JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXIV)

“For the sake of my brethren and my loved ones, I will say now, ‘Peace be in you’.”

(Psalms 122:8)

King David tells us that in Jerusalem converges all that unites and bonds everything and everyone. In this unity and togetherness we live in the awareness of peace.

Our brothers, sisters and loved ones are those who in their own individual diversity share goodness as the bond that connects us with each other, and peace is its utmost expression. Hence we pursue peace as the encompassing and integrating awareness that makes us also connected to God.

“For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I seek goodness for you!” (122:9)

God’s house is the Sanctuary that He has established for Him to dwell among (in) us here in this world, and as King David has pointed out often, goodness is our bond with Him. Hence we pursue goodness for the sake of our connection with the Creator.

“Those who trust in the Lord are like mount Zion that is not moved, [for] it sits forever.” (125:1)

Trust is based on what we know or believe as something by which we live and conduct our life. Trusting God is living by what He represents that keeps us alive to prosper with it and for it. Therefore our Creator is the ethical ruling principle by which we exist to live it and experience it in this world.

The psalmist compares this principle to the unmovable mountain named Zion and to its eternal quality, for the fact that God’s eternity sits on it; as it is reiterated in the next verse.

“Jerusalem! Mountains surround her, and the Lord surrounds His people from here to eternity.” (125:2)

Mountains represent unshakable beliefs, ground rules and guidelines by which we direct our lives. As our connecting bond with God, Jerusalem is set on a mountain surrounded by a wall, and also by mountains that reaffirm the prevalence of goodness as the primordial principle in which all levels, aspects and dimensions of human consciousness are destined to be conducted.

In the same way that we are guided by goodness, and protected by its ethical qualities, God also guides His people eternally.

Here we must understand that His will, as well as His ways and attributes exist forever; and, as long as we live in their goodness, we are indeed protected by Him.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVII)

“Honorable things are spoken about you, O city of God, forever.”

(Psalms 87:3)

All that is related to Jerusalem is of the highest nature and quality, as it is all related to goodness, simply because is “the city of God” as its immutable ruling principle for His creation. Hence, it is an eternal, absolute, self-sufficient entity destined to direct all aspects and expressions of life.

“But about Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her’; the Most High himself establishes her.” (87:5)

Here, the verse equates the place of birth to the essence of one’s identity. Therefore Zion, as well as the Torah, defines the Jewish identity as the bonding quality that the Creator of all with Israel.

The essence of this identity is goodness as the expression of every aspect and facet of Jewish life. Thus we are recognized by the principle that guides our actions, for it is what identifies who we are, that has been established for us by our Creator.

“Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” (92:13)

The Jewish identity is deeply rooted in the principle that encompasses all the principles inherent in God’s commandments, decrees, statutes and ordinances presented in the Torah.

Goodness as the absolute ruling principle is the expression of the positive ideas, beliefs, feelings and emotions that “flourish in the courts of our God”, which are His ways and attributes that we strive to emulate as the source of our plenitude.

This verse reminds us that we flourish only in goodness.

“Your statutes stand firm. Sacredness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.” (93:5)

God’s commandments, decrees, statutes and ordinances are the firm foundation that delineates the purpose of goodness in the material world.

Thus we realize that in order to grasp this, first we must fully assimilate goodness in our consciousness where we also must stand firm. In this awareness we realize the sacredness of goodness as the eternal splendor and beauty of God’s radiance in His creation.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XIII)

“For God redeems Zion, and builds the cities of Judah; and they have dwelt there, and have it in possession. And the descendants [lit. seed] of His servants inherit it, and those who love His Name dwell in it.”
(Psalms 69:35-36)

These verses underline the eternal bond between God and Israel. No matter the separation and destruction, He promised to redeem the traits, ways and attributes that both share. These are the “cities” as values and principles where we dwell, which are also our inheritance and possession.

We can understand our descendants as our “seed”, not only as children and grandchildren, but also as the goodness we create with our actions. Thus we assimilate that by being and doing goodness we love God’s Name, which is also the goodness where we are destined to dwell forever.

“Remember Your congregation that You acquired long ago, which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; this mount Zion, [where] Your presence comes.” (74:2)

Again, the promise to redeem Israel is mentioned as the long time God’s acquisition to prevail in goodness as His inheritance. All this happens in Zion as the bonding time and space between God and Israel, where His presence “comes”.

Let’s notice that no matter where Zion and Jerusalem are mentioned in the book of Psalms, every verse quoted is a continuous affirmation of the same principle and message. The verse in 74:2 is the continuation of what is said in 69:35, as it happens with all the remaining quotations.

“Lift up Your steps to the perpetual desolation. Defeat all the evils of the enemy in the sacredness [of Your temple]. Your foes roared in the place where You have met with us. They set up their banners as signs. They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground. They have desecrated the dwelling place of Your Name.” (74:3-4, 7)

King David cries up to God for His complete final redemption from those that pretend to occupy His dwelling place, and to make their lower traits and trends conduct every aspect and expression of consciousness. These are indeed perpetual desolation as the predicament of self-centered materialistic fantasies and illusions.

The verse continues to indicate that only in the sacredness of the goodness that dwells in God’s sanctuary we can defeat all forms and expressions of evil.

By embracing goodness as our essence and true identity, and as the sanctuary where we bond with the goodness of our Creator, there is no evil that we can overturn and transform into something positive to make life even much better.

In order to return to goodness, not only as our real identity but also as our constant redemption, we must begin to remove the labels, banners and signs that define us as what they represent.

These are the negative and destructive traits that desolate what we once believed were the best in us. These are the evils that burn our bond with goodness as our essence and true identity that comes from the goodness that speaks of the Name of God.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (III)

“I said to myself, ‘Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. And my heart saw so much, and I applied my heart to know wisdom, [and to know] madness and folly, and I knew this too is a vexation of the spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 1:16-17)

King Solomon reminds us again that in the wisdom acquired in his life by the grace of God, he warns us about the futility of ego’s fantasies and illusions. If we live by, with and for unproductive, useless and distracting beliefs and feelings of lack, we undermine and despise goodness as our essence and true identity.

Goodness is the spirit that elevates us to the knowledge of God, for goodness is our bond with Him. Solomon truly immersed himself in the wisdom God gave him to become the wisest of all men, in order to share his findings and conclusions with us. Thus we learn from his messages in this book, as well as in the Song of Songs and the book of Proverbs.

“For, in abundance of wisdom [there is] abundance of grief [lit. anger], and he who adds knowledge adds pain.” (1:18)

Here we see that the more we become wise, the more we realize the nature of evil, wickedness and a negative approach to life based on ego’s fantasies and illusions. Once we fully know the multiple ways and expressions of evil, our anger to reject them is as strong as the awareness that makes us value goodness as what truly matters in life. The more we understand the damage evil causes, the more we are urged to fight it and wipe it out from our consciousness and from the face of earth as God commands us to.

“I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you in joy and see what is good’; and behold, this is also vanity.” (2:1)

Solomon tests his emotions and feelings in order to know their value in regards to goodness. As far as he does not find goodness in them, these are also vanity. One lesson that we can learn from this verse is Solomon’s willingness to test the nature of what may be considered either joyful or pleasurable for his emotions in direct proportion to the goodness they may have or lead him to. By their nature, mirages, fantasies and illusions don’t contain anything either real or good about them, for the fact that they are not based on something truthful as goodness is.

“About laughing I said [it is] folly; and about joy, what does it do? I probed my heart to stimulate in wine my life (lit. flesh) and [still] my heart conducts itself in wisdom, and to assimilate folly up until to see the account [lit. numbers] of their lives [people’s].”

(2:2-3)

Numbering is counting, and we are supposed to count what matters in life. As we have said, any kind of joy or happiness based on ego’s fantasies and illusions is folly and does not add anything significant to life. Our sages relate wine to rejoicing, and Solomon approached life as the happiness wine can produce without losing wisdom, for the latter encompasses joy as the fulfillment knowledge provides. In this particular joy we are also able to distinguish between a truly happy life and the temporary nature of the follies that don’t add anything to what really matters.

“Great things I did. I built for myself houses, planted for myself vineyards. Gardens and orchards, every fruit tree. Pools of waters. And I bought slaves, and maid servants, and housekeepers, also many flocks and herds I had more than all [of my predecessors] in Jerusalem. I amassed also silver and gold for myself, and [had] the treasure of kings, and the provinces. Musical instruments and the pleasures of men, also chests of chests. Thus I grew and surpassed all that was before me in Jerusalem, still my wisdom stayed with me.” (2:4-9)

The purpose of wisdom it to build something good with it, and these verses invite us to put our goodness out in the real world for the sake of goodness. We do this not just for others but also for ourselves. “Houses” and “vineyards” have multiple material and spiritual meanings. A house integrates life, consciousness and its dimensions.

“Happy are those who dwell in Your house, they praise You forever.” (Psalms 84:4)

We can’t fathom God’s “house” or “praising” eternally, but we know for sure that happiness is part of doing it “there”, and it is forever because God is eternal. Here we realize that any idea we may have about happiness is pale to living in a “place” of God.

“Vineyards, gardens, orchards and fruit trees” (see our commentary on the Song of Songs in this blog) represent the fruits of our good deeds, for these are seeds we plant in the field of life. As we focus in being and doing goodness we harvest its benefits for us and for those involved.

“Pools of water” evoke the blessings of goodness with which we consecrate life, and “slaves”, “maid servants”, “housekeepers” and “sons” symbolize helping and supporting traits and qualities as well as the works we do that last for generations. “Flocks” and “herds” as followers and students that learn from wisdom.

“Silver and gold” represent material and spiritual resources we need to build on goodness as our primordial purpose in life, while the “treasure of kings” is the ruling principle that elevates our consciousness by leading us in God’s ways and attributes. The “provinces” are the material and spiritual domains in which we expand our consciousness through the goodness we pursue and manifest in all aspects and dimensions of life.

“Musical instruments” serve both to cheer and rejoice our thoughts and emotions, and to praise and celebrate the multidimensional qualities of goodness God bestows in us with His blessings every moment. In this subject king David is the best lyricist, composer and musician of all.

“Praise the Lord! Praise you God in His holy place. Praise Him in the expanse of His strength. Praise Him in His mighty acts. Praise Him in the abundance of His greatness. Praise Him with blowing of trumpet. Praise Him with psaltery and harp. Praise Him with tambourines and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organ. Praise Him with cymbals of sounding. Praise Him with cymbals of shouting. All that breathes do praise God!” (Psalms 150)

King Solomon tells us that once we fully realize that our vanities don’t take us anywhere meaningful and fruitful as goodness, in this awareness the wisdom of goodness makes us transcend materialistic fantasies and illusions, for this kind of wisdom stays always with us.

Ecclesiastes: The illusion of vanity and the reality of love (II)

“What is that which has been? It is that which is, and what is that which has been done? It is that which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing under the sun. There is a thing of which one says, ‘See this, it is new’! Already it has been in the ages that were before us! There is no memory of the former neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11)

These verses warn us about our unchanged behavior and repetitive approach to life, as if human consciousness is doomed to remain the same no matter how much progress we may have claimed throughout the ages. Solomon’s words could refer to a general trait or trend that makes us discern, understand, assimilate and feel in the same way regardless the circumstances or times where we have lived in history.

Solomon’s reiterative remarks in this book point out to the inherent repetitive patterns in the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions. This reveals the obsessive and addictive tendency to the temporary nature of fantasies and illusions entrenched in a self-centered approach to life. All that our hearts and eyes desire remains unchanged since Adam and Eve transgressed God’s commandment not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that was “desirable to the eyes”.

This unchanged pattern can be replaced through a “paradigm shift” based on embracing principles and values that focus more in pursuing individual and collective goodness for the sake of goodness, than fulfilling ego’s desires under the rules of a consumer society.

“I, Kohelet, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I have given my heart to seek and probe in wisdom concerning all that has been done under the heavens. It is a bad matter God has given to the sons of man to respond about.” (1:11-13)

These verses reaffirm the context we comment on, for it is a negative pattern approaching God’s creation in general and the material world in particular, based on the vanity and futility of ego’s fantasies and illusions. Wisdom is useless as long as applied to the latter.

We said in our commentary on The Song of Songs in this blog that “there is not true wisdom without love, and there is not true love without wisdom”. These verses also confirm this, and the heaviest burden we carry is to waste the potential of human intellect and wisdom by living a meaningless or useless life.

We learn here that we put on ourselves the consequences of the choices we make, not God. He commanded us to choose the blessings of life and reject the curses that lead to death. In this context, ego’s fantasies and illusions along with their negative traits and trends are the burdens for which God makes us accountable. Hence we must understand Solomon’s message not as an unchangeable and meaningless human condition unworthy to be lived, but as a fact for us to realize that the opposites of the temporary nature of the vanities and futility of an egotistic approach to life are the transcending qualities of love’s ways and attributes.

“I have seen all the deeds under the sun, and behold all is vanity and a vexation of the spirit [soul]. A crooked thing cannot be straight [lit. fixed], and what is absent [lit. lacking] cannot be counted.” (1:14-15)

Here we understand that what is broken can’t return to its original state, simply because its fragmented state. This also refers to ego’s materialistic desires derived from beliefs and feelings of lack, for lack is the opposite of wholeness.

In love’s ways and attributes there is never lack, for love encompasses and integrates everything that is valuable, and therefore named and counted by God as part of the goodness He wants to make prevail in His creation.

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 (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 (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 (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)

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

“I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine, who feeds among the roses.” (Song of Songs 6:3)

Israel knows her Beloved and His dwellings, for both belong to each other and share their common bonds founded on the goodness of love's ways and attributes, from which God nurtures His creation with His constant blessings as roses to pick from His garden.

As it has been mentioned, the Creator shares this garden with Israel as His partner in bestowing the blessings to make goodness prevail in the material world.

“You are beautiful, My beloved, as Tirzah. Comely as Jerusalem, awe inspiring as an army with banners.” (6:4)

God recognizes and praises Israel's love as her desire (“Tirzah”) to bond with His love. Also reiterates His love comparing her to Jerusalem. We can understand Tirzah as the motivation and determination, desire and willingness to fulfill Israel's destiny to be the guiding light for the nations.

In this sense Jerusalem represents the fulfillment of this destiny. Once achieved, it is as imposing and compelling as an army whose high banners of loving kindness, righteousness, compassion, fairness, truth and peace inspire the nations to revere them. Thus the nations make them their principles and values to live for.

God compares Israel to Jerusalem as one and the same, for the love He shares with Israel inspires the nations to follow her in the elimination of evil and negative traits from human consciousness, initiating the final redemption and the establishment of the Messianic era.

In these coming times, the highest level of consciousness where love leads all aspects, facets and dimensions of life, inspires and evokes the complying and reverence of the lower levels arousing their desire to follow its ways and directions to rejoice in their goodness.

“Turn Your eyes away from me, for they have made me proud. Your hair [is] as a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead. Your teeth [are] like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. All of them wholesome, forming twins, and there is none missing among them. Your temples are like a slice of pomegranate from behind your veil.” (6:5-7)

Israel confesses that God's love led her to become haughty. This haughtiness turned her to materialistic desires out of ego's fantasies and illusions of grandeur. We can also understand this first sentence as Israel's difficulty to fully assimilate and bear with the overwhelming qualities of God's love for the human consciousness. Thus, leading her to follow the profane ways of the nations.

Returning to her natural humbleness, Israel evades God's love for feeling unworthy of it. At the same time, she yearns and evokes the beauty and delight of her rejoicing in bonding with His love in the inner chamber of their Temple, as metaphorically described in the previous chapters.