Vayikra: Uniting our Love with God's Love

This week we celebrate entering the third year of this blog. We started with the book of Vayikra back in 2010 as an expanding process of the messages in the book “God's Love”. The book is the result of notes taken during four years studying the mystical approach to Orthodox Judaism by the Chassidic tradition, presented from a philosophical perspective.

The idea is to convey the messages with a concrete and practical understanding of Jewish mysticism's abstract concepts, and apply them to material reality. We do this by going to the point of what is so “spiritual” about Judaism, and that is God's Love and our connection with Him. That's been the concealed purpose behind His Creation, hidden by us and not by Him, for His Love is already proclaimed and manifest. To confirm this we only have to take a look around.

We explain in the book that our Sages did not deliberately hid God as Love, and rather focused on the ethics and morals of Love as its ways and attributes in order to safeguard individual and collective peace and harmony. After all, Love is about good deeds and not good intentions.

We hope that maybe now, in our current times, most of us humans in general and Jews in particular are prepared in our consciousness to be aware of Love as our true Essence and identity, as the material reflection of God's Love. After this celebratory preamble, let's comment for the third time on the first portion of Vayikra.

Most of the book of Vayikra refers to our direct connection and relationship to the Creator, defined in the Torah as the priesthood, and this is why this book was named “Leviticus” by non-Jewish sources.

This connection and relationship with God occur primordially through the study of the Torah, the fulfillment of His Commandments, and the offerings (“sacrifices”) we elevate to Him in order to be close to Him.

Our Sages question the point of presenting “meal” offerings to the Creator, knowing perfectly well that He does not “need” anything from us but all the way around. They quote King David to reaffirm the point.

“Should I hunger I would not tell you, for the world and all it contains is Mine, and its fullness. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice to God the offering of thanksgiving; and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon Me in the day of trouble [because] I will deliver you, and you shall honor Me.” (Psalms 50:12-15)

Hence, it is about us and our attitude toward God's Love that make us desire to come close to Him, as it is also indicated.

“For your own desire you should offer it.” (Leviticus 19:5)

Our offerings to Him are the traits, qualities and dimensions of our common Essence with Him, and all these as expressions of our Love as the guide and conductor of all our ways. This is the sweetness we experience and rejoice with, as we also delight in His Glory that is His Love.

Our Sages too refer to this sweetness when they say of a large ox, “A fire-offering, a sweet savor”; of a small bird, “A fire-offering, a sweet savor”; and of a meal-offering, “A fire-offering, a sweet savor.” They teach us that for God this “sweetness” is the same whether one offers much (an ox) or little (a dove) from him, as long as he directs his heart (Love) to Heaven (to honor God by being and doing His ways and attributes).

This sweetness is embraced by humbleness as our means to manifest Love in all we are and do, because humbleness is the empty vessel to pour God's will in our lives.

The Sages illustrate this with a story.

“A bull was taken to be sacrificed in the Temple but refused to move on. A poor man came with a bundle of hay in his hand and gave it to the bull, which ate it. Then the bull let itself be taken to the Temple. The owner of the bull was told in a dream that the poor man's offering to the bull was greater than the owner's offering of the bull.”

As we have mentioned in other commentaries, the bull represents ego as the driving force we must elevate to the Creator's will, through the highest awareness of our connection with Him (represented by the priest in the Temple), and we do this through Love as the natural conductor and guide of all levels and dimensions of consciousness, ego included.

The poor man represents humbleness as the means with which we convey Love (the hay) to feed and direct our driving force to the service of God. In this sense, humbleness and Love are greater than ego's materialistic desires (the bull).

In this regard ego's agenda is excluded from any of our ways, means and attributes to honor God's Love and His will.

“No meal-offering, which you shall bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven; for you shall make no leaven, nor any honey, [to burn to] smoke as an offering made by fire onto the Lord.” (2:11)

In this case leaven represents pride as self-enlargement, and is one of the reasons that our forefathers ate unleavened bread (matzah) during the Exodus from Egypt.

Let's be mindful that every level of consciousness must be an empty vessel to be filled with God's ways and attributes, and never forget that these do not cohabit with anything different from them.

Honey represents sensuality under the control of ego's fantasies and illusions. Our Sages also remind us that God does not relate to one who is full of himself, and He says about the prideful one that He does not dwell with him in the world.

In the total awareness of our Love and God's Love with their common ways and attributes, peace also becomes the cause and the effect.

Our Sages teach that the peace offering is not intended to atone as the other offerings, but exclusively for the enjoyment and delight to be close to the Creator. What is peaceful about it is the fact that the person who brings this offering, the priest and God share together the offering.

This makes it the perfect offering because there are no other reasons except for enjoying our connection with the One who gives us life and all that we are and have.

This awareness safeguards our freedom from any entanglement in ego's fantasies and illusions, and in this freedom we celebrate His Love as our sustenance and the Essence from which He created us.

In this connection we realize that our Love is His Love that nurtures us, and in this awareness we know that our Love is the bond with His Love.

“(...) all the fat is to the Lord.” (3:16)

Our enthusiasm (“all the fat”), as the greatest happiness and enjoyment, is what He wants from us: to be happy and rejoice in this world. Our utmost satisfaction, fulfillment and delight are to realize that God's Love is our true Essence and identity.

The portion ends with the atonement for transgressions against our fellow man, and are defined as betrayals against the Creator.

“If a person sins, and commits a betrayal against the Lord, and lies to his fellow (...)” (5:21)

Lying becomes a breach of trust and allegiance against our very Essence and identity. One of the synonyms of Love is truth, and such as there is no room for anything different than its attributes, and the context of Love is the ways we relate to our fellow man.

All the ways and means of Love are truth as the Psalmist points it out.

“All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth to those keeping His Covenant and His testimonies. (…) Do not withhold Your compassion from me, O Lord; may your loving kindness and your truth always protect me.” (Psalms 25:10, 40:12)

Love and truth are inherent to one another. If there is no Love there is no truth, and if there is no truth there is no Love; therefore without them there is no Redemption.

“Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for you are God my Redeemer, and my hope is in You all day long.” (25:5)

God's Love is the truth of His ways and attributes, and all we call truth in the material world and in every level of consciousness must be in consonance with His truth. There is one Love, and that is God's Love; and one truth that is God's truth.

Parshat Vayikra: Our Offerings to God's Love

"And He called (vayikra) to Moses and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying…" (Leviticus 1:1). Our Sages teach that calling someone before speaking to him/her implies not just familiarity but closeness. The book of Leviticus (Vayikra) begins teaching us that our closeness and unity with our Creator take place in a special space we have to build with all aspects and dimensions of consciousness: the Tent of Meeting, the Sanctuary, the Temple of Jerusalem. These aspects and dimensions are rooted in the physical body because they all are bound to the material world, the place that God created for us to be and manifest our Essence and true identity which is God's Love.

In this world we exercise our identity by being and expressing Love's ways and attributes, and we do that by directing every dimension of consciousness under the guidance of Love. This direction takes place by "elevating" them to the highest place of our awareness of God's Love, represented by the Sanctuary. In this awareness our will is compelled to bring up our entire consciousness to the Oneness of God: "He shall bring it willingly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord." (1:3).

As we mentioned frequently, Aaron the High Priest represents this awareness as the catalyst, the transforming fire that unites us with the Creator: "And the descendants of Aaron the priest shall place fire on the altar, and arrange wood on the fire." (1:7), and this is previously stated: "It will be on Aaron's forehead, and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on Aaron's forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the Lord." (Exodus 28:38).

Our Sages explain that in the altar of the Sanctuary there are two fires, a material fire and a heavenly fire; and the latter "burns" the offering. From this we learn that the traits, qualities, aspects and dimensions of our consciousness (the offerings) are transmuted through God's Love. We come from God's Love, therefore through Love as the material manifestation of His Love we transform ourselves in order to walk in His ways.

This can happen only when we are fully aware of Him and consequently willing to approach the entrance of His Sanctuary: "(…) Then, the priest shall cause to (go up in) smoke all (the entire animal) on the altar, as a burnt offering, a fire offering, (with) a pleasing fragrance to the Lord." (1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9, 12; 3:5, 16; 4:31), and let's be aware that the fragrance that pleases the Creator is our Love as the expression of His Love.

"And you shall salt every one of your meal offering sacrifices with salt, and you shall not omit the salt of your God's Covenant from (being placed) upon your meal offerings. You shall offer salt on all your sacrifices." (2:13). Our Sages explain that salt represents permanence and in this context it is the everlasting Covenant between the Creator and Israel. Hence, the awareness of the Creator in our lives also must be permanent. Regarding the offerings (the aspects of consciousness that we elevate in order to be transmuted by God's Love) our Sages tell us that a peace offering is particularly different that the other offerings because it represents not another aspect of thought, mind, emotion, feeling, passion or instinct, but the desire to be closer to the Creator. Therefore it is an offering of wholeness in which our entire consciousness, in harmonious unity, yearns to live with more of God's Love.

Our peace achieved through His ways and attributes is the ultimate offering we can bring up to God: "And from the peace offering, he shall bring a fire offering to the Lord: the fat covering the innards and all the fat that is on the innards" (3:3, 14). This is the offering of wholeness not motivated by atonement but as a profound desire to be closer to the Creator and having Him more present in our lives. It is an offering filled with joy (the "fat covering"), the joy of our Love that is also His joy: "All (sacrificial) fat belongs to the Lord." (3:16, 4:19).

"If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt to the people, then he shall bring for his sin which he has committed, an unblemished young bull as a sin offering to the Lord." (4:3). The highest awareness of God's Love is also bound to the physical body, and such as it is not exempt from erring. Therefore, it must be rededicated continuously to the Creator. As our Sages say, when the High Priest sins his sin is carried by the people (all dimensions of consciousness). Likewise, when the people sin the High Priest carries their sin.

This is part of the dynamics of the unity of all levels of consciousness because everything is connected in the multidimensional human life. Joy is one of the essential qualities of Love, and by rededicating our happiness to the service of the Creator we indeed are atoned (transformed): "And he (the priest) shall cause all its fat to (go up in) smoke on the altar, just like the fat of the peace offering. Thus the priest shall make atonement for his sin, and he will be forgiven." (4:26, 31, 35).

The portion continues with the atonement of transgressions committed against our fellow man, particularly in situations in which our testimony is crucial: "If a person sins, whereby he accepts an oath and he is a witness by seeing or knowing, yet he does not testify, he shall bear his transgression." (5:1). "Or if a person touches anything unclean, whether it is the carcass of an unclean wild animal, or the carcass of an unclean domestic animal, or the carcass of an unclean creeping animal" (5:2), reminding us that our thoughts must be constantly in contact with Love's ways and attributes and not with the lowest traits represented by the carcasses of wild, unclean animals.

Our highest awareness of God's Love is what atones for each of our negative thoughts, speech, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts: "Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, from his sin which he had committed, and he shall be forgiven." (5:10). The more we live in Love's ways, the easier we transmute ("atone") the potentially negative aspects of a materialistic approach to life.

The last verses of the portion (5:20-26) deal with other transgressions against our fellow man. Our Sages remark that before we look for the Creator's forgiveness, first we must get our fellow's. Only then we can come with atonement offerings to return to God's ways and attributes.

Parshat Vayikra: Doing the Sacred

We started the month of Nissan with the reading of the third book of the Torah, Vayikra, also known as Leviticus. Although the last portion of the book of Exodus, Pekudei, refers to the completion of the construction of the Mishkan [Tabernacle], Vayikra continues with the sacrifices to be offered to God in the holy place where His Presence rests. The Latin term for “sacrifice” is made out of two words that mean “doing the sacred”.

In Hebrew the word used in the Torah is korban, usually translated as offering, and in a deeper meaning denotes what has to be returned to its Creator. Other Sages say that it derives from the semantic root karov which means being near. They suggest that it means to be close to the Creator.

This offering, understood as a return to be close to Him, occurs in a way of elevation because the Creator belongs to a higher place. This elevation takes place when the offering is burnt and transformed into smoke that reaches up to Heaven.

The first portion of Leviticus is also called vayikra, which according to Rashi is an affectionate way in which God calls on to Moses to give instructions to the People of Israel in their Tent of Meeting about how they will bring their offerings to Him. As we said, these offerings are the sacred things to do in order to maintain the closest connection between ourselves and the Creator.

Mystic and Chassidic Sages explain that the animals that God indicates, including their blood and fat, refer to human traits such as passion (blood), pleasure (fat), emotional excitement (sheep and goats); taking what is not given to us, eating or consuming without discernment, and dumping everywhere without caring for others (pigeons) and egotistic, controlling and oppressive behavior (ox, bulls and bullocks).

The act of sacrificing these animals by burning them in the altar of the Tabernacle does not mean the actual elimination or destruction of the human traits they represent. Let's reexamine the message of this Torah portion, and take a closer look to the essential elements involved in the sacrifices requested from Israel by God.

First of all, the place where those offerings take place, the Mishkan. It represents the highest level of our consciousness where our Soul actually dwells permanently. It is the place where we are eternally connected with our Creator, and from where we communicate and relate to Him.

It is there where the Creator dwells among us, therefore the most sacred dimension of our material consciousness.

“And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and [the Tent of Meeting] shall be sanctified by My Glory. And I will dwell among [in] the children of Israel, and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among [in] them. I am the Lord their God.” (Exodus 29:43, 45-46)

Second of all, the burning fire that according to our Sages came from Heaven. This holy fire was always burning in the Mishkan, and God also requested a material fire that blended with His. In this sense, Divine fire is the essential catalyst with which our human thoughts, emotions, feelings and passions are elevated (refined) and “returned” to God.

We refine them in order to redirect them according to His will, and what He wants us to be and do. This heavenly fire is nothing more and nothing less than God's Love, from which everything is created, nurtured and sustained. This is the same fire that welcomes us when we are humbled after taking off our shoes to step in His holy ground.

This is the fire that purifies and leads in the right direction our basic nature, our basic needs and instincts, according to God's will.

The different kind of offerings have the goal to bring us back to God, after we lost our true purpose in this world and fell into the illusions that our basic nature take us to. The High Priest is the one who guides us all the time in this Tabernacle. He is the higher consciousness always present when we are attuned to God's will. He is the one who elevates our basic traits in order to put the Yoke of Heaven on our ego: the yoke of real peace and pure joy that balance our emotions.

The yoke of true care and respect for our fellow man in all of our actions. By doing so we are truly fulfilling God's will, and also His promise to dwell among (in) us.

Let's rededicate our lives to the Love of God by dwelling with Him in the Tabernacle that is the highest and purest level of our awareness. From there, His Love harmonically guides all aspects of our consciousness in our thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts.

Also let's remind ourselves that, in order to rebuild that sacred place where God promised to dwell with us, first we have to rebuild Jerusalem, our consciousness of His Love. We pray for this three times every day, and let's not forget that we have to start this reconstruction now.

The Chassidic tradition teaches us that in Sinai the Divine Redemption came from Above to below; and the Final Redemption in our current times will come from below to Above. This means that with our basic, lower nature we have to reach up to Heaven, and be guided by God's Love to redeem ourselves from ego's fantasies and illusions, and be One again with God.