliefs, by which we conduct our lives in this world. Hence we understand
that God’s ways and attributes as presented in the Hebrew Bible are symbolized
by sacred mountains.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">In this sense, Zion is known as “the mountain of
the mountains” as the Prophets remind us (Isaiah 2:2, Micah 4:1), from where
God directs His creation. Hence we understand His preference of goodness as His
ethical ruling principle that leads the positive aspects, dimensions and
expressions of life as Jacob’s dwellings.</span> <o:p></o:p></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-63696266644581314442018-05-27T00:00:00.000+03:002018-05-27T01:07:47.759+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XV)<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">O God, nations have come into Your inheritance, the altar of Your
sacredness they have defiled, they have made Jerusalem for rubble.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(Psalms 79:1)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In the Jewish tradition, the “nations” represent
negative traits and trends derived from an egocentric approach to live, what we
frequently call “ego’s fantasies and illusions” that defile what is good in
all, for goodness is the sacredness that dwells in us we call Jerusalem.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In contrast, Israel is the nation that represents
the positive qualities in human consciousness destined to be guided by goodness
forever.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">King David laments the permanent fight among good and evil, for
goodness is the natural, logical and obvious choice to live in its total
freedom as the inheritance God created for all to enjoy eternally.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Their blood [the righteous] they have shed like water around
Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">.<span style="background: white;">”</span></span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (79:3)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The nations are denounced again as the
persecutors and tormentors of the ethical values and principles that guide us
to live in, with, by, and for goodness. The latter are the righteous leaders of
the people that bear the responsibility of showing us the ways and attributes
needed to make goodness lead all aspects and expressions of life.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We see that the righteous’ life force that is
goodness is spilled by the nations that pursue the destruction of Jerusalem as
the highest level of consciousness in which only goodness rules.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Happy those who dwell in </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Your house, yet they praise You forever.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (84:4)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This is one of the most profound verses in the
book of Psalms, yet its literal meaning reveals something quite obvious. If we
live permanently with our Creator, we are destined to praise Him for this
privilege.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The verse suggests that a happy heart is the
precondition to approach God, for if we want to be, have or do something, we
must begin to embrace it as part of us. Besides, we already know and anticipate
that being with our Creator happens to be the most indescribable experience of
all.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The verse may also indicate that those who dwell
in the Temple of Jerusalem, the house of God, have been traditionally by divine
decree the Levites who also guard it, and care for what the priests needed for
their daily service.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Our Jewish tradition tells us that part of the
Levites’ service in the Temple included singing praises to honor, exalt and
celebrate God’s presence in His house.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We realize that living in goodness as God’s
chosen dwelling in human consciousness is the cause and effect of total
freedom, for in goodness we are completely free.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #FDFEFF; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">They have gone from strength into strength, the Almighty God shall
appear in Zion.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (84:7)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This verse relates to the journey we make to
Jerusalem as the destination of hearts and souls seeking to bond with the
eternal goodness of God’s love. We ascend to Zion by gaining the strength that
adds to strength, that only goodness provides.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The more goodness we do, the better we become to
manifest higher expressions of goodness the Creator will reveal when He appears
to us in Zion as the eternal time and space where we bond with Him, as He has
promised.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-25986482202488697652018-05-20T00:00:00.000+03:002018-05-17T17:22:50.766+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XIV)<br />
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<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">“And behold, in Shalem is His Tabernacle and His
dwelling place in Zion. T</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">here He has broken arrows of a bow, shield, and sword, and war, forever.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">(Psalms 76:3-4)</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">The foundation of God’s presence, the love of His
goodness, is peace as the place where He completely reveals His promised
redemption, the beginning of living forever in His ways and attributes.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Shalem</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> means wholeness, completion, fullness and the totality where there
is no lack and nothing is missed, for all is contained in it. This realization
makes us aware of peace, <i>shalom</i>; and Zion the awareness that in
this completion we live permanently in God’s presence, for His oneness
encompasses everything.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Thus we learn about our need to build the Temple of
Jerusalem as the Tabernacle by which we connect and bond with our Creator.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">We are the ones who have to rebuild the Temple, for it
is up the yearning and desire to return to the goodness from which we were
created. The love of goodness is the foundation of our bond with God.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Our Sages
say that idolatry, murder and incest led to the destruction of the First
Temple; uncalled for hatred caused the destruction of the Second Temple; and
that uncalled for love will build the Third and final Temple that will last
forever.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">We have to recognize goodness as our essence and true
identity, for goodness is what will bring us together and will show us new ways
and means to experience it, once we live it as our permanent connection with
God’s love.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">This is the awareness that goodness doesn’t dwell with negative
traits and trends, represented by arrows and bows, shields and swords that
herald disputes, conflicts, confrontations and wars.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">“But [He] chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion
which He has loved.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> And
He built His sanctuary [lit. sacredness] as a high place, like the earth which
He has founded forever.<span style="background: white;">”</span></span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> (78:68-69)</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">As we know, Judah is the tribe that remained faithful
to their God, in spite of the divisions, confrontations and disputes among the
children of Israel. This is why they have been known as Jews, for they are the
descendants of Judah.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">In His prophetic awareness, King David knew this, and
wrote these verses to praise them as the bearers of the transcendental
responsibility of building the Third Temple that, like the Earth, will last
forever.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">In the second verse, we see that the promised
revelation of God’s presence in Zion is a two-way event that demands the
participation of the Creator and the Jewish people. He will establish (“build”)
His sacredness in a “high place” that can only exist in the highest level of
our consciousness.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Hence we understand that in such place dwell our best traits
and qualities nurtured only by goodness for the sake of goodness as the purpose
of God’s creation, for it is its foundation by which we build the eternal bond
with Him.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-67181387659060438582018-05-13T00:00:00.000+03:002018-05-13T00:10:08.691+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XIII)<b style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For God redeems Zion, and builds the cities of Judah;
and they have dwelt there, and have it in possession. And the descendants [lit.
seed] of </span></i></b><b style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">His
servants inherit it, and those who love His Name dwell in it.</span></i></b><b style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; text-align: justify;">(Psalms 69:35-36)</span><br />
<div class="line2" style="background: #FDFEFF; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These verses underline the eternal bond between God and
Israel. No matter the separation and destruction, He promised to redeem the
traits, ways and attributes that both share. These are the “cities” as values
and principles where we dwell, which are also our inheritance and possession.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We can understand our descendants as our “seed”, not only as
children and grandchildren, but also as the goodness we create with our
actions. Thus we assimilate that by being and doing goodness we love God’s Name,
which is also the goodness where we are destined to dwell forever.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Remember Your congregation that You acquired long ago,
which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; this mount Zion, [where]
Your presence comes.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> (74:2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Again, the promise to redeem Israel is mentioned as the long
time God’s acquisition to prevail in goodness as His inheritance. All this
happens in Zion as the bonding time and space between God and Israel, where His
presence “comes”.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">Let’s notice that no matter where Zion and Jerusalem are
mentioned in the book of Psalms, every verse quoted is a continuous affirmation
of the same principle and message. The verse in 74:2 is the continuation of
what is said in </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;">69:35, as it happens with all the remaining
quotations.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></i></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Lift up Your steps to the perpetual desolation. Defeat all
the evils of the enemy in the sacredness [of Your temple].</span> </i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Your foes roared in the place where You have met with us. They
set up their banners as signs. <span style="background: #FDFEFF;">They have
burned Your sanctuary to the ground. They have desecrated the dwelling place of
Your Name.</span></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"> (74:3-4, 7)</span><br />
<span style="color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">King David cries up to God for His complete final redemption
from those that pretend to occupy His dwelling place, and to make their lower
traits and trends conduct every aspect and expression of consciousness. These
are indeed perpetual desolation as the predicament of self-centered materialistic
fantasies and illusions.</span><br />
<span style="color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The verse continues to indicate that only in the sacredness
of the goodness that dwells in God’s sanctuary we can defeat all forms and
expressions of evil.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">By embracing goodness as our essence and true identity,
and as the sanctuary where we bond with the goodness of our Creator, there is
no evil that we can overturn and transform into something positive to make life
even much better.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In order to return to goodness, not only as our real identity
but also as our constant redemption, we must begin to remove the labels,
banners and signs that define us as what they represent.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These are the negative and destructive traits that desolate
what we once believed were the best in us. These are the evils that burn our
bond with goodness as our essence and true identity that comes from the
goodness that speaks of the Name of God.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-57765683536109112432018-05-06T00:00:00.000+03:002018-05-06T00:00:01.937+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XII)<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Why look ye envy, ye mountains of peaks, at the
mountain God has desired for His habitation? Yea, the Lord shall dwell therein
forever.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(Psalms 68:17)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We have said often that mountains
symbolize immutable ideas, values, beliefs or principles. The higher these are,
the harder to move, change or modify. In this verse we see a comparison between
all kinds of them to the one that represents God’s ruling principle for His
creation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Envy is what we feel when
something or someone else has what we desire the most. The only remedy for it
is to be or become what we covet. Not to have what we lust but to become our
own object of desire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This may sound as a narcissistic statement but it isn’t,
because this is not about possessing what we desire as confessed predators of
it. If we covet abundance, we have to become the source of abundance, and so
on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The mountains envy being the
dwelling place of the Creator, and we understand it as the mountain or destined
ruling principle to direct life in this world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In this sense, anything that is
not goodness wishes to be goodness, for it is the source of all existence. We
are talking about something indeed eternal, as the second part of the verse
points it out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Out of Your temple in Jerusalem, where kings shall
bring presents to You.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (68:30)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In this particular psalm 68, we
read that all that God has created is summoned to acknowledge, recognize, praise
and revere Him for what He does; mountains as principles, and kings as rulers that
direct our consciousness in regards to what we think and do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Once more is reiterated that everything
that we believe, value, appreciate and cherish must be inspired, sustained and
nurtured by the positive ways, means and attributes of goodness as the temple
where we honor and bond with our Creator with the best in us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">All these that comprise our
consciousness are the “kings” that rule in what we are, have and do, and
certainly are the highest offerings we elevate to the Source of goodness. In
this awareness we revere Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Revered </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: David; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">is God in Your sacred places, the God of Israel. He
gives strength and power to the people [of Israel]. Blessed be God.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (68:36)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">God’s sacred places are His ways
and attributes (Exodus 34:6-7) with which He relates to His creation, that
proclaims Him as the God of Israel. As we have frequently indicated, He is the
ruling principle by which the people of Israel define and manifest their
identity, for in this identity they find their strength and power to make
goodness prevail in this world.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-49278439600332360662018-04-29T00:00:00.000+03:002018-04-29T00:07:13.972+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XI)<b style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Praise waits for You, O God, in
Zion; and to You the vow is performed.</span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">(Psalms 65:2)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We evoke and call for
our Creator in the place where we can find Him. In this verse once more King
David invites us to reflect on Zion. It is reiterated again that we find,
recognize and acknowledge God in what we have in common with Him, which is
goodness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When we call God, let’s
do it in goodness for the sake of goodness, for the place of His dwelling is
goodness. In that place in consciousness we praise Him and make our vows to
Him, which are the commitment and determination to being, having and doing
goodness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Happy is the man whom You choose
and bring near, that he may dwell in Your courtyards, be satisfied with the
goodness of Your house. Sacred Your temple!</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(65:5)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Many are the times
when we are chosen, but few when we choose to be chosen. This verse is about choosing
to be near God. We also can understand this as being happy to be chosen by
the goodness others bestow on us. Certainly true happiness and joy come from
living in goodness, for it is our complete fulfillment and plenitude.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This verse reminds us
the sacredness of goodness as the house where we find our Creator, from whom
all goodness comes. Let’s remind ourselves that a house with its courtyards
represents the consciousness with which we live. All we have in that place
determines who we are, what we have and do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I will come to Your house with
burnt offerings. To You I will perform my vows.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(66:13)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Once more, God’s “house”
is where our highest level of consciousness and utmost awareness of goodness
meet with His goodness. Hence it is where we offer the best in us to renew and replenish
it with the promise of making it prevail in what we are and do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A Father of the fatherless, and a
Judge of the widows, is God in the habitation of His sacredness.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(68:6)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We are fatherless
when there are no ruling and guiding principles for which to live. In this
sense, father and mother are the sustaining, nurturing and conducting sources
that give meaning to our life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The same goes to having or lacking judgment to do
what is right, proper and just, in situations when we don’t have the material
and moral support to cope with life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let's be aware that God’s habitation encompasses the ruling,
ethical principles of His ways and attributes that we see in the goodness He
wants us to live.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-67759560439082562242018-04-22T00:00:00.000+03:002018-04-22T00:00:14.578+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (X)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“And I am like </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">an olive tree in the house of God,
and my trust in the loving kindness of God for ever and ever.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">(Psalms 52:10)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">King David’s love, devotion
and praise to the Creator are emblematic, for there has not been someone like
him to exalt His works and wonders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These qualities also
embrace those of an olive tree, deep rooted, strong and long lasting. There
seems to be a corresponding nature between the aforementioned qualities and the
trust derived from them, with the eternal loving kindness by which God sustains
His creation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let’s remember that
olives produce the oil to light up the darkness of the late and early hours of
the day. Every time we hear or speak about anointment, it is about our capacity
to enlighten ourselves with the multidimensional and transcendental meanings of
the Torah.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This is the same
anointment that leads us to our final redemption with the ultimate knowledge
and awareness of the Creator in our consciousness that takes place in “the
house of the Lord”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Planting consciousness
in this house like olive trees means to live permanently in the awareness of
the truth that God’s loving kindness is from where we came, and to where we are
destined to live forever and ever.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Who shall give from
Zion </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">the redemption of Israel? The Lord
will turn the captivity of His people. Jacob will be glad, Israel will rejoice.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(53:7)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The verse tells us
that God’s final redemption for Israel, and consequently for humankind, comes
from Zion as the connecting place between the Creator and the material world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We must realize that Zion,
as the total awareness of our connection with God, is the time and space of our
complete freedom from anything different from God’s ways and attributes, which
we understand as pure goodness free from what is alien to it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Our captivity encompasses
all that lacks goodness, which is living in the negative and destructive
predicament of the evil ways of an egocentric approach to life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As long as we don’t
lose focus of goodness and acknowledge it as our essence and true identity, we recognize
ourselves as Jacob and Israel, the two aspects of a life committed to reveal
God’s will for the material world, which is to make goodness prevail.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Once we allow
goodness to manifest in all levels, aspects and expressions of human
consciousness, we begin to rejoice and be glad of living in true redemption,
free from the captivity of evil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As we see it in the
following verse, living in this awareness is the culmination of the fulfilled
prophecies in the Hebrew Bible with their transcending and eternal quality.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">I will dwell in Your tent forever.
I will take refuge in the covert of Your wings, forever.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(61:5)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In the Hebrew
tradition, tents are related to places of learning and study of the Torah in
regards to how God relates to His creation. God’s tent is as unfathomable and impenetrable as the Creator, for He is eternal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This is the
transcendental time and space where our consciousness is promised to dwell as in
a refuge under eternal divine protection.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563309178137133792.post-87508366687728155032018-04-15T00:00:00.000+03:002018-04-15T00:00:03.250+03:00JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (IX)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Walk in Zion, and go round about
her; count her towers. Mark ye her ramparts, traverse her palaces; that ye may
tell it to the next generation.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">(Psalms 48:13-14)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">King David invites us
to thoroughly know the city of God for obvious reasons. We have to know our
Creator, the One who sustains us and provides us with the goodness necessary to
live in this world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Furthermore, this knowledge is actually more about us than
God. As we have said frequently, Jerusalem is the highest level of
consciousness by which we relate and bond with Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We are talking about
elevated traits, attributes and qualities as the strongholds represented by “towers”,
“ramparts” and “palaces” we share with God. The more we know them, recognize
them, and embrace them as part of who we are, we will begin to also get acquainted
with Whom we share them, in the unique place He calls His dwelling.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">For such is God, our God, forever
and ever. He will guide us eternally.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(48:15)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let’s be aware that
this process of divine awareness is an eternal one, for God is unfathomably
eternal. In this understanding we realize that our knowledge of the Creator is
for all times and all generations, which means that our children and
grandchildren are also born to share this divine destiny.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God has shined forth.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(50:2)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We have said that
light in contrast to darkness, perfection in contrast imperfection, beauty in
contrast to ugliness, are all references and abstractions of goodness. By
definition, there is no taint, error, or defect in goodness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This is the same
quality of Zion, for it is the place and throne of the goodness emanated from
God. Our Creator “shines” out of Zion, for goodness is the perfection of beauty
He wants us to live, experience and enjoy for eternity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The verse invites us
to reflect on our required permanent awareness that goodness is what we must
pursue for ourselves individually and collectively as our bond with God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Do goodness in Your desire to
Zion; build [You] the walls of Jerusalem.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(51:20)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Our Sages refer to
this verse as a prayer to ask God for goodness and the protection of Jerusalem as
goodness. We can read the verse also as an invitation for us to evoke and bring
goodness as the best in us, represented by Zion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We too have to build the walls
to protect goodness as the source and sustenance of our well being, happiness
and complete fulfillment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">Then You shall delight in the
offerings of righteousness, the burnt offering and all the entire offerings;
then will they offer bulls upon Your altar.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
(51:21)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Psalmist
reiterates that the goodness we want to be, have and do, sustains itself in righteousness,
for goodness is the ethical ruling principle in God’s creation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The offerings
we elevate in the Temple of Jerusalem represent our willingness and
determination to make goodness rule every aspect, dimension and expression of
our consciousness.</span></div>
Ariel Ben Avrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508098633793808132noreply@blogger.com0