“I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles or hinds of the field. If you stir or arouse the love until it pleases.” (3:5)
God does not impose His will on Israel and on humankind, for He gave them free will to choose either love's ways and attributes or ego's fantasies and illusions. Hence He also warns our highest traits and qualities (the daughters of Jerusalem) not to force their goodness on the aspects and dimensions (intellect, mid, emotions, feelings, passion and instinct) that comprise human consciousness.
There is another reference to gazelles and hinds as symbols of delicate and sublime qualities that constitute our common bond with God. He wants our conscious self to return to His ways and attributes by our own desire and volition. Thus we realize that our relationship with Him is built through a learning process, based on the experiences we have with the choices we make.
“Who is she that ascends from the desert like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, of every powder of the merchant? Behold, it is the couch of Solomon [the couch of He whose peace belongs]. Sixty mighty ones are around it, of the mighty of Israel. All of them holding sword, learned in warfare, each with his sword on his thigh, because of the fear in the nights. A sedan chair has king Solomon [has the King whose peace belongs] made onto him [onto Himself], of wood from the Lebanon. He made its pillars of silver, its coverings were gold, its seat purple, its midst lined with love.” (3:6-10)
This verse and the following (3:7-10) make reference to the Temple of Jerusalem as the place shared by God and Israel. The scents mentioned represent the most sublime human qualities that ascend to bond with God's ways and attributes. The inner chamber is the dwelling of the peace that belongs to Him, the holy of hollies.
The sixty men are an allegory of the enhanced or elevated character traits that build and protect our reaching out for God's love as their Creator. There is an inherent human factor that makes possible the connection and bond with Him.
This human factor is love as the motivator to reach out to God's love. These character traits must be guided and directed into the positive ways and means of love's attributes, in order to become an essential part of Israel's spiritual and material identity.
These are the “mighty ones of Israel” as the best of human qualities. These are the principles, values and foundations that stand strong to protect our ways to approach the material world, and to confront and overcome the darkness (“the fear in the nights”) of negative beliefs, ideologies, ideas, thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and actions. Their swords are the truth of love's ways and attributes as the expressions and purpose of God's will and commandments.
Our highest level of consciousness in regards to the permanent awareness of our connection with God (represented by the Temple of Jerusalem) is what He has made for Him to dwell with us. Israel builds the Temple with the pillars of her utmost traits and qualities. These columns are mentioned as trees grown in the courtyard of the Temple.
As we have mentioned, the Lebanon (lit. white or whitened) is another name for the Temple of Jerusalem, because of its power to transform blackness into whiteness, and darkness into light, besides the shinning white light coming from it.
Wood of Lebanon refers to the trees that adorn the Temple's courtyard, allegorically representing the strongest principles and values that beautify it. They also symbolize the wise men from whom we learn such fundamental values and principles of Judaism. The internal decorations of the Tabernacle are mentioned as the goodness and beauty of the ways and means of God's love, shared by Israel's loving traits represented by the daughters of Jerusalem or Zion.
No comments:
Post a Comment