Rabbi Dr Zvi Avine
Dec 2021
Noahidesevencommandments.com
IDOLATRY- 12/G-d’s Kingship with Love
We’ve seen that before making Adam,
ELHM made several concessions.
For Six Days He ruled “awesomely alone,”
as a Dictator, using the upper hand, consulting no one,
asking no one’s opinion, crushing any resistance
But before making Adam, He changed His Ways
Seeing that under His harsh ruling, absolute dictatorship,
Adam, who is equipped with Free Will and a strong SELF
would surely sin and fail to become Very Good,
ELHM decided to make several concessions towards Adam
First, He ‘descended” from His High Pedestal as a Supreme, sole JUDGE
and spoke, the first time ever, in plural language,
saying: “Let Us Make an Adam in Our Form and Our Image”.
By this, He became “A King Who Consults and then Decrees”,
a “democratic, benevolent king.”
Such a King is a blessing to Adam, more tolerant to rejection,
More patient with his retributions, more open to our petitions.
Moreover, seeing that this concession wouldn’t be enough,
ELHM made even more drastic change in His rule.
He turned to the Sabbath and invited the Attribute of MERCY, YHVH,
to share with Him the Heavenly Court.
By this, He relinquished even more His authority
And agreed to share it with another Attribute.
This was a great concession and a gift to Adam,
Since YHVH advent in the Heavenly court
would offer Adam the option to repent,
ask forgiveness, and start all over again.
Adam would have a better chance to win his trial.
The question is: why would ELHM do such a thing,
stepping down from His High Pedestal,
sharing His Sole Power with MERCY?
Why would ELHM wish Adam to win?
Does ELHM love His child Adam?
You can’t say that,
because a judge who loves the defendant
should excuse himself from sitting the court altogether.
Did YHVH join the Court, to defend Adam,
because She loves Her child Adam?
You can’t say that, because, again, if that was so,
She too would have excused Herself from the Court.
from sitting in the Court.
So why did ELHM made all these concessions towards Adam?
The answer is profound —
It is neither ELKM nor YHVH,
They are only Attributers.
The one who decides in the Heavenly Court
Is the SELF, ESSENCE of the CREATOR.
The SELF is shown In Moses’ Ten Commandments
Where , the SPEAKER presents Himself as
I Am (SELF)
YHVH your ELHM (ATTRIBUTES)
Who took you out oof Egypt (KINGSHIP)
It is the SELF (Essence) who decides
when to show up to the world as the JUDGE ELHM
and when to show up to the world as the MERCIFUL YHVH
So, during the Six Days of CREATION,
the SELF appeared to the world as ELHM,
the All-Mighty JUDGE, the Dictator
whereas before making Adam, the SELF
appeared as a milder softer ELHM,
who speaks in plural, ac KING Who Consults.
And it is the SELF who decided
That a new Court would be established,
The Court of YHVH ELHIM,
Who would give Adam a better Chance to win.
Why would the SELF bother
to do all these concessions for us?
Because the SELF, not ELHM, and not YHVH,
LOVES us, LOVES Adam.
In fact, it turns out,
That according to Moses
the primary motive for CREATION
is the SSENCE’s LOVE FOR CREATION,
in particular, His LOVE for us.
No, I don’t sound as a Christian,
The Christian sounds like me
Adding J
Heavenly Love is the engine behind CREATION.
And this Heavenly Love, told the JUDGE to make
the necessary concessions towards Adam
and told YHVH to join the Court
so that Adam could become Very Good and win
The SELF is unseen to us. It can’t be described or given a Name.
The SELF expresses itself to the world
In the “third line”, the KINGSHIP,
Where the SELF executes His Love in the world
In the Ten Commandments, the SELF defines His KINGSHIP
as “Who took you out of Egypt Land,”
in other words – Who Intervenes in History
Hence by saying that G-d is a King,
We mean G-d intervenes in human affairs
In private life of the individual person
As well as in human history.
It means that G-d has never left CREATION to its fate
But rather watches us and leads us to His goal
With love
He intervenes in our history
Out of His Love to us.
Not because of a gain, or mystic goal
But out of the purest love.
–
ELHM gives and take, measure for measure.
Since He – the ESSENCE- loves us,
we should return our love to Him ,
And accept His Kingship on us
Thus, In the Shma, we say
Listen Israel, YHVH is our ELHM, YHVH is One,
Then we add:
“Blessed is His Kingship forever and ever”
Then we recite from Deuteronomy: Deuteronomy:
“And you shall love YHVH your ELKM
With all your heart and all your soul
Here we accept His Kingship
and respond to Him with our Love.
Now, how is that connected to out topic – IDOLATRY?
For if we direct our love to someone else,
with all our heart and all our soul,
We’ve committed IDOLATRY
In fact, you can’t find a better definition for IDOLATRY than that.
An idol is anything you’d enthrone on yourself with adoration,
Loving it with all your heart and soul.
This definition includes idols as drug, alcohol,
political parties or social philosophies
or charismatic gurus
You can see that in the Ten Commandments –
I Am
YHVH your ELHM
Who took you out of Egypt (KINGSHIP)
……………..…….Man………………..
You shall have no other ELHM
over my Face
You shall not make for yourself
Any status or carved out images of
Here Man is depicted standing between two options:
Either look up and accept G-d’s Kingship with love
Or fall a prey to the kingship of the idols bellow