One reiterated statement in the prophecies of Ezekiel to Israel and the nations is “and you shall know that I am the Lord”. It reminds us another two repeated many times in the Torah as the Creator presents His Commandments, especially in the book of Leviticus, “(…) [because] I am the Lord”, and “I am the Lord who took you out of the land of Egypt”. The common denominator of the three is what the Creator means to us.
We have to insist that the main purpose in life is to know from where we came in order to know who we are and our destiny. It’s all about identity. “I am” is the ultimate declaration of existence, and the only truthful way to say it is when we really know who we are, and who we mean to be.
The search for our Essence and true identity begins as we discover and know from Who we came from. In the same way we discover that our name is given by our parents, the social milieu determines our culture, and education shapes our talents, we can proclaim “who” we are. “I am the son of so and so”, “I am a native of this country with this language”, “I am carpenter”. These are the circumstantial facts that indicate who we are in the material world. However, we are not bound by those facts. We can change our names, live in different countries, speak other languages, and change professions.
What we want to point out here is the search for what gives us life and makes us human. Not our biological or adoptive parents, neither our social or cultural environment or our educational background. We are talking about the Creator of all. He is the One we must know as the first step to learn who we are, and what are we are made of. That’s why He gave us the Torah. The Torah is our identity, the beginning and the end of what we need to know about who we are and what are we here for.
“Then He said unto me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off”. “(…) And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. And I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and performed it, said the Lord’.” (37:11, 13-14)
God tells us through the Prophet that we are dead if His Spirit is not in us. We know this already. The analogy of the bones is revealing. Our blood, what keeps the body alive, comes from the marrow of the bones. If the bones are dry, we are dead. If the source of our life, God’s Love, is not in us we are dead. Even if our body remains alive. The conclusion is true: our hope is lost because we are cut off from Who we came, but He keeps His promise of Redemption.
“(…) ‘I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them unto him together with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand’.” (37:19)
We learn here that we must unify all aspects and dimensions of consciousness, and make them function harmonically. These have to be united under the rule of the One who created them.
“I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whether they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” (37:21-22)
We must bring together the creative potentials of consciousness (represented by the children of Israel) out of its negative trends. Their own land is the goodness of positive motivations for positive ends. The Messianic Consciousness as the destined regent of all facets of life encompasses the unifying power of Love’s ways and attributes. Love doesn’t cohabit with anything opposite to its ways and attributes, hence it integrates all dimensions of consciousness into their positive ends. Dualism, division, subtraction and separation — as the roots of conflict, confrontation, antagonism and destruction — will be eradicated.
“Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.” (37:23)
All kinds of evils, negative thinking and destructive ideologies, as the result of ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions will cease to exist when God’s Love removes them from our consciousness. Thus is the way to permanently bond with Him, which is the meaning of being His people and He our God.
“(…) and David My servant shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a Covenant of Peace with them — it shall be an everlasting Covenant with them; and I will establish them, and multiply them, and will set My Sanctuary in the midst of them forever.” (37:25-26)
We grasp the Messianic Consciousness as the qualities embodied by King David. As a person, he is a regular guy with a mother and a father, brothers, relatives, wives and children. As a Jew, he understands quite well the Torah and hence the Jewish identity. This is the bottom line.
Yes, any Jew who understands the Torah and keeps its Commandments potentially can be the Jewish messiah. The particular trait that makes him the one announced by our Prophets, is that the Spirit of God will be on him. We have read already that the Spirit of God will (36:27, 37:14) give life again to those dead by their estrangement from Him. The Spirit of God will lead him to make fulfill His will for “the end of times”, and we are talking about the everlasting Redemption that precedes the Messianic era.
Not an easy task for one person, hence the Jewish Prophets refer to the Messiah as God’s servant as Moses was in the times of the Exodus from Egypt. Like Moses, this man will be completely and solely dedicated to fulfill God’s will. In other words, the Messianic era is part of God’s will for the material world and not part of an individual’s personal agenda.
Countless times in the Torah and the Hebrew scriptures our Creator is mentioned as our One and only Redeemer. No one else and nothing else. We read also here that, once the Messianic Consciousness is fully manifest we will live by our permanent connection with God, which is also called His Covenant of Peace. The everlasting bond by which God multiplies and expands our existence forever.
“And the nations shall know that I am the Lord that sanctifies Israel, when My Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever.” (37:28)
“The Lord will give strength to His people, the Lord will bless His people in peace.” (Psalms 29:11)
Ariel Ben Avraham (f. Zapata) was born in Cartagena, Colombia in 1958. After studying Cultural Anthropology in Bogotá moved to Chicago in 1984 where he worked as a television writer, reporter and producer for 18 years. In the 1990’s he produced video documentaries related to art, music, history and culture such as “Latin American Trails: Guatemala” distributed by Facets.org. Most of his life he studied ancient spiritual traditions and mysticism of major religions, understanding the mystic experience as the individual means to connect with Divinity. Since 2004 he studies and writes about Jewish mysticism and spirituality mainly derived from the Chassidic tradition, and the practical philosophy of the teachings of Jewish mystic Sages. The book “God as Love” is the compilation of his last years studying and learning Jewish mysticism, and the messages of the book are part of the content, exercises and processes of a series of seminars, lectures and retreats that he facilitates in Israel.
