The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (VI) Zephaniah

We have said that the messages of the Jewish Prophets are divided in three main aspects. In general, these are presented in the following order: The estrangement of Israel from God and its consequences, the beginning to return to Him as the result of such consequences (also known a "repentance"), and the reunification with Him as the culmination of the Final Redemption (what we call here the Messianic Consciousness). In a broader view of these stages, they encompass a learning process through which we become aware of the connection with the Creator and our relationship with Him. We also have mentioned that all this process is totally dependent on the free will God has infused in our consciousness. In this context free will is one of the main qualities that honor our image and likeness of Him.

In free will we choose to separate from our Creator, His ways and His attributes He relates to us; and also in free will we choose to return to them. However, we must be aware that the dynamics of free will are bound to cause and effect in order not to be as an immutable law but as a learning process. In this sense, human consciousness unfolds within the frame of cause and effect. We also have said that what we experience as negative, evil, destructive, constraining or subtracting exist as references to choose the opposite of them. They are references, not choices. This learning process is designed for us to ultimately know and experience what is good and positive as the ways and attributes God wants us to choose for every aspect and dimension of life in the material world. The Prophet reminds us this.  

“And I will leave in the midst of you an afflicted and poor people, and they shall take refuge in the Name of the Lord.” (Zephaniah 3:12)

Our estrangement from God is the direct result of leaning to ego's fantasies and illusions, which end up afflicting and impoverishing us at the expense of Love as our Essence and true identity. This is a reminder of the second Commandment of the Decalogue, which is a warning against serving other gods and idols before God's Presence. This means that His Presence, before Whom we live because He created us and sustains us, does not cohabit with anything different from His ways and attributes toward us. As we experience the pain and suffering out of fantasies and illusions that afflict us, God's Love awaits for our return to Him in the refuge of His Name.

“The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.” (3:13)

Again, the second stage leads us through a cleansing process where we individually and collectively remove the negative traits and tendencies from our consciousness. That which always remains in us, after we clear ourselves from what is unnecessary, is our Essence and true identity that begins to reveal its ways and attributes. Then Love, as the material manifestation of God's Love, unfolds its goodness as the opposite of iniquity, lies and deceit represented by ego's illusions. We nurture our goodness from Love's ways, and rest in peace and tranquility where there's no room for fear, doubt or uncertainty. In the peace of Love's ways we rejoice. 

“Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of you. You shalt not fear evil any more.” (3:14-15)

As we have said frequently in this blog, Jerusalem represents the awareness of our permanent connection with God. In this context the daughter of Jerusalem is the offspring of this awareness, which we attain as we return to God's ways and attributes as His will for us. These deliver us from our material fantasies and illusions.

“The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with joy, He will be silent in His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (3:17)

In our awareness of God's Presence as the regent guide of our consciousness we achieve true freedom as the Final Redemption we yearn for. That's the final jubilee after we complete the years, the weeks and the days of our lives. Moses our teacher phrased it this way: 

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing Love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us [from our separation from You], for as many years as we have seen trouble. May Your deeds be shown to Your servants, Your splendor to their children. May the pleasantness of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands." (Psalms 90:12-17)

And we hope He fulfills His promise to redeem us soon in our days through the grace of His Love.

“I will gather them that are far from the appointed season, who are of you, that has borne the burden of reproach.” (Zephaniah 3:18)

As we integrate God's Presence in all levels and dimensions of life through His ways and attributes, we enter the Messianic Consciousness as the promise of His Final Redemption. We as Israel will be all gathered, integrated and united. The diversity of our multidimensional creative potential in the material world will be fully manifest as the gathered children of Israel. 

“At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will make you to be a name and a praise among all the peoples of the Earth, when I turn your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord.” (3:20)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (V) Zephaniah

“Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She hearkened not to the voice, she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord, she drew not near to her God.” (Zephaniah 3:1-2)

We have said that cities (beliefs, principles), fortified cities (attachments, addictions, habits), mountains and hills (ideas, ideals) all represent aspects of consciousness. Likewise, peoples and nations represent tendencies to act according to negative thoughts, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts. In the third part of his message to Israel, the Prophet refers to negative beliefs that soil, corrupt and oppress all aspects of consciousness. These negative conceptions result from choosing ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions as idols to serve, instead of Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love, embodied in His Torah and Commandments. Idolatry is the cause and consequence of separating from God's attributes. This happens when we trust ego's desires and fantasies more than God's ways.

“Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are wolves of the desert, they leave not a bone for the morrow.” (3:3)

The ways we implement or apply ego's ways are symbolized by kings, princes, rulers and judges. We fulfill ego's desires and fantasies when our consciousness is controlled by pride and loftiness, which act as lions and wolves that completely devour their prey. Their attitude and the circumstances where they act are desolating as a desert. Fantasies, mirages and illusions all take place out of the nothingness from where they come. All come from a false belief or feeling of lack, a deserted place in consciousness.

“Her Prophets are wanton and treacherous persons; her Priests have profaned that which is holy, they have done violence to the Torah.” (3:4)

In our own desolation there is no clear discernment under negative beliefs, ideas, thoughts, emotions, passions and instincts. Any possible advice to escape from them turn against our way out and the yearning to free ourselves from them. As we deny and reject Love's ways and attributes, we desecrate what is holy in us. We become traitors of ourselves without knowing it. Our best discernment and judgment (represented by the Prophets and Priests), capable of bringing consciousness close to our Creator, turn against us. The soiled, corrupted and oppressing aspects of consciousness transgress and violate God's ways and attributes He instructs us in the Torah.

“The Lord who is righteous is in the midst of her, He will not do unrighteousness; every morning He brings His right to light, it does not fail; but the unrighteous knew no shame.” (3:5)

This verse means that God maintains His goodness and righteousness, and never turns away from us. He doesn't act treacherously as we do, because His ways are not our ways. He makes the sun appear every morning in His unconditional Love to us, but we don't reciprocate with the same loving kindness. We are shameless to reject His Love in the ways and attributes He instructs us.

“I have cut off nations, their corners are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passes by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.” (3:6)

God's Love clears negativity we store in our consciousness. The metaphor of the desert is two-fold. On one hand, it represents the desolation we create in our life when negativity rules. On the other, it symbolizes the emptiness we must create in every aspect and dimension of consciousness in order to be filled with God's ways and attributes. Our ancestors spent forty years in the desert to transform their consciousness into vessels for God to reveal His Presence in the material world. The Prophet points this out as the prelude to invite God's Love to dwell permanently in our consciousness.

“Therefore you all wait for Me, says the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them My indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.” (3:8)

Again is reiterated the principle that God's ways don't cohabit with anything different from them. All aspects, potentials and tendencies of consciousness, represented by nations and kingdoms, must be gathered by God's ways. This is the beginning of God's Redemption. The process begins when we realize that we have to transform our consciousness through the fire of Love. Through loving one another and fulfilling God's Commandments in His Torah we are close to Him. In this closeness there is no jealousy, because there is no separation.

“For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” (3:9)

We are devoured and desolated by our separation from God's Love. As we realize this, we begin our return to His Oneness. This means a permanent connection with our Creator in one language, one consent in which we walk not only in God's ways but also with Him. We initiate our individual and collective Redemption as we unify all aspects and dimensions of consciousness in what we are, have and do. This unification comes as we allow Love to rule and direct all facets of life. Thus we call God's Name. We have said that God's Name and God's Glory is God's Love: All the Earth (as well as all His Creation) is full of His Glory.

“In that day you won't be ashamed for all your doings, wherein you has transgressed against Me; for then I will take away out of your midst your proudly exulting ones, and you shall no more be haughty in My holy mountain.” (3:11)

Only Love, as the manifestation of God's Love in the material world, has the power to transform the negative tendencies of our consciousness (our transgressions against Him). In order to allow God's Love to redeem us, we must remove ego's fantasies and illusions. These are the proud ones, the haughty ones that can't coexist with the ways and attributes of the Creator. We must be aware that in the place and time where we bond with God, His holy mountain (Zion, the Temple of Jerusalem), there is no room for ego's agenda.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (IV) Hosea

Hosea's message points out Ephraim's defection from God's plan for Israel. Let's recall that Ephraim represents the birthright he inherited from his father Joseph. In this context, Ephraim epitomizes the extension of the intention Israel embodies in our Covenant with the Creator. Ephraim symbolizes the rebel consciousness that rejects the unity of God with Israel, and prefers to embrace idolatry. Ephraim's rebellion antagonizes Judah's loyalty, crowned with the kingdom, which chose to remain in Jerusalem.

“Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” (Hosea 4:17)

In a deeper meaning, the strength of our intention to fulfill Israel's destiny – the birthright inherited by Ephraim – has the power to dominate and control the remaining aspects, levels and dimensions of consciousness, represented by the Tribes of Israel, except for the priesthood (Levi) and the kingship (Judah) that remained in Jerusalem. Kingship is the culmination of God's will. This is why Judah carries the Messianic Consciousness, the fulfillment of God's final Redemption in the material world. The Messianic Consciousness prevails above all. Judah and Levi remained loyal to Israel's destiny, and stayed in Jerusalem while Ephraim rebelled and dragged the remaining Tribes into idol worship.

“I, even I, know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me; for now, O Ephraim, you have committed harlotry, Israel is defiled.” (5:3)

If one aspect of our consciousness is defiled by ego's fantasies and negative ways, our entire consciousness is also defiled. In this sense, there is no separation because our consciousness is one despite its diverse traits, levels and dimensions. This implies that, even if Judah and Levi remained in Jerusalem, they also ended up defiled and corrupted by idol worship and wickedness.

“But the pride of Israel shall testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity, Judah also shall stumble with them.” (5:5)

Our Essence and true identity is defiled when we succumb to selfishness and self centeredness under a false belief or feeling of lack, which we satiate at the expense of our life and other people's lives. Thus we understand what the Psalmist means when he wrote that the idol makers become like their idols, the works of their hands. Hosea eloquently illustrates the fate of Ephraim and Judah with their choice to abandon God's Covenant with Israel. Hence it is up to us to return to Him because He heals the wounds left by our negative approach to life.

“I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their guilt, and seek My face; in their trouble they will seek Me earnestly: 'Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He has torn and He will heal us, He has smitten and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His Presence.” (5:15, 6:1-2)

Our estrangement from the Creator is not long. It may last few days or as long as we turn back to Him. Two days represent the two first temples of Jerusalem. The third day is the Third Temple where we dwell permanently with the Creator. As we yearn for God's Love, He also yearns for our Love as the common bond with Him.

“For I desire loving kindness and not sacrifices, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.” (6:6)

The more we know our Creator, the more we love Him and become more attached to Him. The foundation of the Messianic Consciousness is the knowledge of God, and also its purpose as it is written by Isaiah. God's Covenant with us is eternal, and we must be always aware of this. In this awareness lies our true Redemption, as God promised long before our estrangement from His Love.

“And it shall be at that day, says the Lord, that you shall call Me Ishi, and shall call Me no more Baali [my idol]. For I will take away the names of the Baalim [idols] out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.” (2:18-19)

In our awareness of God's Love in all dimensions of consciousness, He clears them from the darkness of ego's fantasies and illusions. Our consciousness becomes free from negative traits and tendencies, symbolized by wild beasts as passions and sensual desires; destructive thoughts and feelings represented by predatory fowls; and lower passions and instincts depicted as creeping animals.

“And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely.” (2:20)

Our conflicting, rebelling, confronting, antagonizing and potentially violent beliefs, ideas and thoughts are the bows and swords that turn life in a battleground. As we allow Love's ways, means, attributes and ends direct and guide all levels of consciousness, we begin to enter into our individual and collective Redemption. We begin to live our Redemption as we marry our consciousness with Love, as the material manifestation of God's Love.

“And I will marry you to Me forever; yea, I will marry you to Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in compassion. And I will marry you to Me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.” (2:21-22)

In the knowledge of God we redeem our existence in the freedom of the ways and attributes of His Love, which are the heralds of the Messianic Consciousness. As we recognize and embrace God's Love as our Essence and true identity, and live by it as what we are, have and do, we begin to live Heaven on Earth.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (III) Joel and Hosea

We have said that the messages of the Jewish Prophets have three levels to discern on. In Joel the first level related to our estrangement from the Creator is harsh in its words. This harshness indeed is what we experience while we live without bonding with God. However, He doesn't forget His Covenant with Israel.

“And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else; and My people shall never be ashamed.” (Joel 2:27)

We also have said that our Final Redemption arrives when we make the choice to return to His paths and Commandments by embracing goodness and Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love. As we allow Love to guide all aspects and facets of live, His Love is fully revealed to us.

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” (3:1-2)

Then there will be no fantasies and illusions that blur our discernment, thoughts, beliefs, ideas, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. All these belong to the flesh, to the material consciousness God imprinted on us. God's Spirit, His Love, will fill them all. All we are, have and do – our sons and daughters – will finally serve the purpose of our true Essence and identity. Prophecy is what makes us see with clarity. What we have learn (our old men) throughout life and our history will have multiple dimensions we never imagined before. New thinking and new expressions (our young men) will see and approach life and the world with different vision. All our talents, skills, traits and qualities (our servants and handmaids) will be filled with God's ways, means and ends.

In order to enter the dimension of God's Spirit we must leave behind our old, useless and negative ways. These are the lovers, wives and husbands we have been attached to for too long, and far from who we really are. God's Love speaks to us every moment to make us aware of our true Essence and identity. God constantly reminds us who He is for us. He is our Creator whose Love forms and sustains everything. Through the prophecy of Hosea, God lovingly calls us to return to Him.

“Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her harlotry from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts” (Hosea 2:4)

Our mother is our consciousness, and particularly the aspect of it that knows we belong to our Creator. In this context, the awareness of our permanent connection with God is represented by Jerusalem. Here the Prophet allegorically calls her our mother. As long as we allow ourselves to be “married” and “whore” with the lower aspects of consciousness and ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions, we know that the goodness of Love's ways and attributes are far from us. We have indicated often in our commentaries in this blog that in the same way that God doesn't dwell with anything different from His ways and attributes He shows us in this world, the same thing goes for Love's ways and attributes. This means that neither He is married to our prostituted consciousness or our prostituted consciousness to Him. In His loving kindness and compassion God never forgets or annul His Covenant with us. We return to the Creator when we let Him help us clear our consciousness from what we don't need.

“Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.” (2:5)

We take the first steps back to God when we remove the negative ways and ego's fantasies as the garments that keep us attached, addicted and bound to what denies our real freedom, which is with God. Once we empty all that denies Love's ways, we will thirst for God's ways as our true home.

“And I will not have compassion upon her children; for they are children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot, she that conceived them has done shamefully; for she said: 'I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink'.” (2:6-7)

If we don't yearn to be in our true home, and take the steps to our way back, we still remain in the realm of ego's fantasies and illusions. These are the children of the negative aspects of consciousness, the result of cohabiting with anything different from Love's ways and attributes. We live in ego's illusions believing they sustain and nurture our life. It's exactly all the way around. We feed them with the energy that comes from our true Essence and identity, the Soul our Creator gave us to live. We waste our Love and goodness to feed ego's fantasies and illusions.

“And she shall run after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but shall not find them; then shall she say: 'I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now'.” (2:9)

The recognition that God's Love is our true Essence and identity has the power to compel our consciousness to return to Him.

“For she did not know that it was I that gave her the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they [the children of Israel] used for Baal.” (2:10)

Let's remind ourselves that the Tribes of Israel are diverse traits and qualities imprinted in the consciousness of every Jew. The Torah, which defines our Jewish identity, tells us that all the Tribes must be united to serve God in their individual ways and capacity. We honor our identity by serving God's ways and not ego's fantasies and illusions. These are the idols, the Baal and Baalim, in which we waste our vitality (corn, wheat), our well being and happiness (wine), our intellect and knowledge (oil), and the goodness of life represented by silver and gold.

“And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, wherein she offered unto them, and decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly unto her.” (2:15-16)

As we leave behind all our material fantasies, desires and illusions, and embrace Love's ways and attributes, God's Love will call us tenderly and speak to our heart. Once our Love embraces God's Love, He will fill all aspects, levels and dimensions of consciousness with His Redemption. Here the Messianic consciousness begins to manifest in us.

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.