Parshiyyot Nitzavim-Vayelech 5783 — 09/09/2023
Beginning with Bereishit 5781 (17 October 2020) we embarked on a new format. We will be considering Rambam’s (Maimonides’) great philosophical work Moreh Nevukim (Guide for the Perplexed) in the light of the knowledge of Vedic Science as expounded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The individual essays will therefore not necessarily have anything to do with the weekly Torah portion, although certainly there will be plenty of references to the Torah, the rest of the Bible, and to the Rabbinic literature. For Bereishit we described the project. The next four parshiyyot, Noach through Chayei Sarah, laid out a foundational understanding of Vedic Science, to the degree I am capable of doing so. Beginning with Toledot we started examining Moreh Nevukim.
Nitzavim: Devarim 29:9-30:20
Vayelech: Devarim 31:1 – 31:30
A calendrical note: This year we read Parshiyyot Nitzavim and Vayelech together. When there is a Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, we need to split the two apart so that Vayelech will be read on Shabbat Shuvah (the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) and Ha’Azinu on that “extra” Shabbat. This year, Rosh haShanah (1 Tishri), and therefore Sukkot (15 Tishri) and Shemini Atzeret (22 Tishri) are all on Shabbat. If we split Nitzavim and Vayelech it would push Ha’Azinu to the Shabbat after Simchat Torah, which has to be Shabbat Bereishit, the beginning of the yearly Torah reading cycle.
Rosh haShanah can only fall out on Shabbat, Monday, Tuesday or Thursday for various reasons. (The calendar is adjusted in Cheshvan and Kislev if necessary to make it so. Those months can have 29 or 30 days, so there is some flexibility there; all the other months are either 29 or 30 days every year.) You can get a calendar and convince yourself that if Rosh haShanah is on Shabbat or Thursday the two Parshiyyot are read together, while Monday and Tuesday Rosh haShanah means they are split up. I have tried to find a percentage of years that they are together/apart, but the only statement I was able to find is that “most years they are read together” (torahmates.org), meaning that Monday or Tuesday Rosh haShanahs are rather more rare than Shabbat or Thursday. I’d have to be more of a mathematician than I am to figure out why. I may pose it to my son, who is a real mathematician. Now, back to Rambam!
One of the main thrusts of the Guide for the Perplexed is to reconcile the anthropomorphic terms used in Scripture in relation to Gd, with the fact that Gd is a non-corporeal, unified wholeness Who has no limbs or organs of any kind. The problem we’re trying to solve here is that we believe that Gd is the sole reality and that Gd is completely unchanging, but nevertheless we live in a world of activity, and one in which we believe Gd takes an active role. Gd knows what’s going on in the universe, Gd gives us instructions how we are to act in the universe, and Gd interacts with us based on how well we carry out those instructions. Gd also acts directly in the universe when needed: splitting the sea for example. R. Jonathan Sacks put it very beautifully: The philosopher sees diversity and asks, ‘How can there be a Gd?’ The believer knows there is a Gd, so how can there be diversity?
Rambam has spent a great bulk of the first part of the Guide discussing the way in which these anthropomorphic terms are used differently with respect to people and with respect to Gd. The current chapter is a kind of summary of that effort:
To sum up all this: Gd, may He be exalted above every deficiency, has had bodily organs figuratively ascribed to Him in order that His acts should be indicated by this means. And those particular acts are figuratively ascribed to Him in order to indicate a certain perfection, which is not identical with the particular act mentioned. For instance, an eye, an ear, a hand, a mouth, a tongue, have been figuratively ascribed to Him so that by this means, sight, hearing, action, and speech should be indicated. But sight and hearing have been figuratively ascribed to Him with a view to indicating apprehension in general.
A human being has organs of perception (eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue) by which we get information about the outside world, and organs of action (hands, feet, mouth, organs of procreation and excretion) by which we influence the outside world. We need these organs because we need to acquire the resources we need to keep ourselves alive – we have to distinguish between things that are helpful from things that are harmful, and we have to assimilate the former and get rid of the latter.
Needless to say, none of this applies to Gd. Gd doesn’t change, there is nothing that He needs and nothing imperfect that He needs to move away from. Gd is completely silent and unchanging, and all the change and activity that we perceive is actually Gd’s virtual internal dynamics. We see action and reaction and interaction because our awareness is focused on partial values, rather than the underlying, all-pervading wholeness that is Gd’s essence.
Now the irony is that for human beings to experience this all-pervasive wholeness, we need a body with a nervous system functioning at an optimal level. But that means we need real eyes, ears, organs of perception and action. But these are all parts, physical objects, objects that interact with one another. The question arises, if Gd knows Himself, by Himself, without the need of anything external to Himself (because there is nothing external to Gd), why does Gd go through all the motions of, as it were, splitting off pieces of himself, individual consciousnesses so to speak, that then have to grow and evolve, just to come around to virtually the same perception that Gd had in the beginning? The question becomes even more poignant when we realize that even the enlightened human being, whose perception is whole and perfect, exists within Gd, and is in no way a separate entity sharing Gd’s perception. In other words, why does a completely self-sufficient Gd create? And once Gd has created us in His image, we then go ahead and ascribe to Gd various qualities that make Him over in our image! It’s seemingly almost perverse.
Many have asked this question and tried to answer it. The answer that makes the most sense to me is this. If we are conscious, then certainly Gd is conscious, but if Gd is all that there is, He has only Himself to be conscious of. When we are conscious of something, then we are the subject (the observer) and the object is the object of observation (the observed). And of course there is a process of observation that takes place between the two. In the case of Gd, Gd is both the Observer and the Observed. The fact that Gd has this kind of dual-role within His own nature gives rise to a polarity, or a tension between the two poles. I want to emphasize that this is virtual and for our understanding only – there is no duality on the level of unity. This duality then breaks down and ramifies into the multiplicity that we perceive on the level of our individual perception. The upshot is, Gd’s nature as consciousness makes creation inevitable. Since Gd is the Creator, we say it’s His nature to create. But when we step back, we understand that Gd is actually an unbroken Unity, and creation is not an objective, given reality – it is a function of the limitations of our awareness.
Next week is Rosh haShanah, 5784, and we will read Bereishit on October 14. That will mark three years on Moreh Nevukim, for what it’s worth. We still have quite a way to go – I didn’t realize the scope of the project when I began it! In any event, may we all have a good, sweet, blessed new year of growth to fulfillment!
L’Shanah Tovah uM’tukah!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Nitzavim-Vayelech
In Parashat Nitzavim ,“standing,” Moses tells us that we stand before Gd as a nation, not a mere collection of people. It is love of Gd and love of one’s neighbor that binds us together and it is this same love that binds together the different aspects of our personality: our thoughts, our feelings, our body, our routines, our career, family, friends….
So, love and Love, Universal Love, are vital for us to live our life in unity, wholeness, not as a mere collection of fragments.
Moses tells our ancestors (and us) that Torah is not far from us, it is near, in our hearts to do. It is the Universal Love that allows us to live in Wholeness.
Moses also warns our ancestors (and us) of the desolation that we will occur if we turn from Torah, but comforts us that we will turn back and Gd will gather us together into the Promised Land.
This means that though we may sometimes close our heart and turn away from Torah, yet at any time, we can open our heart and Torah will be seen there as It Always Is (Torah is the Word of Gd, the Liveliness of Gd, never separate, always there).
When we open our heart, we are new people, descendants of the old people that we no longer are, new people, people in whom Torah and Gd are alive in our hearts, our words, our actions and in the response of Gd to us.
Moses tells us we are free to choose: the blessing of Torah, or the desolation of turning from it and he says “You shall choose life.” I am confident that our congregation is honoring Gd’s words spoken through Moses, and is choosing life.
As Rosh HaShanah nears, this is a reminder that the New Year is not only a New Year in calendar time but an opportunity for a new year in our hearts, souls, thoughts, speech, action and in the response Gd gives us—a time when we open even more to Gd and we become more aware that Gd is always open to us so no part of Gd’s Face is hidden and we remember and live the Oneness which we always Are (though we may have hidden from it), and not only remember and live but enjoy everywhere, all around us, Gd/Torah singing to us, dancing to us, within us, within the sky, earth, pebbles, streams and leaves—everywhere.
Today and every day is an opportunity for the celebration of Newness—and Rosh HaShanah is especially so —New Year, New Us, New World.
A great time!
Although Vayalech means “and he went,” Moses says to the people “I am 120 years old today and I can no longer go out or in.” The symbolism of 120 as 3 x 40 is strongly suggestive: 40 days of the flood, 40 days twice to receive Torah, 40 the age at which Isaac and Esau married… “Forty” seems to be symbolic of Fulfillment. Three times forty seems to be symbolic of three levels of Fulfillment, the surface, the depth and the Wholeness.
To not be able to go in and out is symbolic of being established in Wholeness, in God, so that every motion is within and there is never any going out or coming back.
Very inspiring to have a leader who is so established, very promising to us that we can also achieve this state.
In Parashat Vayelech, Moses told our ancestors (and us) to have courage as they pass over the Jordan into the Promised Land: Gd is with you, and will destroy your enemies. But Moses also said that that our ancestors will turn from Torah, and Gd will hide His Face from us, but that Torah shall not be forgotten from the mouths of their descendants.
It is a reminder that the Day of Atonement really is the Day of At-Onement, a day in which all our vows to Gd are annulled because the separation between Gd and us is annulled.
This is a preview of the opportunity for the celebration of Purity, A Clean Slate. Fulfilled Year, Fulfilled Us, Fulfilled World
Recitation of Vayelech:
Given the reality of Torah as the Vibration of Gd, the sound is closer to the reality than the meaning, although the meaning is very useful to us to remind us of the importance of worshipping The One, not getting lost in details of the material world to the extent that we think the material world is the only reality.
The following link gives a recitation in Hebrew of a few verses of Parashat Vayalech and a few tips for study of parsha recitation of Torah with tropes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAGWSO_ytA
Listening has deep value: so does acting in accord with the Harmony of Torah.
In this parshah, Moses tells the people and Joshua, the new leader, to be of courage for the Lrd is with them.
What can we make of this today?
One thing is to read Torah, listen to Torah, so we are attuned to it: it is in our heart to spontaneously be in harmony with it.
We can also study Torah to discover its plain meanings, its hidden meanings, and especially its application to the details of our life. As an example, we can prioritize Wholeness and whatever activities we do that connect us to it: in this way, we grow in our ability to Love God with all our heart and soul.
We love our self/Self and we grow in the ability to experience that the world outside us is the same One that is within us. We gain Teshuvah and we live our life in Love and Joy. All our failings, limits, and past wrong behaviors are melted in Oneness.
So let us listen to Gd speaking through Moses: Be of good courage for Gd is with us.
Baruch HaShem