We must fully assimilate the fundamental principle that our Creator is indefinable. Our Sages teach us that He communicates with us through our human language and understanding, and this does not imply that He is one of us. Hence we understand His Torah through discerning what He wants to tell us by His ways and attributes. These are the means He uses to communicate and relate to us. Thus we realize that His “back” is what He has created for us to know, appreciate and be grateful. His “hands” and “countenance” are His ways and means that sustain and fulfill the needs of all. The opposite of His ways and attributes we experience as the consequences of our negative attitudes, trends and choices, are God’s “anger” and “wrath”.

God created darkness and Light, negative and positive, destructive and constructive, etc., for us to exercise the free will He gave us. He instructs us and commands us in the Torah to choose goodness. He made clear that evil, wickedness and negativity are only references for us to make positive decisions. The Torah also makes us aware that making the wrong choices implies a learning process. We learn from our mistakes. Thus we understand that God “afflicts” us with our negative choices. This does not mean that He wants to afflict us, because our affliction is the outcome of the wrong choices we make.

We can see it as two fields in front of us. The one in the right is covered by green pastures, fruit trees and the scent of colorful flowers. The one in the left is full of thorns, wild beasts and the smell of putrid waters. The keeper of both fields instructs us about them, and the consequences of living in either one. He called the right field “my comfort and my delight”, and the left “my jealousy and my anger”. Then we make our choices. Those who chose to be in the left side at some point begin to complain about the field, and express their frustration and suffering out of their choice. They decide to blame the keeper of the fields, saying “the ‘the jealousy and anger’ of the keeper have befall on us.” The keeper replies, saying “indeed ‘my jealousy and anger’ has befall on you, not because of me but because of you. You made the choice, not me.”

We must stop blaming God for the choices we make. As we begin to choose the goodness of Love’s ways and attributes over the negative outcome of ego’s fantasies and illusions, we begin to return to the goodness God wants for us.

“And in that day you shall say: I will give thanks to You, O Lord; for though You was angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comforted me.” (Isaiah 12:1)

This is the beginning of our “repentance” as the return to God’s ways and attributes, which are all good. As we return to Him we realize that His “anger” is turned away, for His ways are our comfort and delight, our Redemption.

“Behold, God is my redemption; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for God the Lord is my strength and song; and He is become my redemption’.” (12:2)

We have to understand our individual and collective Redemption also as the return to our Essence and true identity. We must assimilate that we were created by God through His Love. We are an emanation and extension of His Love. Hence we must become aware of who we really are and have in this material world God has given us.

“Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of redemption.” (12:3)

Our Sages compare the Torah to water, for we can’t live without God’s words from where we came. Thus we understand that our Redemption comes from His words. The joy we shall live is the awareness that His Love is our Redemption. Love as the material manifestation of God’s Love is our greatest joy, fulfillment, delight and plenitude. We enter the Messianic Era and the Final Redemption drinking from the wells of the goodness of Love’s ways and attributes as our common bond with God’s Love.

“And in that day shall you say: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, proclaim His Name, declare His doings among the peoples, make mention that His Name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; this is made known in all the Earth.” (12:4-5)

In this awareness we express our gratitude for the realization of who we truly are. We finally know and experience what God did when He created us. His Name — as His ways and attributes He has showed us in the Torah — is exalted, as we exalt Him when we look up to all He has created. His glory will be revealed in all that is.

“Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of you’.” (12:6)

The Prophet tells us that we as Israel are the ones who return to Him as His people. God is gathering us from all corners of the world. He is bringing us to our Land, to Zion, to rejoice in our return to Him. He does it for us. Great is our joy, for God is our Holy One in the midst of us. Amen.