The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (II) Amos

Most of the messages our Prophets delivered to the people of Israel are divided in three levels. First, the constant reminders about living separated from God's commandments, ways and attributes, and its consequences. This separation is repeatedly emphasized as the result of choosing idolatry over God's will for Israel. In this context, idolatry is the choice to follow ego's fantasies and illusions over Love's ways and attributes. The negative actions mentioned by the Jewish Prophets are the result of disregarding the Commandments that define our identity as the Chosen People. Second, the transition to the ways God wants us to follow in order to return to Him. Third, the Final Redemption after we choose to return to the Creator.

We must pay attention to the second and third levels in the messages of our Prophets. They show us the means and paths to return to God and fully embrace His plan for which Israel chose to be His partner. In order to start our transition from the negative patterns we have imprinted in our consciousness throughout centuries of generations, we have to return to the attributes that God has showed us in the Torah since the beginning of His Creation.

“For He that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares unto man what is his thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads upon the high places of the Earth; the Lord, the God of hosts, is His Name.” (Amos 4:13)

The first step to redeem our consciousness from ego's dominion is to acknowledge that we are less than dust in the vastness of God's Creation. Taking a thorough look at the world and the universe, and contemplating their endless dimensions we can't grasp with our discernment, make us humble enough to yearn for returning to our Creator. Then we realize that all we are and have come from Him, and we don't own or possess anything. Once we die we learn that what we used to possess was never truly ours, and that all was there to fulfill God's will.

God is the sole Owner of His Creation, and through what He gives us we are destined to fulfill His Commandments. Even what we perceive as divided and opposed to each other --such as darkness and Light -- serves His will. In the highest levels of consciousness God treads in His majesty to reign within us, as He also reigns over the multitudes He created. He is the God of the countless in His Creation, and such is His glory, His Name. Let's never forget that He loves all His Creation, because it also comes from His Love.

“Him that makes the Pleiades and Orion, and brings on the shadow of death in the morning, and darkens the day into night; that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the Earth; the Lord is His Name.” (5:8)

In this awareness we realize that we are nothing without our Creator, and we strive to return to Him as He wants us to. In this awareness a true life means living in what He wants for us. Otherwise we remain in the fantasies and illusions of our own inventions, the idols we created under the belief that we are our own gods.

“For thus said the Lord unto the house of Israel: Seek Me, and live.” (5:4)

As we mentioned earlier, the transition from ego's fantasies and illusions to Love's ways begins when we embrace goodness and all that comes from it. God tells us in the Torah what is the meaning of goodness in His ways and attributes with which He relates to us.

“Seek good, and not evil, that you may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you say. Hate the evil and love the good, and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” (5:14-15)

We know since we are born that goodness is what keeps us alive. Goodness belongs to Love's ways and attributes, because there is no goodness without Love. The goodness of life is Love, for which we live. Love gives sense and purpose to life. Love is what creates and sustains life, therefore life also must manifest Love as its purpose. As we pursue the goodness derived from Love, God's Love is with us. As we reject all that opposes Love's ways and attributes, we indeed are righteous.

As we love being and doing goodness, we manifest righteousness in what we are, have and do. We do justice when we live by goodness and Love's ways. As we live by goodness, God's Love is gracious to Joseph as the epitome of Israel's birthright. Joseph represents the realization of the destiny of Israel's descendants, his remnants.

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.” (9:11)

In our transition from exile in ego's domains to the Redemption in Love's ways, God's Love rebuilds our permanent connection with Him. The Prophet Amos refers to this connection as the tabernacle of David, which represents the Messianic Consciousness. God reminds us that He also yearns for our return to Him after the pain and suffering we inflict on us with our separation from Him. He restores His Presence in our willingness to be with Him permanently.

“That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations, upon whom My Name is called, says the Lord that does this.” (9:12)

Once we conduct our thoughts, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts under the guidance of Love's ways and attributes, we are able to redirect our negative trends into goodness, righteousness and justice for ourselves, for others and for our surroundings. The remnant of Edom and all the nations are the negative aspects of consciousness we must direct in Love's ways. In our individual and collective transition, we leave the exile in ego's rule and start restoring the goodness of Love's attributes as the cities and vineyards in which we rejoice as our Redemption. This is the beginning of our eternal connection with God's Love.

“And I will turn the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.” (9:14)

King David also reminds us the blessings of the goodness of Love: “He loves righteousness and justice. The Earth is full of the loving kindness of God.” (Psalms 33:5), “For the Lord is righteous, He loves justice; the upright will see His face.” (11:7), “The Earth is filled with Your loving kindness, Lord; teach me Your decrees.” (119:64), “Loving kindness and truth have met, righteousness and peace have kissed.” (85:10)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (I) Micah

“And in the end of days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above [all] the hills; and peoples shall flow onto it.” (Micah 4:1)

We must understand and assimilate Jewish prophecy as a two-fold matter of fact that works inwardly and outwardly, individually and collectively. There is a place in the world and a place in consciousness that converge and become one. This place is mount Zion, the Temple of Jerusalem located in the land of Israel. It is the focal and anchoring point where we become aware of God's Presence in us individually and collectively as Israel in this world.

This preamble is the introduction to understand the Messianic consciousness according to Judaism. Thus we realize that the most important of all mountains and hills is our connection with the Creator of all. In this awareness all levels of consciousness are gathered together and flow united onto His Presence.

“And many nations shall go and say: 'Come you all, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths'; for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (4:2)

We tap into the Messianic consciousness when our discernment, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, habits, customs, attachments, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts all gather together naturally in an unforced process toward the individual and collective unity necessary to embrace our Creator in the place He established for us. Once every level, aspect and dimension of consciousness are harmonized under the guidance and direction of Love's ways and attributes, we continue our Redemption process through the knowledge of God's ways and attributes. The convergence point of this encounter is Zion as the highest awareness of God's Presence in our life, from where His knowledge unfolds, and from Jerusalem where His guidance is revealed.

“And He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide concerning mighty nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (4:3)

In this convergence point we embrace God's Presence, and His Love transforms the negative qualities of all levels, aspects and dimensions of consciousness into positive, uplifting, constructive and enhancing qualities. What we used to inflict against ourselves and others is turned into ways and means to elevate consciousness through the knowledge of God. In His knowledge there is no violence or wars, conflicts, disputes, contention, argument or controversy. Love, as the material manifestation of God's Love, will rule all aspects of our lives through God's ways and attributes.

“And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the Name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide, for then shall he be great unto the ends of the Earth.” (5:3)

The Messianic consciousness unfolds through the person assigned by God to be the reference for us to follow the redeeming paths established by Him. God's Love is our strength, and His Name and Majesty are manifest in our knowledge of Him. The Jewish Messiah reveals God's Redemption for every single trait of our consciousness. This encompasses all aspects of life, which is also the earth in which we dwell in the material world.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will cut off your horses out of your midst, and will destroy your chariots. And I will cut off the cities of your land, and will throw down all your strongholds. And I will cut off all witchcraft out of your hand; and you shall have no more soothsayers. And I will cut off your graven images and your pillars out of your midst; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.” (5:9-12)

God's redeeming Love will be revealed as we transform the negative trends of consciousness through the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. God is the One who directs this process. He will remove ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions that pull us as chariots with the strength of horses. He will remove negative attachments and habits as cities and strongholds entrenched in our consciousness. He will remove false beliefs and conceptions that enslave us into greed, lust, envy, avarice, indolence, indifference, and negligence.

These are false ideas which make us believe we can control and manipulate others at their expense. These also are the idols in which we become and make others turn to. The idols made out of our own actions, the work of our hands. God's redeeming Love will remove them all from our consciousness as soon as we allow Love to guide and direct all facets of life.

“Who is a God like unto You, that pardons the iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger for ever, because He delights in loving kindness. He will again have compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities. And You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob, compassion to Abraham, as You has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” (7:18-20)

Only the greatest Love of all, God's Love, transforms the wickedness we have created in our lives. Let's be aware that we have been the creators of the evils we suffer in the world. There is hunger because we allow hunger. There is violence because we incite violence. There is hatred because we instigate hatred. There is wickedness because we foster wickedness. In this predicament, only as we engender Love and live by its ways, means and attributes, we will usher the Messianic consciousness individually and collectively. We will be redeemed from all our iniquities and negativity, as we begin to live in Love's ways as our Essence and true identity. Love as the material manifestation of God's Love.

Vayakhel-Pekudei: Reaffirming the Bond with Our Creator

Our highest knowledge of the Creator enables us to bond with Him. It sounds obvious that the more we know someone or something, the more we are related to it. The point here is to apply this obvious fact into real practice. This means that there are times in which our knowledge of something doesn't necessarily imply that we are close enough to it.

In this sense we refer to the knowledge of God as our continuing connection with Him. This is what we mean when we call Moses our highest knowledge of God, because he personifies our relationship with the Creator. This explains the role of Moses throughout his life along with the children of Israel, as it is recalled in the narrative of the last two portions of the book Exodus.

“All the work of the Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was completed; the children of Israel had done [it]; according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they had done.”, “In accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel do all the work. Moses saw the entire work, and lo! they had done it as the Lord had commanded, so had they done. So Moses blessed them.” (Exodus 39:32, 42-43)

Moses our teacher shows us how the connection with the Creator works.

“Thus Moses did according to all that the Lord had commanded him, so he did.” (40:16)

Our connection with God is the entire reason of our life because we come from Him, and to Him we return from ego's fantasies and illusions. Our knowledge of God is directly proportional to our separation from ego's agenda. In other words, the more we live in our own delusions of grandeur, the more we are far away from our true Essence and identity.

It may sound obvious and logical the way we should approach our relationship with God, but it indeed depends on our knowledge of the ways and attributes in which He relates to us and His entire Creation. These are the ways He reveals His Presence in us, because our Essence and true identity emanate from His ways and attributes we call here God's Love.

There is a practical approach to this, because our relationship with God is not theoretical at all. The Torah shows us the ways and means to fully live our permanent bond with God, and in the first Commandment He gave us in the Exodus from Egypt is the starting point.

“It came to pass in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the Tabernacle was set up.” (40:17)

We said in other commentaries on this blog that the renewal the Moon also represents our renewal as individuals and as a Nation. This implies that there are no beginnings and endings but constant renewals in our lives when we consecrate them to our Creator.

This explains the inauguration of the Tabernacle in the New Moon of the month in which God delivered us from Egypt, from the house of slavery. There is a connection between our permanent bond with God (represented by the Tabernacle) and the constant renewal of our relationship with Him, as the premise to approach life in the material world.

The Torah reminds us many times that once we establish our permanent connection with God, He is also constantly with us.

“For the cloud of the Lord was upon the Tabernacle by day, and there was fire within it at night, before the eyes of the entire house of Israel in all their journeys.” (40:38)

Vayekhel and Pekudei narrate again the details of the construction of the Tabernacle to emphasize the importance of our relationship with God, because without it there is no real meaning in our life. The details seem to be even redundant but we must understand them in their meanings regarding the aspects and dimensions of consciousness we must direct and dedicate to our relationship with God.

The idea is not repetition for the sake or repetition but to remark and highlight the whole point of our existence. The Tabernacle as our permanent connection with the Creator is precisely such point. Hence we also have to repeat what we have said before regarding this.

As a matter of fact, that has been and is the point of our blog. We want to call our attention about the Jewish identity, its origins, its meanings, and especially its purpose. The Torah contains and integrates all of them for us as Jews to recognize, embrace and perform. Our Essence and true identity in sharp contrast to ego's illusions and fantasies as the idols we are destined to defeat in order to enthrone Love's ways and attributes in all levels and dimensions of consciousness.

We must insist that our relationship with God is based on Love as our common bond with Him. We proclaim this principle before and after reciting “Hear [understand] Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”. So let's quote the Jewish prayer book with the introductory blessing to this fundamental statement.

“You love us with an everlasting love, O Lord our God (...) Allow our hearts to understand, hear, learn, teach, guard, do, and uphold all the matters of Your Torah's instruction, with love (…) And You have brought us close to Your great Name forever en truth, to thank You, and proclaim Your Oneness with love. Bless are You, Lord, who chooses His people Israel with love.”

In the evening we say,

“With endless love you have loved the house of Israel. (…) May Your love never depart from us. Blessed are You, Lord, who loves His people Israel.”

And immediately we say,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”

As we proclaim God's Oneness we are also proclaiming ourselves as part of Him with [in] Love.

Thus we have to understand the Tabernacle as the time and space beyond comprehension in which we know our Essence and identity as part of our Creator. We realize this through Love as our common bond with Him.

In this awareness there are no illusions or fantasies, because the only Truth in which we live is God. And nothing else. Hence we must know Him as the Source from where all emanates. This is why we are here. This is our identity. This is our destiny.

Ki Tisa: God's Love

The principle in the relationship between Israel and God is Love. We proclaim this principle twice a day before and after we say “Hear [understand!] O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One [and Unique]”, because it defines our identity. What we are, have and do are founded on this relationship, for we recognize that what we are and have come from the Creator, including Love as our common bond with Him. Being counted by Him reveals how precious we are for Him.

As long as we are bound to God by taking what we are and have to Him, nothing negative can happen to us amid the illusions of the material world. In this context we understand the beginning of this portion.

“When you count (lit. raise ki tisa) the head [the total sum] of the children of Israel according to their numbers, let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are counted.” (Exodus 30:12)

We must be aware that since the moment God chose us as His partners for His Divine Plan, our bond with Him is permanent. This partnership, as we said above, is based on Love because God's Love makes it possible.

In this sense our duty is to know God in all His ways revealed by Him to us in the Torah. Once we adopt His ways and attributes, not just as our guidelines and purpose but also as our Jewish identity, we fulfill our partnership with Him.

This makes sense to “Know Him in all your ways” (Proverbs 3:6) because the point is to be always aware of our permanent bond with Him. This principle is fully realized in the Sanctuary God wants us to build for Him in order to dwell in our midst.

Though the Sanctuary chronologically came after the transgression of the Golden Calf, the Torah mentions it earlier because before any transgression we may incur there is already a place in our consciousness where we are permanently connected to God. We belong to a house that He has built beforehand, and this house is His Love for us.

The principle we have been referring to is about making the choice to live, experience and enjoy our connection with God as a matter of fact. It is a fact because He is telling us so. Therefore it is not a matter of faith or even trust, because it is the truth.

The Torah and our history prove that fact, and we know it is true because we have lived it and experienced it. How can we deny God's Love? How can we deny Love as the best we are and have? Only by creating an illusion of denial, by choosing to live in ego's false beliefs and feelings of lack.

These beliefs and feelings build the Golden Calf and the idols we empower to enforce the illusion of separation from Love as the material manifestation of God's Love. Our Sages say that the transgression in the Garden of Eden was repeated with the Golden Calf.

When we adopt the false belief that God is not enough, that His Creation is not enough, and that nothing is enough, we fall by transgressing the matter of fact that God is enough, and that we are also enough because we come from Him. Thus we understand the following verse.

“The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the Lord to make atonement for your souls.” (Exodus 30:15)

We have to elevate our consciousness to the awareness that in our bond with God we are and have all there is to live and manifest.

God's Love reestablish our connection with Him when we realize that. He atones for our souls, because once we are trapped in ego's illusions of grandeur, being self-centered and self-sufficient, the only way out from them is by returning to the Truth. This Truth atones for our wrong choices. Our atonement and return to the Creator occur when we realize and adopt His ways and attributes.

“And the Lord passed by before him [Moses], and proclaimed: 'The Lord, the Lord, benevolent God, compassionate and gracious, patient, and abundant in loving kindness and truth; preserving loving kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and rebellion and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation'.” (34:6-7)

Should we have to explain further these ways and attributes? Let's just say what we call them here in our blog: God's Love. All comes from God and all is sustained by Him, and that is the greatest Love of all. The opposite to this is our illusion that we rather believe in our feelings of lack out of ego's desire to be its own god.

These feelings and beliefs of lack are the “nations” that invite us to covet, lust, envy and fall trapped in their indolence, indifference and negativity.

“Beware lest you form a covenant with the inhabitant[s] of the land into which you are coming, lest it become a snare in your midst. But you shall demolish their altars, shatter their monuments, and cut down their sacred trees. For you shall not prostrate yourself before another god, because the Lord, whose Name is 'the Exclusive One', is an exclusive jealous God.” (34:12-14)

Likewise, Love's ways exclude anything different or oppose to its means and attributes.

“You shall not make molten gods for yourself.” (34:17)

We are destined to know our Creator, from whom all come to exist. We are bound to know our Essence and true identity. We can't settle for less and live in the illusions and fantasies of a false reality built out of ego's agenda. We must have an existential approach to life and the material world, and ask the transcendental questions about who we are, from what we came from, and where are we going to.

As Jews we have all the answers in the Torah, which defines our identity and delineates our purpose as God's partners in His Creation. We can't settle for less. Our lot and truth is Love as our common bond with God. That's who we are and have, and that is quite enough.

Tetzaveh: Realizing Our Bond with the Creator

One of the definitions of the Sanctuary [Temple of Jerusalem], besides being a specific geographic location in the land of Israel, is a time and space in our consciousness where we are permanently united to the Creator.

The Prophet reminds us about this.

“Thus said the Lord God: 'Because I put them afar off among nations, and because I scattered them through lands, I also am to them for a little Sanctuary, in lands where they have gone in'.” (Ezekiel 11:16)

There is a temple in the highest level of consciousness, and also a high priest who carries out this connection. This place in consciousness indicates what are we aiming for.

“For You, O Lord, are my refuge, the most high You made Your dwelling.” (Psalms 91:9)

King David refers to Zion/Jerusalem in many of his psalms to widen our awareness about the meaning of being close to God. What kind of place in our consciousness He desires the most for us and He to be together? We repeatedly say that love is our common bond with Him, and these verses reaffirm it.

“For the Lord has chosen Jerusalem, He has desired it for His home: 'This is My dwelling place forever. Here I will live, for I have desired it'.” (132:13-14)

Tetzaveh points out the commandment as connection to the means called the Sanctuary, which is also the space and time shared with Zion/Jerusalem, as referred by the psalmist in his verses of praise. It's the bond where the sanctuary and the high priest actually are one. Both even share the materials of their garments, which the children of Israel bring as offerings they take from their heart for the Creator.

Let's appeal to David's praises to reach a higher awareness of this connection.

“Glorify the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise your God, O Zion. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates, He has blessed your children within you. He makes peace within your walls, He gives you in plenty the best of wheat (...)” (147:12-14)

Thus we realize that we are an emanation of God's love. In His love we truly live and experience the goodness He is and wants for us, as long as we choose to be close to Him. His love is our nourishment as the blessing He is, from Whom all blessings come forth.

“Her [Zion/Jerusalem] provision I greatly bless, her needy ones I satisfy with bread, and her priests I clothe with redemption, and her loving ones shall sing aloud.” (132:15-16)

God's love is where we all want to dwell in.

“My God is my rock, I take refuge in Him; my shield, and the horn of my redemption; my high tower, and my refuge! My Redeemer, from violence You save me!” (2 Samuel 22:3)

Away from the unrest of ego's fantasies and illusions, from which we want to escape.

“It will happen that whoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be redeemed. For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said; and among the remnant, those whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:32)

In this awareness we realize that love is our permanent bond with God's love.

“The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a mighty One who will redeem. He will rejoice over you [Zion/Jerusalem] with joy. He will comfort you in His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

Again we reiterate that the high priest is the highest level of consciousness far away from the chains that keep us bound in the captivity of ego's fantasies and illusions. The high priest has the power to gather and unite the remaining levels and dimensions of consciousness, represented by the different materials of his garments.

This highest level of consciousness is destined to integrate and harmonize opposite traits and qualities that are part of who we are. The goal is not to repress or silence the lower aspects of consciousness, but to direct them into God's ways and attributes from which love's ways and attributes proceed.

As we achieve this formidable task, we also achieve our connection with God. In the same way God's love integrates and unites the diversity of His creation. He doesn't expect less from us. With our choices and decisions we have shaped our lives and the world we live in. Hence it's up to us to correct what we have disarranged. See in this blog  our commentary on Tetzaveh: Living our Connection with God's love” of February 26, 2012.

Our ability to harmonize every part that define our consciousness is also the means to meet our Creator. He is our God who commands us not to have the gods of others before His presence. This means we have to come to Him in His ways and attributes, and nothing different.

“For on My holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the reigning Lord, there in the land the entire house of Israel will serve Me, and there I will accept them. There I will require your offerings and your choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices.” (Ezekiel 20:40)

Our choice gifts are the best we can make of every part of us, lower and higher, in order to consecrate them for His will. The psalmist also refers to this task.

“Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea-monsters, and all [that lives in the] deeps. Fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind, fulfilling His word. Mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars. Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and winged fowl. Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth. Both young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted. His glory is above Earth and Heaven.” (Psalms 148:7-13)

As we have said, His glory is His love.

The physical absence of the Temple prompted our sages to institute our daily prayers in lieu of the daily offerings. Prayer is the way we bond with God for almost two thousand years. Our sages were aware that God's presence is also with us as the little Sanctuary (see above Ezekiel 11:6) within each one of us, and prayers become the offerings we bring up to Him.

Through these prayers we bond with Him in our love for Him.

“It is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant, and praise is comely. The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the dispersed of Israel, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalms 147:1-3)

Tetzaveh ends with the consecration of the incense, which our sages consider the culmination of our bond with God.

“and Aaron shall make incense (...) continual incense before the Lord for [all] your generations.” (Exodus 30:7-8)

In our daily prayers, time and again, we ask God to restore His presence in Zion.

“You are our God, You are our Master, You are our Redeemer. You will save us. You will arise and have compassion on Zion; it is the time to favor her, the appointed time has come.” (Psalms 102:13)

And our sages add to our prayer.

“You are the Lord our God, and God of our fathers, before Whom they burnt the offering of incense” because in our bond with Him we are redeemed.

Terumah: Building a House for the Creator

How do we build a house for God to live in us? Our Sages tell us that the references about the House of God in the Torah are the mountain shown by Him to Abraham, the field where Isaac prayed, and the stone where Jacob had the dream of the ladder.

These are physical places that represent three ways to approach our Creator. One of the meanings of terumah is offering, and we learn that the prelude to build His house is what we have to offer according to what our heart motivates us to give for that purpose. We see several elements related in that process.

We can't give what we don't have, and we can't be what we are not. In this sense, what we have is what we are, hence we give according to what comprises our identity. We often quote our Sages when they ask, “Who is rich?” and they answer, “He who is happy with his lot”.

They refer to a “lot” or “portion” in different levels, from material possessions to personal well being to spiritual fulfillment. Others call such portion the relationship that each individual has with God, considering that what we are and have come from Him. Therefore all depends on our relationship with Him.

In this context we assimilate that what we offer to God in order to build a house for Him, as the space and time of our connection to Him, comes from how rich or poor we are in our relationship with Him. In other words, the more we love Him the closer we are to Him. Thus we realize that Love is our lot. This is how we understand the meaning of “(...) from every man whose heart motivates him to take My offering.” (Exodus 25:2).

Let's be aware that this offering is taken, not given to God:.

“Speak to the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering (…)” (25:2)

The idea behind taking and not giving leads us to realize that what we are and have come from God, hence we take from what He gives us in order to return it to Him.

This is not about a game of “give and take” but to enhance the awareness of our relationship and bond with our Creator. We take our Love to be close to His Love. This is another way to say that Love is our common bond with God. This is the way to realize that our lot is Love as what we receive from God in order to be connected to Him.

We said above that there are several elements interconnected in this awareness. First Love as our identity and most valuable possession, then the intention that motivates us to build our permanent connection with God, and the levels and dimensions of our material consciousness gathered by who we are.

Abraham is the mountain, Isaac the field, and Jacob the stone with which we build the House of God, so He may dwell in our midst (in us). A mountain represents the weight of a conception or belief. A field represents the ways and means to adopt such conception or belief. A stone represents the permanent connection between the conception or belief and the one who has it.

The levels and dimensions we refer to are the aspects and qualities of consciousness, including discernment, thought, emotions, feelings and instincts, along with individual traits, talents and skills. As we mentioned before (see our commentaries on Parshat Terumah: “Elevating Life to Divine Love” of January 30, 2011 and “The Sanctuary as the Connection with God's Love” of February 19, 2012 in this blog.) all these are the items requested by God to build our permanent bond with Him, represented by gold, silver, copper, linen, olive oil, acacia wood, etc.

The message is that there is nothing superior or inferior in none of them, because they all are part of the way God created us. There is no judgment in the way they are because all serve the common purpose in the motivation to be close to our Creator.

We mentioned also that our Sages relate copper (of lesser value compared to gold and silver) to the lower aspects of consciousness, as essential to hold the tents of the Tabernacle.

“All the instruments of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of copper.” (27:19)

Hence we have to value and appreciate even more the lower aspects of consciousness because on them we hold and make firm Love as the house we build for God's Love to dwell in us. We have to infuse the strength and driving force of ego, passions and instincts in our emotions, feelings and thoughts in how we experience Love as our true identity. Love as who we are, have and do as our most valuable possession.

Love is also the encompassing and integrating force in our consciousness to build the house as the permanent bond with God's Love. In the Torah He shows us ways, means and attributes to achieve this purpose. The Torah is also the meeting place as the connection.

“(...) and in the Ark you shall put the Testimony [the Torah] that I shall give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the Ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.” (25:21-22)

We build a house for God with what He already gave us. Love as the material manifestation of God's Love is the portion that sustains our life. From this portion we take to reveal His Presence in our midst, in us, and in the material world. We will be able to reveal His Presence as we remove the negative aspects of consciousness through Love's ways and attributes. 

“Happy are those who dwell in Your House! They are ever praising You. Happy are the people that is in such a case: yea, happy is the people, whose God is the Lord.” (Psalms 84:4, 144:15),“Blessed are those You choose [the children of Israel] and bring near to live in Your courts! We are filled with the good things of Your House, of Hour Holy Temple.” (65:4).

Mishpatim: Learning to Live in God's Love

Ego's fantasies and illusions correspond to idolatry as Love's ways and attributes correspond to real freedom. In this sense, idolatry is the opposite of freedom.

As long as we are bowed to anything that undermines freedom, we are caught in it. We can call it a negative approach to life, addictions, bad habits or lower passions derived from a false belief or feeling of lack. These are the “false gods” of the “nations” that we are commanded to reject, subjugate, conquered and destroy.

“You shall not prostrate yourself before their gods, and you shall not worship them, and you shall not follow their practices, but you shall tear them down and you shall utterly shatter their monuments.” (Exodus 23:24)

This as part of a previous warning.

“Concerning all that I have said to you you shall beware, and the name of the gods of others you shall not mention; it shall not be heard through your mouth.” (23:13)

This portion of the Torah contains several laws as commandments which are preceded by warnings against idolatry (at the end of the previous portion) and followed by similar warnings as mentioned above. We have said that one of the fundamental messages of the Torah is the condemnation of idolatry as the main obstacle to experience higher consciousness, aimed to connect us permanently with our Creator.

We see this from beginning to end in the Torah, since the transgression in the Garden of Eden, regarded as a “fall” into ego's desires, fantasies and illusions (represented by the serpent's seduction of Eve).

Ego's idolatry of its self-centered approach to life as experienced by the generation of the Flood.

Ego's enlargement of its self-conception as god in the generation of the Tower of Babel.

More idolatry in the times of Abraham, and more egocentric obsession with Pharaoh in Egypt, the Golden Calf, and more varying idolatrous conceptions up to our current times.

We must learn from our expertise in ego's controlling ways in our own individual lives, as well as from culture, fashion, ideologies, beliefs, behavioral patterns, obsessions, habits and addictions. We have to know in depth the false gods we worship, and the idols we serve.

In this process we will be able to discern fantasies and illusions as the result of our own invention, out of a feeling or belief of lack. We have said many times that the “sin” in the Garden of Eden was the result of the false belief of lack out of ego's desire to become its own god.

Once we can tell the real origin of our fantasies and illusions, we will be able to recognize that love as the material manifestation of God's love is our true Essence and identity. Once we recognize that without Love we are dead in the mirages of ego's illusions, we will be able to return to what is truly real.

This is why the Torah tells us that there are laws that make us understand the Ten Commandments given in the preceding portion. We have to reiterate that love's ways and attributes contain their own ethics. Love isn't love without its principles and values. There is a way to love, and this way is universally applied to those who say they love.

Thus we reject and condemn those who try to exempt themselves from judgment, when they claim obeying orders to justify murdering innocent people. These are the same people who, based on wicked ideologies, hate, instigate and perpetrate mass murder. In their cynicism they also claim to love their country, their spouses and their children.

Thus we understand that their wicked ideas, destructive beliefs and negative feelings are the gods and idols they worship, in which they become. See our commentaries on parshat Mishpatim: “The Laws of God's Love” of January 23, 2011 and “Torah's Laws as God's Love” of February 12, 2012 in this blog.

King David opens our eyes to awaken from ego's inventions.

“They [idols] have hands, but they don't feel. They have feet, but they don't walk, neither do they speak through their throat. Those who make idols end up like them. So does everyone who trusts them.” (Psalms 115:7-8)

Our Prophets reaffirm his words.

“Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation (...)” (Habakkuk 2:18)

“Those who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.” (Isaiah 44:9)

The lesson of idolatry is to make us return to the true reality God is.

“And you shall worship the Lord, your God, and He will bless your food and your drink, and I will remove illness from your midst.” (Exodus 23:25)

God is the blessing from which all blessings come.

“There will be no bereaved or barren woman in your land; I will fill the number of your days.” (23:26)

Again God's love reminds us that He does not cohabit with anything different from His ways and attributes.

“You shall not form a covenant for them or for their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me, that you will worship their gods, which will be a snare for you.” (23:33)

The laws in this portion teach us that life is a learning process from slavery to freedom. In our previous commentaries on this portion we said that our sages explain these laws not to justify or promote slavery, but to understand it as the service people must perform after losing the privilege of leading their own lives.

They explain further indicating that slavery must be understood as the service necessary to regain individual freedom. In this context, the masters to whom one was sold are the teachers, rules and norms we must assimilate in order not to fall into a negative situation that makes us lose our freedom, and that which makes us free.

In this sense freedom is the privilege to conduct our lives in love's ways and attributes, and not in the negative trends of ego's desires, fantasies and illusions. In this sense, we understand that love is our freedom as long as we live in the laws and ordinances of its ways and attributes, opposite to idolatry as slavery under ego's domains.