Ariel Ben Avraham . The Torah commands us that “Judges and officers you shall place at all your city-gates” (Deuteronomy16:18), the Prophet tells us that “and I [God addressing Jerusalem] will restore your judges as at before, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you shall be called ‘the city of righteousness, the faithful city’.” (Isaiah 1:26) and in our daily prayers we bless the Creator by saying, “Restore our judges as they were at before and counselors as there were once.
Remove our sorrows and troubles: we long for You Lord, to rule over us with kindness and compassion, with righteousness and justice. Blessed are You Lord, the King who loves righteousness and justice.”
Let’s reflect on the connection of theses passages. There is an evident relation between placing judges in all our city-gates, and afterward we will call our city a righteous, faithful city. If we consider Jerusalem as the highest level of consciousness — which indeed is –, we need the Creator to assign the best judgment we can ever have, and that is Love because God rules with kindness and compassion, and loves righteousness and justice as His attributes that He wants us to emulate because we are His children. These attributes certainly remove our sorrows and troubles because Love does not cohabit with anything different from its attributes. These are the judges and counselors that we want God to restore in our consciousness so they can rule every aspect and dimension of our life. Thus His Love will reign with its inherent righteousness and justice in Jerusalem as the united awareness of our permanent connection with Him.
The process to do that is achieved when we pursue the fairness and rectitude that the justice of Love is: “Justice, justice shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the Land the Lord your God gives you.” (16:20) because in this Land we are destined to dwell with Him. Our Land is the time and place where we live united with the One who gives it to us, where there is no room for other gods and idols (16:21-22, 17:1-3) because in Love’s ways there is nothing alien to them: “When you come into the Land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.” (18:9)
We approach this awareness when we integrate all aspects and dimensions of consciousness as a harmonic unity free from negative traits: “Be wholehearted with the Lord your God. For these nations, that you are to dispossess, hearken unto soothsayers, and unto diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not given you so to do.” (18:13) First we must be wholehearted in our consciousness in order to be wholehearted with the Creator. Once we unite our intellect and discernment, thoughts and emotions, feelings and passion, instinct and actions under the rule of Love’s judgment, righteousness, justice, compassion and kindness to approach life and the world, we will be wholehearted with the One because in this unity we allow Him to reign on us with His kindness and compassion. This is about our Essence and identity that define what we are, have and do in consonance with our Creator’s ways and attributes, apart from ego’s materialistic agenda (see our previous commentaries in this blog on Parshat Shoftim: “Approaching Justice as Love” of August 7, 2010 and “Living in Love’s Judgments” of August 28, 2011).
The Prophet reminds us about the slavery of living under the yoke of the nations, the idols disguised as ego’s fantasies and illusions that keep in captivity the higher awareness of our connection with God’s Love that calls us to freedom: “Shake yourself from the dust, arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; free yourself of the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” (Isaiah 52:2) and it’s up to us to walk out from the mirages of the material world by the hand of Love’s ways, which are the true judges and counselors that must stand at the gates of every aspect of consciousness to keep it united and close to our Father and King. After all He is who fights the battles against our own enemies, either be ego’s illusions or people: “When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more [numerous] than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. (…) for the Lord your God is He that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” (20:1, 4)
Let’s restore our best judgment and higher values and principles at the gates of what we discern, think, believe, imagine, feel, hear, see, speak and do. Let them lead and guide all aspects of life honoring the justice and righteousness of God’s Love along with His compassion and kindness to reign in our land, in Jerusalem our undivided capital and anchor of our permanent connection with the Creator. Amen.
ut 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.
