We continue to ask, “Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, with the light of Your face, because it is with the light of Your face that You, YHVH Eloheinu, gave us the Torah of life …” In other words, “Please, our loving Father, give us peace in the same empowering way that You gave us the Torah: face-to-face. Our final request and ultimate Amidah aspiration is that we stand together in peace and experience You face-to-face just as we did when we received Your Torah at Sinai. At that time our people stood united as one person with one heart and enjoyed a personal, direct, and empowering relationship with You.” There is, however, additional meaning intimated in our request, “Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, with the light of Your face.” We are also asking, “Our Father, as Your children, bless us to resemble You and radiate the light of Your face, so that we can see within each other that we are all indeed Your children, created in Your likeness—b’tzelem Elohim (“in the image of God”). And we know that our request is reasonable, “because it is with the light of Your face that You, YHVH Eloheinu, gave us the Torah of life” and all the positive qualities it encompasses: “love of kindness, justice, abundance, compassion and life and peace.” Embodied within the Torah’s wisdom and values is the light of Your face and the power to actualize our godly potential. We know that the Torah is our guide to holy living and that, when we embrace its way of life, we radiate godliness and resemble You, our Father. Let’s take a closer look at the words “justice” (tzedakah) and “abundance” (brachah). Although the word tzedakah is usually translated as “justice” or “righteousness,” it really means “justification.” A tzaddik, therefore, is a person who justifies the actions of others and sees the good in people, even when they may be doing wrong. The ability to judge people favorably and focus on what is right about them (right-eousness) is necessary for accomplishing and sustaining peace. The word brachah as used in the context of this phrase refers to the power of blessing. The Torah tells us that when God blessed Avraham, He said, “And to you there will be brachah.” According to the Midrash, God informed Avraham that until that point, the power of blessing and of granting abundance was only in God’s hands, but He was now turning over that power to Avraham. The power of brachah is the ability to increase or decrease the light of God in the world. Each of us has our fingers on the dimmer switch, so to speak. When we exercise our power of brachah, we turn up the light of God and reveal the Divine splendor permeating everything in existence. As it is written in the Book of Psalms, “In your light, we will see light.” However, when we diminish God’s light we see less and less of God’s presence and more and more randomness and chaos. For there to be peace and harmony among us, we must be able to see how God’s presence fills and unites us all; we must love the power of brachah and use it. Inner peace and global peace is dependent on our ability to embrace the wisdom of Torah and all the Divine qualities it entails, and by doing so to actualize our godliness and see the godliness within others.