Ariel Ben Avraham:

“With my soul have I desired You in the night; yea, with my spirit within me have I sought You earnestly; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” (26:9)

This verse is simultaneously a Love declaration and a prayer to God, out of the yearning of those who seek Him as the Source of our existence. This statement is the prelude to our Final Redemption, and the principle of the Messianic Consciousness. We recognize God as the Light for all that exists, and the purpose of all there is. Hence we seek Him in the darkness when His Presence is concealed. God is concealed when and where we don’t let Him reveal to us. He does not conceal Himself from us. We conceal ourselves from Him, and the result is His concealment from us. We separate from Him, and our separation is the night from which we yearn to return to Him.

Our Sages say that the Soul God exhales in our bodies yearns to return to Him since the moment it enters the material world. We can understand the Soul in two ways. As our Essence and true identity or as a separate entity that keeps us alive as long as we are in our bodies. As a matter of fact, the Soul is both. Our Essence and identity as one keeps us alive either living in a physical body or not. We are Jewish Souls everywhere and anywhere we are or go. Therefore we are bound to God permanently, even when we choose to live in the darkness of ego’s fantasies and illusions as the long night from which we yearn for Him. That is why without our Soul — as the spirit God infused in us — we can’t call out to Him.

In darkness we realize that God is from where we come and to Whom we are going. Thus living in the night of darkness is a learning process to become aware of the goodness we are, and the goodness we are destined to be and do. Goodness is the purpose of His judgments, therefore we call for His ways and attributes as our Redemption from the vanities of ego’s judgments that are the negative trends in consciousness, triggered by our own materialistic fantasies and illusions. As we open our eyes and take a look at God’s Creation we can see His judgments in the earth as the ways with which He relates to His works: “The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all peoples see His glory.” (Psalms 97:6).

All His ways are righteous, all of them are good: “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The reverence of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them together are righteous.” (19:8-9). Hence we learn righteousness from Him as the way out from the night, the place from where we call out to Him.

“Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, Your hand was lifted up, yet they see not; they shall see with shame Your zeal for the people; yea, fire shall devour Your adversaries.” (Isaiah 26:10-11)

We have said that God proclaimed His Redemption long before we realize it. It has been there for us, and is a matter of choice from us. The Prophet reminds us again that the wicked can also redeem themselves if they make the choice. Goodness is a choice that has been always unconditionally available to us, always. Let’s understand the unconditional quality of goodness as something that doesn’t coexist with anything different from its ways and attributes. Goodness speaks to us like, “I am unconditionally available to you as long as you be and do goodness, and all that is part of my ways and attributes. And nothing different from them.” Then it’s our choice.

Thus we assimilate that God’s hand has been always lifted up, as His Love that is eternal. We just need to realize that and see it. Those who don’t want to see represent not only the adversaries for those of us who seek goodness as God’s hand and Love, but the negative trends in consciousness that keep us in the dark. Those adversaries are the enemies of Israel as the goodness God’s zeal desires for the material world.

Every time we fall in the predicament of envy, coveting, lust, pride, indifference, indolence and cruelty we are ashamed at the zeal God has for goodness as the opposite of negative traits. Thus we understand that the fire that devours the opposite of goodness is goodness itself. The fire that devours God’s adversaries [that which is opposite to His ways and attributes] is His goodness that is destined to prevail in all His Creation.

“Lord, You will establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished You have done for us. O Lord our God, other gods beside You have ruled over us, but Your Name alone do we honor.” (26:12-13)

Once we begin to recognize our Essence and true identity as the common bond with our Creator, we become aware of peace as the eternal Covenant with Him. All we are and do are possible through Him, for we emanate from His Love. Thus we realize that even we if choose ego’s fantasies and illusions, and allow them to rule our life as the false gods we follow, we recognize that the Creator is God. We honor His Name as the goodness we come from, and the goodness we are destined to be and manifest.