Ariel Ben Avraham – JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (VII)
“God is in the midst of her [Jerusalem], she shall not be moved. God shall help her, at the approach of morning.”
(Psalms 46:6)
Jerusalem is God’s chosen place for His dwelling in the world, that He won’t move or change. We have said that God and His dwelling are inherent in each other, which makes Jerusalem as unchangeable as Him.
“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?”
(Numbers 23:19)
“And also the preeminence of Israel does not lie or repent, for He is not a man to repent.”
(I Samuel 15:29)
“I profane not My covenant, and that which is going forth from My lips I change not.”
(Psalms 89:34)
Thus we understand God’s oneness as immutable, for that is a quality of what is completed and completion does need addition, subtraction or change.
The second sentence of the verse speaks about God’s revelation in His promised final redemption. In this sense, the latter is related to enlightenment as “the approaching morning”, a new day as a new beginning for human consciousness.
This is the “help” humankind has been hoping for since its beginnings, to finally see the advent of a new life without any trace of evil.
“Great is the Lord and exalted highly in the city of our God, the mount of His sacredness.” (48:2)
Our Sages relate God’s greatness to His infinite loving kindness from which all came to existence, for all exists by God’s goodness and nothing else. This divine attribute is manifest in all its dimensions in Jerusalem, which also represents the highest level of consciousness by which we bond with God.
As we have mentioned earlier, sacredness as an evil-free consciousness is the precondition to engage into the next level where our bonding with God’s sacredness takes us to a higher and more spiritual approach to life in this world.
“Beautiful sight, the joy of the whole earth [is] mount Zion, the northern sides, the city of the great King.” (48:3)
This verse speaks about the unfathomable and indescribable experience of living in, with and by our sacred bonding with the Creator, represented by mount Zion. Beauty becomes an expression of goodness, for goodness is beautiful in any form, way or direction it manifests, for it encompasses all.
Ariel Ben Avraham Kochav Yaakov, Safed, northern Galilee, IsraelAriel 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 20 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 the Creator of all. 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’s Love” is the compilation of many years studying and learning Jewish mysticism. The messages of his book are part of the content, exercises and processes of a series of seminars, lectures and retreats that he facilitates in Israel.
