“Call
with the throat, restrain not, as
a trumpet lift up your
voice, and
declare to My people their transgression, and
to the house of Jacob their sins.”
(Isaiah
58:1)
God
commands His Prophet to denounce the causes of Israel's separation
from Him. He wants Isaiah to speak out at loud, clear and resounding
enough for us to realize what truly matter in the material world
which are His ways and attributes. God calls us again His people as
an unequivocal signal of His Love for us.
“Seeing
Me day by day they seek, and
the knowledge of My ways they desire as
a nation that has
done righteousness.
And the judgment of its God has
not forsaken, they
ask of Me
judgments of righteousness. The drawing near of God they desire.”
(58:2)
God
knows that our innermost desire is to be with Him, and the way to
achieve this is to be and do the goodness of Love's ways and
attributes as our common bond with Him. He wants us to be good
because He is good to us. This is what is just in doing what is
right. Thus we realize that being and doing goodness are the ways to
be close to God.
“'Why
have we fasted and You
have
not seen? We have afflicted our soul and You
have
not known'.
Lo, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and
all your labors ye exact. Lo,
for strife and debate ye fast and
to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye
fast not as today to
sound in the high place your voice.”
(58:3-4)
The
Prophet denounces our cynicism of doing evil and believing that
fasting on Yom Kippur God must forgive us. He reminds us that the
goodness of Love's ways and attributes does not cohabit with the
negative traits and trends of ego's fantasies and illusions.
“Like
this is the fast that I choose? The day of a man's afflicting his
soul? To bow as a reed his head and
sackcloth and ashes spread out? This do you
call a fast and
a desirable day to the
Lord?
Is
not this the fast that I chose to
loose the bands of wickedness, to
shake off the burdens of the yoke, and
to send out the oppressed free, and
every yoke ye draw off?”
(58:5-6)
God
reaffirm His words of forgiveness and redemption as long as we truly
desire to return to His ways and attributes. He indeed wants to
remove the burden of the negative choices we make, though
it depends on us to ask Him our Final Redemption.
“Is
it not to share
with
the hungry your
bread, and
the mourning poor to
bring
home, that
you
see the naked and cover him, and
from your
own flesh hide not yourself?”
(58:7)
God
reminds us that loving each other as He commands us in the Torah is
the key to our Redemption. We do it by not hiding in ego's fantasies
and illusions, and letting Love lead all levels of consciousness and
all dimensions of life.
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