The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXIII) Isaiah

“It has been exacted, and he has answered. And he opens not his mouth as a lamb to the slaughter he is brought. And as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, and he opens not his mouth.” (53:7)

We have said that goodness is the expression of Love as the material manifestation of God's Love. Goodness is not haughty, and does not boast or pretend. Like truth, goodness does not need to defend itself. Thus we understand that the shearers of goodness find it dumb. Such is the way of ego's fantasies and illusions before Love's ways and attributes.

Ego's materialistic desires find no reason or meaning in goodness. Likewise, in spite of Israel's contributions to humankind, he has been silenced and slaughtered without even defending himself. Oppression in his land (by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome), exile (Egypt, Babylon, the Diaspora), persecution and extermination (by Muslims “holy” wars, Christians Crusades and Inquisition, Pogroms, the Holocaust).

“By restraint and by judgment he has been taken, and of his generation who does meditate that he has been cut off from the land of the living? By the transgression of my people he is plagued. And it appoints with the wicked his grave, and with the rich are his high places. Because he has done no violence, nor is deceit in his mouth.” (53:8-9)

Humankind has not meditated quite enough about removing goodness from life. How can we find a transcending meaning in existence without living in goodness? Goodness is the cause, reason and purpose of life! How can it be cut off from life? At the same time the Prophet points out the consequences of restraining or removing goodness from human consciousness.

Goodness fails and dismays by negative traits and trends. These are the plagues we bring to Love as our Essence and true identity. Our transgressions lead us to share the same grave with the wicked. Goodness as our richness shares the high places with those who are also good. As long as we allow goodness to conduct all aspects and dimensions of life, there will never be violence or deceit.

“And the Lord has delighted to bruise him, He has made him sick. If his soul does make an offering for guilt, He sees seed, -- he prolongs days. And the pleasure of the Lord in his hand does prosper.” (53:10)

This painful metaphor must be understood in the proper context, which is that God does not delight Himself by inflicting pain on others. God takes for Himself the pain and suffering of His people. He takes Israel's oppression by the nations as His own, for in every defeat, humiliation and affliction, Israel's mission remains and transcends. For every sacrifice Israel does, there is a planted seed aimed to protect the goodness in life. God find pleasure in goodness, and makes it prosper despite the opposition of negative trends in consciousness.

“Of the labor of his soul He sees, he is satisfied. Through his knowledge he gives righteousness, the righteous one My servant to many. And their iniquities he does bear.” (53:11)

God sees the goodness Israel provides to humankind, by which he is pleased. Israel's knowledge and wisdom come from the Torah and his bond with the Creator. Anything opposite to that, Israel has to bear until the cause of evil will be finally removed from the face of the earth.

“Therefore I give a portion to him among the many, and with the mighty he apportions spoil, because that he exposed to death his soul. And with transgressors he was numbered, and he the sin of many has borne. And for transgressors he intercedes.” (53:12)

God is Israel's portion. This premise justifies Israel's mission in the world as stated in the Torah. Hence the “spoil” Israel gets is with the “mighty”, for God is the strength with which Israel prevails. This in addition to Israel's facing death in his endurance to maintain the Covenant with God. This endurance have also faced Israel's own transgressions as well as others' transgressions for which he is counted as bearer of their sins.

Therefore Israel is the middle man between sin and redemption from sin, the catalyst from the materialistic consciousness to the spiritual awareness that makes us realize our true identity and purpose in life. As we indicated earlier, Israel represents our highest level of consciousness from where we are able to transcend the lower traits and trends that separate us from the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as material manifestations of God's Love.

Again we must remark that the Final Redemption and the Messianic Era promised in the Torah (Deuteronomy 30:3-10) and reiterated by the Prophets will manifest through Israel, the people of the Covenant with God. It has been decided and decreed by God.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXII) Isaiah

We are going to reflect on Isaiah's chapter 53, which became the foundation for the worst face of anti-Semitism and judeophobia that ever existed in history. Other western religions have used their own interpretations of this chapter to condone, justify and promote the persecution and extermination of the Jewish people. Such interpretations are wrongly based on the complexities of Isaiah's phrasing of his words in this particular chapter. Fortunately, the Prophet already have given us previous clear contextual references that lead us to understand his words according to the traditional Jewish interpretation.

Isaiah presents his words interchanging Israel as a single person and as a people, juxtaposing his own words with God's words, and the interaction of Israel as a people with Israel as an individual. Israel as the ideal primordial Jew in contrast to Israel as the secular people far from emulating the ideal primordial Jew. With this clarifying preamble we begin to reflect on the verses of this chapter.

“Who has given credence to that which we heard? And the arm of the Lord on whom has it been revealed? Yea, he comes up as a tender plant before Him, and as a root out of a dry land. He has no form nor honor when we observe him, nor appearance when we desire him.” (Isaiah 53:1-2)

The Prophet speaks to the nations, questioning their credence to what the people of Israel have heard from the Creator. Have the nations really believed the teachings of the Torah that Israel understood from God? Do they believe in the God of Israel that have revealed His words, and in Israel as the arm to which He gave His revelation? Isaiah compares Israel to a sprout rooted in a dry land.

The metaphor tells us that the shoot represents life in the harshness of a dry land as the dead field from which it is destined to sprout and fructify. Goodness destined to prevail amid the barrenness of evil. The goodness of Love's ways and attributes over the futility of ego's fantasies and illusions. There is nothing that can shape the Jewish identity except the Torah.

Israel doesn't need to have a particular form of reference outside of the Torah, or a special honor in his appearance to be perceived by the nations. The external appearance of the Jewish people is the same as the rest of humans. Israel does not boast for having exterior form, sign or honor.

“He is despised, and left of men. A man of pains, and acquainted with sickness. And as one hiding the face from us, he is despised and we esteemed him not. Surely our sicknesses he has borne, and our pains he has carried them. And we, we have esteemed him plagued, smitten of God and afflicted.” (53:3-4)

Israel became the despised and outcast by the mission God gave them as His chosen people to build a place for Him to dwell in the world. This treatment by the nations have caused Israel pain and suffering throughout history. There has not been sincere appreciation or esteem for the people that have shared their Godly instruction with humankind. The Prophet joins the nations to call the ideal preeminence of Israel disesteemed and plagued, as if smitten and afflicted by God Himself.

“And he is pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace is on him, and by his bruise there is healing to us.” (53:5)

Israel as the ideal primordial human consciousness to manifest God's will in the material world is indeed oppressed and harmed by our own transgressions, including Jews and non-Jews. Our highest level in consciousness is harmed by our iniquities and negative trends, for these oppose the goodness our highest awareness yearns for to fulfill God's will. We must reiterate that all we do against our goodness affects our peace. There is no peace while we let iniquities running our consciousness.

Let's be aware that peace also means wholesomeness, completion, and totality. A fractured consciousness is the result of our inability to harmonically integrating all its aspects, dimensions and expressions as a functional unity whose purpose is to make goodness prevail in the material world. Our punishment for transgressing against goodness is on our peace. In this context Israel represents the encompassing harmonic unity destined to serve God's plan for this world.

The oppression of Israel by the nations is also a lesson for them to learn about the effects of harming goodness. This intricate allegory must be understood not as implying that harming one person heals the offender, but a positive lesson to learn after we realize the harm caused to those who have not harmed others. This is not about atoning for someone by harming oneself. Harming Israel does not provide atonement for the nations, but the opposite, as it is written: “I'll bless those who bless you, and I'll curse the one who curses you, and through you all the people of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3).

“All of us like sheep have wandered, each to his own way we have turned. And the Lord has caused to meet on him the punishment of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Again the Prophet underlines Israel's responsibility as the Light to the nations: “And I give you [Israel] for a Covenant of a people, and a light to the nations.” (42:6), “And I have given you for a light to the nations, to be My redemption unto the end of the earth.” (49:6). Isaiah includes himself among the Jews and non-Jews who have strayed from God's ways, and follow the negative ways of ego's fantasies and illusions.

As we already mentioned, our iniquities are carried by our goodness. Our higher consciousness bears the weight of all our deeds. The iniquities and transgressions we allow in the world come back to confront our goodness. In a deeper level, we are responsible of every belief, idea, thought, feeling, emotion, passion and instinct in our consciousness. Hence ultimately our goodness is responsible for what we do.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXI) Isaiah

“How beautiful upon the mountains have been the feet of the One proclaiming tidings, sounding peace, proclaiming good tidings, sounding redemption; saying to Zion: 'Reigned has your God'!” (52:7)

God proclaims His good tidings, peace and Redemption in the heights of our consciousness. These are the mountains where His feet (His ways and attributes) rest upon. In these high levels He speaks to Zion as our eternal bond with Him, comforting us by saying that He always has been the King. Goodness is the name of His reign.

“The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing. For eye to eye they see in the Lord returning to Zion.” (52:8)

Our watchmen are the positive qualities, traits and trends that rejoice to recognize God's Love as our Creator. Goodness is the tower from where we are destined to see life and every aspect, dimension and expression of consciousness. In this reference and approach we also see God's Love revealing within ourselves.

Our Love and God's Love meet in Zion, and both loves see each other in their long awaited and yearned final encounter. This is the culmination of our Final Redemption, and the beginning of the Messianic Era. With our Love we return to God's Love, and we will see Him returning to us in Zion.

“Break forth into joy, sing together, O wasted places of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth have seen the redemption of our God.” (52:9-10)

All aspects and dimensions of consciousness are destined to be a harmonic functional unity, expressing itself with the joy of singing along before God's revealed Presence among (in) us. In this awareness we realize that His Love is our comforter and Redemption from the fantasies and illusions we have created out of the material world. God's arm is His will that all His Creation will accept as the absolute truth that is, and all that exists will see His Redemption.

“Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from there. Touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her. Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord. For not in haste do ye go out, for going before you is the Lord. And gathering you is the God of Israel!” (52:11-12)

Through the Prophet, God is urging us to leave the unclean things that contaminate our Essence and true identity as the foundations of our connection with Him. These are God's vessels in which He pours His blessings, for our Essence and identity are the source of His blessings.

Trusting God's Love is more important than our hurry to be redeemed from centuries of negative fantasies and illusions. First we must realize that God is our Creator, and we don't belong to ourselves but to Him. Thus we understand that He goes before us. God is gathering us from all the corners of the world to reveal His Redemption before the eyes of the nations. They will know that the only God is the God of Israel.

“Behold, My servant [Israel] does act wisely, he is high, and has been lifted up, and has been very high. As astonished at you have been many, so marred by man his appearance, and his form by sons of men.” (52:13-14)

Again God reminds us that Israel is His servant ever since He took us out of Egypt to be His chosen people. He made us wise with His Torah, and elevated us to be the Light for the nations. In His Final Redemption God gathers us back into our land, after being assimilated among the nations, and “marred by man his appearance, and his form by sons of men”.

We must begin our individual and collective in gathering from among the nations and return to our land, that also represents the goodness God wants us to live and make prevail in all aspects and dimensions of life.

“So does he sprinkle many nations. Concerning him kings shut their mouth. For that which was not recounted to them they have seen, and that which they had not heard they have understood!” (52:15)

In their dispersion around world, the children of Israel have enlightened many nations with the teachings of the Torah, striving to make goodness prevail. Since Abraham and Moses through kings David and Solomon, and up to our times, the contributions of the Jewish people to the nations have been essential and indispensable. All these in spite of constant persecution, harassment, humiliation, oppression and extermination. Jewish contributions to humankind are unquestioned and uncontested.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXX) Isaiah

“Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion. Put the garments of your beauty, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For enter no more into you again the uncircumcised and the unclean.” (Isaiah 52:1)

There is a necessary awakening through the highest levels of discernment and understanding in our consciousness, which are the foundations of the awareness of our permanent connection with God (represented by Jerusalem and its Temple). This awakening requires obstinate determination and relentless willfulness as the required strength to return and regain such awareness.

In this awakening we adorn our consciousness with the qualities, traits and trends of the goodness out of Love's ways and attributes, for these are our real beauty and intrinsic holiness. In this awakening and awareness there is no place for anything different or opposite to them, which are referred here as the uncircumcised and the unclean. The verse above reiterates implicitly that the awakening of Jerusalem is the renaissance of Israel as the advent of the Messianic Era. The in gathering of the exiled Jews in the Land of Israel is the prelude to this Divinely announced final stage in human consciousness.

“Shake yourself from the dust. Arise, sit, O Jerusalem. The bands of your neck have loosed themselves, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus said the Lord: 'For nothing ye have been sold, and not by money are ye redeemed'.” (52:2-3)

God reminds us again that He has taken the burden of negative traits and trends from our consciousness. Therefore now depends on us to shake ourselves from the dust and dirt we do not need to bear anymore. We have to arise from the dust and sit in the throne of goodness as our true essential identity. We are not captives anymore, for our Creator is saying so.

God's Love is so good to us that He is telling us that our ransom does not cost us the same amount for which we sold our goodness. God speaks giving us His eternal loving kindness, even if we are undeserving. We have sold our consciousness for the nothingness and futility of ego's fantasies and illusions, and He redeems it without asking us to pay. God does not pay us with the same coin we sold our consciousness.

“For thus said the Lord God: 'To Egypt My people went down at first to sojourn there, and Asshur for nothing he has oppressed it. Now therefore what do I here, says the Lord, seeing that My people is taken away for nothing? They that rule over them do howl, said the Lord, and My Name continually all the day is despised.” (52:4-5)

God makes a difference between the subjugation in Egypt that He decreed, and the oppression by Assyria that was unnecessary. Indeed we were punished for our inclination to idolatry by being conquered and ruled by other nations, but the case of Assyria was exceptional. This nation not only oppressed Israel, but continuously desecrated God's Name.

Once again we must remark that the events in Isaiah's times also represent situations that are also reflections of what is happening in our consciousness. Even if negative things happen to us without apparent reasons, we still have to face them as the learning process God wants us to experience in the material world. Besides, we still live within the parameters of cause and effect.

Everything we have done or created not only has outcomes and consequences in our immediate surroundings, but also in the rest of God's Creation at large. The so called “butterfly effect” looks pale compared to the real effect of the mere fact of being living entities created by an infinite and inconceivable God.

“Therefore do My people know My Name, therefore in that day surely I am the One who speaks, behold Me.” (52:6)

As long as we recognize the ways and attributes of the Creator, what is meant to be understood as “knowing” His Name, we are able to realize that His will is the one that is being done, not ours. The Messianic Era is the time and space in which God's will and our free will are united together in consonance. That is “the day” when we all will realize that He is the One who speaks, and none else. Ego's agenda and all that is opposed to the goodness He wants us to guide and direct all aspects of life, will disappear and we will be able to see His will fully revealed in His Creation.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXIX) Isaiah

“And I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion: 'You are My people'.” (Isaiah 51:16)

God reiterates His Love for Israel, underlying again the Torah as the encompassing principle of the Jewish identity. God's words (the Torah) are meant to be in Israel's expression in all dimensions of life, and they are the protecting hand on which His Creation is sustained. Thus we understand the Torah as God's blueprint of both the material and spiritual worlds. Being called His people by God is another reiteration of the same principle.

God's words are the foundation and purpose of His Creation, and these are put in Israel's mouth as expressions of being Jewish. These are meant not only to be uttered in our speech but also in all our actions, in order to “plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth”.

Let's be mindful that here He refers to Israel as Zion, for this is the awareness of our permanent connection with God. This verse is another one of many in the Hebrew Bible that make us aware that the Jewish identity lies in Zion as our eternal bond with the Creator. This reminder for Israel is the preamble for God asking us to return to Him.

“Stir yourself, stir yourself, rise Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. The goblet, the cup of trembling you have drunk, you have wrung out. There is not a leader to her out of all the sons she has borne, and there is none laying hold on her hand out of all the sons she has nourished.” (51:17-18)

God asks us to shake our consciousness, remove the fantasies and illusions were we have trapped our selves, and return to the elevated place of our permanent connection with Him (Jerusalem). He calls up to our common bond with Him, which is our Love and His Love. The Creator is telling us that the cup of His fury is nothing more and nothing less than our separation and distance from His ways and attributes. We have drunk until the last drop of our separation from Him, that makes us tremble in the suffering of living away from Love as our essence and true identity. All we have created out of ego's fantasies and illusions have not served to bring us back to Love's ways and attributes.

“These two things are meeting you, who is moved for you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword. Who? I comfort you.” (51:19)

Desolation and destruction are the cause and also the effect of lack (famine) and violence (the sword). God asks us again what can save us out of the negative traits and trends we chose to believe, create and do. None would move to save us from them, for they make us become like them (we become the idols we have made from our hands). Hence God reminds us that He is the only One who comforts us with His Love by waiting for our return to goodness as the cause and purpose of His Creation.

“Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild ox in a net. They are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.” (51:20)

Our negative addictions, attachments, obsessions, beliefs, thoughts, speech and actions make faint the goodness in us that leads us to live in the freedom of Love's ways and attributes. We end up in the streets of materialistic fantasies and illusions, in which ego as a wild ox is trapped. Our negative trends set the separation and distance from God's ways, and become His anger and rebuke.

“Therefore hear now this, you afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. Thus says your God the Lord, and your God that pleaded the cause of His people: Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the goblet, the cup of My fury you do not drink it any more.” (51:21-22)

God makes us aware that our drunkenness is not by the joy and cheer that come from wine, but from the predicament of frustration, haughtiness, greed, coveting, indifference, depression, anger, additions, obsessions, attachments, etc. God repeats twice here that He is not only our Creator but also the Father and King that is always on the side of goodness for the sake and purpose of goodness. He already announced His Final Redemption, which means that He never separated from us and that it is up to us to return to His ways and attributes as the foundation of His Redemption.   

“And I have put it into the hand of them that afflict you, who have said to your soul: 'Bow down, and we pass over', and you have made your body as the ground, and as the street to them passing over.” (51:23)

God tells us that affliction and suffering belong to those who cause them. Negative deeds belong to their predicament and consequences, and those who live by them are afflicted by them. They make us bow to them as their slaves, and thus we are trapped and passed over as downtrodden to the ground, and turned into the ground itself. With this principle of cause and effect God makes us aware that the choice is only ours.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXVIII) Isaiah

“Hearken unto Me, ye who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is My Torah. Fear ye not the reproach of men, and for their insults be not broken.” (51:7)

After the previous introductory verse regarding righteousness, God summons us to return to His ways and attributes as the ones whose heart follows them. These are in the Torah that instructs us to assimilate them as our Jewish identity, with which there is nothing to fear before the darkness of negative trends in consciousness. These are the “reproach of man” that pursue our defeat by ego's fantasies and illusions that insult the intrinsic goodness of Love's ways and attributes.

“For like a garment the moth shall eat them up, and like wool the worm shall eat them. But My righteousness shall be forever, and My redemption for all generations. [Isaiah says] Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the Lord. Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it You Who cuts Rahab in pieces, Who pierces a dragon!” (51:8-9)

Negative traits and trends in consciousness, derived from ego's fantasies and illusions, by definition are temporary and destined to disappear. They are not permanent and do not transcend, unlike Love's ways and attributes that are our cause, reason and purpose to live. The latter are the expressions of righteousness that transcends as the Redemption God gives us to live in forever. Hence we have to trust in what transcends in the life God wants us to have in the material world. This trust is the strength to which we must awaken, for it is the driving force that open every level and dimension of consciousness to God's Redemption. Righteousness is the strong arm with which Love directs and guides ego (“pierces the dragon”) along with negative traits and trends (“cuts Rahab in pieces”).

“Isn't it You Who dries up the sea, the waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? The ransomed of the Lord [the children of Israel] return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy is on their head, they attain gladness and joy. Fled away have sorrow and sighing.” (51:10-11)

God is the Creator of all, and He controls and directs all that exists, which includes His power to transform for the sake of freedom and redemption. The verse alludes to the Exodus from Egypt (“the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over”), as a reference that He also will redeem us from the dark side of our consciousness. From darkness we will return to God with a joyful heart that will rejoice forever.

“I, I am He your comforter, who are you and [why] you are afraid of man? he dies! And of the son of man, grass he is made! And you do forget the Lord your Maker, Who is stretching out the heavens, and founding earth! And you do fear continually all the day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?” (51:12-13)

God questions the attachment and dependence on our addictions, obsessions and negative beliefs, emotions, feelings and actions as the works (creations) of man. These are our own inventions out of ego's fantasies and illusions. We fear being away from them, for we believe that they are stronger than our will to abandon them. In this sense we understand our fear of them, even if they are as ephemeral as grass, and as temporary as material life. As long as we depend on them, they are the oppressor prepared to destroy us.

God calls our attention to realize that anything coming out of our own fantasies and illusions have no anger, fury or power to destroy us, unless we let them. Ultimately we become the oppressors of our true identity, by allowing our negatives traits and trends to take over our discernment, thoughts, mind, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts.

“Speedily the captive is set to be free, and he does not die at the pit, and his bread is not lacking. And I am the Lord your God, quieting the sea when its waves roar. The Lord of Multitudes is His Name.” (51:14-15)

God reminds us again that His Redemption has always been near and in our reach. He also makes us aware that His promise will be fulfilled, in spite of our negligence to return to His ways and attributes as the cause and effect of our total freedom. God's Love is never lacking and goodness never dies, even in the depths of darkness. We come from God's Love, which is our peace, wholesomeness, completeness and plenitude, and quiets the upheavals of our struggles against the darkness of negative trends, “quieting the sea when it waves roar”. God's Love creates the immeasurable multitudes of His Creation that proclaim Him as our Maker and King, for the sake of His Name.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXVII) Isaiah

“Hearken unto Me, ye pursuing righteousness, seeking the Lord. Look attentively unto the rock from which ye have been cut, and unto the hole of the pit from which ye have been dug. Look attentively unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that brings you forth. For when he was yet one alone, I have called him, and I bless him, and multiply him.” (Isaiah 51:1-2)

We have said often that goodness as the essential expression of Love is our common bond with the Creator. Indeed it is the foundation of what we understand as His image and likeness: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His loving kindness is eternal.” (Psalms 106:1, 25:8, 34:8, 86:5, 100:5, 118:1, 118:29, 135:3, 145:9, 147:1; Ezra 3:11; 2 Chronicles 5:13, 7:3; Nahum 1:7; Lamentations 3:25).

King David and the Jewish Prophets want to remind us this fundamental principle the Torah repeatedly indicates: the Creator is good, and wants to make us aware that we are also essentially good, for we come from the goodness of His Love. Hence He is telling us through Isaiah that those who pursue His righteousness as His goodness first must be aware of the seed from which we were conceived.

The rock and the pit from which we come as allegories of the solid loving kindness of Abraham, and the abundant generosity of Sarah's womb. God depicts Abraham's loving kindness as unique (“alone”), and the reason for blessing him and multiply him. Thus we realize that God's abundant loving kindness and truth (Exodus 34:6) are the source of His blessings. These attributes are the foundation of the goodness God wants us to make prevail in us individually and collectively as a nation, in order to be spread out to all mankind.

“For the Lord has comforted Zion, He has comforted all her ruins. And He makes her wilderness as Eden, and her desert as a garden of the Lord. Joy, yea, gladness is found in her, thanksgiving, and the voice of song.” (Isaiah 51:3)

This verse follows immediately to make us realize that the foundation of our connection (the place called Zion) with the Creator is the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. God's Love restores and comforts our bond with Him. He turns the desolation of living in the negative traits and trends of ego's fantasies and illusions into the delights of goodness. The latter are the Eden, the gardens, the gladness and the joy living in God's ways and attributes.

“Attend to Me, My people; give ear to Me, My nation. For the Torah comes forth from Me, and My justice as a light for peoples to whom I will give rest. Near is My righteousness. My redemption has gone forth, and My arms judge peoples. The isles do wait on Me; yea, on My arm they do wait with hope.” (51:4-5)

The Torah encompasses God's ways and attributes that indeed define our Jewish identity, and make us His people and His nation. The Torah is the instruction we have to hearken and understand as the righteous path that becomes our being just. In this justice we find our freedom and enlightenment that make us live in encompassing peace as the rest God wants us to live in. Thus we realize that the Redemption God gives forth, and the judgment of His arms comes from the righteousness of His Love. Those who live in righteousness await His Redemption, for living in His ways and attributes is what keeps our hope in His deliverance from negative traits and trends in consciousness.

“Lift ye up to the heavens your eyes, and look attentively unto the earth beneath. For the heavens as smoke have vanished, and the earth as a garment worn out, and its inhabitants as gnats do die. But My redemption is forever, and My righteousness is not broken.” (50:6)

God invites us to reflect (lifting our eyes) on the spiritual (heavens) and the material (earth) aspects of His Creation, and realize that both do not transcend in their own existence. He tells us that what indeed transcends is the awareness of living in His Redemption as the beginning of the final and endless stage of His Creation, the eternal Shabbat that is the culmination of His ultimate plan.

This final stage is set by the righteousness of the goodness He wants to make prevail in His Creation. Thus we understand that righteousness and goodness are parts of the same encompassing principle that Love is, as the material manifestation of God's Love.