Devarim: Facing the Material World

“The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb [Sinai], [and] said: 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and journey forth (...)'.” (Deuteronomy 1:6-7).

These two sentences comprise one essential aspect of the relationship between Israel and the Creator. We indeed are always connected to Him as our forefathers were in the desert of Sinai during forty years after their Exodus from Egypt. Actually, they initiated this connection with Him that we still have as long as we want to be aware of it. We are long enough with Him in our Torah study, in which we realize the identity He shaped for us, and in our full awareness of it we must go out into the world and take on our journey by the hand of this identity.

The key of this awareness is to constantly live God's will for us in every aspect of consciousness. As we have mentioned many times, His will is His Commandments which we perform with His attributes of compassion, grace and loving kindness, for these qualities are our common bond with His Love.

In this awareness we realize that Love's ways and attributes are the material manifestation of God's Love that must constantly direct our discernment, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts, speech and action. This is a practical process in which Love is the Light that dissipates the darkness of indifference, fear, apprehension, doubt, uncertainty, lack, helplessness, despair and the potentially negative aspects in human consciousness.

As long as we confront the fantasies and illusions of a materialistic approach to life with Love's attributes, we secure our connection with God's Love. This confrontation is symbolized by the children of Israel and their wars against the corrupted nations settled in the Promised Land.

We must be in full awareness of our unity with God's Love to be able to subjugate the lower aspects of consciousness and redirect them toward positive and constructive ends.

If we doubt God's Love for us, as well as Love's attributes as the means for our individual and collective Redemption, we will live under the dominion of egotism, separation, indifference, cruelty, lust, envy, indolence and all that keeps us apart from the embracing unity that Love is and amplifies. This is one of the meanings of the following verse.

“The Lord your God who goes before you, He shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes (...).” (1:30)

Sometimes we are extremely overwhelmed and subdued by negative fantasies and illusions, and seem incapable to overcome them. It feels like an addiction to a potent drug from which we are completely dominated. At this critical point we must trust Love as our way out, as our redeemer and deliverer, because Love fights and wins our wars against the negative choices we make and their consequences.

“Do not fear them, for it is the Lord, your God, who is fighting for you.”(3:22)

Let's refer back to the two sentences pointed out above, because in our connection with the Creator we become aware of the power we experience when we walk in His ways. We need to know His ways in order to fully assimilate the power of loving kindness, compassion and grace as some of the main attributes of Love as the material manifestation of God's Love.

Life is our journey and we must live it embracing the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. We are born to be loved, nurtured, cared for and protected in order to be able to love, nurture, care and protect others as well. That's the reason we are in this material world. Love is its own cause and effect. As long as we realize this Truth we are ready to live life regardless negative, violent and hostile illusions that many people experience in this world.

However, most of us prefer to live in the goodness of life trying to overlook wickedness, and avoiding negativity and evil by separating ourselves from their influence and predicament. This seems the best way to keep our “cool” and protect ourselves from danger and potential harm. But this is not what the Creator wants from us. That's the meaning of the the two lines mentioned above. It was meant to be that way back then in the desert and also now.

The idea is not only to enjoy God's Love and His goodness for us in Love's ways and attributes, but to manifest them where we don't find them. In other words, the purpose of Love – as well as Light – it to dissipate darkness and create a space and time where their attributes can be fully manifest.

In the desert God's Love provided for all that our forefathers needed and in that place and time nothing made them different among each other, because they all lived under God's care and protection. Likewise, when we all live in Love's ways and attributes nothing makes us different from each other because we all share the same approach and the same attitude towards each other. Nothing makes us better or superior to each other because we share the same identity.

The challenge begins when we go out into a world filled with materialistic fantasies and illusions that separate us from Love as our common Essence and approach to each other. At this point we are compelled to confront such illusions with the strength and power of the awareness of who we truly are.

Love's righteousness, justice, compassion, fairness, kindness and goodness are our references among its attributes to confront their opposite traits. If there is no justice and fairness, we make them prevail; if there is wickedness, we make righteousness and goodness prevail, and so on.

Love makes us better because Love is better than anything different from its ways and attributes. These shape the way we live, in the same way that God's Love shapes and sustains His Creation. In the freedom that Love gives us, because Love is our freedom, we love our Creator and His will for us.

Only in total freedom we can truly love God and His ways. This is why we must free ourselves from materialistic fantasies and illusions that keep us captive in the lower aspects of consciousness, and Love is the key to our freedom in order to live in its freedom.

This task or mission begins with us individually, and we do it by learning God's ways and attributes as stated in His Torah, and how He relates to His Creation. Once we acquire this knowledge, we integrate it into all levels and dimensions of consciousness in order to manifest it in what we discern, believe, think, feel, speak and do. This is how we redeem ourselves and those around us: by making Love's ways our ways. When we do this individually and collectively Redemption comes.

We have mentioned many times that some of our Sages say that the Final Redemption comes when we start to love each other without preconditions or hidden agendas, what they refer to as “uncalled for Love”. We do this as the way to clear the darkness of all that opposes Love's ways.

For some this sounds like an impossible task. They can't imagine that evil can be completely eradicated by Love's attributes. In other words, they don't believe that Love is more powerful than evil, and rather choose to be indifferent and separate from whatever they consider negative.

This endeavor does not mean that we have to force everybody to abandon their wicked ways and instantly embrace Love's ways. Love does not force itself on anything or anybody.

Love does not need promoters or advocates because it presents itself as a choice, not as a weapon. In the same way that evil seems to be something we choose, Love is also a choice. The idea is to consider evil not as a choice but as a reference to be ruled out, and make Love the one and only choice to live happily ever after.

In order to live happily ever after we must subjugate ego's drives and desires into Love's ways to secure goodness, peace and harmony in the decisions we make every moment.

This is the task of Love and as we engage on it, God's Love is also on our side helping us fight the wars against the potential negative aspects of consciousness represented by the nations that occupied the Promised Land.

This Land is also the time and space where and when Love conducts and guides all dimensions of life for us to live happily ever after. Let's accept and execute the Creator's Commandment to engage ourselves in the journey to confront the fantasies and illusions of the material world in the awareness of His ways.

Let's transform our consciousness through Love's ways, means, qualities and attributes in order to settle permanently in the Promised Land we also call Redemption.

Parshat Devarim: Dwelling in God's Love

Every book of the Torah is important, as well as every word contained in them, and their messages are directed to all aspects and dimensions of our consciousness in order to understand, to grasp and to assimilate those messages. We know that some of the Commandments of the Torah are beyond our comprehension. This makes sense because God's Word as well as God's Love and His attributes ultimately are beyond our comprehension. We only "understand" and "feel" as long as our souls allow us to.

Our Sages say that the soul is to our body as the Creator is to the world, meaning that the soul makes us aware of Him in the body as God makes the world aware of His Presence. This means that the soul is the place of the body, and God is the place of the world; though the body nor the world are the place of the soul or the place of God. We understand this principle by making ourselves aware that our mission as individuals (bodies) and as collective (world) is to reveal God's Love as His Presence in our lives and in our surroundings, because He is our Essence, and our sustenance, and our life.

In the last book of the Torah, Devarim (Things, Sayings), there is a repetition of many of the Commandments already given and reiterated in the previous books, and also prophecies that have been fulfilled throughout our Jewish history. Let's reflect on some of these revisions: "The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, 'You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. Turn and journey, and come to the mountain of the Amorites and to all its neighboring places, in the plain, on the mountain, and in the lowland, and in the south and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, until the great river, the Euphrates River." (Deuteronomy 1:6-7).

In this two verses we are reminded again that once we dwell long enough in God's Love, under His care, protection and guidance as the permanent awareness of His Presence in our lives, we must pour this awareness into all levels and dimensions of consciousness to be able to "settle" in the Promised Land, where we live in God's ways and attributes.

These levels and dimensions are the higher knowledge of loving kindness and its manifestations ("mountains"), of the emotions and passions ("plains"), of our instincts ("the lowland"), of the ways (south, north, east, west, up and down) where we direct our thoughts ("the sea"), of how we subjugate, control and direct our negative emotions ("the Canaanite nations), of how we consecrate our duties and deeds in life ("the Lebanon" as an additional symbol of the Tabernacle or Temple), and of the flow of our individual living identity ("rivers"), as the premises to live a life in the plenitude of Love's ways and attributes: "And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hand(s) and brought it down to us, brought us back word, and said, 'The land the Lord, our God, is giving us is good'." (1:25), for life in Love's ways and attributes is always good.

Again, we are also reminded to be bear in mind that our highest knowledge of the Creator (represented by Moses, our teacher) is indeed our true guide, but it needs the remaining positive traits and aspects of consciousness (the tribes of Israel) in order to fully accomplish our mission to reveal (for us and for the nations) God's Love in His Creation: "How can I bear your trouble, your burden, and your strife all by myself? Prepare for yourselves wise and understanding men, known among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you." (1:12-13).

This highest knowledge of God's Love as our Essence can elevate our entire consciousness to be able to reveal Him in our lives and in the world: "And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, 'Your eyes have seen all that the Lord, your God, has done to these two kings.' So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you will pass. Do not fear them, for it is the Lord, your God, who is fighting for you." (3:21-22).

Here we learn that Joshua and Moses represent the same awareness for us as individuals and as a Nation. Once we are aware (we "see") that God's Love is our Creator, our life and our sustenance, we can also redirect our thoughts, emotions, passions and instincts, through which we pass when we manifest who we are and what we do. In this "passing through" we do not have to be afraid of falling into negative emotions and lower passions, because Love as the material manifestation of God's Love is paving the way, filling the roughness of our consciousness with its attributes. This is how God's Love "fights" for us when we make the choice to let Him lead our lives to live in His ways and attributes: His Promised Land to us.

Parshat Devarim: Reflecting on God's Love

"These are the things which Moses spoke to all Israel." (Deuteronomy 1:1)

Though it is considered a repetition of the teachings and events mentioned in the previous four books of the Torah, Devarim emphasizes in how we conceive the Creator and how Israel must relate to Him. This is why it begins with Moses rebuking all Israel because the chosen people not only question God's love, but also rebel against Him.

We said in previous commentaries that Moses and Aaron respectively represent our highest awareness of God and our permanent connection with Him. Moses is the conductor that leads us (Israel) to God's ways and attributes, and teaches us to follow them and manifest them. Aaron makes us realize our unity and oneness with the Creator.

Moses communicates with our intellect, reasoning and understanding in order to make us know God's ways and attributes. Aaron makes us experience that knowledge.

"Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving the created beings, and bringing them near to the Torah." (Pirkei Avot 1:12)

Moses leads us to the knowledge of the truth because he is the primordial teacher who speaks "mouth to mouth" with the Creator. We continuously remark that God's love is the essence that sustains His creation, because everything emanates from Him and it is connected to Him. Being unaware of this truth, or rejecting it, is not only living in denial but living in the darkness of ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions.

The next reflection deals with doubting the power of God's love to conquer the lower passions and negative emotions in spite of His countless proofs and miracles.

"Yet in this thing you do not believe the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 1:32)

"Because the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand, He has known you walking through this great wilderness, these forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing." (2:7)

Moses rebukes all aspects of our consciousness and their expressions in order to make them aware of their mission in this world, which is to recognize the preeminence of love in our lives. Also the ways we relate with each other and with all creation. This rebuke is not intended as a reprimand but as an invitation to reflect on ego's illusions in our quest to achieve a permanent connection with love's ways and attributes.

Our leading awareness of love needs every single aspect of our consciousness to achieve this goal.

"(…) saying: 'How can I myself alone bear your troubles, and your burden, and your strife?" (1:12)

Then the leader appoints the best traits and qualities to direct, to "judge" the lower aspects of consciousness "because the judgment is God's" (1:17).

The portion ends reiterating that which is very clear to Moses our teacher.

"You shall not fear them because the Lord your God, He it is that fights for you." (3:22)

When we doubt love -- as the material manifestation of God's love -- and instead we believe in ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions, the latter take over our consciousness. As we have said many times, with our choices we either separate or connect with love's ways because God's love never separates from us.

Love fights the darkness of ego's agenda, and love always prevails. Devarim is Moses' repeated invitation for us to be fully aware that God's love is our Creator, our life, our source, and our sustenance. And also to experience the sublime awareness of love in who we are, and what we do.