Shemini: Sanctifying our Connection with the Creator

We have learned that the preparation of the Sanctuary, the High Priest and the offerings are the means to be close to the Creator.

“This is it that which the Lord spoke, saying: 'I will be sanctified in those who are close to Me, and before all the people I will be glorified'." (Leviticus 10:3)

By directing all dimensions of consciousness (“all the people”) in Love's ways and attributes, God's Love will also be glorified because we will see Him manifest in all dimensions of His Creation. Let's reflect on the meaning of sanctifying and glorifying Him.

The psalmist helps us understand them through what he refers to as praising. King David's psalms (praises) explain that we do it by following God's ways and emulating His attributes which are His Love for His Creation.

We do it in our total freedom from ego's fantasies and illusions (“the nations”), and he also reminds us that we have to do it with all aspects, levels and dimensions of consciousness.

“Praise the Lord from the earth [our material life], great sea creatures and all [that lives in the] depths [the lower levels of consciousness], fire and hail [passion and passivity], snow and vapor [coldness and warmth], stormy winds that do His bidding [liberating thoughts], mountains and all hills [beliefs and ideas], fruit trees and all cedars [ways of truth and principles of righteousness], beasts and all cattle [instincts and passions], creeping creatures and winged fowl [lower passions and lifting thoughts], kings of the earth [habits and customs] and all peoples [lower emotions and feelings], princes [pride, ego's control] and all judges of the Earth [ethical and moral principles], both young men [avidity, intensity] and maidens [purity and modesty], old men [experience and wisdom] and children [innocence and reverence]. Let them [all] praise [give honor, make offering, be and express the Love of God] the Name of the Lord, for His Name alone is exalted; His Glory is above the Earth and the Heavens.” (Psalms 148:7-13)

Everything that exists emanates from Him and is sustained by God.

In terms of our consciousness, all its aspects that drive us to discern, think, feel, sense and act must be directed and guided to live God's Love in us and in all that He created for us to experience. We already know that what we perceive as “negative” aspects of His Creation -- those in which His Presence is not revealed to us --, exist as contrasting references for us to pursue the positive. As we learn about its goodness we prepare to transform the negative into positive.

This is the way we reveal God's Presence in the material world. Let's bear in mind and heart that the world exists for us to reveal the Presence of its Creator, and we do it only by being and manifesting His Love and the goodness of His ways and attributes.

We sanctify and glorify His Name by being and manifesting our true Essence and identity that is nothing less than His Love, and this is the way we elevate our life to be close to Him. In this process we fully experience His Glory, which is His Love.

“And Moses said: 'This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do; and the Glory of the Lord shall appear to you'.” (Leviticus 9:6)

The narrative of Shemini continues making us aware that this process implies our clear awareness of the difference between ego's fantasies and illusions and Love's ways and attributes.

“And that you differentiate between holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean; and that you [Aaron] instruct the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.” (10:10-11)

The one who does it is Aaron the High Priest, the highest awareness of our connection with God's Love through Moses, the highest knowledge of the Creator. Let's be aware that the consciousness represented by Moses is our means to learn the ways and attributes to be always close to God and His Love (see our commentaries on Shemini: “Being Holy as Love” on April 2, 2010 and “Being Truthful in our Closeness to God's Love” on March 20, 2011 in this blog).

Nachmanides, the Ramban, tells us that some of the unclean animals forbidden by the Torah for consumption are predators and their qualities are a negative influence for us. We can't imagine ourselves behaving like snakes, scorpions, ravens, vultures or wild bests, though we know that there are people like them.

Our Prophets and Sages say that in the times of our Final Redemption every tree will bear fruit and all beasts will behave peacefully and lovingly, because the root of all evil will be completely eradicated from the face of the earth.

We have said many times that the Messianic consciousness is something that we have to generate, as our forefathers did under bondage in Egypt. They cried out laud for their Redemption, and our God heard and liberated them with the redeeming strength of His hand, the infinite power of His Love.

Some believe that our Final Redemption will come miraculously without us moving one finger to make it happen. They must learn from our history and the Holocaust in which the Jewish people were close to be annihilated. Almost nobody moved one finger to prevent it, and we now know what to do in order to never let it happen again, never again.

It's a lesson that cost more than six million lives to learn, and this means that we have to do more than moving one finger. The easiest thing to do is to blame God after we avoid our responsibilities and our part of the Covenant that He offered us through our forefathers. Even worse when we blame Him for the results of the choices we make! We claim and argue that our real freedom lies in our complete free will, and when evil appears in order for us to exercise free will we end up making negatives choices with their consequences... and again we blame God.

It's about time to realize that if we really desire our Final Redemption from all evil and negativity, we better start making the right choices and being aware of the positive effects that await us when we choose Love's ways and attributes. After all, Love is our true Essence and identity because we all come from God's Love.

Let's begin our Redemption by bringing to Him our offerings, our Love in what we are and do.

“(...) ascribe unto the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto His Name; bring an offering, and come before Him; worship the Lord in the radiance of holiness. Vibrate before Him, all the Earth; the world also is established that it cannot be moved. Let the Heavens be glad, and let the Earth rejoice; and let them say among the nations: 'The Lord reigns'.” (I Chronicles 16:28-31)

Once we recognize and learn His ways and attributes, may we bring to Him their works in what we are and do. In this awareness, may all aspects of our consciousness recognize that His Love rules His Creation. In the firmness of our Love may we meet His Love.

The psalmist also warns us about the consequences of our choices.

“But My people would not listen to Me; and Israel did not consent to Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels. If My people would only listen to Me, if Israel would only follow My ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes!” (Psalms 81:11-14)

Let's listen again to God's Love, and through our own Love let's defeat the negative predicament in ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions. In the Light of Love may we awake to our individual and collective Redemption, and in God's Love may we fully reveal His Presence in the material world. Then we may we say “The Lord reigns!”

Tzav: Elevating our Life to God's Love

Tzav continues detailing the offerings to be brought to the Creator in order to be close to Him. We have mentioned (see our commentaries on Parshat Tzav: “Keeping the Fire up” on March 23, 2010 and “The Permanent Fire of Divine Love” on March 13, 2011 in this blog) that in this process three parties are involved: the one who brings the offering, the priest and God, and the purpose is to unify all three.

We realize this union by integrating in our consciousness the Creator through His ways and attributes, which are His love for His creation. After all, He is beyond our comprehension and our only way to “know” Him is through His creation, and His ways to direct it and sustain it. We realize this knowledge through the awareness of our connection with God, and the high priest represents this awareness.

Our offerings are all the traits and qualities in our consciousness (which encompass all aspects of life given to us by the Creator) to lift them up to serve Him through His ways and attributes, and we do that through love as our common bond with Him.

Let's reflect on the wise words of Maimonides (the Rambam) regarding the offerings.

“The location of the altar is very exactly defined, and is never to be changed. It is a commonly held tradition that the place where [king] David and [king] Solomon built the altar on the threshing floor of Arona, is the very place where Abraham built an altar and bound Isaac upon it; this is where Noah built [an altar] when he came out from the ark; this is where Cain and Abel brought their offerings; this is where Adam, the First Man, offered a korban when he was created, and from [the earth of] this place he was created. Thus the sages have said: 'Man was formed from the place of his atonement'.” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Holy Temple, chapter II)

Our life and all that it encompasses are the offerings, the place is our consciousness through which we are aware of our Creator, and we have said that atonement is the transforming process from unawareness and separation from Him to the certainty that we are united with Him. This transformation takes place through divine fire, which is the love of God.

Analogically, the process is similar to the effect of fire as a catalyst to transmute one state of matter into another for a specific purpose. In this sense, a high fever has the potential to transmute a physical condition for better or worse, but seen in another way we can say that a cloud has a silver lining.

The priest lights up the fire as our ardent love to join the Creator, who also provides His fire for us. The process of elevating our life to Him indeed implies atonement as the means to purify all aspects of consciousness in order to turn them into the empty vessels that the Creator fills with His ways and attributes.

Then we have two catalysts: the priest as the permanent awareness of our connection to God's love, and our love as the essence that yearns to be close to Him. This is how the offerings are sublimated to the Creator. 

Adam, the first man, had it more clear than us because he was alone with the Creator and realized easier his connection with Him. Cain and Abel realized it through their individual experiences in the material word. Abel did it through a higher awareness of the Divine Presence in His creation; while Cain did it through what his ego, senses and instincts led him to experience.

Cain and Abel represent the divided and opposed, dual, fractured consciousness as a result of Adam's transgression. Abel's offerings were preferred because he elevated all the potential goodness in the material world for the service of the Creator's ways and attributes as our purpose in life. Cain's offerings were disregarded because he rather followed ego's material fantasies and illusions and sensuality (represented by vegetable life) as the purpose of life.

Noah's mission was to unify human consciousness but he fractured it even more through his three sons. Shem (the higher consciousness or priesthood), Japhet (the conscious mind as potentially able to discern right from wrong), and Ham (the attachment to sensuality and the potentially negative aspects of lower consciousness).

By his own awareness, Abraham realized that human consciousness is destined to act and express all its aspects and dimensions as the unified and harmonic vehicle to reflect the unity of the Creator and His ways and attributes in His creation. In this realization, Abraham and his son Isaac both offered their lives to the service of the Creator in the full awareness that all comes from Him and belongs to Him.

In this knowledge there is no room for the vanities and futility of ego's fantasies and illusions. In this same awareness, Jacob realized the legacy of his fathers Isaac and Abraham as the destiny to be fulfilled by him and his descendants.

This is our destiny as legacy and inheritance, and in order to fulfill it let's be mindful that Israel's lineage comes from Shem through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as inheritors of the priesthood as the highest consciousness of God's love, in the knowledge that His ways and attributes direct His creation.

Our forefathers chose this destiny for them and for us, their descendants, and we also must choose back to God's love as our essence and identity that makes us different from the other nations. We choose back to our priesthood because the Creator commands us to be a kingdom of priests to proclaim His kingdom on Earth, which is His justice and righteousness. These are the material manifestations of His love in order to guide all nations in His ways. 

Individually, we internalize this commandment to direct and guide all aspects of consciousness in love's ways and attributes, opposite to falling into the negative dominion and subjugation of ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions, represented by the “nations” and “peoples” of the Earth.

Only love's ways and attributes represent true life, and this is why we ask our Creator.

“And say: 'Redeem us, O God of our redemption, and gather us together and deliver us from the nations, [so] that we may give thanks to Your holy name, [so] that in Your praise we may triumph'.” (I Chronicles 16:35)

Triumph as redemption comes when we become His ways and attributes by being and doing the goodness of His love as our true identity, and this is the meaning of our praises to Him. The Torah commands us to act, and our actions are our praises to God. We act according to His ways and attributes. We ask Him to lead us in our destiny to gather us together and deliver us from ego's fantasies and illusions.

Our praises are our offerings as the good actions to elevate all aspects of life to God's love, and in them we indeed are gathered together and redeemed. This is our legacy and destiny we want permanently in our lives, because His ways are His compassion, loving kindness and truth that protect us when we do goodness, as He commands us.

“Do not withhold your compassion from me, O Lord. Let Your loving kindness and Your truth always protect me. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of His covenant.” (Psalms 40:12, 25:10)

The goodness of our actions as love's ways and attributes are the offerings we elevate in our highest awareness of His presence.

“Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain [the Tabernacle, the Temple of Jerusalem], to the place where You dwell.” (43:3)

That place is our highest awareness of our connection to God's love.

Ki Tisa: The Attributes of God's Love

Our highest knowledge of God (represented by Moses) and His love enables the highest awareness of our connection with Him (represented by Aaron, the high priest) to lead every aspect and dimension of consciousness in God's ways and attributes.

These are manifest into the material world as love's ways and means. Aaron as the high priest is indeed the connecting element in our relationship with the Creator, though Moses as our highest knowledge of Him enables this connection. If our knowledge of God's love is poor, our connection with Him is also poor.

This knowledge is the premise to conceive who we are and what is our purpose in the material world. If we don't have it, ego's fantasies and illusions take over our consciousness. This occurrence is immediate because all levels of consciousness must be filled at all times with the choices we make in terms of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. It works like this because it is part of human nature.

We must be mindful constantly of our knowledge of God and His love, because from it depends not only our connection to Him but our identity and purpose as His chosen ones.

This explains the following verse.

“When the people saw that Moses was late in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron, and they said to him: 'Come on! Make us gods [idols] that will go before us because this man Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him'.” (Exodus 32:1)

God's love infuses our knowledge of Him to lead us in His ways.

“And the Lord said to Moses: 'Go, descend, for your people that you have brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.” (32:7)

In our awareness of God's ways we can dissipate the illusions that corrupt our true essence, identity and purpose. Our sages explain that the words in Hebrew and Aramaic for “idols” also mean “molds” from which “masks” are made. The masks we wear are the idols we follow instead of love's ways and attributes which are our true essence.

Let's be aware that ego's fantasies and illusions in the material world, as well as evil, are only references for us to exercise our free will in order to make the right choices. They are not there to be attached to or to be submitted in slavery to them, no matter how stubborn we may be in falling into their ephemeral pleasures.

“And the Lord said to Moses: 'I have seen this people and behold! they are a stiff necked people'.” (32:9)

We Jews are intensively passionate in every aspect, trait and level of consciousness. This is the best positive quality as long as we direct it into God's ways and attributes. Let's be stubborn in becoming the goodness and blessings of God's love. Let's be the privileged and honored emissaries of His ways to make this material realm into His dwelling place amid us. See in this blog our commentary on Parshat Ki Tisa: “Between ego's fantasies and love's truth” on February 13, 2011.

God's love as our essence and identity must be embraced with all our might and ardent passion in what we discern, think, feel, speak and do. Once we enthrone love in all dimensions of consciousness, we transform all the illusions of the material world into the truthfulness of love's ways and attributes.

This is one of the hidden meanings of this coming verse.

“Then he [Moses] took the [golden] calf they had made, burned it in fire, ground it to fine [gold] powder, scattered [it] upon the surface of the water, and gave [it to] the children of Israel to drink.” (32:20)

The intense and passionate drive force (gold) of ego (the calf) must be transformed (“burned in fire” as sublimated by God's ways and attributes through the fire of His love) through humbleness (“powder”, dust) in our consciousness (“the surface of water”, water as thought or cognitive ability) with which we lead all its traits and qualities (the children of Israel).

In this sense, gold represents the most intense and passionate drive to be near the Creator and His love. Silver represents our discernment and understanding. Copper symbolizes our emotions, feelings and instincts.

Living in the realm of material illusions and striving to make love's attributes prevail among such illusions indeed become a constant war until we make love prevail over the negative aspects of consciousness.

“And Moses saw the people, that they were exposed, for Aaron had exposed them to be disgraced before their adversaries.” (32:25)

When we are betrayed and disgraced by ego's fantasies we hold on the goodness of love that sustains us as our true essence.

“So Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said: 'Whoever is for the Lord, [let him come] to me!' And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.” (32:26)

The sons of Levi represent the positive qualities in our consciousness that never betray love's ways and attributes as the awareness of our permanent connection with God's love. In this awareness we fight with and for love's ways against the negative and destructive traits of ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions.

Our sages say that the sin of the golden calf was orchestrated by God's love to teach us two things. First, that no matter the negative choices we make, we always can return to His love. Israel had to experience making the worst choices (falling into the idolatry of ego's illusions and commit the worst transgressions in their name) in order to show us that we can renounce them by choosing back to His ways and attributes. And second, He confirmed this by revealing to us (through Moses) His attributes of compassion (34:6-7).

By God's attributes we learn to know Him, and through this knowledge our connection to Him. Let's reflect on this verse previous to His revelation to Moses.

“Then I will remove My hand and you will see My back but My face shall not be seen.” (33:23)

Our sages explain that His “back” is what we see that He has done (His Creation) and His sustenance of it. Indeed we know Him through His works, through what His hand leaves behind, that which emanates form His love.

When we enthrone His love as His ways and attributes in all levels of consciousness, we radiate them in our faces as the reflection of our true essence and identity.

“Then the children of Israel would see Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face had become radiant, and [then] Moses would replace the covering over his face until he would come [again] to speak with Him.” (34:35)

As we become fully aware of the knowledge of the Creator (as Moses was) we manifest (radiate) it in what we believe, think, feel, speak and do.

This is Israel's legacy, our legacy as Jews, our inheritance as the chosen people, the people of the Torah. Still it is our choice to embrace it. The prophet reminded us in ancient times, and also reminds us now.

“And Elijah drew near to all the people and said, 'Until when are you hopping between [over] two ideas? If the Lord is God, go after Him; and if the Baal, go after him'. And the people did not answer him a word.” (I Kings 18:21)

Are we also going to answer not a single word? It's either the truthfulness of love's ways and attributes, or the falsehood of ego's fantasies and illusions. The choice is ours.

Vayigash: Living in God's Will

Regardless what we may believe or be certain about as part of God's Creation, our lives belong to His will. There's an endless debate around this Fundamental Principle of Judaism in regards to free will. If we ultimately fulfill God's will regardless the choices we make, do we really have free will? The answer is yes because our choices, either be “right” or “wrong”, ultimately lead us to the Truth of who we really are and our mission in this world. In other words, making positive or negative choices makes us aware of them by their results, from which we learn to make the next choice. This means that ultimately sooner o later we will end up doing the right thing. Then it is up to us to either learn through positive or negative experiences. We have said before that Judaism considers evil as a negative reference to be avoided, and in the worst case scenario to learn form; and not to live for because we are not born to be masochists. Regrettably, most of us in this world may not have it clear enough, and to prove it we just need to take a look around.

We must reflect thoroughly about God's Creation and realize that it is far bigger than ego's pretension to make us believe that we are gods in our material fantasies, desires and illusions. Once we get humble enough it may be possible to accept God's will and not ours. It took King David's whole life and the 150 chapters of his Psalms to realize this, and is one of the main lessons we learn from the story of Joseph and his brothers: “But now do not be sad, and let it not trouble you that you sold me here, for it was to preserve life that God sent me before you.” (Genesis 45:5) and His will is indeed His Love for His Creation to sustain it every moment for the sake of the goodness that life is: “(…) And God sent me before you to make for you a remnant in the land, and to live for a great deliverance.” (45:7).

In our awareness of God's Love there is always a land to sustain life, as our means to pursue our deliverance when the material reality does not provide for our essential needs. We face famine not only when the land does not provide for our sustenance, but also when the material world (also a “land”) does not offer us true spiritual fulfillment in the illusions we create from our “individual” reality.

Here we understand that ego (Pharaoh) must be directed by the discernment and wisdom with which Love (Joseph) approaches God's Creation as an emanation of His Love: “And now, you did not send me here but God and He made me a father to Pharaoh, a lord over his entire household, and a ruler over the entire land of Egypt.” (45:8)

We have learned from these passages of the Torah that Joseph is the epitome of Love ever since he was chosen by Israel to be his firstborn, and Love's attributes led him to ascend as the destined guide of all levels and dimensions of consciousness, ego included. Love's greatest and most formidable challenge is to direct our awareness amid the hardships of the material world. These difficulties range from the adversity of natural phenomena to the negative aspects of thought, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts.

Our Sages tell us that hatred against Hebrews, hostility, aggressiveness, depravity and immorality were the main traits of the ancient Egyptians, and coming down to them was a threat for people with opposite qualities. Israel and his children knew this in spite of Joseph ascent to power. In such predicament Israel prays to the Creator, and His Love answers: “I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up, and Joseph will place his hand on your eyes.” (46:4).

This verse reminds us to be mindful about His will. Our Sages teach that living in the darkness of a negative consciousness (Egypt) is the premise to recognize the Light of Redemption. In this sense, as we mentioned above, our negative choices sooner or later lead us to discern positive from negative, right from wrong, useful from useless. In this process we have to know who we are, from where we come, and the destiny that we are commanded to fulfill: “And Pharaoh said to his brothers, 'What is your occupation?' And they said to Pharaoh, 'Your servants are shepherds, both we and our forefathers'.” (47:3).

The children of Israel are descendants of people who were commanded by their God to lead as “the Light for the nations” those in need of positive guidance. This Commandment is an abomination among peoples whose traits are far from positive. Let's bear in mind that anti-Semitism and Judeophobia are as ancient as Judaism, and the defamers of Jews are those who opposed the ethical principles that sustain and promote moral freedom in all levels of consciousness. In its quest and history, Judaism's existence reflects our Patriarch Israel's life: “The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable [lit. evil], and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my forefathers in the days of their sojourning.” (47:9).

Only in our relentlessness will we be able to fulfill our destiny, no matter how negative and adverse may be the illusions of the material world: “And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they acquired property in it, and they were prolific and multiplied greatly.” (47:27). We did it in Egypt and we have done throughout history with God's Presence among us. Even if most of our days and years have been amid evil, God's Love never abandons us. With our Love we will also reach out to our Final Redemption, which is also everyone's Redemption.

Then we will reach the days of the years of our forefathers: “And I will form a Covenant of Peace for them [Israel], an everlasting Covenant shall be with them; and I will establish them and I will multiply them, and I will place My Sanctuary in their midst forever. And My dwelling place shall be over them, and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me as a people.” (Ezekiel 37:26-27) and for us this prophecy is fulfilled when we as Israel meet His will, which is the ways and attributes of God's Love.

Vayishlach: The Prevalence of Love

We continue in Vayishlach with our line of thought from Vayeitzei regarding angels as the epitomes of Love, also as the ways and means to life and the material world, as well as to our relationship with the Creator: “Jacob sent angels ahead of him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.” (Genesis 32:4) because it is through Love that we conceive and approach everything, as the material manifestation of God's Love. This includes negative circumstances that challenge our determination to make goodness prevail in the midst of adversity. This also implies that we must take a practical approach to negative and potentially harming situations and people, as Jacob did when he met Esau twenty years after parting from each other at the verge of fatal confrontation. Esau, Seir and Edom are synonyms of the same emotional traits that make us act with a negative approach to material reality. These oppose the approach represented by Jacob's qualities.

The verse refers to Esau as a space (land, field) in consciousness that we must draw near with the best traits and qualities endowed with Love as our Essence and true identity. These are the angels as messengers which we also send to the Creator when we want to be close to Him. This land by definition is hostile to Love's attributes because it is a field of consciousness that does not discern, listen or understand according to intellect but to negative emotions, passion and instinct. As we said about Vayeitzei, there are Heaven and Earth as two apparent separate camps that are actually one, and Israel's mission is to unify them in our individual and collective consciousness. This is how we turn the material world into a place for the Divine Presence to dwell among (in) us.

When our ordeals or fears overwhelm us, we tend to feel divided and separated from the camp of God's Love: “(…) now I have become two camps. Now deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest he come and strike me (…)” (32:11-12) because we feel abandoned in our doubts and uncertainties regarding the strength we need in order to make Love's ways prevail over the apparent power of ego's desires and illusions.

Ego does not have any power unless we provide it. Hence it depends on us to empower either aspect of consciousness toward the right purpose. We know quite well that our mission is not easy, and history reminds us this. Most of our ancestors failed or died in their endeavor to sanctify God's Name and to honor His will. We must understand that such mission carries difficult battles that start first within our individual consciousness.

We have to be not only willing but ready for a lengthy struggle to subdue the messenger of doom that our Sages call “the angel of Esau”. This battle eventually will be won, but victory also demands eternal vigilance to secure Love's attributes as the ruling means to redeem the material world from the darkness of ego's negative illusions.

We prevail in that struggle guided by the highest awareness of our connection to God's Love, which in return elevates us closer to Him. “And he [Esau's angel] said, 'your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, because you have commanding power with [an angel of] God and with men, and you have prevailed'.” (32:29), “God said to him, 'Your name is Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.' And He named him Israel.” (35:10)

The name Israel is composed of one specific imperative quality complemented with God's will or submitted to Him. Either way, this name represents a unifying bond with the Creator. Jacob's prevailing determination to subdue the negative aspects of human consciousness -- represented by Esau's angel -- turns Jacob into a commanding and ruling power sustained by God.

Obscure translations define Israel as “the one who struggles with God”, based on the fact that Jacob fought with one of His angels. We must clarify that Israel's struggles are destined to fulfill God's will through His Commandments, in order to dissipate the negative aspects of our consciousness when we approach the material world. We fulfill God's will by emulating His attribute of abundant loving kindness (rav chesed) with which His Creation is sustained.

When we approach everything in time and space with His Love and ours, Love prevails: “And Esau ran toward him and embraced him, and he fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” (33:4) Rashi quotes Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai saying that, in spite of the widely known belief that Esau hated Jacob, at that time his compassion was moved and he kissed him with all his heart, because Love always prevails. When we trust and honor Love as our true Essence and identity, we proclaim God's Love as His Glory that pervades His Creation: “There he [Israel] erected an altar, and he named it 'God is the God of Israel'.” (33:20)

Our Sages say that Jacob built this altar in gratitude to the Creator for saving his life during his encounter with Esau, which he considered a miracle because when His Love is manifest through our loving actions, all we experience moment to moment is a miracle: “Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; save me in Your loving kindness. (…) Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His wondrous loving kindness in an entrenched city [adversity].” (Psalms 31:17, 22)

Lech lecha: The Blessings of our True Identity

"Go for [to] yourself from [out of] your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you [make you see it]. And I will make you into a great Nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and [so that you shall] be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the Earth shall be blessed in you." (Genesis 12:1-3).

These verses are about one single Commandment containing several blessings that bear more blessings. All in regard to the knowledge of something in particular: the awareness of being and doing who we truly are. This awareness is the result of a process by which we have to see (or being shown) in order to know. Our Sages say that hearing relates to understanding, and seeing to knowing. We can understand what we are told, but we know it when we see it. Hence, the key of the process is for us to be shown or to make us see about who we really are.

We can be mistaken if we are not previously taught how to see in order to properly know what we have before our eyes. We need references to acquire knowledge in the proper context. In this sense, our references are contained in the Torah in contrast to the references in the non-Jewish world. In the narrative of these verses, the land that the Creator will make Abraham see is the Promised Land that the Torah reveals to us. This land is the place and time combined where the Creator's blessings are completely manifest as a purpose, as a destiny, and as an end. 

The Commandment to Abraham sounds conditional as if he complies with it, he will be rewarded with such blessings. Not quite. This Commandment is about the individual challenge to know who we truly are amid a myriad of illusions and mirages we have created as references to understand and to know what we suppose to be in the material world. These illusions exist as the result of ego's desires and fantasies that we turn into references as idols that dictate who we suppose to be and what we suppose to do.

This fantasy island is the place that Abraham had to abandon in order to go to his true self, as the land that is our true individual and collective identity. The Commandment was given to him as the chosen seed of the Jewish people whose destiny is to possess that land and dwell in it: "To your seed I will give this Land, (…) for all the Land that you see I will give to you and to your seed to eternity." (12:7, 12:15).

This Commandment is also given to every Jew as well, so that we may choose to be the blessing, as Abraham did. Our Sages say that while the nations prefer to be blessed by the Creator, Israel prefers to be His blessing.

We have to abandon the idolatry of ego's illusions through understanding and knowing what the Torah tells us, in order to partake of the blessing of being the great Nation destined to be the Light for the peoples. In these verses Abraham's name shall become enlarged as he becomes the blessing that is receiving, and consequently a blessing for those who bless him.

Cursing carries back its own curse, and blessing carries its own goodness. By being in that blessing, everyone who chooses to receive it is therefore blessed with what it represents. If we want to partake in these blessings, we have to go to who we truly are, instead of what ego's illusions tell us to be and do. We get the awareness and knowledge when we listen to the Source that created us, which is God's Love. It is also the Land that He shows us when we choose to hear and follow His ways, and manifest His attributes.

As we mentioned, this awareness requires a process in which we must confront the material illusions that blur all levels and dimensions of consciousness, as a result of misconceptions created by those illusions. As a state of consciousness, this Promised Land needs to be cleared from the nations that represent such misconceptions. They are regarded as the Canaanite nations (see in this blog our commentary "Conquering the 'nations' with Love" of June 26, 2010) that Israel has to subjugate in order to dwell in this Land.

We, as our forefathers did, must confront and defeat kingdoms that deny the moral freedom that only God's Love, as our Essence, can redeem and preserve. The Commandment to Abraham carries the blessings when we fulfill it. Through Love, as the material manifestation of God's Love in human consciousness, we clear thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts from their negative misconceptions. Love is its own cause and effect, and also the catalyst to dissipate ego's illusions, and direct our consciousness to partake in the blessings of God's Love.

Abraham listened to God's voice and Commandment and he chose back to His ways and attributes, which are His blessings: "I chose you and I did not despise you. Do not fear for I am with you; be not discouraged for I am your God: I encouraged you, I also helped you, I also supported you with My righteous hand." (Isaiah 41:9-10), because God's blessing is His Love.

Parshat V'zot HaBeracha: The Blessing of God's Love

Our sages remark that this is the only verse in the Torah where Moses is identified as the man of God, with its implications particularly related to his blessing to Israel as a nation.

"(…) Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death" (Deuteronomy 33:1)

They also note that he gave not only one blessing but many, and question why the first words of this portion (V'zot habrachah, "And this is the blessing") refer to one. One of the answers is that Moses wants to encompass one blessing for one Nation, as if both are part of the same united Israel.

Being the man of God, Moses is the messenger of the Creator to deliver His blessings to Israel. Thus Moses' blessing and God's blessing are the same in these final chapters of the Torah. After all, for the last forty years of his life Moses certainly was the messenger and deliverer of God's legacy to Israel, the Torah, including His blessings.

In this sense, these blessings encourage us to emulate God's ways and attributes through His Torah and commandments, as Moses did for us with his actions; teaching us to be also men of God, the people of God.

Moses' blessings to the tribes are not meant to be individual blessings but one single blessing for the whole nation. We have to emphasize this because there are no divisions in Israel's identity but unity in our multifaceted diversity.

We are merchants and Torah scholars as well as warriors and priests; leaders and shepherds as well as masons and silversmiths; judges and undertakers, artists and scientists; rich and poor as well as dreamers and storytellers.

We are all facets of the same identity directed to honor God's love, by being and manifesting love's ways and attributes in this world. This is how we defeat the negative thoughts, emotions, feelings and passions represented by the "nations" that we conquer in order to dwell in the promised land, the land of Israel.

The foremost manifestation of God's love in the world is His Torah (teaching, instruction), the ways and means to make His love tangible in the material reality.

"(…) from His right hand He presented His fiery Torah to them [Israel]" (33:2)

This verse is translated in a clarified fashion from the original Hebrew version interpreted as "from His right hand, fire [turned into] teaching for them", where "fire" and "teaching" are tied up in one.

The reference to fire is important because this is the most essential element that represents divine action, fire as the symbol and means of the transforming dynamics of God's love.

Fire appears in many passages not only in the Torah but in the entire Hebrew bible in transcendental moments like the first encounter of Moses with the Divine Presence, the column of fire that protected and guided the Israelites during their journeys into the desert, and the fire that consumed the offerings in the Tabernacle and Temple of Jerusalem.

We said in other commentaries in this blog that fire is more than a material element or a catalyst to transform matter from one state to the other. It also bears and sustains life, and protects life with the proper intensity.

These qualities are analogical to divine love as godly fire, as the dynamic and transforming force that not only moves the whole universe but also sustains all things, including changing their existence toward levels and dimensions beyond our grasp.

That power is the Law, the Torah, the teaching that harmonizes our lives in consonance with the will of the Creator, which is God's love revealed in the material world as love's ways and attributes.

We must understand fire as the symbol of love in its transforming and elevating qualities towards our closeness with the Creator, as well as the purifying element that refines our thoughts, emotions, passions and instincts for the divine service, through the ways and attributes of love.

This is the divine legacy and inheritance of Israel from the right hand of God, from God's love to us. This is the greatest blessing that precedes the blessings that God gives Israel through Moses in the final verses of the Torah.

Our sages say that God's will is fulfilled by all animal creatures through their instinct, and plants through their function. Only humans fulfill His will out of free will, and Israel as a nation made the choice to do so as the chosen people who received the Torah.

This is our greatest blessing as being able to live in order to proclaim God's love as the only truth amid the fantasies and illusions of the material world.

"Fortunate are you, O Israel! Who is like you, O people whose redemption is through the Lord, the shield who helps you, your majestic sword! Your enemies will lie to you, but you will tread upon their heights." (33:29)

Amen.

Parshat Ki Tavo: The Heritage of God's Love

The second verse of this portion commands...

"(…) that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you will bring from your land, which the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 26:2)

Our mystic sages refer to two levels of awareness represented by the vegetable and animal realms. Contrary to what we may think, they explain that the former depicts sensuality and sexual activity (symbolized by the perennial blossoming and fruitfulness of some plants and trees), and the latter purposefulness and movement (symbolized of the instinctual animal behavior to act according to their purpose in nature).

In this sense we may have a better understanding of the sacrifices (offerings) made by Cain and Abel. In the context of this portion, the "fruit of the ground" (the expression of our individual creative process in every aspect of consciousness, particularly those related to the senses, sensuality, passions, and instincts) must be elevated towards the mission the Creator has commanded to Israel.

The previous verses in Ki Teitzei and the followings in Ki Tavo are related to the ethical values aimed to promote individual and collective harmony among different social levels and economic conditions among the people of Israel. Hence, the verse above is just another reminder that we have to direct all aspects of consciousness toward God's ways and attributes, because we have to be aware that all creation, our individual lives included, belong to the Creator.

By acknowledging this, we are indeed willing to fulfill God's will.

"I declare this day to the Lord, your God, that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us." (26:3)

This land is the awareness that God's love made us, and we also must be and do according to love's ways as individuals and as the nation we are.

Our true freedom takes place in this level of consciousness opposite to slavery under ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions. These are the mirages for which we enslave our life to "work hard" to keep them as "real".

"And the Egyptians treated us cruelly and afflicted us, and they imposed hard labor upon us." (26:6)

This is why we have to remember every day our Exodus from Egypt in order to make the choice every moment, either to live in the slavery of ego's illusions or in the freedom of love's attributes.

After all, God's love is our true essence and redemption from the miseries of living by and for the illusions of the material world.

"So we cried out to the Lord, God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression." (26:7)

We become truly free in the land that He offers us.

"And He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." (26:9)

That is the place in every levels of consciousness where we all are happy.

"Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord, your God, has granted you and your household you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you." (26:11)

The place where every level and dimension of consciousness dwell in the transcendence of God's love as our essence and identity.

For this we ask God constantly to keep us aware of love's attributes as His heritage for us.

"Look down from Your holy dwelling, from the heavens, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given to us, as You swore to our forefathers a land flowing with milk and honey." (26:15)

"And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments, and to make you supreme above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke." (26:18-19)

Hence we have to choose back to Him by exercising and manifesting the identity He has bestowed upon us, the honor and privilege of being and manifesting love's ways and attributes as the inheritance of the greatest love of all, God's love.

The prophet again recalls for us the awareness of our heritage in the haftarah for this portion.

"And nations shall go by your light and kings by the brilliance of your shine. Lift up your eyes all around and see, they all have gathered, they have come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be raised on [their] side. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall be amazed and become enlarged, for the abundance of the sea shall be turned over to you, the wealth of the nations that will come to you." (Isaiah 60:3-5)

In this awareness we realize our purpose and destiny.

"Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither robbery nor destruction within your borders, and you shall call redemption your walls and your gates praise. You shall no longer have the sun for light by day, and for brightness, the moon shall not give you light, but the Lord shall be to you for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory." (60:18-19)