Parshat Behar: Serving the Love of God

The Torah defines the Jewish identity as the people who are destined to serve the Creator. The entire Torah is about our individual and collective service to Him, and the messages in Behar make a special emphasis in the practical aspects of this service, because we honor God by serving Him the way He wants.

We have said many times and will continue reiterating that the service of God is the service of Love. We serve Him by being and doing His ways and attributes which emanate from His Love, the source of our true Essence and identity.

By, through, and with Love we fulfill God's will for us, and we do it in the ways and means of His ways and attributes. This is how we care and protect each other, and the way to love each other.

“And you shall not wrong, one man his fellow Jew, and you shall revere your God, for I am the Lord, your God.” (Leviticus 25:17)

God loves us in the same way.

We learn to love each other as the way to build, elevate and enhance all aspects and dimensions of consciousness in order to expand the goodness of Love in what we are, have and do. Again we repeat that Love is its cause and effect, for the only purpose of Love is Love. Hence Love does not cohabit with anything different form its ways and attributes. We are not supposed to do wrong to each other because the Creator doesn't do wrong to us.

In this context we are responsible to each other, accountable to each other, and liable for each other. We are entitled to protect each other and dignify each other. This is our obligation and the reason to fight anything that attempts against our individual and collective dignity and integrity. For the sake of Love, and in the name of Love as our Essence and identity, we must honor its ways, means and attributes and repel and defeat their opposites.

We have to stop totalitarian, despotic, denigrating, exploiting and oppressing beliefs and ideologies from our midst, because this is our responsibility, duty and obligation, not God's. We can't blame Him for what we create and inflict in our material reality. If we have cruelty, wickedness, negativity, et al, is because we adopted them, not God. This is the price to pay after creating the wrong thoughts, emotions, feelings and passions, and putting them into action.

We already know that evil and negativity are only references for us to exercise free will, and they are not choices. Hence we are obligated to avoid them in all levels of consciousness and choose Love's ways and attributes as the right choices. We are obligated to eradicate evil from human consciousness, and that includes fascism, racism, totalitarianism and fundamentalism in all their forms and ways.

Eradicating negativity as a choice is the beginning to truly love ourselves, and by extension to love others. Let's be loving enough and mindful enough to realize that ego's fantasies and materialistic desires trigger our separation from Love as our true Essence, and also from our individual and collective well being.

We live secured and protected in Love's ways and attributes, because they comprise the Land, with is also the higher consciousness that God's Love gives us to reveal His Presence in the world.

“You shall perform My statutes, keep My ordinances and perform them, then you will live on the Land securely.” (25:18)

 As long as we do it...

“(...) the Land will then yield its fruit and you will eat to satiety, and live upon it securely.” (25:19)

Trading or replacing our higher consciousness with something different is inconceivable because this awareness emanates from the Creator, and is sustained by Him.

“The Land shall not be sold permanently, for the Land belongs to Me, for you are strangers and residents with Me.” (25:23)

Indeed we are passers-by in the material world. Nothing belongs to us, including Love as the Essence and identity that God gives us to know Him and to reveal Him in who we are.

“Therefore, throughout the Land of your possession, you shall give redemption for the Land.” (25:24)

Through Love's qualities and traits as the Land that God gives us, we redeem ourselves from the fantasies and illusions of the material world, that which ego wants to make real (only in ego's dreams!), and we also must redeem the goodness of Love from the burdens of the material world.

The following verses indicate the dynamics and practicality of Love in our consciousness as the means to make Love prevail in our midst.

“If your brother becomes destitute and his hand falters beside you, you shall support him [whether] a convert or a resident, so that he can live with you. (…) and you shall revere Your God, and let your brother live with you.” (25:35-36)

We honor and revere our God when we share our individual lot of Love with those whose awareness of Love is diminished, in order to help them increase their lot.

The Love that God gives us as our higher consciousness is destined to be manifest in all aspects, levels and dimensions of our lives. As we said, this is the way He wants us to serve Him and this is why He chose us from among the nations.

“I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be a God to you.” (25:38)

In other words, He redeemed us from the house of slavery in order for us to dwell in His ways and attributes; and, as long as we do that, He is our God.

The Creator is God to us because He delivered us from the land of Egypt to give us the Land of Israel. Only in this context we can understand that we are His servants,

“For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. [For] I am the Lord, your God.” (25:55)

In this awareness there is no room for ego's fantasies and illusions as negative addictions and attachments in our consciousness.

“You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you set up a statue or a monument for yourselves. And in your Land you shall not place a pavement stone on which to prostrate yourselves, for I am the Lord, your God.” (26:1)

As we have repeated, Love does not coexist with anything different from its ways and attributes. The principle of this awareness is reaffirmed in the last verse of Behar, in which the unity with the Creator in His Shabbat and His Temple is the premise to fully experience the meaning of living in His ways and attributes, as the source of our true Essence and identity.

“You shall keep My Shabbats and revere My Sanctuary. [For] I am the Lord.” (26:2)

The service of God is our identity and destiny, and in this awareness we settle in our country because such is our Land.

“And You gave them this Land which You swore to their fathers to give them, a Land flowing with milk and honey.” (Jeremiah 32:22)

This Land is the sweetness of God's Love. (Other aspects of this portion of the Torah are addressed in this blog's Parshat Behar: “Shabbat” of May 1, 2010 and “The Place of Divine Love” of May 8, 2011).

Parshat Behar: The Place of God's Love

"And the Lord spoke to Moses in mount (behar) Sinai (…)" (Leviticus 25:1)

This is the place from where the word of the Creator to Israel is mentioned, even though Sinai has been evident since the Israelites left Egypt. Let's reflect on the significance of this particular space where Moses, our highest awareness of the Creator, is in direct contact with Him.

Indeed there is a high place in our consciousness far above the material aspects of life. It is a place from where we can perceive, conceive, understand, and set the way to function and relate to all dimensions of life in this world. Sinai is the mount that later becomes the moving Tabernacle and the Temple of Jerusalem as the places where the Divine Presence embraces Israel.

It is the place where we leave behind materialistic illusions in order to be fully aware of God's love in our material and spiritual life.

It is in the mount, the highest level of our consciousness, that we embrace God's love as our true essence and identity, and from where we exercise this identity. In this awareness we understand our presence in the Promised Land and the meaning of the Shabbat, both for us and for our land.

"(…) When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Shabbat to the Lord." (25:2)

In this context the land, the people and the Creator are meant to be united through the Shabbat.

"And the Shabbat-produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, and for your servant and for your maid, and for your hired servant and for the settler by your side that sojourn with you; and for your cattle, and for the beasts that are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be for food." (25:6-7)

This food comes from the Shabbat.

The Shabbat along with the Torah are the most complex divine gifts to Israel, and we must know them and experience them as much as we can because they are the arms that embrace us with the love of God.

Let's inquire why the Shabbat is being so zealously protected with more than 39 fences, and take a look of what truly is behind those walls that our sages order us to guard. Is it really a time and a space that we protect every week, or something that transcends the limits of our thought which we must learn to conceive as part of who we are.

The Shabbat and the Torah as the divine sustenance that keeps us truly alive in God's love, opposite to living in the death that ego's fantasies and illusions represent in the reality of this material world.

The Shabbat-produce that feeds every aspect and dimension of our consciousness represented by our knowledge, skills, talents and abilities, the "servants", "maids" and "settlers" along with the traits and qualities represented by the cattle and the beasts of our land, as the expressions of the awareness of God's love in our life.

It is the produce of this love in who we are and what we do that makes us fructify and be plentiful as long as we trust the Creator as the truly sole sustenance of all that exists.

In this awareness we materialize God's love by following His ways.

"And you shall not wrong one another, but you shall revere your God; because I am the Lord your God. Therefore you shall do My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety." (25:17-18)

This safety is only provided by our trust in His love. After all we are His guests in His Creation.

"(…) because the land is Mine, because you are strangers and settlers with Me." (25:23)

The following commandments (25:24-54) are all related to how we manifest love as our common bond with each other, by caring for each other, respecting each other, helping each other, and protecting each other.

"And if your brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with you; then you shall uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with you." (25:35)

God's love is asking our love to follow His ways.

"(...) because to Me the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." (25:55)

The portion ends with the reiterated commandment to avoid materialistic fantasies and illusions as the idols that separate us from our true identity and permanent connection to God.

"You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you set up a statue or a monument for yourselves. And in your land you shall not place a pavement stone on which to prostrate yourselves, for I am the Lord, your God." (26:1)

This time the commandment is related to our land as the awareness of our oneness with God's love, where our Shabat and our Sanctuary are included.

"You shall keep My Shabbats and revere My Sanctuary. I am the Lord." (26:2)

Parshat Behar: Shabbat

This portion is about the Shabbat and we may think that it should be named Shabbat instead of Behar, which means "in the mountain" where God asks Moses to tell the children of Israel commandments related to the Shabbats of the promised land.

"When you come into the Land which I give you, then shall the Land keep a Shabbat unto the Lord. (…) a Shabbat of solemn rest for the Land, a Shabbat unto the Lord." (Leviticus 25:2, 4)

Unto the Lord is remarked to emphasize that our awareness of oneness with God's love is complete in the Shabbat.

Our sages say that God, the Torah, Israel and the Shabbat are one, hence the Shabbat is the realization of that oneness both in time and space. At this point we understand that it is in the mountain, behar, where we are one with God when He gives us the Torah. This is a remembrance of the oneness that occurs in the Shabbat.

There are specific commandments regarding the times we count, either days or years, to prepare for the holy day, the holy year, and the holy cycle (jubilee) made out of those years.

"Because it is a jubilee it shall be holy unto you, you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field." (25:12)

In the same way that it is commanded to us that six days we labor and cease our work on the seventh day, we are commanded to do so all the years of our lives.

We have said that our labor during the six days is to reveal the divine presence in ourselves and our surroundings, in preparation to be reunited with God in the Shabbat. This process is also repeated every six years in which our labor is to be and do His ways and attributes.

"Where you shall do My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and you shall eat until you have enough, and dwell therein in safety." (25:18-19)

In safety is mentioned twice, meaning that if we are united with God, what could we fear?

The Land also rests in order for us to enjoy the fruits of our labor, which are also the fruits of the land which represents our higher awareness of God's love.

"And you shall not wrong one another; but you shall revere your God; because I am the Lord your God." (25:17)

This means that everything we do in our six-day labor must not imply in any way harming, damaging or undermining our fellow man but doing exactly the opposite. The following verses command us to honor, respect and embrace our fellow man in particular during the times of these year-long Shabbats.

Between these verses the Torah states that the promised land belongs to God as part of Him, and we can't sale it, trade it or change it for anything that is not itself.

"And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity because the land is Mine, because you are strangers and settlers with Me." (25:23)

In His land we are just His guests, and as such we have to follow His ways and attributes, as He commands us to.

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God." (25:38)

This clearly specifies that for God to be our Lord we have to live in His land in constant awareness of His love in our consciousness.

"Because to Me the children of Israel are servants, they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." (25:55)

This is reminded again in the last verse of this parshah.

"You shall keep My Shabbats, and revere My sanctuary, I am the Lord." (26:2)

Before this we are warned again against ego's fantasies and illusions as the idols we are commanded to reject.

"You shall make you no idols, neither shall you rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it; because I am the Lord your God." (26:1)

Let's remind ourselves again that in this land we are His guests and also His servants to dwell in it in complete awareness His ways and attributes in what we are and what we do.