We must conceive life in the material world as a learning experience from the reality we create based on what we understand, believe, feel and do. We indeed live according to the ways we perceive our surroundings. God created the world, and its laws we call Nature. These laws function by the immutable principle of cause and effect, and we are compelled to live according to it. We have said frequently that free will works within the frame of cause and effect, and discernment also functions in the same context. Thus we understand that we learn from experience in order to set up the conditions out of what we have learned.
In this context we realize that all we have in the world, besides Nature and its laws, has been and is the result of our own creation. It means that we are responsible for what we create, not God. This is the reason He gave us free will, so we are held accountable for what we discern, think, feel, speak and do. In this sense we have to pay attention to the laws of Nature as the expressions of the principle of cause and effect. This is the fundamental context of life in the material world, hence it implies a learning process with the specific goal of pursuing a result, either be positive or negative.
The Torah and our Sages teach us that we as Jews are also bound by cause and effect. However, the laws of Nature act for us according to our connection to God. In other words, as long as we keep our relationship with Him according to His ways and attributes, Nature works for us separate from the principle of cause and effect. Thus we understand the Plagues in Egypt, the split of the Red Sea, dwelling in the desert for 40 years, the manna, etc. As long as we assimilate this as Jews, we have a particular purpose in life along with the Creator. Hence we are truly alive when we reveal His Presence in the material world. Thus life will also reveal its real purpose beyond Nature and its laws.
“The dead live not, the shades rise not; to that end have You punished and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. You have added to the nation, O Lord; You have added to the nation, and You have been glorified. You rejected all the ends of the earth. Lord, in their trouble they turned to You, silently they poured out a prayer when You reproached them.” (Isaiah 26:14-16)
The Prophet is referring to the nations as people who live detached from the Creator. This detachment leads to live without the purpose He wants for His Creation, which is goodness for the sake of goodness. Living without goodness means we are dead. The dead don't live and the darkness doesn't rise. Thus we understand that the choices we make away from the goodness of Love's ways and attributes lead us to the futility and vanity of ego's fantasies and illusions. In these we are dead compared to living in goodness for the purpose of goodness. God doesn't punish us for the negative choices we make. We punish ourselves by them. God in His Torah and through His Prophets reminds us that He is the Source of the goodness we are made of, and living away from goodness is our own punishment.
By choosing the nation for His Covenant, God added blessings to Israel. In return, Israel has glorified Him. God also rejected the ends of the earth as the places (nations) that represent traits and qualities opposite to His ways and attributes. As we dwell in the nations (or as part of them), we live by and for their predicament. This is the exile from our Promised Land, and from the nations we call out to God for our return to Him. Our return to our Land is our return to Him. This is the way we glorify Him, by recognizing that God is the goodness from where we come and to where we return. Thus we understand that in trouble among the nations we cry out to God, and in silent inner prayer we ask Him to take us back to His ways and attributes. Prayer to recognition, prayer to honor, prayer to Redemption.
“Like as a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so have we been at Your Presence, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the land, and [the wicked] who dwell on the world did not fall.” (26:17-18)
The prayer continues to reflect the pains we experience as we realize the consequences of our estrangement from God. We have said that our Final Redemption comes as we leave behind the negative trends in consciousness. While we live in their cause and effect we don't find our way out, our deliverance in the land, our freedom in all facets and dimensions of life.
“Your dead shall live, My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for your dew is as the dew of Light, and the earth shall bring to life the shades. Come, My people, enter into your inner chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation pass over.” (26:19-20)
God reaffirms His Final Redemption for Israel, calling His “dead bodies” those who are dead by their estrangement from His ways. He will revive them from their graves with a new dew of Light. God will bring Light to darkness, and turn its shades into life. He calls us to enter the inner chambers of our consciousness where He dwells within us, and leave out all that doesn't belong to His ways and attributes. As we shelter our awareness in the permanent bond with Him, all that doesn't belong will pass over. Negative trends and ego's fantasies and illusions are the indignation that will pass after God removes them completely.
“For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of His place to visit upon the inhabitants of the earth their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” (26:21)
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