The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXVI)

“Come away, My beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young deer upon the mountains of spices!” (Song of Songs 8:14)

God’s final words in this Song of Songs reiterate His plea to Israel for her return to Him. God’s love urges her to flee the darkness of the exile in ego’s fantasies and illusions among the nations, and haste as “gazelles” and “harts” to ascend up to the mountains of spices, where one of these excels as the summit of the Temple of Jerusalem as the symbol of Israel’s eternal bond with God.

These are the sublime fragrances emanated from the new guidelines as the traits and qualities of the new consciousness God promised Israel after His final redemption, to begin fathoming the endless dimensions of His creation.

“He does great things, unfathomable; and wondrous works without number.” (Job 9:10)

In the times of king Solomon, Israel brought the nations to her. In the Jewish final redemption, Israel will bring the nations to the Creator, for the Messianic consciousness unfolds in the infinite knowledge of God.

“The world was made for the Messiah.” (Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b)

“Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Isaiah 2:5)

May this be very soon and in our times! Amen.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXV)

“I am a wall and my breasts [are] like towers! Therefore, I have been in His eyes like one who has found peace.” (Song of Songs 8:10)

The upcoming Messianic consciousness responds to God and Israel that it is built like guarding towers to keep and fulfill God’s plans after His final redemption. God’s plans as His eyes looking forward to make the peace of love’s ways and attributes prevail for eternity.

“The One whose peace belongs had a vineyard in Baal Hamon [Owner of Multitudes]. He gave over the vineyard to keepers. Each brings for its fruit a thousand silver pieces.” (8:11)

The Messianic consciousness speaks of itself as “a vineyard” planted by God in His field. It is named after Him as the Owner of Multitudes (Baal Hamon). He gave it “to keepers” as guardians that represent future traits, trends, qualities and expressions of the new consciousness in Messianic times. Their harvest is beyond the most precious value, as producing “its fruit” a thousand-fold out of one.

These guardians are also the future multitudes of Israel as inheritors and bearers of the upcoming Messianic consciousness leading to eternity.

“My vineyard that is Mine is before Me. The thousand [is] for you, oh Solomon [he whose peace belongs]; and the two hundred for the keepers of its fruit.” (8:12)

Israel’s love keeps the vineyard joined by God’s love. Every Jew in the Messianic era will be as one whose peace belongs (Solomon) harvesting his thousand-fold, and accompanied by their helpers from the redeemed nations, who will be rewarded also for their tendering of the harvest.

“O you, who sits in the gardens; friends are attentive to your voice. Let Me hear it.” (8:13)

As God’s promise is fulfilled and Israel enters her final redemption, she will build again a place for Him to dwell among (in) us. This place on earth is the Garden of Eden as God’s field that will be fully revealed in the material world, as both the spiritual and material will share the same space.

Here Israel “sits” and is addressed by God making her notice that the nations, now “friends”, are willing to hear her “voice” as the teachings to be learned in order to assimilate the new human consciousness the Creator has established for the Messianic era. He wants to “hear” Israel’s voice as His voice for the new humankind.

Then one garden becomes many gardens for God to speak to the new consciousness and its traits and attributes that attentively will hear His voice. Israel as the reigning ruler in the eternal Messianic era will be the first to know God’s will, and communicate it to her friends, the nations.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXIV)

“Many waters can’t quench the love, and rivers can’t drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house in exchange for love, he would be laughed to scorn.” (Song of Songs 8:7)

This ardent sacred love can’t be destroyed by anything, no matter how great or overwhelming it may be. Neither can it be conditioned, acquired or exchanged by material possessions, for the goodness of love does not cohabit with anything different from its ways and attributes.

“Can a throne of evil be associated with You, a framer of wickedness turned into decree?” (Psalms 94:20)

“Also the Lord gives goodness, and our land yields its produce.” (Ibid. 85:12)

Thus we realize that the goodness of God’s love is its own harvest, and we must assimilate that our complete redemption is goodness as the cause and end of His creation. The more we live in love’s ways and attributes, the more we live in God’s final redemption.

“Our sister is little, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? If she be a wall, we build by her a palace of silver. And if she be a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.” (Song of Songs 8:8-9)

These verses and the remaining ones of this poem refer to the new consciousness that awaits us in the upcoming Messianic times. It will be a new companion as a “little sister” for God and Israel that will unfold when our final redemption is completed. It will be revealed either as a new paradigm, “a wall” as a walled-protected “palace of silver”; or a new ruling principle, “a door” as an opening, to enter the Messianic era. The “panels of cedar” are an allusion to the Tabernacle or Temple of Jerusalem.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXIII)

“Set Me as a seal upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm. For love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire that is the flame of God.” (Song of Songs 8:6)

God continues addressing Israel, asking her to seal their mutual love. First in her heart, for it encompasses love expression, good judgment, good feelings, and passionate intensity that invite positive thinking. Second in her arm, for it is the means to bring love into concrete actions and deeds. Thus we realize that thought, feeling, emotion, passion and deeds encompass the fulfillment of one single principle that is love.

The second sentence of this verse is intricate, yet one of the most profound principles revealed in the Song of Songs. Its complexity comes from introducing love “as strong as death”, both with equal powers by virtue of the comparative “as”. Although, in spite of this, it wants to tell us that indeed love is stronger than death as we will see in the culmination and end of the poem.

The statement evokes in our imagination two equally strong contenders in a long lasting fight in which one defeats the other and prevails forever. Here we recall Jacob’s all night-long fight with the angel of Esau (Genesis 32:24-29), ending up overcoming and emerging as Israel, the one who fights with and for God. We see Jacob/Israel as the embodiment of love and life who defeated Esau as the embodiment of evil and death.

“He has swallowed up death in victory, and has wiped the Lord God the tear from off all faces. And the reproach of His people He has turned aside from off all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:8)

Thus we see that after a long confrontation of thousands of years, God will make love prevail as our final redemption to reign forever in His promised Messianic era. After this statement turned into prophecy, the verse reaffirms the bonding love of God and Israel echoing the fundamental declaration of Judaism.

“Hear [understand] Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord is One [and Unique].” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

This declaration is a sealing kiss that makes “love as strong as death”, for we recite it from the moment we return to life in our awakening in the morning and in the moment after closing our eyes to sleep. These two moments also reflect life and death in the Jewish tradition; hence we thank God when we wake up, for bringing us back to life.

The third sentence of the verse tells us that “jealousy” is part of love, for it shields and protects from anything threatening or harmful to whom or what we love. Thus we also realize that estrangement is as painful (“hard”) as death (“the grave”), for it ends the reason and purpose of love.

The fire of God’s love makes the bonding eternal as His flame that gives life and sustenance to His entire creation. We understand this “jealousy” as the burning exclusivity God’s love demands from our love for Him.

“And those who love Him are as the going out of the sun in its might.” (Judges 5:31)

Jealousy does not allow anything to meddle or interfere with whom or what we love, and its “fire” burns whatever is different or against the purpose of God’s love and the love He wants us to live. Thus we understand how He reveals Himself to us, and we ask Him so in our Jewish daily prayers to be with Him in love.

“(…) and give us an understanding heart to comprehend and to discern, to perceive, to learn and to teach, to observe, to practice, and to fulfill all the instructions of Your Torah in love.”

“(…) For You have chosen us from among all the nations and languages, and have brought us our King to the greatness of Your Name in love, to thank You and to proclaim Your Oneness, and to love Your Name. Blessed You are Lord, who chooses His people Israel in love.

It is so, because the goodness of love is the context of God’s creation, and the purpose of life is to exist in it. As the essence and destiny of our life, love is the freedom that leads us to make it prevail in all facets, aspects and dimensions of life.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXII)

We define this kind of love as the one that yearns not only for a complete redemption from exile among the nations, but also from what these represent as addictions, obsessions and attachments to the negative traits and trends of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions.

This kind of profound passionate love must have indeed a powerful spiritual essence that also strongly yearns and aspires to come up to the realms of divine consciousness, as God promised Israel in her final redemption in order to fully realize that He is the reality of all existence.

“‘Return, backsliding sons’, says the Lord; ‘for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds as for My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding’.” (Jeremiah 3:14-15)

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion for him and [he] to our God, for He abundantly pardons.” (Isaiah 55:7)

This calling culminates with the final and eternal encounter in the Temple of Jerusalem at Zion, as the “apple” tree (which is another reference of the Torah as the tree of life) where the Creator arouses us to who we truly are.

“So that I tell all Your praise; in the gates of the daughter of Zion I rejoice in Your redemption.” (Psalms 9:14)

Here we see again that God and Israel are bound by the Torah and the Temple of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, as the sources of our redemption, and unified means of connection between God and Israel.

“Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God, forever.” (Ibid. 87:3)

Let’s be aware that Jerusalem is the heart of the world from which all is nurtured and sustained, as the one that beats in our body. Jerusalem is our heart of love that spreads the goodness of God’s love in every aspect and dimension of life.

“Extol the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion, for He strengthens the bars of your gates, and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders, and satiates you with the finest of wheat.” (Psalms 147:12-14)

This is the heart of goodness, for we praise God whose loving kindness fills all. In this awareness of being, having and doing goodness with its ways and attributes we come to love God “with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our resources”. Thus we also return to Him to come up to the new consciousness in His promised Messianic era.

“(…) O Zion, bearer of good tidings; lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good deeds. Lift it up, do not fear, say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God’!” (Isaiah 40:9)

“(…) How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring goodness, who proclaim peace, who bring good deeds, who proclaim redemption, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’!”

(Ibid 52:7)

The Torah and the Temple of Jerusalem united as the mother from which God’s love was revealed in His Creation. In this metaphor the revelation of His presence in the world happens by the birth of Israel. The triple emphasis of her birth in this verse is to make Israel fully aware that her origin, identity and purpose, all come from her connection with God.

“Because part of the Lord is His people, Jacob is the line of His legacy.” (Deuteronomy 32:9)

Also the “apple” (usually considered a citrus fruit by our sages in the Talmud) symbolizes the Garden of Eden. Thus we understand that God’s love awakens Israel’s love in the highest level of spiritual awareness, also represented by the Garden of Eden.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXXI)

“I take You, I bring You to my mother’s house to teach me. I give You scented wine to drink, of the juice of my pomegranate.” (Song of Songs 8:2)

Israel tells God that by her returning to His ways and attributes, she brings Him to their eternal bonding in the house of her mother (the Temple of Jerusalem). There God instructs Israel His plan for the Messianic era, and she will bring Him the goodness of the expressions (pomegranate juice) of the new future consciousness as a delightful scented wine. Also in Jewish tradition the seeds of pomegranates represent God’s commandments.

“His left hand is under my head, and His right one embraces me.” (8:3)

Israel’s love joyously and proudly reaffirms her unchanging bond with God’s love, as declared at the beginning of this poem. This time has a special twist, for it is the bond with the eternal quality fully manifest after Israel’s final redemption and the advent of the Messianic era.

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem. How do you stir or how do you arouse the love until she pleases?” (8:4)

In this new redeeming reality, God commands the traits and characteristics of the highest level of consciousness (the daughters of Jerusalem) to wake up and stir Israel’s essence and identity in order for her to express the new qualities of the inherent goodness of her love as much as she pleases.

In the fulfillment of His final redemption, God will stir up our inherent goodness to bring our love back to His love.

“Who is she ascending from the desert, leaning upon her Beloved? Under the apple [tree] I aroused you. There your mother was giving birth to you, she who bore you delivered you.” (8:5)

God responds by also returning to her as we quoted the prophets earlier, “Return to Me, and I will return to you”. He asks rhetorically who is the one who returns from the desert (among the harshness and desolation of the suffering in Israel’s exile among the nations), by leaning upon Him as she returns to Him. This returning is motivated, attained and successfully achieved by having and manifesting an extremely intense love for God, for there is no other way to return to Him.

“And if from there you seek the Lord your God, you shall find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”, “Then the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you; and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.” (Deuteronomy 4:29, 30:33)

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXX)

“Who does make You as a brother to me, who has nursed at my mother breasts? I would find You outside and kiss You, and no one would despise me.” (Song of Songs 8:1)

The bonding of both loves continues, looking forward to delight in closeness. Israel asks God again to remind her about the common traits they share, that make them as brother and sister of the same mother. This is the sweet allegory of a common bond as the common “origin” they share.

“And I have betrothed you to Me forever, and betrothed you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in compassion. And betrothed you to Me in faithfulness, and you have known the Lord.” (Hosea 2:19-20)

Israel simultaneously speaks to the nations, telling them that she finds God’s love without them or their help. Then she kisses Him in front of them. Now that the nations finally realize and accept Israel’s preeminence in the world, due to her intimate connection with the Creator, they do not despise, harm or hate Israel as they enter the Messianic era. Thus is God’s will.

“For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one purpose.” (Zephaniah 3:9)

“All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and they shall glorify Your name.” (Psalms 86:9)

All the nations of the earth will partake in the Jewish final redemption and the advent of the Messianic era, in the new consciousness whose thought will be directed toward the single purpose of knowing the Creator, as a new language that will reflect only goodness as the spiritual and material manifestation of God’s love.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXIX)

“Come, my Beloved, let us go into the field.” (Song of Songs 7:12)

God asks His beloved to go with Him to the field where His redeeming love makes everything flourish and blossom. This field is another clear reference to the Messianic times, when the material world will share the same dimension with the spiritual heavens. The earth will return to its original state as the Garden of Eden, also known as “the field of God”.

“Let’s us lodge in the villages, we rise early to the vineyards, to us see if the vine has budded, the blossom has opened, the pomegranates have blossomed. There, I shall give My loves to you. The mandrakes yield fragrance, and at our doors [are] all precious fruits, new and old, I have hidden for you My beloved.” (7:13-14)

The Creator continues introducing the coming Messianic times. In this part the poem mentions villages (lit. towns) and not cities, referring to new ways of fathoming, reasoning, thinking and feeling what He reserves for us.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, but man can’t fathom the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

These are the new dwellings of the divinely redeemed human consciousness. From there God’s love and Israel's love will partner promptly (“rise early”), guiding and directing the nations and humankind as vineyards. The new trends in the new human consciousness will yield their produce as their budding, blossoming and ripening of their fruits as deeds and actions to build the renewed earth.

“The peoples will thank You, O God; all the peoples will thank You. The nations will be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with equity, and lead the nations on earth forever. The peoples will thank You, O God; all the peoples will thank You, for the earth will have yielded its produce. And God, our God, will bless us; and everyone from all the ends of the earth will revere Him.” (Psalms 67:4-7)

In these joined partnership, God will share with Israel the unrevealed hidden ways, means and attributes of His love (“My loves”).

“And all your sons shall be taught from the Lord, and abundant is the peace of your sons.” (Isaiah 54:13)

“(…) For they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord (…).” (Jeremiah 31:34)

“As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.” (Micah 7:15)

All these are about the endless journey of knowing our Creator, who will give us a new consciousness capable to guide us in this path.

“I have given them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord. And they have been My people and I will be their God for them to return to Me with all their heart. (…) I have given My Torah in their innards and in their heart will I write it. And I have been a God for them, and they have been My people.” (Jeremiah 24:7, 31:33)

We will smell the concealed fragrances of odorless plants, the hidden nurturing qualities of fruits (“new and old”) God has stored for Israel after her final redemption and in Messianic times.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXVIII)

Once we unite the diversity of human consciousness and harmonize its opposite traits and trends under the regency of love’s ways and attributes, we will see this harmonic functional unity also in our surroundings. Not only as a reflection of our individual and collective peace, but also interacting with each other.

“For you will be in league [lit. In partnership, in covenant] with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.” (Job 5:23)

“In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety.” (Hosea 2:18)

Therefore all forms of life exist to serve and sustain life in order to make goodness prevail in every way, means and end, for goodness is the highest level of life. Thus we understand what our sages mean when they refer to our actions.

“And let your deeds be for the sake of heaven” (Pirkei Avot 2:17)

God’s love reminds us constantly about this, for we deliberately overlook the goodness of love’s ways and attributes as what we must honor always and in all ways.

“(…) and God in whose hand is your breath and all your ways, Him you have not honored.” (Daniel 5:23)

Goodness is the intended purpose of God’s creation, and as the harmonizing catalyst is destined to transform anything different into goodness. King David reminds us often that God is good, for His loving kindness is eternal; and thus we realize goodness as the ruling principle in the promised transformed human consciousness in the Messianic era.

“And He will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples, and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” (Isaiah 2:4)

We live to experience change, from ignorance to wisdom, delusion to awareness, dormant to awakened, immature to mature, darkness to light, coldness to warmth, abyss to summit. This change is the transformational process led by the soul in order to find itself in goodness as its own essence and purpose.

In this awareness some of us ask the fundamental question in regards to the soul, is it me or just the link to our Creator, or am I a consciousness in a biological body? The answer is simpler than we think. It depends on where we place our essence and identity.

Some place it in the body, and some of us place it in the soul. Some identify with the temporary nature of the body with its needs, lacks and desires, and some of us with the transcendental quality of the soul with its endless goodness beyond need, lack, lust or limitations. After what we already know about the soul, can we settle for less?

“I am of my Beloved, and upon me is His desire.” (Song of Songs 7:11)

Israel responds that the beauty of the goodness in her essence and identity entirely belongs to God, for they come from His love. Thus Israel remarks that she belongs to God’s love. Israel is thus, because thus is God’s desire.

God yearns for Israel’s expressions of His love in the material world, for He wants humankind to be fully aware of His presence in all that He has created.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXVII)

“Your two breasts [are] like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck [is] like a tower of ivory. Your eyes [are like the] pools in Cheshbon by the gate of the daughter of a multitude. Your nose [is] like the tower of the Lebanon in front of the Damascus. Your head upon you [is] like [mount] Carmel, and the hair of your head [is] like purple. The king [is] bound in its locks. How beautiful you are, and how pleasant, oh love in delights! Your stature [is] like a date tree, and your breasts like clusters of grapes.” (7:4-8)

Again, God’s description of Israel’s material features as qualities evokes the structure or body of the Tabernacle and the Temple of Jerusalem. As we mentioned before, these allegories suggest a fusion between Israel and the Temple as a one in the spiritual bonding with God’s love.

“I said, ‘I will go up in the date tree, to hold on its branches, and let your breasts be as clusters of grapes, and the breath of your nose like [the scent of] apples. And your palate be like the choicest wine, going to My beloved in righteousness, causing the lips of the sleepers to speak’.” (7:9-10)

God reiterates His promise for Israel's final redemption and the Messianic era. In the time He considers proper, as the Jewish prophets have announced, God will reveal His presence in Zion as Jerusalem and its Temple. The latter referred here as the date tree in which He will be seen elevated.

“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken! (…) together they shall sing, for they shall see eye to eye the Lord returning to Zion.” (Isaiah 40:5, 53:8)

There God’s love will bond with Israel’s love manifest with the highest traits and qualities as her branches, clusters of grapes, the goodness of her deeds and actions as the scent of her breath, and the delight of the rejoicing they cause in all the hearts, as the best of wines.

All the goodness of these traits, qualities, deeds and actions emanate as the flow of streams coming only from the righteousness of love. In the righteousness of Israel’s love the sleepers (the nations) will speak the ways and attributes of God’s love.

As we have seen, these verses allude to a new human consciousness that will be led only by the goodness of love’s ways and attributes destined to prevail in the material world, and directed by Israel as the inheritor of God’s final redemption for all humankind.

“And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Here flesh represents life and the heart as the goodness that drives it. Existence has meaning because of goodness, for goodness gives meaning to existence. God’s promised new consciousness led only by goodness heralds His complete and eternal bonding with Israel, for it is the spiritual and material manifestation of God’s love as His spirit, glory, majesty, power, triumph, splendor, regency and greatness.

“(…) Says the Lord, ‘My spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring’, says the Lord, ‘from here to eternity’.” (Isaiah 59:21)

We all are here in this world to experience, learn, enjoy and manifest goodness as our essence and identity. We already said that goodness is the essence of the soul as an extension of God’s love, and we as souls are here to find ourselves in all aspects, facets and dimensions of life and the material world. Thus we reveal God’s blessings in all that is in us and our surroundings, for everything we perceive through our senses also has the purpose to be and have goodness, a grain of sand, a leave of grass, an ant or an elephant.

We have said that the purpose of the soul is to find itself in all expressions of God’s material creation, by seeing the hidden goodness of what we may perceive as opposite to it. Thus we understand our prophets’ messages about the Messianic era.

 “‘The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain’, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 65:25, 11:6)

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXVI)

“Return, return O Shulamith! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. What have you seen in the Shulamith, like a dance of the camps?” (Song of Songs 7:1)

The daughters of Jerusalem call up to Israel, urging her to return to her essence and true identity as her common bond with God’s love. Once we make the choice to abandon ego’s fantasies and illusions, and return to love’s ways and attributes as the means to follow God’s will, our higher traits and positive qualities support us in our journey back to God’s love. These know that God calls Israel the one who is all peace (Shulamith), for through the encompassing peace of love's ways and attributes we reach out to He whom peace belongs.

God asks the daughters of Jerusalem what do they see in the wholesomeness of Israel, like a dance in the camps. It is a rhetorical question, for they already know the goodness inherent to Israel. The two camps evoke the episode about the meeting of Esau and Jacob during the latter’s return to the land of Canaan (Genesis 32:2, 8).

There was and there is a clear distinction between the character traits of the two brothers, to the extreme that they are opposites. In this contrast, Israel’s wholesomeness is remembered in the last verse of the sixth chapter of this Song. It’s brought to relevance in the context of Israel and the nations. God praises Israel as the bearer of peace that belongs to her.

“How beautiful [were] your steps in sandals, O daughter of Nadib! The roundness of your sides [are] as jewels, the work of a master's hand!” (7:2)

Israel takes the steps of humbleness (represented by sandals) in their way to meet her Beloved, as the daughter of the Benefactor’s (Nadib) goodness and loving kindness. God remarks this time the beauty of the roundness of a body that epitomizes the grace of her traits and qualities as God’s attributes of compassion with which His hand forms and directs His entire creation.

“Your navel [is] like a round basin, where no mixed wine is lacking. Your womb [is like] a heap of wheat fenced with roses.” (7:3)

Israel’s “body” as the encompassing material expression of her spiritual identity is allegorically described as circular (“round”), meaning completeness and wholesomeness. Mixtures of wine usually refer to diversity of vines as multidimensional knowledge derived from the Torah that is the encompassing essence of the Jewish identity. Here the physical body reflects the material expressions of the spiritual body the Torah represents for Israel.

The womb (lit. the stomach) is the metaphor for the place where life is nurtured from its beginnings. Wheat is the quintessential food for feeding human life, and being mentioned here as a womb reinforces its life sustaining qualities. God describes Israel’s womb as a nurturing source to feed the goodness in life. It is “fenced” with roses as the beauty inherent to goodness.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXV)

“I knew not my soul, that my soul set me as chariots of my people, Nadib.” (6:12)

Israel answers to God's inquiries by admitting that in her long and dark exile she became alienated and assimilated enough to disregard her own soul. In exile, Israel has been prone to lose the awareness of her essence and true identity. Instead of assuming responsibility for her separation from God's ways and attributes, and the consequences of her negative choices, Israel blames Him for her predicament under the nations.

As we allow ego’s fantasies and illusions, these become the rulers of our free will. In this predicament we become vulnerable to others controlled by negative traits and trends. Our total freedom is in love’s ways and attributes, with which we are full and without lack. Thus we make them the rulers to bring the blessings God’s love wants us to enjoy in the material world and in all expressions of life.

We must be aware that we also can bless ourselves in order to be the blessing we want to be in order to be a blessing for others. Our thoughts, speech and actions have the potential to reflect our blessings or curses. Negative traits and trends are indeed curses that turn our self into evil for us and for others. Curses not only come from others or our midst, but also from our self. Thus we understand king David’s warning.

“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them shall become like them; yea, everyone that trust in them.” (Psalms 135:15-18)

The idols as ego’s fantasies and illusions with their negative trends are the curses we bring to our self, that rule and control our thoughts, emotions, feelings, passion and instinct. As they turn us into them, we become either the epitome of lust, envy, coveting, wrath, haughtiness, indifference or indolence, among other cursing traits. Thus we realize that the blessings of love’s ways and attributes elevate us, while the curses of negative traits and trends keep us trapped in the shallowness and futility of ego’s fantasies and illusions.

We must be constantly bonding with goodness in order to allow the blessings flow in us, for us and for others, and fulfilling our soul’s purpose to make goodness prevail in human life and the material world. We maintain this constant flow by being and doing goodness, allowing our self to be its vessel and channel in the awareness that goodness comes from God’s love. Thus we understand that the cause of His creation is goodness, and the purpose and end of His creation is goodness, as it is written.

“Everything the Lord has made [is] for His sake.” (Proverbs 16:4)

“And God saw everything that He made; and behold, very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

“(...) may the Lord rejoice in His works.” (Psalms 104:31)

Goodness indeed rejoices in goodness. As we have mentioned often, our total fulfillment in every aspect of life is complete only by the goodness that emanates from God’s love. We achieve this with our constant desire for goodness by bonding with His loving goodness.

“(…) You [God] open Your hand and satisfy the wanton of every living thing.” (Ibid. 145:16)

“The Lord wants those who revere Him, they who desire His loving kindness.” (Ibid 147:11)

Thus we also realize the transcendence of goodness, which makes it perfect.

“Everyone called [created] in My Name, and whom I have created for My honor [goodness], I have created him, I have shaped [perfected] Him.” (Isaiah 43:7)

Materialistic fantasies and illusions tamper the awareness of our essence and true identity, while love’s ways provide us the clarity to elevate our consciousness to higher realms where we are able to reveal God’s concealed presence. Prior to our journey to fully know God’s ways and attributes, we must know our own. Only then we can realize the strength of our awareness of love, the weaknesses of our fears and feelings of lack; the creative potentials to bring and manifest goodness in what we are and do, and the limitations of negative ideas, emotions and feelings.

Thus we learn what brings us closer to our Creator is goodness, and what separates us from Him is anything that is not good. Then we begin the journey to refine our consciousness and body by eliminating and avoiding negative traits; redirecting our basic drives, trends and creative potentials; and strengthening our positive qualities to guide all expressions of life.

This self-refinement process is indeed the premise to approach God’s ways and attributes, for as we have said, only through goodness we can bond with Him. Hence we engage in the knowledge of our self as goodness and inherently separated from anything different from goodness.

We must see our self as the soul that looks for its place in human life and this place is goodness, for goodness is from which the soul comes and its only reference to approach the material world. Thus we realize that the purpose of the soul is to find goodness as the place it knows before entering human consciousness.

Evidently, the material world is not suited for the loftiness of the soul, yet it looks forward to make the physical realm a reflection of the soul realm. Therefore we as the soul have to pursue goodness always and in all ways. Thus we assimilate that “the ways of the world are His” (Habakkuk 3:6), for all of them are the ways of His goodness. The soul finds its ways in the ways and attributes of its Creator, for which it is destined in the world.

“Certainly there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.” (Job 32:8)

As we have indicated, the soul as pure intellect begins this process analyzing the nature of human consciousness by knowing the dynamics of positive and negative traits, and their expressions and effects; and selecting those that are compatible and inherent to the soul. It does so in every level of consciousness, from the mind and thoughts through emotions and feelings, passions and instincts, by separating from them anything opposite to goodness and love’s ways and attributes.

We must be as practical, empirical and pragmatic as we can be, in order to learn from the goodness of positive traits and actions, as well as their opposites. Thus we can effectively execute change in our consciousness and surroundings, unless we bind ourselves to the repetitive vicious circles of obsessions, attachments and addictions to destructive ideas, thoughts, emotions and feelings.

The soul is actually the one that directs the refinement of human consciousness towards its goal to bond permanently with the Creator, while dwelling in the world. We must not allow the soul as our essence and true identity be trapped in the negative ways and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions, for these are not its place.

The soul gives us the intellect and its discernment to remove them completely in order to allow it manifest its divine origin and qualities, as extensions of God’s love. This is one of the meanings of Israel’s mission to build a place for God to dwell in our midst.

Israel recognizes before God (called here Nadib, Benefactor) her choice to falling into negative traits and trends. This falling (represented by her exile among the nations) turned into vassals (“chariots”) His people.

The Song of Songs: The Love Story of God and Israel (XXIV)

“Sixty are queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is My dove, My wholesome one. One is she of her mother, she is pure to the one who begot her. Daughters saw her and acclaimed her, queens and concubines, and they praise her.” (Song of Songs 6:8-9)

God's love also yearns for Israel's love, and distinguishes her among the nations (queens, concubines, and countless maidens). He exalts her as the true inheritor of her mother Jerusalem, as the highest level of our awareness of God's love.

The Torah that defines Israel's identity introduces her to the nations to respect, acclaim and praise her for what she is and represents for humankind and the world. This respect, acclaim and praise will be complete in the advent of the final redemption, and encompassing in the Messianic era.

“Who is this [she] looking forth as [compared to] the morning? Beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, awe inspiring as an army with banners.” (6:10)

God continues praising Israel as His chosen nation to make for Him a place to dwell in the material world. Israel is destined to be the light of the nations as clear as the sun in the morning, bright and beautiful as the moon at night. Shinning as the sun, revered for the goodness of her traits and qualities with their awe inspiring material and spiritual expressions as banners of the Messianic era.

“I descended to the garden of nuts to look on the buds of the valley, to see whether the vine has budded, the pomegranates in flower.” (6:11)

God also “descends” to evaluate how much the nations and humankind have learned from Israel's contributions to make human life a more pleasant and joyful journey in the world. In this verse God refers to Israel as His garden of nuts, vines and pomegranates to see her blossoming and flourishing amid her exile among the nations.

The Creator knows the qualities, traits and trends of human consciousness, for He endowed it with free will to choose between the goodness of love’s ways and attributes or the negative expressions of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions.

We have mentioned often that we truly exercise free will as long as we are properly informed about the choices we have and their effects, results and consequences. Thus we realize that life is indeed a learning process, whose ultimate destiny is to be, to have and manifest goodness as the sole purpose of God’s creation.

We also become aware that evil exists as a reference to choose goodness, and that wickedness is something we can overcome and eliminate from us and our midst. One of the most misunderstood verses in the Torah speaks about this.

“For the desire of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Genesis 8:21)

The context of “youth” is presented here as ignorance, inexperience, clumsiness, foolishness, inability and incapacity as lack of knowledge to make the right choices, and to fully assimilate the dynamics of human consciousness in the material world.

Thus we understand evil as a negative tendency based or generated by poor judgment on what is supposed to be right or wrong. However, this may not be applicable for those who knowingly and purposely make evil a choice and not a reference, and see nothing valuable in goodness even being fully aware that they can’t live without it.

This does not mean that man has the natural tendency to be evil or do evil from his birth or youth, but to make negative choices based on immaturity, lack of knowledge or adequate information to wisely exercise his free will.

This verse is a direct admonition and warning that since early childhood we must receive and/or give the best possible intellectual, moral, ethical, mental and emotional education the Torah commands us to acquire for ourselves, our offspring and others, in order to make goodness “the desire of our heart” since the moment we are conscious of life.

Goodness is our essence, true identity and common bond with our Creator, and what we are destined to be and do in the world. Thus we also understand why God created man in His image and likeness. This is the foundation of His covenant with Israel, as an eternal bond of love, in order to harvest “the budded vine and blossomed pomegranates” as the future expressions of goodness once we enter the fields and gardens awaiting us in our final redemption. Thus we realize goodness as the light the Torah and our prophets refer to.

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I hold in your hand and keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, and a light of the nations.” (Isaiah 42:6)

“And He said, ‘It has been a light thing that you are to Me for a servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and the preserved of Israel to bring back. And I have given you for a light of the nations, to be My redemption to the ends of the earth’.” (Ibid. 49:6)

“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (Ibid. 60:3)

Israel is close and dear to God for precisely embracing her mission to be a light for the nations, for she has been commanded to make a place for Him to dwell among (in) us.

“And they have made for Me a sanctuary, and I have dwell among [in] them.” (Exodus 25:8)