Chukat: Living God's Commandments

We have said frequently that the Torah defines our Jewish identity, which is about who we Jews are and what we do, and these also determine our relationship with the Creator. This relationship is shaped by our connection with Him, which depends on His commandments, decrees and statutes delineated in the Torah.

We have indicated that in Hebrew the semantic root of the term “commandment” means connection, and this connection is determined by His rules, not ours. We have to understand and assimilate the ways, means and attributes with which God relates to His Creation, us included, according to what the Torah instructs us.

These are the foundation for us to comprehend His commandments, despite our limitations to know Him, because He does not have definition. This is why our sages teach us that we only can know Him through His ways and attributes, and yet we will never get to know Him at all.

We must insist that our Jewish identity is the sum of all the 613 commandments in the Torah, because they not only define who we are but our connection with the Creator. The underlying essence of this connection is love as our common bond with Him. God's love is present in His (thirteen) attributes as the Torah tells us (Exodus 34:6-7).

As we mentioned in our book “God's Love” the repeated attribute of the Creator for His Creation is compassion as the material manifestation of His love. These attributes indicate our bond with Him and to approach and perform His Commandments, because these are the only ways to assimilate His love as also our essence and identity.

The psalmist reminds us about this.

“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. The Lord is good to all, He has compassion on all He has created.” (Psalms 145:8-9)

Therefore, God's love is our reference in all levels of consciousness. This is how we must approach life and what we are and do.

Recently we commented on the priestly blessings recorded in the Torah and, in the context of our relationship with God, we have to understand them not only as something we receive from Him but as a commandment to fulfill as part of our connection with Him.

He blesses us and protects us as long as we also bless with His love whatever we do. In this action we are indeed protected because love is our protection.

He shines His countenance (His love) on us as long as we also shine (manifest) love with our deeds. Thus His grace is in us when we act with love. He elevates His countenance (love) on us and puts peace on us, as long as we let love elevate our consciousness. In this process peace is unto us and those we approach with loving kindness.

In other words, God's blessings are not for us to enjoy as a gift that makes us feel fulfilled and satisfied at a personal level. His blessings indeed have a purpose, which is for us to manifest them in what we are and do. This is the way His commandments work in our relationship with Him. As long as we perform them, we are connected to Him and this is a practical and concrete process.

We can't afford the luxury of living in ego's illusion that we are blessed by God because we deserve His blessings. We ask for them in order to manifest them in all dimensions of life, including our relationship with others and our surroundings. Being blessed is not a personal o selfish endowment. It implies the same meaning of “to whom a lot is given, a lot is expected”.

One of the major differences between Judaism and other beliefs is that we Jews are entitled to manifest God's will out in the material world, and not in our self. God's commandments are not directed to benefit us individually but collectively. Our personal redemption must be part of the collective redemption. 

In Shelach we recall the episode of the spies as the personal neglecting approach to God's will, meaning that they rather stayed under the protecting and nurturing divine cloud in the desert than going out and conquer the Canaanite nations in order to settle in the Promised Land.

In our current times, we understand this as going out in the material world and conquer the negative aspects of our consciousness that don't allow us to settle in love's ways and attributes.

The psalmist helps us understand this.

“All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth for those who keep His covenant and [His] commandments.” (Ibid. 25:10)

This teaches us that His commandments indeed are the loving kindness and truth inherent to His love, and the ways He loves us. In this sense we must assimilate love as our protection.

“May your loving kindness and truth protect me constantly.” (40:12)

“The Torah of the Lord is perfect, it restores the soul; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are righteous, they are joyful for the heart. The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes.” (19:8-9)

In love's ways and attributes all is righteous, joyful and enlightening.

In our daily prayers we bless God and thank Him for His commandments.

“(...) for with the light of Your countenance [in His love], Lord our God, You gave us the Torah of life and loving kindness, goodness, righteousness, blessing and compassion, life and peace.”

These are the attributes of the commandments He gave us as part of the identity He wants us to have as His chosen ones. Such attributes are the decrees, the statutes and testimonies that define our connection with Him because they are also His attributes and our common bond with Him.

Parshat Chukat: The Purity of Life as God's Gift

All the commandments, statutes and decrees stated in the Torah are related to the plan that encompasses God's creation. These are given particularly to Israel because this plan is part of Israel's mission in the world.

Though we can't comprehend God's essence or His plan, the Torah makes us aware that Israel is destined to fulfill His will. Hence, He commands us to do so.

"This is the decree of (chukat) the Torah which the Lord commanded, saying: 'Speak to the children of Israel (…)'." (Numbers 19:2)

Our sages explain that life is intrinsically pure and everything related to it must be pure. In contrast to death that represents exactly the opposite. In this sense, our life becomes impure when we taint it with all that is against its integrity, dignity, honor, and goodness.

In other words, anything that is against the goodness of love's ways and attributes. Love is the essence of life, as it is God's love the essence and purpose of His creation.

Consequently, purification is the way to keep love always present in our lives. We must realize that the message here is to understand impurity as the result of inviting anything that represents the opposite of life. We are truly alive when we live in the ways of goodness, the pure ways the Creator commands us to live by.

True life is sustained by the waters of God's love. Our mystic sages teach that Aaron, Miriam and Moses represent our highest awareness of the Creator, what we call the awareness of God's ways and attributes. Aaron is our wisdom, Miriam our understanding, and Moses our knowledge.

As long as these qualities of our intellect are permanently aware of the Creator in our lives and in all Creation, we are truly alive in the material world. If one of these qualities is missing, we feel disconnected from God's love.

In this view, understanding is the water that gives sense to wisdom and knowledge.

"And Miriam died there [in the desert], and was buried there. The congregation had no water, so they assembled against Moses and Aaron." (20:1-2)

The narrative continues with the conquest of the promised land, and the events are related to the main message of this portion, purification. We have said the "nations" that occupied this land represent negative traits and trends that Israel must avoid in order to remain sacred to the Creator.

"Please let us pass through your land; we will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink well water. We will walk along the king's road, and we will turn neither to the right nor to the left until we have passed through your territory'." (20:17)

We must realize that when we are dealing with negative thoughts, emotions, feelings and passions, we risk the goodness of love as the inherent quality of life. Hence, we have to turn away from negativity because in it we can't get through anything good.

"Edom refused to allow Israel to cross through his territory; so Israel turned away from him." (20:21)

In order to avoid the negative aspects of consciousness we must be determinant, and fully commit every dimension of our life to God's ways and attributes. When we allow them to lead, we are able to transform negative traits into qualities that we dedicate to fulfill His will. God's love does this transformation.

"Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, 'If You deliver this people into my hand, I shall consecrate their cities.'The Lord heard Israel's voice and delivered the Canaanite. He destroyed them and [consecrated] their cities (…)" (21:2-3)

This transformation does not make sense as long as some aspects of consciousness are still attached to lower emotions and materialistic desires as some of ego's negative perceptions that taint the purity of life as the gift of God's love.

"The people spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this desert, for there is no bread and no water, and we are disgusted with this rotten bread?'." (21:5)

The illusion of separation in ego's individualistic agenda, represented by the snake, again proves to be the main tainting trait that causes death before the eyes of love.

"The Lord sent against the people the venomous snakes, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died." (21:6)

Hence the way to return to true life is to re-direct our egos in the ways and attributes of love. As we have mentioned before, ego is part of our consciousness and such as it also must act under the yoke of heaven, the yoke of God's ways.

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Make yourself a serpent and put it on a pole, and let whoever is bitten look at it and live'." (21:8)

The portion ends with the verse, "The children of Israel journeyed and encamped in the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho." (22:1), where the dangers of falling into negative thoughts and emotions are reminders that our true choice in order to consecrate life is love.

Parshat Chukat: Faith in God's Love

The Creator speaks to Moses and Aaron, saying "this is the decree (chukat) of the Torah which the Lord commanded (…)" (Numbers 19:1). The sentence emphasizes Divine authority with the words “decree” and “commanded”, meaning that nobody has the right to challenge or question such decree, according to Rashi. This is also applied to all God’s Commandments in the Torah. How can we question or challenge the will of our Creator? How can we dare to question the air that keeps us alive? Still, it seems that our free will (given to us also by God's Love) has the choice to challenge His works. Or is it rather our ego’s choice?

This particular decree refers to sacrifice a red cow that its ashes are empowered by God in a “burnt purification offering” (19:17) in order to clean those who have been in contact with a corpse. We understand this as being in contact with death, that which separates us from true life. Why a red cow and not one of the other animals mentioned as possible offerings in the Tabernacle or Temple? This is one of the Divine mysteries that none of our Sages have been able to decipher, including the cleverest man who ever lived: King Solomon. In the literal meaning we understand that it is a special animal, “a perfectly red unblemished cow upon which no yoke was laid” (17:2).Like other qualified animals, it may represent a human trait that, when transformed through fire (God's Love) has the power to redeem us from death.

In this context, that particular transformed human trait has that power. Mystic Sages relate the ashes of the red cow to the final Redemption when death will be vanished from the world. The point here is not to determine a particular human trait that we have to direct in order to achieve our final Redemption. The point is that we must direct all our traits, all levels and aspects of consciousness to God's will, which is being and doing His ways and attributes. This is what truly redeems us from the darkness of materialistic illusions.

The preeminence of God's will, as a decreed principle, is reaffirmed again in the episode when Moses doubted His transforming and redeeming power: “Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water. You shall bring forth water for them from the rock and give the congregation and their livestock to drink." (20:8).

In this verse we learn that the staff represents the direction that our higher awareness (Moses and Aaron) demands from all aspects and dimensions of consciousness (the twelve Tribes of Israel represented by the rock). God wants us to speak to the rock so that it may give forth its water, what keeps us alive in the desert where we are free from the illusions of the world. This water is Love concealed in the darkness of the lower aspects of our consciousness.

When Love speaks, the concealed Light is revealed and our awareness is able to realize our Oneness with the Creator. All we have to do is to be Love, to manifest Love and to speak Love, for God's Love is the fire that transforms the negative aspects of consciousness into expressions of Love. Only Love has the power to reveal Love concealed in the obscure dimensions of Creation. And this water, this revealed Love, nurtures not only our spiritual awareness but also the material aspects of our lives (“for them and their livestock to drink”).

Our higher consciousness (Moses and Aaron) is not free from making mistakes. Our sense of righteousness can make us harsh and tough when we discipline our mind, thoughts, emotions, passions and instincts. We seem to have great difficulty in harmonizing all aspects of consciousness in our battles to defeat ego’s fantasies and illusions. However, we know God's Love liberates us from ego’s domains, from the bondage in Egypt. Therefore knowing this Truth implies trusting this Truth. Moses’ transgression by striking and not speaking to the rock, as God commanded Him, questioned His transforming and redeeming power even in the hardest and darkest dimensions of our consciousness.

Moses, our beloved teacher and the greatest of all Jewish prophets, questioned God's Love by challenging his people’s abilities to embrace His will as their Essence and true identity. Moses had every reason to doubt his people’s commitment to be God’s chosen to create for Him a place to dwell in the world, a commitment to fulfill the mission to reveal Love as Light from the darkness of the material world. This doubt was based on the several times the children of Israel, in spite of amazing miracles, questioned their Redeemer's guidance. The lesson to learn here for Moses and Aaron, as the symbols of our higher Divine awareness, for Israel, and for the rest of the world is that the power of God's Love is boundless, all-encompassing, and eternal.

Love as the material manifestation of God's Love is everywhere, manifest and concealed, and our mission in this world is to reveal His Presence where and when He is concealed. Only those who are permanently aware of God’s attributes are the ones who allow Him to fight our battles in order to conquer the nations (the lower aspects of consciousness) and settle forever in the Promised Land.