Live in Paradox

The following a short something I wrote on Exodus 3:14 -

The term "I am" does not appear anywhere in scriptures; it is a mistranslation. Exodus 3:14 reads "And G-d said to Moses: 'I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.' and He said, 'you will say this to the children of Israel: I WILL BE has sent you.'"

It reads "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh" which clearly means "I will be what I will be" and cannot be translated in the present tense in any way whatsoever. It is 100% clear that translating it as 'I Am' is a mistranslation.

The following is Rashi's commentary on that passage:
"I will be" with them in this trouble; "what I will be" with them in their bondage by other kingdoms.
[Moses] said before Him, "Master of the Universe, why shall I mention to them another trouble? Sufficient for them is this trouble!"
He said to him, "You have spoken well. Thus shall you say [this name just once]."

The divine name 'Ehkeh' (purposefully misspelled when used as a divine name) is associated with the Sephirah (sphere/chakra) of Binah:understanding, also called 'Mother'. This name thus refers to one of G-d's female aspects, that which understands when we do wrong, comforts us when we fall and stays with us to protect us even as He sends us harsh lessons.
It is a promise of "I Will Be with you no matter what I do and I Will Be with you no matter what YOU do."

The 'Cli Yakar' writes that one 'I Will Be' is meant for both Moses and the people of Israel, which is that G-d 'will always be' with us when we suffer. He then writes that the second 'I Will Be' was only meant for Moshe and it is to assure him that G-d will be with him as he delivers G-d's word.

There are those, however, who say that the first statement is an explanation of the second statement. The Rashbam, for example, says the first name means "I Will Be forever, thus I will be able to fulfill what I have promised [to Abraham, that I will deliver you from Egypt]". The Targum Yerushalmi seems to support this statement as well.

The Ibn Ezra makes it clear that this is talking about the 'shem Elokim' - which means G-d's power of interacting with this world (His imminence). There are some, however, who explain that it refers to His Loftiness, ie. His more immediate existence not in conjunct with this world, such as the Targum Yonatan, which explains that these names speak about G-d eternality. This view also seems to be supported in part by the Rashbam, Targum Yerushalmi, and by the Ramban as I will discuss now.

The Ramban is, I believe, the most interesting commentary on this peace (so far; I still have a few major commentators I haven't looked at). He brings a number of different interpretations for what is going on here. All the interpretations by the Ramban say that the second statement which is just the name 'Ehkeh' is the name, while the previous statement "I Will Be what I Will Be' is the explanation of what the name refers to (in Judaism every name has meaning, be it human name (like Sarah=Princes), animal species name(like Donkey/Chamor = physicality), or Divine Name, as we will see).

One interesting explanation is that only one of the 'I Will Be's refers to G-d and the other refers to us. Basically it is telling us 'I Will Be whatever You Will Be' (how to read that gramatically in the words, however, I'm not sure). This is similar in a way to the teachings of Kharma; however we act towards G-d and to the world, in the same way G-d will act with us.

Another explanation the Ramban brings down is that the two names represent two ways that G-d interacts with us, the first being 'bestowing Grace', the second being 'judging with Mercy'.

Yet another he brings down in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak. This one says that the three times 'I Will Be' are mentioned in this verse represent the three parts of time: Past, Present and Future. Since G-d exists outside this universe, He is not bound by time as we are. Thus, for Him, all time is one. Each time He says 'I Will Be', then, from His perspective G-d is speaking in all three tenses at once. The double statement, then, is saying "I Was, Am and always Will Be just as I always Was, Am and Will Be".

As to why, through this interpretation, G-d uses the future tense has a few possible explanations. One which the Ramban gives goes along with what the Rashbam said. This is that the second "I Will Be" actually refers to G-d's fulfilling His word. Thus it is read "Just as I always Was/Am/Will Be, so to all my promises(decrees) always were/are/will be fullfilled." In this context it makes sense, because here the conversation is regarding G-d's fulfilling His promise to Abraham, that He will rescue the people of Israel from the land they are sent down to (see Genesis 15:13-14).

Another explanation of the past/present/future that is given is that it refers to G-d being there for us now, for our ancestors in the past and for our descendants in the future. What this allegorically meant at the time was "I Was with your forefathers when they served Me truthfully, I Am with you now in your suffering and I Will Be with your children when they are redeemed." What this means to us now is that G-d is with us no matter what; when we serve Him and strive to come closer to Him, he is with us urging us on. We we fall and sin and suffer, even as He teaches us harsh lessons to correct our behaviours, G-d is still crying by our sides. And when we strive to make up for the wrong we have done, He welcomes us back with open arms.

He gives three more explanations which are all similar to 'G-d is all time'/eternal. He words them in very esoteric language, explaining how in the highest world (Atziluth) there is already no time and above that G-d is timeless, and he explains a few more esoteric concepts as well.

The Ramban's final explanation speaks about G-d's attributes of 'Kindness' and 'Strictness', two foundations upon which He established the universe. Everything that exists is polarized between these two forces, which are also the archetypes for the Masculine and Feminine forces (the masculine being Wisdom, Kindness and Eternity, the feminine being Understanding, Strength and Thankfulness - all loose translations). In short, he says the first "I will be" refers to "I will be in Kindness" and the second "I will be in Justice". Thus, this explanation of the name 'Ehkeh' means not that G-d is Eternal, but that G-d is Unified (which I personally have difficulty seeing the precise difference between, even after reading the Ramban's explanations of the two concepts).

This can be interpreted further in two ways. The first, "I Will Be with YOU in Kindness as I Will Be with THE EGYPTIANS in Justice" - meaning that each of the 10 plagues G-d sent down for the egyptians were also a kindness for the Israelites (there is what to discuss in this explanation). The second is a more general explanation that G-d only acts in One way, since G-d is One. He only acts in the way that is the Greatest Good Possible. It is only us who have a difficulty seeing it sometimes, such as when a loved one dies or we get ill. At these times, we bless G-d as 'HaDayan Emet' - the True Judge - because only He can judge the world in truth and determine what needs to be done to maintain what balance remains after all the damages we humans have caused to our selves and our surroundings.

In truth, whenever G-d does something to 'punish us' it is always to teach us a lesson. Thus, His justice is done through kindness. He also never gives kindness unless it is deserved, for whatever reason. Thus His kindness is also His justice.

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CONCLUSION:

We can kind of see how all the various explanations fit together to give us a slight picture of how the name 'Ehkeh' relates to G-d. It calls Him 'The Eternal' and 'The Unified' - saying that He always was/is/will be exactly the same, and will always act in the same way, which is the Best Way. It is also saying that the way His acts reaches expression in whatever way is appropriate to each of us individually: If we are spiritually and morally pure, the act will be pure Kindness - a Kindness which is deserved and just. if we have been convoluted with 'Negative Excitement' or 'Guilt Excitement' (hope you don't mind me using your terms, Honza) then He we will receive His actions in an equally convoluted way - sending us Kindness through what seems to be Strict Justice. It is even possible, as was in Egypt, that the same ultimate act of Justice for one group of people could at the same time be an incredible Kindness for another (a smaller example of this: an owl catches a mouse. Very good for the owl; very bad for the mouse).

All of these teachings are contained in this same name.

Let us study a portion of the Written Torah in depth.  Where will we start?  Why, certainly from the beginning:



That is what the first line looks like in Hebrew: “B’reishit bara elokim et hashamayim v’et ha’aretz” literally, <In the beginning> <Created> did <G-D> <> <the Heavens> <and> <the earth>.

No word in Torah is superfluous.  Every letter, in fact, has significance.  This seemingly mundane sentence actually contains unmentionable depths to it.  We will, together, uncover a few of those depths.



The first word ‘B’reishit’ has three parts to it: The first letter, ‘Bet’ is a prefix meaning ‘In’, the second part is the three letter root ‘Resh Aleph Shin’ and the third is a suffix which modifies the root into a word commonly translated as ‘beginning’.

In the:
Let’s begin with the letter ‘Bet’.  This letter is the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet, but the first letter that has a sound.  The first letter is ‘Aleph’ and is silent.  It is significant to note that Aleph has a numerical value of 1 and Bet has a numerical value of 2.  We can see that the very beginning of Torah is duality.  Indeed, the beginning of existence is duality.  Before existence there was Aleph, One.  Before the beginning there was unity.  Everything in the universe was one.  And it was silent.  We can’t say how long the time before the beginning lasted because not only was there no matter, but there was no time either.  Everything just was.
And then, with a mighty burst of creation existence came into being.  Not gently or fluidly, but suddenly with the ‘Buh’ of ‘B’reishit’.  Where once there was only one, now there are two.  Now we have parts that can interact.  We have duality.  We have existence.
What else can we say about the letter Bet?  Every letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a name that is significant to the letter’s character.  The letter ‘Bet’ has the same root as the word ‘Bayit’ meaning ‘House’.  If we look at the shape of the letter we can see that it has the minimum requirements to be considered a shelter: three walls atop which can be placed a roof.  This is an allusion to the fact that before HaShem created anything within the universe he had to create the place in which the universe would reside, the house for the universe, which is HaShem Himself.

Beginning:
Let’s move on.  The next section is the root ‘Resh Aleph Shin’.  This root is most commonly used in the word ‘Rosh’ meaning ‘head’.  This could mean the physical head or the metaphorical head as in ‘Rosh HaShana’, the Jewish New Year, meaning ‘head of the year’, or ‘Rosh Chodesh’ meaning ‘head of the month’.  In such situations it has connotations of being First.  Indeed, we also see another word coming from this root is ‘rishon’ meaning ‘first’.
There is another subtle connotation to the word ‘Rosh’, however.  The head of a person’s body is the highest point.  Likewise, ‘Reishit’ has a connotation of ‘peak’ as in the statement ‘reishit chokmah yirat HaShem’ or ‘the peak of wisdom if fear of G-d’.  Likewise, ‘Rosh HaShana’ occurs at the beginning of the 7th month of the Jewish calendar, meaning it can’t be the beginning of the year – rather it is the highest point of the year, where we come closest to HaShem.  Thus we see that the creation of the Heavens and the Earth wasn’t only the beginning of creation, but the climax of creation, the ultimate act.  There has been no greater act of creation in the history of the universe and there never will be.
This is significant when you compare the Torah’s perspective with modern science, which pursues ‘progress’ with a passion and glorifies scientific discovery as the greatest accomplishment ever.  How easy it is to be blinded from the fact that nothing would even exist to be discovered if it weren’t for B’Reishit Bara!  In B’Reishit Bara existed the potential for everything that came after it.  Everything that exists today only exists because of the moment of creation.

Created:
Let’s move on.  The next word, ‘Bet Resh Aleph’ is a verb that relates exclusively to the actions of G-d.  It is translated as ‘create’ but it is a verb that has connotations of creating out of nothingness (Something out of Nothing).  The other verb for create, ‘asah’, would be used for human creations like making pottery or sharpened sticks (Something out of Something).  The ability to create in the ‘bara’ sense is beyond human capacity.  We are unable to create anything out of nothingness – but the feat is not beyond HaShem.  Indeed, that is how he created the heavens and the earth – out of nothingness.

.G-d:
The next word, ‘Elokim’ is one of the names of HaShem.  I purposely misspelled it both in Hebrew and in English because, as a sacred name, it must be used sparingly, only invoked when necessary.  Nowadays almost nobody realizes the power speech has, but that knowledge is fundamental in Jewish wisdom.  Every word has enormous power, every phrase lasting effects.  The saying ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ is the antithesis of what Judaism teaches.  This affirmation given to teased children will only serve to confuse because anyone who has suffered from verbal abuse knows that words sting sharper than any knife.  It isn’t only psychological, however.  Words have the power to create and obligate.  Verbalizing a vow obligates a person to follow through with their words.  Saying ‘I swear’ is a binding contract – it brings an obligation into existence.  Even greater than this is the obligation of the written word in the form of a contract.  Blessing and Cursing are not superstitions, they have powerful lasting effects.  Cursing a person causes severe repercussions for the person.  Blessing a person likewise has great positive effects.  The more one becomes aware of this fact and the more one works to control one's speech, the more powerful one's words can become.  This is the basic premise of Jewish prayer: verbalizing, creating and manifesting reality.  Saying something is much more powerful than simply thinking it, even if there is nobody around but you and HaShem – words don’t simply have power because there is a listener, the very essence of speech is power.
We see this further on when Torah describes the process of creation.  It tells us that G-d SAID “let there be light” and light came into being.  This wasn’t a command to subordinate creatures; it wasn’t a command to the universe.  THE ACT OF SPEAKING WAS THE ACT OF CREATION.  We, as mere mortals, have only a shadow of HaShem’s ability to create, but the closest we humans can come to creation in the ‘bara’ sense of the word is through speech (little know fact: The word ‘abracadabra’ comes from Aramaic, a sister tongue of Hebrew.  It is actually “AB’RA K’DaBRA” which means, “I will create as I speak').
Now, every name of HaShem describes a different one of His attributes, a different expression of His Essence.  The name Elokim, most closely translated as ‘The Powers’ has two connotations: The first, that of Strict Justice and the second that of Natural Forces.
It is fundamentally known that HaShem is merciful.  How, then, can we explain the fact that He created the universe through His name of Strict Justice?  Rabbi Akiva Tatz points out that He did so in order that the universe should have a base of Strict Justice, as its skeleton in a manner of speaking, and built on top of it with Mercy.  And this is the fabric of the universe as a whole.  HaShem gives us a lot of slack; a lot of leeway.  There is a lot of room for error, time to fix our mistakes, to atone for our sins and make up for them.  But underlying everything the ‘karmic laws’ still function at full capacity.  The laws of Reward and Punishment, though sometimes dulled in intensity and spread out into manageable doses, are always carried out fully.
Strict Justice is carried out through natural forces.  It is incapable of acting outside of them.  This isn’t because Elokim’s power is limited – G-d forbid that would be the case – but because of how the universe was set up.  We saw that Elokim is what created the universe.  Therefore, the universe is set up by the rules of Strict Justice.  This means that if everything were to happen according to how the universe was originally set up then Strict Justice would be FULLY expressed!  Elokim doesn’t act outside of Nature because everything Strict Justice requires to function at full capacity exists intrinsically within nature.
    Strict Justice means Cause and Effect.  Strict Justice means if you put in the effort, you will get the rewards.  If you do good to others, you will receive rewards.  If you do evil, likewise you will receive suffering.
The major problem when Strict Justice is allowed to reign unmodified by Mercy is that it limits free will.  Free will requires the ability to choose and if it were made apparent that suffering directly results from evil and reward directly results from good then we wouldn’t have as great of an option – we would choose good out of a desire to do good and we would choose good out of a desire for the personal benefit gained through it.  Likewise, we would avoid evil not only because it is what HaShem commanded, but also because it allows us to avoid suffering.  Both sides of our heart would be fulfilled by the same action meaning there is no choice, there is no dilemma, there is no growth and there is no freedom.  This is why Mercy had to be established.
But, nonetheless, the root essence of creation is Justice and the faithful ones can be assured that all righteousness will be rewarded and all sinfulness will be punished.

The:
The next word, ‘et’, is a word that cannot be translated into english.  It is used in conjunction with a verb to indicate that the word coming after ‘et’ is the direct object of the verb.  In grammar syntax it is merely here to show that the heavens and the earth are the direct objects acted upon by the verb ‘bara’ create.  However, there is another deeper explanation of the word ‘et’.
The two letters used are ‘aleph’ and ‘taph’, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  It is used here to indicate that with every letter G-d created the heavens and with every letter G-d created the earth.  It’s like the saying ‘from alpha to omega’ – with every element at His disposal (with every element in existence) did G-d create the heavens and the earth.


The Heavens:



The next word, ‘HaShaMaYiM’ means ‘the heavens’.  ‘Heh’ is a prefix meaning ‘the’, and ‘Yud Mem’ is a suffix that always indicates a plural.  Shamayim is part of a group of words in Hebrew that is always pluralized.  Other examples are ‘Mayim’ meaning ‘water’, ‘Chaim’ meaning ‘life’ and ‘Panim’ meaning ‘face’.  The word ‘Shamayim’ means ‘heavens’ but it is also used to refer to the sky.
The root for Shamayim is ‘Shin Mem Heh’, or ‘Shamah’ which means Ruin or Desolation.  This indicated that The Heavens is a desolate place.  Indeed, as we have discovered, outer space (the place wherein G-d set the sun moon and stars, being the first qualities we find in Shamayim) is a pretty desolate place.  Shamayim also has another structure to it, however.  the letter ‘Shin’ is the letter of Fire.  The word Mayim (Mem Yud Mem) means Water.  ‘Shin-Mayim’ means Fire/Water and, as Rashi teaches us, G-d made the Heavens out of fire and water.  The implications of this statement are far reaching and anyone who has studied Alchemy or Astrology will be able to grasp at least part of them.

The Earth:
The final word in the statement is ‘HaAretz’ meaning ‘the land’ or ‘the earth’.  This shows us that the earth was only created after the heavens in their entirety.  HaShem created ‘et’ the heavens, the whole of outer space, and only then ‘v’et’ the earth – and also all of the earth.  Scientists often try to refute the bible by pointing out that the bible seems to imply from later passages that the earth was created before the stars.  We see, however, from a careful reading of the VERY FIRST LINE that it is not so!  If it were then the Torah would have said ‘et ha’aretz v’et hashamayim’ – but it did not.  The heavens first, the earth only afterwards.

Conclusion:
And thus concludes the first line of Torah.  Make no mistake in thinking this is the only line that can be read in this manner.  Every word in Torah is significant, none are extraneous.  Every line of Torah can be read with even more depth.  Every letter can be examined individually even.  Through this reading I barely even touch upon Gematria, the method of converting words into numbers and interpreting them thusly.  Truly, what I have given over is but a small fragment of the wisdom that can be derived from even this one line.

There is a single Ultimate Existence that Is Was and Always Will Be.  This ultimate existence is a single unified conglomeration of everything else that exists, but exists purely and simply as both everything and nothing at the same time.  This means that all of existence basically adds up to zero - which in divine mathematics is somehow equal to infinity.

This ultimate existence is all that is really real.  Everything else is less real than that, and it gets worse until we make it down through the four worlds and ten major emanations to this world, which is only kinda real.

So this world, right, it was created because the Ultimate Existence has to create.  That's just this thing about Him (and note that I call the Ultimate Existence a Him because people exist more than things, meaning anything that really exists must be a Him and not an it).  So He created this world.  If I were Him I would have done things a little differently, but that's only a sign that I can't fully appreciate this world because obviously the Ultimate Existence is far smarter and more capable than I am and so if He created the world this way then it must be for a good reason.  No, the Greatest Most Perfect of Reasons.

And what is this Greatest Most Perfect of Reasons?  Why, to give of course!  Didn't we already say that?  the Ultimate Existence HAD to create - He HAD to give!  That's not saying that He was compelled to do anything of course, because The Ultimate Existence can do anything He wants, being so super and ultimate and everything.  So really it's that He WANTED to give, really really badly!  And since He still exists exactly as He always has, being eternal and endless and always perfect in every way, this means that He STILL Wants to give so badly that He just can't help Himself!  So that's what He does - constantly spewing forth... whatever He gives.

And what is it that He gives?  Well, He gives what is best to give of course, or at least He wants to.  Being all perfect and everything He will of course give the best thing in the universe.  And what is the best thing in the universe?  Didn't we already say that?  It's Him of course!  That's right, He wants to give Himself to the universe!  But... well... that's not really possible even in divine logic because He is Him and He is intrinsically Him and there can only be one of Him.  And he's so frikkin huge and inconceivable that if He were to give Himself to... wait, what's He giving Himself to again?  Well that's another question we have to answer first I guess - how can we talk about what He gives if we don't know what He's giving too?

Ok, so the Ultimate Existence needed to make something the get what he wants to give.  So we'll call that the Perfect Vessel.  But see, he wants to give Himself.  It's a fact that anything He would create would be inferior to Him and even by divine logic something inferior can't hope to contain something superior, the Perfect Vessel would shatter!  And just to prove that that's what would happen, He did exactly that - He made the perfect vessel able to contain the most of anything and everything, and BOOM! it shattered!  He even made more than one, 'cus He can do that, and tried to give Himself to all of them.  Not part of Himself to all of them because He doesn't have parts, being singular beyond oneness and absolutely simple and perfect beyond simplicity and perfection.

So what now?  How could The Ultimate Existence give its Divine Supernalness to an inferior something?  If it were me, I'd give up right then and there.  It's a tough problem and really doesn't make any sense to me.  But not Him.  Oh no, the Ultimate Existence wouldn't give up - He had to give, and the only direction he could give was down!

So He tried again and this time He didn't give Himself to a vessel, but rather to a channel!  What brilliance!  If He could somehow give Himself little by little to something else and that something else could experience it then let it flow through, then eventually He could give all of Himself to something!

OK, that's great, but there are two problems with that idea.  The first is that He is infinite and what ever He makes would have to be finite, or at least less infinite than He is.  Whatever the case, it would take infinitely long for Him to give Himself to anything.  The second problem is - where will He go after He passes through the somethingness?  This isn't even mentioning the problem of how His Ultimate Simplicity can be made to pass through something slowly without being made to differentiate Himself or split Himself up, since He has no parts or gradients to Him.  Well, that last question is actually the easiest to answer - He does it by making the something change and differentiate while He remains static.  Yeah, that's a confusing paradox but it's all we've got.

As for the problem of infinite length of time, that's a problem we're dealing with and have been dealing with for about 16 billion years, or 6 thousand years depending on how you wanna look at things.

Now regarding the problem of where he would go... well, the answer to this question is coupled with the answer to another question: if He created a channel, it would be a channel to where?  And another question, what is this somethingness channel anways?

All the questions in the universe eventually have one ultimate and unified answer.  It's hard to see it though.  But these three questions actually have an easy common answer.  Well, relatively speaking that is.

The answer is that this somethingness channel is the thing most similar to The Ultimate Existence as He could make.  We'll call it the penultimate existence.  So this penultimate existence is similar to the Ultimate Existence.  How?  Well, it too wants to give!  How do you like that?  The major difference between the two is that the Ultimate Existence intrinsically has what to give (being Himself), while the penultimate existence only has what to give extrinsically (being that which the Ultimate Existence gives to the penultimate existence, namely Himself).  So the penultimate existence gives what it's got and gives it to the tertiary existence.  The three gives to the four, the four gives to the five, and so on down the line.

In the middle there things start to get confusing (as if they weren't already), but somehow in all that giving things start to differentiate from one another, at first only by degree of reality (The Ultimate Existence being the most real existence and all other existences being proportionately less real as His Essence gets passed down from layer to layer) and later by other factors such as by who His Oneness gets passed down, how long it takes for His Oneness to get passed down, and other simple concepts like that.  Things start to get extremely convoluted and yada yada yada, until they get to a level of complexity similar to the physical universe as it is today, with all kinds of complex differentiations based on extremely simple ones.  And the greatest thing is that things get exponentially more complex as the convolution moves down from level to level, until what is really a very simple unity gets to a plethora of discriminable objects.  It just so happens that this level of extreme complexity is very close to the edge of what can be considered to have any degree of reality whatsoever, because at this level things are so confuddled and convoluted that existence has decided to start taking instead of giving - and something that keeps just taking and taking will eventually shatter and not exist (see above).  So this level of existence is basically the final one.  At least, that's what everybody thought (who could follow this kind of stream of thought until about this point) until computers and virtual realities came around... but that's another topic altogether.

So anyways, here we are.  At this level of differentiation it's possible for something or someone to start taking and stop giving.  It's also possible to keep giving - mostly to the takers, which is a moral paradox in and of itself.  That means that at this level, existence has gotten so convoluted that it can actually CHOOSE to keep existing or not!  That's right, we (at this level of existence) can choose to live (by continuing to give and be generous) or die (by not giving but instead taking, making us opposed to The Ultimate Existence and thus different enough from Him that any semblance of existence we would have from similitude would be gone).

And here we see the ABSOLUTE GENIUS of The Ultimate Existence!

Up until this point we've seen things as a random evolving purposeless process that just happened to get to this point.  But no, you see, it was this point that was aimed at when the whole confusing process began!  Or rather, it's the next point.  Which, incidentally is where I'm heading with this article/post/topic thing as well.  No, in actual fact THIS WORLD is the whole point of existence (or rather it will be in the timeless future which already exists somehow somewhere else since it's timeless).

You see, one of the things that makes The Ultimate Existence what He is is the fact that He is completely and utterly intrinsically self-determined.  Everything else is not self-determined, but rather has been determined by Him in His Great Wisdom.  In fact, Him being everything in actual fact makes everything else completely determined by Him.  Until this point of extreme convolution!  Any more real and things MUST give, making their actions predetermined entirely.  Any less real and things MUST take.  We are balanced in the middle where we can choose to either give OR take!  We exist at the exact point of confluence between good and evil, ego and submission, life and death, truth and falsehood.  This being true, we have the ability to choose good, life, existence over evil, death, non-existence.  By choosing good we are choosing to exist over not exist, meaning we are essentially CAUSING OURSELVES TO EXIST!  That means we are SELF-DEFINING OURSELVES (at least partially), making us more similar to The Ultimate Existence than any other level of existence that exists.

And now we have reached the point, the end, the culmination of the whole process of creation and writing.  The whole point of existence is having us lowly choosers choose to exist, making us more similar to The Ultimate Existence than anything else that was created.  By becoming similar to The Ultimate Existence we are essentially partaking of The Ultimate Existence, both because He is giving us the experience and because we are becoming the experience.  The latter is because of a principle I've only hinted to up until now, which is that in spirituality closeness and similitude are synonymous with each other.  So paradoxically, by being so far away from The Ultimate Existence, we have the potential of coming so close, of partaking so directly of Him.

In a nutshell, that's the basics of everythingness.  Beyond this is a whole bunch of specifics of HOW to choose life/good/giving/selflessness/truth/existence/eternality.  The specifics include generosity, gratitude, inspiring generosity(aka. learning to receive instead of take), the process and principle of transmition of goodness etc.  But essentially it all boils down to the following statement: "Do not do to others what you yourself abhor.  Everything else is commentary - go and learn it!"
And if you can understand why this statement is both different and superior to "do unto others what you would have done unto yourself", then you truly have a grasp on The Ultimate Truth.

"Whatever is similar must also be dissimilar.  That is to say, we do not compare things which are one and the same; rather, we compare two things which have a common quality.  If so, it is understood that they must have certain differences, in order for us to concern ourselves with their similarity."  - Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, The Book of Logic

Every two things in this world have similarities and differences.  Depending on one's perspective, on can focus on the similarities and see unity or focus on the differences and see separation.  To focus on one is not to deny the other, for doing so is simple naivety; Focussing on one is deeming it more important than the other.

If one insists, therefore, that two things are the same and someone comes along and points out how they're different, the proper response isn't 'no they're not!', but rather, 'so what?'

There once was a man.  This man had a son.  At the moment, just one.  His boy was ready to go to school.
"Listen to me, my son," says the man, "there are a lot of crazy people out there who say a lot of crazy things.  Some of them may sound like fun, and some of them may sound right, but I'm telling you now - don't listen to them.  Trust me, I'm your father - I know what's best."
So the boy goes off to school while his father takes care of some business matters.  On the way he sees a group of people dancing in the street.  "Come join us!" they call out, "come dance with us!"
"Gee, that looks like fun!" the boy says to himself, so he goes and dances with them in the street.
"Hey, do you want to come to our clubhouse?" they say, "we've got more dancing and more fun there!"
"OK!" the boy replies, then follows the dancers onwards.
They arrive at the clubhouse and enter, to find hundreds of people laughing and dancing.  "This is amazing!" the boy proclaimed, "What a place!  What fun!"
So they start dancing and have a really great time.
Then they start passing around beverages.  The boy takes a drink... apparently it's alcoholic.  "Drink up!  It'll be great!  We're your friends right?"
"Sure, I guess..." the boy replies, downing the alcohol.
Then the music starts picking up the bass.  The dancing gets a little wilder.  The women start taking off their shirts.  The men start taking off their shirts.  The women start taking off their pants.  The men start taking off their pants.  Before long everyone was dancing in pairs, and the dance was not gentle.
"This is the best dance around!" say the dancers, "You'll join us, won't you?  It's great fun!"
"If you say so.." replies the boy and finds a girl to pair up with.

Suddenly, the boy's nanny comes barging into the clubhouse and drags the boy out of there by the ear.  She continues pulling until they finally get home, with the lad squealing the whole way.

She brings him to his father and recounts where she found him.  The father grows furious.  "I told you not to listen to others!" the father proclaims,  "do you have any idea what you almost go yourself into?!?"

"I'm sorry father!" cries the boy, "please forgive me!"

What does the father do at this point?  His son disobeyed him and was seconds away from possibly contracting a deadly virus!

Naturally, the father takes his son, throws him into a ditch and then goes and adopts a new son - one who he doesn't make rules for because he saw from last time that rules only cause disobedience - never mind about the consequences of permissibility.

Does that sound right?

Then why do x-tians think that G-d abandoned the Jews?

This world is like a pinyata:  The whole reason it was created is for us to break through the alluring exterior and reach the true goodness hidden beneath the surface.

This past Shabbat I was walking back from lunch at my cousins and saw a wonder of HaShem's creation.  Bene Berak is a slightly run down city with many makeshift constructions and is currently in the middle of an enormous heat wave, the second this year and bigger than the first.  The fifteen minutes it took me to make it from my cousins back to my Yeshivah was enough to make stinging beads of sweat that would roll into my eyes and thoroughly drench my undershirt - and I'm not usually a heavy sweater. 

There is a square along my route, actually a semi-circular square for pedestrians with several shops around it.  Above these shops are residences and one of these residences has an air conditioner unit with its water pipe dripping slowly down to the ground in the square.  The pipe was positioned in such a way that it dripped upon a low tin roof, just above ground level, slowing down the falling drops before they reach the ground.  The water would drip rather quickly - Bene Berak is a humid place - making a sort of localized, gentle shower that formed a nice cool puddle on the brickwork floor.  Around this shower, four pigeons gathered, enjoying the fluke of laziness that turned out to be their private miracle.  They each took their turns basking in the refreshing trickle, pushing each other roughly out of the way at times as all creatures seem to do in Israel.  There was one who had a very long turn in the shower, his feathers puffed up like unkempt myrtle bush, making him seem twice his size and even more intimidating to the other pigeons.  He accepted the gift with pleasure and pride, but used his blessing for his own selfish gains.  Another was very apprehensive about the whole ordeal, but tried it out anyhow, seemingly only due to peer pressure.  He pulled his head in as he sat under the most infrequent dripping area and lifted one of his wings to catch the water - too afraid it seemed to accept the full blessing that was being offered, wanting to test out the gift thoroughly before accepting it.  The third pigeon went in brazenly, caught a few drops and, satisfied, stepped out back into the blistering heat, using what he had gained to allow him to be comfortable in the world.  The fourth didn't join the others, instead he sat in the darkness of a nearby shadow, only coming forwards to step in the water and cool his feet.
These pigeons... I wonder if they recognized what it was they were getting.  If they realized that they got their own private miracle from HaShem.  I wonder if anybody else saw this and praised HaShem for having mercy even on the lowliest of creatures, whether they have done anything to be deserving of it or not, whether they accept it or not.  And if G-d shows such kindness to such lowly creatures, who weren't created with free-will and don't have the opportunity of sanctifying His Name, how much more so should we be merciful on our fellow human beings of all races and religions, who were created with even greater potential?

Two additions to my personal philosophy. 
The first, try to make everybody right.  This is something that I am very glad has been reinforced into me by my Gemara learning.  In the Gemara, they have such respect for each other that the first thing they always try to do when confronting contrary opinions is to make both opinions somehow come out right.  This, I believe, is very important; to be as careful as possible to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and see how the opinions of others can make sense.  Only after doing this (or at least attempting to do this) for every side of an argument can a person truthfully accept or reject another's opinion.
The second, not to assume from my experience to others and vice versa.  This is something I started notice a long time ago and was reminded of recently, due to realizing my own thoughts moving in this direction.  One should not project one's own experiences onto others, assuming that they have the same relationship to specific variables that you do.  One should also be cautious when relating specific variables that come out one way for the norm, because they will not certainly come out the same way for an individual.  One can only truly judge whether one's relationship with a specific variable will be positive or negative unless one examines it with respect to one's self (and the same goes for other individuals and 'the majority').  Specific application: just because one community suits one individual perfectly, does not mean it's for everyone.  Likewise, just because many people get along well in a certain community doesn't many that any given individual will relate to it well.

One more addition: Hatred is to be avoided at all costs.  Speaking about politically charged issues may lead to no results other than a developed hatred for one or another of the political groups, for example.