by Ariel Ben Avraham. In the dual perception of the material world we are compelled to make choices every moment, and the constant challenge is to choose between a positive approach and a negative one. In this sense all levels and dimensions of consciousness seem to be empty vessels to be filled with the choices we make or we are induced to make.

The bottom line is that we either choose the blessings of Love’s ways and attributes, or ego’s fantasies and illusions.

We have said many times that the Creator made us with free will in order to exist as free beings, hence it is up to us to act in and with freedom for the purpose of freedom. The thing is that this predicament implies ground rules and guidelines to safeguard that freedom for everyone. Otherwise, the result is exactly what we have been living ever since time immemorial up until now: the negative traits of consciousness imposing their predicament in most aspects of life, under the dictatorship of ego’s separatist agenda from Love’s ways and attributes. The ground rules and guidelines needed to secure peace and harmony, prosperity and abundance, solidarity and happiness, growth and advancement, purity and refinement, and all the good things that Love offers, are given to us by the Creator in His Torah.

God’s testimonies, statutes, Commandments, ways, means, and attributes are the blessings that endow us to also be the blessing for us and for others. Israel is especially blessed as the recipient and bearer of the Torah as the instruction to become the messenger and deliverer of the blessing the Creator has given to all. We mentioned recently that the blessings are empty if we don’t bestow them in what we are and do. It’s not enough to say, “wow, I am blessed… what a nice feeling!” because the real blessing is when we become the blessing by being and doing what it means for us. It is like being a king without kingdom or subjects.

The children of Israel are blessed because they offer their blessing to humankind by sharing their Torah with everyone who desires to also become the blessing of living in Love’s ways and attributes. This is the legacy, inheritance and Commandment for Israel, to be the Light for the nations as decreed by our God, who is our blessing and everyone’s blessing. We said before (see our commentaries on Parshat Balak: “The Power of Divine Love” of June 20, 2010 and “Elevating our Consciousness to God’s Love” of July 3, 2011) that we choose the blessings because we want to live in the goodness of Love, and this choice requires determination and commitment to reject the material illusions that ego pursues in its quest to separate from the unity that Love is.

As long as we live and enjoy our freedom to choose, we are blessed abundantly when we pursue Love’s ways and attributes, as the Prophet reminds us in the haftarah for this portion of the Torah: “Your hand shall be raised above your oppressors, and all your enemies shall be destroyed.” (Micah 5:8) We just need to implement our resolution with temperance, knowing that Love does not cohabit with anything different from its ways and attributes. Love generates good deeds that prevail over negative things that opress us, our enemies. As long as we stand in the strength and power of the awareness of Love as our Essence and true identity, nothing negative can be against. It can’t be otherwise, because our Love is the material manifestation of God’s Love, the same Love that created and sustains all His Creation. We don’t have a reason or argument to question God’s Love as the Source from which we live and breathe.

Our trust in God is the same trust we have in Love since the moment we are born, because we know that we simply can’t live without it. Likewise, we can’t live without God’s Love. This is the reason why we have to love each other, because God loves us. This trust strengthens us to realize that God’s Love is also our Redeemer and deliverer from the negative aspects of consciousness that ultimately force us choose back to Love’s attributes: “And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord, that I will cut your horses out of your midst, and I will destroy your chariots.” (5:9) which represent lust and greed; “And I will destroy the cities of your land, and I will break down all your fortresses.” (5:10) which symbolize the wrong beliefs in our consciousness, and the negative habits and addictions from which we can’t liberate ourselves.

Only Love has the power to redeem us from ego’s manipulative ways, always foreseeing and expecting to satisfy materialistic fantasies and illusions: “And I will destroy sorcery from your hand, and you will have no soothsayers.” (5:11) and such fantasies and illusions eventually become the idols of our worship and total devotion. After all, they are the works of our own invention, the works of our hands: “And I will destroy your graven images and your monuments from your midst, and you shall no longer prostrate yourself to your handiwork.” (5:12)

In our total awareness of Love we are able to overcome the negative aspects of consciousness: “And I will uproot your [idol] shrines from your midst, and I will destroy your enemies.” (5:13) and God’s Love, in His infinite grace and compassion, will assist us to overcome the remaining negative traits that seem impossible for us to defeat or subjugate. These are the ones that make us yearn to live again permanently in the total freedom that Love is: “And in anger and fury I will execute vengeance upon the nations who have paid no heed.” (5:14) This is how we finally assimilate that God our Creator is indeed our blessing, and in this awareness we also choose to live in the blessings of His Love as our Essence and identity, the precious inheritance of Israel, from us the Hebrew people to the world.

About Me

Ariel Ben Avraham

Haifa, Southern Galilee, Israel

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.