JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (V)

“Who shall ascend to the mount of the Lord? And who shall rise in His sacred place?”

(Psalms 24:3)

Again the Psalmist brings up the common trait the Creator wants us to we share with Him in order to dwell with Him, which is sacredness. The verse indicates that our approaching to God is indeed an ascending journey or process through which we detach ourselves from anything different or opposed to goodness as what makes us sacred before Him.

In goodness we not only ascend to elevate all levels and dimensions of consciousness but also rise ourselves to what God wants us to experience in His sacredness. This we are not able to fathom, conceive, discern or assimilate, for God’s sacredness belongs to a level or dimension that we only will be able to grasp when we get there.

“He who has clean hands, and a pure heart, that has not taken My Name in vain, and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his redemption. Such is the generation of they that seek after Him, that seek Your countenance, Jacob, forever.” (24:4-6)

These verses teach us that God associates His Name with the cleanliness, purity and truthfulness of goodness. King David emphasizes once more that the sacredness of goodness is only experienced by living with the ethical principle that it embodies. This means that goodness does not compromise, blend, mix or cohabit with anything different from its ways, means and attributes.

In goodness we are blessed and God blesses us with the righteousness inherent in it, which by definition is our redemption. We understand the latter as the eternal state of consciousness free from the negative traits and trends of an evil approach to life.

The eternal freedom in goodness is the inheritance of those who pursue it as the way to live in God’s promised final redemption. This is the inheritance of the descendants of Jacob who seek to live in God’s goodness for eternity.

“I will wash my hands in innocence; so I may encompass Your altar, O Lord. To hear in the voice of gratefulness, and to tell all Your marvels. Lord, I love the habitation of Your house; and the place, the temple of Your glory.” (26:6-8)

The ascent King David mentioned before requires the innocence that is also inherent in goodness, as it rules all aspects and expressions of life. We must wash and clean our thoughts, emotions and feelings, along with refining our passions and instincts, in order to turn them into vessels to be filled with the goodness of love’s ways and attributes.

In goodness we enable our consciousness to encompass and embrace the highest goodness of all, depicted as the “altar” of God. This knowledge leads us to the gratefulness we owe to our Creator, and in this sublime awareness we will be able to fathom His magnificent marvels and the transcendence of His glory.

In love we also exalt the jubilation of dwelling eternally in God’s house and His glory, as the ultimate state of consciousness for which we came to this world to fulfill the destiny He wants for us when we choose to live only in the permanent awareness of goodness.

In this coming verse, the Psalmist makes us realize that indeed such destiny is what we all should yearn for and ask our Creator.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the pleasantness of the Lord and to visit in His temple.” (27:4)

Once we come to this awareness, we only live to yearn with the ardent desire of being eternally close to our Creator. Hence we pray constantly to be freed from the attachments, obsessions and addictions imposed by ego’s fantasies and illusions that prevent us to embrace the freedom only goodness provides.

The lesson we learn from them is to value and appreciate goodness as the moral freedom that empower our discernment to lead our mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings and instincts with the righteousness inherent in goodness.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (IV)

“[May the Lord] Send forth your help from the altar [lit. from the sacred], and from Zion [He may] support you.” (Psalms 20:3)

All comes from God, and He sustains and supports His creation. This principle includes the help we need to fulfill our existence, especially when it is according to His will. In this verse King David is referring to a particular kind of help and support that only comes from the sacredness of God’s presence in this world, which is His chosen place known as Zion.

We realize that the Creator has multiple ways to sustain His creation, ones more sublime than others, as we see it in this verse. We have to be sacred in order to approach God’s sacredness.

This ideal requires from us to detach from the negative traits and trends derived from an egocentric approach to life, by embracing the ways and attributes of goodness that are our bond with the Creator of all. For this we need the help that comes precisely from the highest level of our consciousness also known as the altar of the Sanctuary in Zion.

The verses that follow give us the context of the Psalmist’s plea to God.

“[That may the Lord] Remember all your meal offerings and your burnt offerings forever. [To] Grant you according to [what] your heart [desires], and fulfill all your plans.” (20:4-5)

The offerings we bring to the Temple of Jerusalem are commanded by God to make us close to Him. We have mentioned that the Hebrew semantic root for “offering” is the same for “closeness”.

In this closeness we are actually redeemed from anything that prevents our well being, plenitude and self-realization. Hence our desires and plans must be aimed to pursue only goodness in life, as God wants us to experience His ways and attributes in this world.

“Only loving kindness and compassion shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever [lit. for many long days].” (23:6)

If we paraphrase this verse, we understand that in order to dwell in God’s presence manifest in His house, the Temple of Jerusalem, only loving kindness and compassion must lead every aspect and expression of life.

The previous verses in the chapter quoted here refer to what happens in us when we embrace God’s ways and attributes as the ruling ethical principles and fundamentals to experience life in this world.

The outcome is stated in this verse, as the culmination of living in full awareness of the goodness coming from our Creator.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXXVII)

“And further from these, my son, be warned. The making of many books has no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the whole matter let us hear, ‘Revere [lit. fear] God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man; for every work God brings into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether good or bad’.”

(Ecclesiastes 12:12-13)

King Solomon ends his enlightening message as the one who congregates to unite his people, Israel, that he calls here his “son” to be guided by God’s will.

No matter how much we learn from the world and its nature, as well as from the knowledge found or amassed by human consciousness about life, most of this knowledge becomes a tiresome burden.

Kohelet’s essential message is reiterated by making us aware that what truly matters in life is goodness as the ruling principle in God’s creation, which is the purpose of all the commandments in His Torah. This is the foundation of the Jewish identity.

In goodness nothing escapes from its ethical frame, because is based on the ruling principle of cause and effect, which is the “judgment” that justifies goodness. Hence all our actions, good or bad, depend on this principle.

From this we finally are able to assimilate that goodness is the cause and also the effect of itself. As we integrate this principle in our consciousness, the Creator will respond with His final redemption as the Psalmist assures.

“I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and to His loving ones; and let them not turn back to folly. Surely His redemption is nigh them who revere Him, so that glory may dwell in our land.” (Psalms 85:9)

In this awareness goodness is our truth and it will be united with the compassion of God’s goodness.

“Compassion and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs out of the earth and righteousness has looked down from heaven. Also the Lord will give that which is good and our land shall yield her produce. Righteousness shall go before Him and shall make His footsteps a way.” (Ibid. 85:11-14)

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne, compassion and truth go before You.” (Ibid. 89:15)

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXXVI)

“In the day that keepers of the house tremble, and men of strength have bowed themselves, and grinders have ceased, because they have become few. And the watchers at the windows have become dim, and the doors shall be shut in the street. When the sound of the grinding is low and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low. Yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be in the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets.” (Ecclesiastes 12:2-5)

These verses refer to evil in its darkest hour, when there is no hope to be redeemed from its ways, traits and trends that seem to seize goodness from human consciousness as the “house” where the “keepers” tremble.

These keepers and watchers along with the “strength” to “grind” become scarce when goodness must be defended in order to make it prevail against evil.

The joy in the hearts as the song of the positive traits and trends (“daughters”) become low and dim, as life at the end of its journey in the grave. The altitude required for the right attitude also become as low as the ground.

“While that the silver cord is not removed, and the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher broken by the fountain, and the wheel broken at the well. And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the soul returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, said the Kohelet, all is vanity!” (12:6-8)

Once death arrives as a consequence of living in the emptiness of futility under the sun, is appropriate to say that all is vanity. Ego’s fantasies and illusions seem to reign in the material world, aimed to take away the lifeline of the soul that God has given us to know Him in His ways and attributes as the source of all that is good, for in goodness we begin to know the Creator of all.

“And further, because the Kohelet was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, and gave ear, and sought out, he made right many similes. The Kohelet sought to find out pleasing words written by the upright words of truth. Words of the wise are as goads, and as fences planted by the masters of collections, they have been given by one Shepherd.” (12:7-11)

This is the wisdom as the knowledge of God that the Kohelet, King Solomon, taught to help us find the joy in the “right many smiles” of goodness, for in the one Shepherd that the Creator is, we find the pleasing “upright words of truth”.

These are the goads and fences planted by the positive ways, means, and attributes of goodness, given by God as the qualities that sooner than later will collect their fruits in the field of life in this world.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXXIII)

“If the snake bites before it is charmed, then there is no profit for the charmer’s tongue. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him? The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.” (Ecclesiastes 10:11-15)

An undeveloped and uneducated discernment leads to foolish choices and decisions that can bring destruction. The same goes for an uncontrolled egotism, similar to an untamed snake that can kill the goodness that we have to embrace as the ruling principle in consciousness.

We have no profit, benefit or advancement in beliefs, thoughts, emotions and feelings inspired or fed by negative traits, but actually having the opposite. Hence we realize that our words and actions are the expressions of what we believe in, either good or bad. Thus we are able to know what is coming to us after what we say or do.

Nobody can tell us about the outcome of our actions but these. Our own ignorance leads us to the effects of our foolishness, derived from ego’s fantasies and illusions that obstruct our awareness of goodness as the city where we all belong. In this sense, “the city” is also Jerusalem as the permanent awareness of our connection with the Creator.

“Woe to you, land, when your king is a youth and your princes banquet [lit. eat] in the morning! Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks.” (10:16-18)

We have learned that the earth and the land symbolize life, while kings and nobles represent the ruling beliefs and principles from which we conduct ourselves.

The first verse refers to wasteful and undermining traits and trends that turn life into something meaningless and futile as drunkenness, in contrast to the positive qualities that strengthen goodness as the cause and purpose of life.

Here we are warned to constantly live in goodness, and not fall in the idleness of vanity and futility that weaken and destroy the dignity of life.

“A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life glad; and money is the answer for all things.” (10:19)

This verse contains two separate statements, both meant to complement each other. As we have mentioned, the purpose of life is goodness as its laughter and enjoyment that are expressions of its plenitude and wholeness.

What money has to do with this? Money exists as the means to acquire services, goods and assets which are needed to achieve the plenitude and fullness of life in this material world under the sun.

We learned from our Sages that in the spiritual worlds there are no material possessions to be acquired, for the spirit is not sustained by matter. In this world the human body nurtures from physical food, for which we are commanded by God to work for. Thus we buy to acquire or possess what we need, in order to live and survive as human beings.

In this context we assimilate that “money is the answer of all things”, as the means to acquire the necessary things to make life as comfortable and pleasurable as God wants us to.

This is not meant to be forever while we live in the material world, for our Prophets tell us about “the end of times” when we won’t need money to live in the abundance and plenitude of the knowledge of the Creator.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXXII)

“There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.”

(Ecclesiastes 10:5-7)

Here Kohelet reminds us that every choice that we make has effects or consequences. This applies to positive actions and negative choices. The second verse is quite insightful for us to understand the times we live. When he says that “folly is set in great dignity”, is referring to the glamorization of ego’s fantasies and illusions, presented as respectable options for an acceptable lifestyle.

This cultural, social or fashion trend considers certain beliefs that label goodness according to their own benefit or gain as part of the dignity inherent in life. Thus we understand the “rich” as the ones who believe in the uncompromising quality of goodness, sitting it in the “low place” of materialistic fantasies and illusions.

The final verse illustrates this moral decay when we see the fool acclaimed as respectable, and the respectable (the “princes”) behaving as slaves by their materialistic obsessions, attachments and addictions.

“He who digs a pit may fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Whoever carves out stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits wood may be endangered thereby.” (10:8-9)

In this predicament we become aware that the desire of living in fantasies and illusions makes us fall into them, and become liable for the afflictions that come out of them. Once we are trapped in them, only their ways rule our life to inflict pain and suffering. These verses illustrate quite well this predicament.

“If the ax is blunt, and one doesn’t sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength. And wisdom is advantageous to make right. And wisdom has the advantage to succeed.” (10:10)

Kohelet compares wisdom to an ax that has to be sharpened. The sharpening of the ax is the necessary learning process that makes us wise. The comparison invites to develop discernment and understanding as the means to achieve the proper knowledge required to make righteous judgments.

In this sense, having a sharp mind implies to “cut” out the foolishness of ego’s fantasies and illusions from our hearts, and leave in it only the righteous ways and attributes of goodness to approach all aspects and facets of life. In this wise approach we can only expect the success inherent in goodness.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXXI)

“The words of the wise spoken in quiet are more acceptable than the cry of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.”

(Ecclesiastes 9:17-18)

These verses reiterate that wisdom speaks words of persuasion that in their quietness guide the ignoramuses to their freedom from attachments, obsessions and addictions. The latter are ego’s shouting rules over its fantasies and illusions that lead consciousness to destroy the goodness that is its freedom.

“Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to send forth a bad odor, so does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor. The heart of the wise is at his right hand, and the heart of a fool at his left. Yes, also when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.” (10:1-3)

The metaphors in these verses speak for themselves. We should not spoil goodness as our essence and true identity with anything different than its ways and attributes. This is another reiteration that there are clear differences between good and evil, and if they are mixed, the result is another trait of evil.

The dead flies indeed represent the futility of ego’s fantasies and illusions that spoil the pleasant fragrance of love’s ways and attributes. In the foolish choice of evil ways there is no wisdom or honor, for they act contrary to even common sense and décor.

Here the heart is the conscious self with which we make our choices. As long as we have a clear judgment to approach life, the plain wisdom in common sense leads us to the right decision.

The wrong approach is the foolish assumption that materialistic desires, fantasies and illusions lead us to the good life we stupidly believe that comes from them.

Our discernment and understanding are factually absent from a self-centered approach to life. The actions coming from our foolishness speak about who we are.

“If the spirit of the ruler goes up against you, do not leave your place; for yielding quiets great sinners.” (10:4)

We can understand that rulers are not only those who govern peoples, nations or kingdoms. These also represent the guiding and directing principles that govern our life. If these act as slave masters or oppressors against us, we must ignore them and take refuge in the positive traits and qualities that lead us to positive situations and circumstances. In the latter lies the peace and balance that keep us away from negative thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXX)

“This also have I seen as wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great unto me: There was a little city and few men within it, and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a man poor and wise, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then I said that wisdom is better than strength, nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.”

(Ecclesiastes 9:13-16)

This story illustrates in its allegories the central message of Kohelet. We can understand the city as our consciousness, frequently besieged by the power that negative traits and trends can have over us, all coming from ego’s driving force which is represented by the invading king. The deliverer of the city is goodness that is its natural ruler, for both belong to each other.

Interestingly, Kohelet presents “poor” and “wise” as complementing traits, understanding the former as the humbleness inherent in goodness. Our sages consider humbleness an intellectual quality, necessary to acquire wisdom as the means to grasp God’s Torah for humankind in general, and Israel in particular as the chosen inheritor to disseminate such instruction.

The main question in the story is how the poor wise man delivered the city from the king and his army. The answer is persuasion. The story makes evident that the poor wise man didn’t have an army or weapons to defeat the king, so the power of wisdom causes the deliverance.

Wisdom usually unfolds by contrasting itself from ignorance in order to bring it back to understanding, as the light dissipates darkness and turn it into part of the light.

Thus we understand that darkness is the previous condition that makes sense to light. The same works for good and evil, for the latter is the reason for the former to exist.

The purpose of goodness is to transform evil by extracting the goodness concealed in it, for evil can’t exist without goodness.

Once we are exposed to the effects and consequences of the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions, we come to the realization that evil is not a choice but a reference to choose goodness. In this awareness we realize that the “persuasion” of the poor wise man is the educational process that takes modifying or transforming the negative traits and trends that submit our consciousness to their destroying effects and consequences.

The story tells us that ultimately the poor wise man was forgotten, ignored and even despised. Such is the fate of goodness in the playing ground of ego’s fantasies and illusions.

As soon as we realize that coming back to goodness brings us the long yearned freedom, and return momentarily to its ways and attributes, we go back to the addictive nature of negative trends and trends.

Hence Kohelet concludes that living in such vicious circle is vanity and vexation of the spirit that sustains life.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (XXVII)

“So I commended mirth, that a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry, and that this should accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 8:15)

One of the essential messages of the Kohelet is brought back to emphasize that we must approach life with and for the goodness that God commands us to enjoy in this world. Being, doing and pursuing goodness is our daily labor in this material world under the sun.

“When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done upon the earth, for neither day nor night do men see sleep with their eyes; then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun; because though a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea further, though a wise man thinks to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.” (8:16-17)

The encompassing commandment to pursuing goodness with its ways, means, attributes and expressions is what matters to us, for in these we are strengthened to fulfill the labor of complying with what God wants for us which is our well being. There is no other better labor than that, for God’s works are unfathomable by human discernment.

In this awareness, we realize that goodness is enough for itself, and there is no need or profit to look for it beyond the realm where God planted us.

“For all this I laid to my heart, even to make clear all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it be love or hatred, man knows it not; all is before them.” (9:1)

This is one of the most profound messages of Kohelet, for it is about the connection that human goodness has with God’s goodness. In this awareness all our good actions speak for themselves, for these are the purpose of the goodness from where they come. Indeed goodness loves positive and constructive actions, and rejects or hates all that oppose them.

Thus we understand that rejecting negative traits, trends and expressions is inherent in true love and goodness. In this context “all” is what is available for us to deal with the right approach, which is goodness for the sake of it.

“All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean; to him that offers sacrifices and to him that does not offer sacrifices; as is the good, so is the sinner, and he who has sworn as he that fears an oath.” (9:2)

All situations come to everyone, regardless the condition of each. The difference lies on how we approach them. Even for a good situation or positive action there is one who rather chooses to sin or transgress against it, and also one who chooses to act with the same goodness. The latter must do what is right to honor a promise or an oath, while the former prefers not to do it out lack of honor or commitment.