Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXVII)

“So I commended mirth, that a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry, and that this should accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 8:15)

One of the essential messages of the Kohelet is brought back to emphasize that we must approach life with and for the goodness that God commands us to enjoy in this world. Being, doing and pursuing goodness is our daily labor in this material world under the sun.

“When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done upon the earth, for neither day nor night do men see sleep with their eyes; then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun; because though a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea further, though a wise man thinks to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.” (8:16-17)

The encompassing commandment to pursuing goodness with its ways, means, attributes and expressions is what matters to us, for in these we are strengthened to fulfill the labor of complying with what God wants for us which is our well being. There is no other better labor than that, for God’s works are unfathomable by human discernment.

In this awareness, we realize that goodness is enough for itself, and there is no need or profit to look for it beyond the realm where God planted us.

“For all this I laid to my heart, even to make clear all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it be love or hatred, man knows it not; all is before them.” (9:1)

This is one of the most profound messages of Kohelet, for it is about the connection that human goodness has with God’s goodness. In this awareness all our good actions speak for themselves, for these are the purpose of the goodness from where they come. Indeed goodness loves positive and constructive actions, and rejects or hates all that oppose them.

Thus we understand that rejecting negative traits, trends and expressions is inherent in true love and goodness. In this context “all” is what is available for us to deal with the right approach, which is goodness for the sake of it.

“All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean; to him that offers sacrifices and to him that does not offer sacrifices; as is the good, so is the sinner, and he who has sworn as he that fears an oath.” (9:2)

All situations come to everyone, regardless the condition of each. The difference lies on how we approach them. Even for a good situation or positive action there is one who rather chooses to sin or transgress against it, and also one who chooses to act with the same goodness. The latter must do what is right to honor a promise or an oath, while the former prefers not to do it out lack of honor or commitment.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XII)

“The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of relief than two handfuls of toil and frustration. And I returned and saw vanity under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 4:5-7)

Selfishness leads us to live within the limits of our own haughtiness, anger, lust, indifference and indolence, with their negative trends and expressions. These restrict our actions and deeds to our materialistic fantasies and illusions, at the expense and detriment of the goodness inherent in life, by “folding our hands” towards ourselves.

“They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry, and they eat what is on the left hand but they are not sated. Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.” (Isaiah 9:20)

In this predicament we end up eating our own existence (“flesh”), instead of focusing permanently on goodness as our true relief. Certainly, ego’s fantasies and illusions are our “toil and frustration” as the vanity and vexation under the sun.

“There is one, and there is no second; yea, he has neither son nor brother, and there is no end to all his toil; neither is his eye sated from wealth. Now for whom do I toil and deprive my soul of pleasure? This too is vanity and an unhappy affair.”

(Ecclesiastes 4:8)

A self-centered man has no other in mind except himself, who believes he is second to none. This total lack of generosity or compassion for others makes him work only for his own desires that will never be sated due to their temporary nature.

Hence we must question the real purpose of life, and ask for whom and for what we toil and deprive our true essence and identity of the total pleasure and fulfillment in goodness.

At some point in life we ultimately will realize that goodness is the reason and purpose of our complete well being, and that ego’s fantasies and illusions are vanity and an unhappy affair.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (VIII)

“What profit does man have from all his labor? I have seen the burden (lit. interest) that the Lord has given to people (lit. sons of man) to be afflicted by it.” (Ecclesiastes 3:9-10)

King Solomon again reiterates the foolishness of toiling for ego’s fantasies and illusions as the burden that divert the true purpose of life. This recurrent warning calls our attention to focus on where we must invest vitality during our brief passage in the material world.

It also invites us to evaluate the source and causes of our afflictions by being mindful enough to differentiate between the transcendence of goodness and the futility of a useless and unproductive approach to life. Thus we recognize that goodness is God’s purpose in His creation, and that evil is the fate of the wicked.

“The Lord has made everything for His own purpose, also the wicked for the day of evil.” (Proverbs 16:4)

“Evil puts to death the wicked, and those hating the righteous are condemned.”

(Psalms 34:21)

In this context we assimilate that knowledge enables our free will to make the right choices, for without wisdom we are condemned to suffer by our ignorance. Thus we equate ignorance to affliction, and by knowing the ways of goodness within their ethical frame we live in the freedom inherent in it. We also realize that our addictions are our prisons, and their evil our suffering, for evil is their reason and also their end.

“The world He has made beautiful in its season. Also that knowledge He has put in their heart so man doesn’t fathom (lit. find out) the work that the Lord has done from the beginning to the end. Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, [for] is the gift of the Lord.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11-12)

Once more we are warned that God’s creation is beyond our grasp in order for us to fulfill His will, which is to live by, in and for goodness, because it is God’s gift for us. Theses verses certainly tell us that goodness is good enough, and there is no need to transgress against this divine gift by following anything opposite to its ways and attributes.

“And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” (Deuteronomy 12:7)

We must understand that goodness encompasses the purpose of God’s commandments, and our enjoyment is the purpose of goodness. Thus we constantly realize that God’s blessings are the ways, attributes, means and end of goodness.

“I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it or anything taken from it; and God has done it, that they revere Him.” (Ecclesiastes 3:13)

The transcendence of goodness makes it eternal and thus we understand its perfection, for there is no lack or deficiency in goodness. In this awareness we also realize the magnificence of God’s creation, for which we always revere Him.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (IV)

“And all that my eyes asked I kept not back from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced from all of my doings, and this has been my portion from all my doings. And I looked on all my works that my hands did, and on the doings that I exerted myself to do. It was all vanity and a vexation of the spirit, and there is no profit under the sun!” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)

King Solomon’s wisdom invites us to experience life and the material world as we are supposed to, and to approach it as pleasant as it can potentially be “with a joyful heart”. He also tells us that the “eyes” (by which we desire and lust) and the “heart” (as the mind that feed our desires and lust) are the vehicles that push ego’s fantasies and illusions, as God warns us in the Torah.

“(…) and do not search after your heart and after your eyes, after which you go astray (lit. prostitute yourself), (…)” (Numbers 15:39)

As long as we experience life with good “eyes” as a positive approach and a good heart as a joyful positive attitude, goodness and joy will be “our portion in all our doings”. However, if our eyes and hearts follow the predicament of ego’s fantasies and illusions, we will experience them as the vanity that is a vexation to the spirit of life. Hence we come to the realization that we do not gain or benefit from a materialistic approach that has been and will be the same in this world “under the sun”.

“And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly; but what is the man who comes after the king? That which is already -- they have done it! And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the darkness.” (Ecclesiastes 2:12-13)

The only good news about ego’s fantasies and illusions is that they make us experience their vanity and futility. By their repetitive patterns sooner or later they also make us wiser enough to turn them into references to always choose the transcending goodness of love’s ways and attributes, where true wisdom leads without madness or folly.

We also must know that both the fool and the wise “come after the king”, as if what he does is different or new; and later both realize that even what the king does also “they have done it”. Thus we assimilate that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, as the advantage of light above darkness.

“The wise! His eyes are in his head and the fool in darkness is walking. And I also knew that one event happened with them all; and I said in my heart, ‘As it happened with the fool, it happened also with me. And why then I am more wise?’ And [what] I spoke in my heart, that is also vanity.” (2:14-15)

Sometimes we think that being wiser than the fools makes us better than them, but it is not so if we fall as they do into the follies of ego’s fantasies and illusions. In that lower level of consciousness we are fools no matter how smart we may be. As we live in the vanity of an egotistic and self-centered approach to life, our small or big wisdom is also vanity.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXVI)

“Come away, My beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young deer upon the mountains of spices!” (Song of Songs 8:14)

God’s final words in this Song of Songs reiterate His plea to Israel for her return to Him. God’s love urges her to flee the darkness of the exile in ego’s fantasies and illusions among the nations, and haste as “gazelles” and “harts” to ascend up to the mountains of spices, where one of these excels as the summit of the Temple of Jerusalem as the symbol of Israel’s eternal bond with God.

These are the sublime fragrances emanated from the new guidelines as the traits and qualities of the new consciousness God promised Israel after His final redemption, to begin fathoming the endless dimensions of His creation.

“He does great things, unfathomable; and wondrous works without number.” (Job 9:10)

In the times of king Solomon, Israel brought the nations to her. In the Jewish final redemption, Israel will bring the nations to the Creator, for the Messianic consciousness unfolds in the infinite knowledge of God.

“The world was made for the Messiah.” (Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b)

“Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Isaiah 2:5)

May this be very soon and in our times! Amen.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXV)

“I am a wall and my breasts [are] like towers! Therefore, I have been in His eyes like one who has found peace.” (Song of Songs 8:10)

The upcoming Messianic consciousness responds to God and Israel that it is built like guarding towers to keep and fulfill God’s plans after His final redemption. God’s plans as His eyes looking forward to make the peace of love’s ways and attributes prevail for eternity.

“The One whose peace belongs had a vineyard in Baal Hamon [Owner of Multitudes]. He gave over the vineyard to keepers. Each brings for its fruit a thousand silver pieces.” (8:11)

The Messianic consciousness speaks of itself as “a vineyard” planted by God in His field. It is named after Him as the Owner of Multitudes (Baal Hamon). He gave it “to keepers” as guardians that represent future traits, trends, qualities and expressions of the new consciousness in Messianic times. Their harvest is beyond the most precious value, as producing “its fruit” a thousand-fold out of one.

These guardians are also the future multitudes of Israel as inheritors and bearers of the upcoming Messianic consciousness leading to eternity.

“My vineyard that is Mine is before Me. The thousand [is] for you, oh Solomon [he whose peace belongs]; and the two hundred for the keepers of its fruit.” (8:12)

Israel’s love keeps the vineyard joined by God’s love. Every Jew in the Messianic era will be as one whose peace belongs (Solomon) harvesting his thousand-fold, and accompanied by their helpers from the redeemed nations, who will be rewarded also for their tendering of the harvest.

“O you, who sits in the gardens; friends are attentive to your voice. Let Me hear it.” (8:13)

As God’s promise is fulfilled and Israel enters her final redemption, she will build again a place for Him to dwell among (in) us. This place on earth is the Garden of Eden as God’s field that will be fully revealed in the material world, as both the spiritual and material will share the same space.

Here Israel “sits” and is addressed by God making her notice that the nations, now “friends”, are willing to hear her “voice” as the teachings to be learned in order to assimilate the new human consciousness the Creator has established for the Messianic era. He wants to “hear” Israel’s voice as His voice for the new humankind.

Then one garden becomes many gardens for God to speak to the new consciousness and its traits and attributes that attentively will hear His voice. Israel as the reigning ruler in the eternal Messianic era will be the first to know God’s will, and communicate it to her friends, the nations.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXI)

“I take You, I bring You to my mother’s house to teach me. I give You scented wine to drink, of the juice of my pomegranate.” (Song of Songs 8:2)

Israel tells God that by her returning to His ways and attributes, she brings Him to their eternal bonding in the house of her mother (the Temple of Jerusalem). There God instructs Israel His plan for the Messianic era, and she will bring Him the goodness of the expressions (pomegranate juice) of the new future consciousness as a delightful scented wine. Also in Jewish tradition the seeds of pomegranates represent God’s commandments.

“His left hand is under my head, and His right one embraces me.” (8:3)

Israel’s love joyously and proudly reaffirms her unchanging bond with God’s love, as declared at the beginning of this poem. This time has a special twist, for it is the bond with the eternal quality fully manifest after Israel’s final redemption and the advent of the Messianic era.

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem. How do you stir or how do you arouse the love until she pleases?” (8:4)

In this new redeeming reality, God commands the traits and characteristics of the highest level of consciousness (the daughters of Jerusalem) to wake up and stir Israel’s essence and identity in order for her to express the new qualities of the inherent goodness of her love as much as she pleases.

In the fulfillment of His final redemption, God will stir up our inherent goodness to bring our love back to His love.

“Who is she ascending from the desert, leaning upon her Beloved? Under the apple [tree] I aroused you. There your mother was giving birth to you, she who bore you delivered you.” (8:5)

God responds by also returning to her as we quoted the prophets earlier, “Return to Me, and I will return to you”. He asks rhetorically who is the one who returns from the desert (among the harshness and desolation of the suffering in Israel’s exile among the nations), by leaning upon Him as she returns to Him. This returning is motivated, attained and successfully achieved by having and manifesting an extremely intense love for God, for there is no other way to return to Him.

“And if from there you seek the Lord your God, you shall find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”, “Then the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you; and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.” (Deuteronomy 4:29, 30:33)

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXIX)

“Come, my Beloved, let us go into the field.” (Song of Songs 7:12)

God asks His beloved to go with Him to the field where His redeeming love makes everything flourish and blossom. This field is another clear reference to the Messianic times, when the material world will share the same dimension with the spiritual heavens. The earth will return to its original state as the Garden of Eden, also known as “the field of God”.

“Let’s us lodge in the villages, we rise early to the vineyards, to us see if the vine has budded, the blossom has opened, the pomegranates have blossomed. There, I shall give My loves to you. The mandrakes yield fragrance, and at our doors [are] all precious fruits, new and old, I have hidden for you My beloved.” (7:13-14)

The Creator continues introducing the coming Messianic times. In this part the poem mentions villages (lit. towns) and not cities, referring to new ways of fathoming, reasoning, thinking and feeling what He reserves for us.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, but man can’t fathom the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

These are the new dwellings of the divinely redeemed human consciousness. From there God’s love and Israel's love will partner promptly (“rise early”), guiding and directing the nations and humankind as vineyards. The new trends in the new human consciousness will yield their produce as their budding, blossoming and ripening of their fruits as deeds and actions to build the renewed earth.

“The peoples will thank You, O God; all the peoples will thank You. The nations will be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with equity, and lead the nations on earth forever. The peoples will thank You, O God; all the peoples will thank You, for the earth will have yielded its produce. And God, our God, will bless us; and everyone from all the ends of the earth will revere Him.” (Psalms 67:4-7)

In these joined partnership, God will share with Israel the unrevealed hidden ways, means and attributes of His love (“My loves”).

“And all your sons shall be taught from the Lord, and abundant is the peace of your sons.” (Isaiah 54:13)

“(…) For they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord (…).” (Jeremiah 31:34)

“As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.” (Micah 7:15)

All these are about the endless journey of knowing our Creator, who will give us a new consciousness capable to guide us in this path.

“I have given them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord. And they have been My people and I will be their God for them to return to Me with all their heart. (…) I have given My Torah in their innards and in their heart will I write it. And I have been a God for them, and they have been My people.” (Jeremiah 24:7, 31:33)

We will smell the concealed fragrances of odorless plants, the hidden nurturing qualities of fruits (“new and old”) God has stored for Israel after her final redemption and in Messianic times.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXVIII)

Once we unite the diversity of human consciousness and harmonize its opposite traits and trends under the regency of love’s ways and attributes, we will see this harmonic functional unity also in our surroundings. Not only as a reflection of our individual and collective peace, but also interacting with each other.

“For you will be in league [lit. In partnership, in covenant] with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.” (Job 5:23)

“In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety.” (Hosea 2:18)

Therefore all forms of life exist to serve and sustain life in order to make goodness prevail in every way, means and end, for goodness is the highest level of life. Thus we understand what our sages mean when they refer to our actions.

“And let your deeds be for the sake of heaven” (Pirkei Avot 2:17)

God’s love reminds us constantly about this, for we deliberately overlook the goodness of love’s ways and attributes as what we must honor always and in all ways.

“(…) and God in whose hand is your breath and all your ways, Him you have not honored.” (Daniel 5:23)

Goodness is the intended purpose of God’s creation, and as the harmonizing catalyst is destined to transform anything different into goodness. King David reminds us often that God is good, for His loving kindness is eternal; and thus we realize goodness as the ruling principle in the promised transformed human consciousness in the Messianic era.

“And He will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples, and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” (Isaiah 2:4)

We live to experience change, from ignorance to wisdom, delusion to awareness, dormant to awakened, immature to mature, darkness to light, coldness to warmth, abyss to summit. This change is the transformational process led by the soul in order to find itself in goodness as its own essence and purpose.

In this awareness some of us ask the fundamental question in regards to the soul, is it me or just the link to our Creator, or am I a consciousness in a biological body? The answer is simpler than we think. It depends on where we place our essence and identity.

Some place it in the body, and some of us place it in the soul. Some identify with the temporary nature of the body with its needs, lacks and desires, and some of us with the transcendental quality of the soul with its endless goodness beyond need, lack, lust or limitations. After what we already know about the soul, can we settle for less?

“I am of my Beloved, and upon me is His desire.” (Song of Songs 7:11)

Israel responds that the beauty of the goodness in her essence and identity entirely belongs to God, for they come from His love. Thus Israel remarks that she belongs to God’s love. Israel is thus, because thus is God’s desire.

God yearns for Israel’s expressions of His love in the material world, for He wants humankind to be fully aware of His presence in all that He has created.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXVII)

“Your two breasts [are] like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck [is] like a tower of ivory. Your eyes [are like the] pools in Cheshbon by the gate of the daughter of a multitude. Your nose [is] like the tower of the Lebanon in front of the Damascus. Your head upon you [is] like [mount] Carmel, and the hair of your head [is] like purple. The king [is] bound in its locks. How beautiful you are, and how pleasant, oh love in delights! Your stature [is] like a date tree, and your breasts like clusters of grapes.” (7:4-8)

Again, God’s description of Israel’s material features as qualities evokes the structure or body of the Tabernacle and the Temple of Jerusalem. As we mentioned before, these allegories suggest a fusion between Israel and the Temple as a one in the spiritual bonding with God’s love.

“I said, ‘I will go up in the date tree, to hold on its branches, and let your breasts be as clusters of grapes, and the breath of your nose like [the scent of] apples. And your palate be like the choicest wine, going to My beloved in righteousness, causing the lips of the sleepers to speak’.” (7:9-10)

God reiterates His promise for Israel's final redemption and the Messianic era. In the time He considers proper, as the Jewish prophets have announced, God will reveal His presence in Zion as Jerusalem and its Temple. The latter referred here as the date tree in which He will be seen elevated.

“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken! (…) together they shall sing, for they shall see eye to eye the Lord returning to Zion.” (Isaiah 40:5, 53:8)

There God’s love will bond with Israel’s love manifest with the highest traits and qualities as her branches, clusters of grapes, the goodness of her deeds and actions as the scent of her breath, and the delight of the rejoicing they cause in all the hearts, as the best of wines.

All the goodness of these traits, qualities, deeds and actions emanate as the flow of streams coming only from the righteousness of love. In the righteousness of Israel’s love the sleepers (the nations) will speak the ways and attributes of God’s love.

As we have seen, these verses allude to a new human consciousness that will be led only by the goodness of love’s ways and attributes destined to prevail in the material world, and directed by Israel as the inheritor of God’s final redemption for all humankind.

“And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Here flesh represents life and the heart as the goodness that drives it. Existence has meaning because of goodness, for goodness gives meaning to existence. God’s promised new consciousness led only by goodness heralds His complete and eternal bonding with Israel, for it is the spiritual and material manifestation of God’s love as His spirit, glory, majesty, power, triumph, splendor, regency and greatness.

“(…) Says the Lord, ‘My spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring’, says the Lord, ‘from here to eternity’.” (Isaiah 59:21)

We all are here in this world to experience, learn, enjoy and manifest goodness as our essence and identity. We already said that goodness is the essence of the soul as an extension of God’s love, and we as souls are here to find ourselves in all aspects, facets and dimensions of life and the material world. Thus we reveal God’s blessings in all that is in us and our surroundings, for everything we perceive through our senses also has the purpose to be and have goodness, a grain of sand, a leave of grass, an ant or an elephant.

We have said that the purpose of the soul is to find itself in all expressions of God’s material creation, by seeing the hidden goodness of what we may perceive as opposite to it. Thus we understand our prophets’ messages about the Messianic era.

 “‘The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain’, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 65:25, 11:6)

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXIV)

“Sixty are queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is My dove, My wholesome one. One is she of her mother, she is pure to the one who begot her. Daughters saw her and acclaimed her, queens and concubines, and they praise her.” (Song of Songs 6:8-9)

God's love also yearns for Israel's love, and distinguishes her among the nations (queens, concubines, and countless maidens). He exalts her as the true inheritor of her mother Jerusalem, as the highest level of our awareness of God's love.

The Torah that defines Israel's identity introduces her to the nations to respect, acclaim and praise her for what she is and represents for humankind and the world. This respect, acclaim and praise will be complete in the advent of the final redemption, and encompassing in the Messianic era.

“Who is this [she] looking forth as [compared to] the morning? Beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, awe inspiring as an army with banners.” (6:10)

God continues praising Israel as His chosen nation to make for Him a place to dwell in the material world. Israel is destined to be the light of the nations as clear as the sun in the morning, bright and beautiful as the moon at night. Shinning as the sun, revered for the goodness of her traits and qualities with their awe inspiring material and spiritual expressions as banners of the Messianic era.

“I descended to the garden of nuts to look on the buds of the valley, to see whether the vine has budded, the pomegranates in flower.” (6:11)

God also “descends” to evaluate how much the nations and humankind have learned from Israel's contributions to make human life a more pleasant and joyful journey in the world. In this verse God refers to Israel as His garden of nuts, vines and pomegranates to see her blossoming and flourishing amid her exile among the nations.

The Creator knows the qualities, traits and trends of human consciousness, for He endowed it with free will to choose between the goodness of love’s ways and attributes or the negative expressions of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions.

We have mentioned often that we truly exercise free will as long as we are properly informed about the choices we have and their effects, results and consequences. Thus we realize that life is indeed a learning process, whose ultimate destiny is to be, to have and manifest goodness as the sole purpose of God’s creation.

We also become aware that evil exists as a reference to choose goodness, and that wickedness is something we can overcome and eliminate from us and our midst. One of the most misunderstood verses in the Torah speaks about this.

“For the desire of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Genesis 8:21)

The context of “youth” is presented here as ignorance, inexperience, clumsiness, foolishness, inability and incapacity as lack of knowledge to make the right choices, and to fully assimilate the dynamics of human consciousness in the material world.

Thus we understand evil as a negative tendency based or generated by poor judgment on what is supposed to be right or wrong. However, this may not be applicable for those who knowingly and purposely make evil a choice and not a reference, and see nothing valuable in goodness even being fully aware that they can’t live without it.

This does not mean that man has the natural tendency to be evil or do evil from his birth or youth, but to make negative choices based on immaturity, lack of knowledge or adequate information to wisely exercise his free will.

This verse is a direct admonition and warning that since early childhood we must receive and/or give the best possible intellectual, moral, ethical, mental and emotional education the Torah commands us to acquire for ourselves, our offspring and others, in order to make goodness “the desire of our heart” since the moment we are conscious of life.

Goodness is our essence, true identity and common bond with our Creator, and what we are destined to be and do in the world. Thus we also understand why God created man in His image and likeness. This is the foundation of His covenant with Israel, as an eternal bond of love, in order to harvest “the budded vine and blossomed pomegranates” as the future expressions of goodness once we enter the fields and gardens awaiting us in our final redemption. Thus we realize goodness as the light the Torah and our prophets refer to.

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I hold in your hand and keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, and a light of the nations.” (Isaiah 42:6)

“And He said, ‘It has been a light thing that you are to Me for a servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and the preserved of Israel to bring back. And I have given you for a light of the nations, to be My redemption to the ends of the earth’.” (Ibid. 49:6)

“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (Ibid. 60:3)

Israel is close and dear to God for precisely embracing her mission to be a light for the nations, for she has been commanded to make a place for Him to dwell among (in) us.

“And they have made for Me a sanctuary, and I have dwell among [in] them.” (Exodus 25:8)

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XVIII)

“The watchmen who go round about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me. The guards of the walls lifted up my veil from me.” (5:7)

In her chosen separation from God's ways, Israel faces the negative outcome of coveting, lusting, haughtiness, anger, envy, indolence and indifference. Along with cruelty, ruthlessness, discrimination, oppression, intolerance and hatred. These are the watchmen circling the city (conscience) that struck and wound the goodness in ourselves.

The guards keep the walls of the Temple of Jerusalem, and they represent the positive traits and qualities that safeguard goodness as our common bond with God. They expose to our conscience our iniquities and the consequences of negative actions. They lift the veil of our living in denial. Therefore, in such predicament we realize that our only way out is to return to the qualities of goodness as our true essence and identity (“the daughters of Jerusalem”).

The goodness with which God created the material world relies and remains with our awareness of goodness, and the goodness we must be and do in order to make it prevail continuously. In this principle goodness transcends the limitations of time and space, for it is eternal.

“Thank God, for He is good; His loving kindness is eternal.” (I Chronicles 16:34, Psalms 100:5, 145:9, 25:6)

Hence, anything that isn’t good is deficient, lack, limited and temporary; and such as it doesn’t sustain life, for life’s existence depends on the transcendence of goodness which also makes life transcend. Thus we realize that while goodness sustains life, anything different from goodness destroys life.

In practical terms, all the traits and qualities of goodness and their ethical frame protect and enhance life, while the negative traits and trends seek to destroy it.

We acquire full awareness of goodness by removing all that is opposite to it from all levels and dimensions of consciousness. This is the real refinement we achieve by Torah study, which is following God’s ways and emulating His attributes. These contain the ground rules and guidelines to live from, by, in and for goodness.

“Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs sinners in the [right] path. He guides the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way. All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.” (Ibid. 25:8-10)

This refinement culminates in a lifestyle ruled by leading qualities to manifest goodness, also pointed out by the psalmist.

“Let integrity and uprightness help me, for my hope is in You [God].” (Ibid. 25:21)

This ethical frame defines the multiple ways to do goodness as acts of loving kindness, and thus we realize that they are indeed our own reward. This means that our benefit and reward are the fact of being God’s channel and vessel to manifest goodness.

We can’t give what we don’t have, and we can’t be what we are not. As we realize that goodness is who we are and what we have, God bestows it in us for us to be able to give it. Thus all the good things we do are continually coming to us.

We must insist that we make ourselves the vessel for goodness by removing from us all that is different from it, for it does not cohabit with anything opposed to its ways, means and attributes.