Ki Tavo: Claiming our Inheritance of God's Love

We have said in previous commentaries on this portion of the Torah that the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, is the inheritance of the Jewish people. We also mentioned many times that our Land encompasses a permanent space and time with the One who gave it to us. This is the best reason to rejoice individually and collectively as part of the essence and identity God has given us in His Torah.

“Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord, your God, has granted you and your household you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you.” (Deuteronomy 26:11).

In this context we understand the meaning of the tithes because everything that exists belongs to God. Hence what we produce out of life and Land He gave us also belongs to Him. Our individualistic and separatist approach to God and others makes us believe that we own something we consider our property, and this is one of the biggest illusions we have created out of ego's approach to life and the material world.

The Torah teaches us that our Land is part of our existence, and the space in which we realize our unity as a Nation and also unity in our consciousness. In other words, our unity depends on our individual and collective livelihood in our Land. God gave us a Land to share our common identity and purpose as Jews with our diversity, and in spite of our differences. We as Israel are diverse and multidimensional as consciousness also is, and the meaning of settling in our Land implies living in it united as individuals and as a Nation.

We tithe in order to keep and protect our unity and permanent bond with the One who gave us life, freedom, the Torah, identity, and Land. Thus we understand that our Land is the place and the a time where and when we fully recognize and experience our connection with God.

The laws, ordinances, statutes and Commandments given in the Torah, which relate to our life in the Land and the relationship with the Land, are directed to maintain our bond with God.

“You have selected the Lord this day, to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to observe His statutes, His Commandments and His ordinances, and to obey Him. And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His Commandments, and to make you supreme, above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke.” (26:17-19)

We integrate this principle in all aspects and dimensions of consciousness because by doing this we realize God's Love and His Presence in our life. This is a turning point in what we know about us and about God. Once we realize that we belong to Him as His Creation emanated from His Love, we begin to discover who we truly are and sacred to Him. We turn to this awareness as we assimilate God's ways and attributes described in His Torah.

By knowing His ways and learning His attributes, we also know and learn our ways and attributes. This is how we understand the meaning of our relationship with God. We relate to Him through His ways and attributes as also ours, which we learn from Him. We do this by loving Him, because we understand His Love for us by loving Him.

This is one of the reasons the Torah commands us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might, because through Love we know His ways, and we make them our ways. Our Sages remark this as the main foundation and meaning of our essence and identity.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One” as the declaration of our Jewish identity in which we realize the reason and purpose of our existence (see in this blog our previous commentaries on Parshat Ki Tavo: “Living in the Promised Land” of August 22, 2010 and “The Heritage of God's Love” of September 11, 2011).

In our Land we build and exercise our unity, because in our unity lies our bond with God. When this unity is broken or fractured as we fall into materialistic fantasies and illusions, the curses fall on us as direct consequence of our separation from each other as Jews and also from God.

“Cursed be the man who makes any graven or molten image an abomination to the Lord, the handiwork of a craftsman and sets it up in secret! And all the people shall respond, saying, 'Amen!' (...)” (27:17-26, 28:14-68)

The blessing is our bond with God's ways and attributes.

“And all these blessings will come upon you and cleave to you, if you obey the Lord, your God.” (28:1-13)

We must insist in the fact that we exist because of God's Love, and we owe Him our life and all He created to sustain us in every aspect of consciousness. Hence we have to start knowing who we truly are from the principle that we are God's creatures. Therefore, we come to know ourselves through our Creator, and nothing else.

We are not from where we were born, from a country, culture, language, customs, ideology, fashion, or religion, neither from what we have learned in school, or what we do. These things only label us in regards to other peoples' countries, culture, language, etc. which are all subjected to change depending on time, place and circumstances. Our true origin, place and time of birth, as well as our real identity are God's Love because we all come from Him.

Our true ways and attributes are His ways and attributes as stated in the Torah He gave us. These are the real “culture”, language, customs, etc. that we have to learn in order to know who we truly are as Jews, and our purpose in the world. This is how we become the Light for the nations. This is how we dissipate the fantasies and illusions ego makes out of the material world. This knowledge occurs when we allow the Creator be manifest in us as His creatures.

In this awareness we recognize Him in our life which also is the Land where He wants us to live and rejoice in our bond with Him. Be aware that our bond with God lies in Jerusalem as the highest awareness of our connection with Him.

“Arise [Jerusalem], shine, for your Light has come, and the glory of the Lord shall be seen upon you. For, behold, darkness shall cover the Earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but upon you the Lord will arise, and His glory shall be seen upon you. And nations shall walk at your Light, and kings at the brightness of your rising.” (Isaiah 60:1-3)

This is why we have to rebuild and unify Jerusalem by God's will, for this is how our Final Redemption begins.

“Violence shall no more be heard in your Land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Redemption, and your gates Praise.” (60:18)

As we already said, living in full awareness of God's Love as our Essence and true identity is the Land where we are redeemed.

“Your people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the Land forever; the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, wherein I glory.” (60:21)

Parshat Ki Tavo: The Heritage of God's Love

The second verse of this portion commands...

"(…) that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you will bring from your land, which the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 26:2)

Our mystic sages refer to two levels of awareness represented by the vegetable and animal realms. Contrary to what we may think, they explain that the former depicts sensuality and sexual activity (symbolized by the perennial blossoming and fruitfulness of some plants and trees), and the latter purposefulness and movement (symbolized of the instinctual animal behavior to act according to their purpose in nature).

In this sense we may have a better understanding of the sacrifices (offerings) made by Cain and Abel. In the context of this portion, the "fruit of the ground" (the expression of our individual creative process in every aspect of consciousness, particularly those related to the senses, sensuality, passions, and instincts) must be elevated towards the mission the Creator has commanded to Israel.

The previous verses in Ki Teitzei and the followings in Ki Tavo are related to the ethical values aimed to promote individual and collective harmony among different social levels and economic conditions among the people of Israel. Hence, the verse above is just another reminder that we have to direct all aspects of consciousness toward God's ways and attributes, because we have to be aware that all creation, our individual lives included, belong to the Creator.

By acknowledging this, we are indeed willing to fulfill God's will.

"I declare this day to the Lord, your God, that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us." (26:3)

This land is the awareness that God's love made us, and we also must be and do according to love's ways as individuals and as the nation we are.

Our true freedom takes place in this level of consciousness opposite to slavery under ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions. These are the mirages for which we enslave our life to "work hard" to keep them as "real".

"And the Egyptians treated us cruelly and afflicted us, and they imposed hard labor upon us." (26:6)

This is why we have to remember every day our Exodus from Egypt in order to make the choice every moment, either to live in the slavery of ego's illusions or in the freedom of love's attributes.

After all, God's love is our true essence and redemption from the miseries of living by and for the illusions of the material world.

"So we cried out to the Lord, God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression." (26:7)

We become truly free in the land that He offers us.

"And He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." (26:9)

That is the place in every levels of consciousness where we all are happy.

"Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord, your God, has granted you and your household you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you." (26:11)

The place where every level and dimension of consciousness dwell in the transcendence of God's love as our essence and identity.

For this we ask God constantly to keep us aware of love's attributes as His heritage for us.

"Look down from Your holy dwelling, from the heavens, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given to us, as You swore to our forefathers a land flowing with milk and honey." (26:15)

"And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments, and to make you supreme above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke." (26:18-19)

Hence we have to choose back to Him by exercising and manifesting the identity He has bestowed upon us, the honor and privilege of being and manifesting love's ways and attributes as the inheritance of the greatest love of all, God's love.

The prophet again recalls for us the awareness of our heritage in the haftarah for this portion.

"And nations shall go by your light and kings by the brilliance of your shine. Lift up your eyes all around and see, they all have gathered, they have come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be raised on [their] side. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall be amazed and become enlarged, for the abundance of the sea shall be turned over to you, the wealth of the nations that will come to you." (Isaiah 60:3-5)

In this awareness we realize our purpose and destiny.

"Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither robbery nor destruction within your borders, and you shall call redemption your walls and your gates praise. You shall no longer have the sun for light by day, and for brightness, the moon shall not give you light, but the Lord shall be to you for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory." (60:18-19)

Parshat Ki Tavo: Living in the Promised Land

Ki Tavo is one of the most profound portions in the Torah because it illustrates the meaning of our connection with the Creator. In ki teitze we exit the land to fight our wars. In ki tavo, after those wars, we come to the land.

“And it will be, when you come (ki tavo) into the land the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance (…)” (Deuteronomy 26:1)

This portion clearly emphasizes the land as the anchor place of our relation with God's love. It is in this land, the conquered Promised Land, where our existence, our identity as the chosen people, is fulfilled.

In this land we celebrate our unity with our God and the reason for this unity.

“Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord your God has granted you and your household (…)” (26:5-9, 11)

All this happens when we live in the land that represents life free from the negative trends in consciousness derived from the illusions and fantasies of the material world.

In this awareness we offer the first fruits of the land to our Creator, for everything we are and do in His ways and attributes reaffirm His will and our oneness with Him. In this awareness love as the material manifestation of God's love is own cause and effect, and there is nothing else.

What is the practical purpose of being and doing love’s ways and attributes? To create a place for the Creator to dwell among us permanently, and we do that by taking care of each other, by being responsible to each other as the oneness we are in His love.

“(…) you shall give to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that they can eat to satiety in your cities.” (26:12)

We understand this commandment in two ways. In its literal meaning by sharing our individual abundance with those less fortunate; and by filling lesser aspects of consciousness that are also part of our life. This is referred to as the permanent awareness of the Creator and our connection to Him, and the weaknesses we need to strengthen in order to make our lives vibrant and significant in every way.

We have to fulfill this Commandment every day simply because it is about love.

“This day the Lord, your God, is commanding you to fulfill these statutes and ordinances; and you will observe and fulfill them with all your heart and with all your soul.” (26:16)

The portion continues with our highest awareness of God's love warning us about the consequences of separating ourselves from Him as the “curses”, starting with the cause of the all of them: idolatry (27:15), which we refer here as ego’s fantasies and illusions. These keep us apart from God’s ways and attributes as the ethical principles to safeguard our individual and collective well being.

All the curses listed are some of the improper ways in which we relate to our fellow man (27:16-20, 22-26). 

The Levites also mention the blessings inherent to God's love when we choose His ways (28:1-13), and again they warn us against idolatry.

“And you shall not turn right or left from all of the words I am commanding you this day, to follow other deities to worship them.” (28:14)

Thus we realize that there are no other true ways except love’s ways, and we need to be aware of this truth. All it takes is to be constantly aware of God's love as our Creator, our life source, essence and true identity.

The remaining curses as we said before are not mentioned as explicit curses but as direct consequences of our separation from God's ways and attributes as His will for us to be, to have, and to manifest.

Our sages also understand them not only as curses but prophecies that have been fulfilled over more than two thousand years (28:15-69).

The parshah ends with a positive note.

“And you shall observe the words of this covenant and fulfill them, in order that you will succeed in all that you do.” (29:8)

Let’s be aware that the covenant with the Creator is our own success, which is also the awareness of His ways and attributes. Hence living in His will is the reason for us to be in this world. As we have said in this blog, the light is partially revealed in the Creation, and this light is God's love.

We are in the world to reveal His presence where and when He is concealed. When we do it, we become aware that He permeates all His Creation.

“(…) the entire earth if full of His Glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)

This includes every level of our individual consciousness as the haftarah for this week confirms it.

“(...) and the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.” (60:19)