Parashat Bereshit 5782 — 10/02/2021
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.
Bereshit 1:1 – 6:8
This week we will, in fact, begin a consideration of Rambam’s actual text of Moreh Nevukim. Gd willing. In this I will be helped and guided by Alfred L Ivry’s Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed – a Philosophical Guide (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2016, ISBN 978-0-226-63759-4). Prof. Ivry is professor emeritus in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. I am very grateful to Prof. Eric Sanday of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky for sending me this book for Chanukah last year and I’m glad to be able finally to dig into it. As usual, I will attempt to let Rambam and Prof. Ivry speak for themselves; any errors of interpretation are mine.
Rambam begins with a letter of introduction to his student, who may or may not have been real. This may have been a real letter to a student, or it may be simply a literary device to introduce his topic and the approach he intends to take. From our perspective, almost 900 years later, it doesn’t matter one way or the other. The main point of the letter of introduction is that knowledge must be learned in an orderly sequence:
When thereupon you read under my guidance texts dealing with the science of astronomy and prior to that, texts dealing with mathematics, which is necessary as an introduction to astronomy, my joy in you increased because of the excellence of your mind and the quickness of your grasp. I saw that your longing for mathematics was great, and hence I let you train yourself in that science, knowing where you would end. When thereupon you read under my guidance texts dealing with the art of logic, my hopes fastened upon you, and I saw that you are one worthy to have the secrets of the prophetic books revealed to you so that you would consider in them that which perfect men ought to consider. Thereupon I began to let you see certain flashes and to give you certain indications. Then I saw that you demanded of me additional knowledge and asked me to make clear to you certain things pertaining to divine matters… My purpose in this was that the truth should be established in your mind according to the proper methods and that certainty should not come to you by accident…
The sequence appears to be from the gross to the subtle:
- Astronomy is the motion of the heavenly bodies, and those motions are directly observable. There was some debate in antiquity as to whether the celestial bodies were of the same substance as earthly bodies; modern physics and astronomy answers this question with a qualified “yes” – under extreme conditions other forms of matter may exist that are not found on earth or even in the solar system, and of course black holes are something quite modern and extraterrestrial.
- Mathematics, which is the basis of astronomy. I think “mathematics” at that time meant geometry, and since the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic systems were based on circles, geometry would be the way to understand astronomy.
- Logic is the basis of mathematics. Mathematical proofs presuppose a system of logic. Logic is supposed to be based on the functioning of reality.
- “Divine science” which is metaphysics – the study of the spiritual reality that underlies all material reality. One might say that metaphysics is the study of the transcendent.
This sequence is the natural way that we transcend during TM – we start with the gross level of thought and the mind naturally goes to subtler levels. In my experience teaching physics, one really needs to build from the foundation up. First one has to learn logic, if not in all its details, at least in broad outline. Then one needs to learn some mathematics, and then one can build astronomical theories. In fact, even to understand the motion of the planets accurately requires General Relativity with its rather sophisticated mathematical structure; to understand what happened after the Big Bang requires all the apparatus of high-energy physics and its mathematics. So, proceeding from the “top down” doesn’t work well as an instructional program today, and I don’t think it did back then either. Perhaps what Rambam is saying that his student wanted to study astronomy, realized he needed math, so he began to study that, then realized math hangs on logic so he had to study that.
In any event, Rambam lays out a layered structure of knowledge, which, we know is parallel to the layered structure of creation. The layer that he identifies as the subtlest is metaphysics, or “divine science,” or “The Works of the Chariot” (this latter is the Kabbalistic exposition of Gd and the subtlest emanations from Gd, the Chariot being the content of Ezekiel’s vision in the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel). So, the entire structure of knowledge is, on this reading, dependent on knowledge of the transcendent. But can one gain such knowledge, and how?
There are two aspects to knowledge: direct experience and intellectual understanding. When it comes to knowledge of the transcendent, one can gain some intellectual knowledge by observing its expressions – that is, by studying nature, creation. However, since the transcendent is beyond nature, beyond the finite, beyond categories or modes of thought, any intellectual understanding will be lacking. The Tao that can be told is not the perfect Tao. What is needed to complete the picture and gain true knowledge of the transcendent is direct experience of it. This can be achieved by letting the mind settle down until all its fluctuations are quiet. In this state, with no thoughts or perceptions, the mind becomes Pure Consciousness, awareness that is transcendental to all forms and phenomena. When the mind comes back out into activity, some part of the experience remains, and the descriptions of that experience found in the sacred literature (or, to Rambam, the philosophical literature) begin to make more sense – they resonate with our newly expanded consciousness.
Repeated experience of the transcendent stabilizes it within our awareness 24 x 7. At this point the mind is identified with the transcendent and intellectual understanding of the transcendent is automatically available as a feature of our inner experience. Eventually, as we begin to see the transcendent and the basis of every form and phenomenon in creation (in Unity Consciousness), our understanding of physics and of metaphysics merge into complete, self-sufficient knowledge. This is the goal of “divine science” – to make the divine a truly scientific reality.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat V’ZotHaBrachah Bereshit
Torah is beyond language, beyond verbal definitions and grammar—it is the fundamental liveliness of Gd. On our level of life, of awareness, the sound value of Torah comes closer to the transcendental and all-pervading quality of Torah.
From this standpoint, here are two sources to listen to the beginning of Beresheit: the first is traditional; the second is creative.
- Beresheit 1-8 with cantillation: Very sweet, easy to listen to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa_g1QOt9y0
- Very lively. Award-winning singer Noa sings Beresheit with Philarmonic Rishon Le Tzion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYKMWtOlHVE
Consider Beresheit the seed of Teshuvah — return to Oneness – and V’zot HaBeracha, the last parshah of the Chumash, the fruit: Do we see that the seed has borne its intended fruit?
If we take it on plain level of meaning, no: the children of Israel (that’s not only long time ago but today and in all times) have not yet entered the Promised Land, and Moses, the great leader, never will.
But perhaps we can say that Moses, one of the guests that visits the sukkah during Succoth, has entered Gan Eden, as tradition has it – not the terrestrial Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve were evicted but the Heavenly Garden of Eden in which Gd is enthroned and explains Torah to the residents. From Explaining Torah is not just a matter of Gd talking to people but giving the Direct Experience that Torah and Gd are One. From this standpoint, Moses and all those who enter Gan Eden have been restored to Oneness and so the seed of Bereshit has borne fruit though V’Zot HaBrachah doesn’t say so.
And later in Bereshit, we see Enoch mentioned as walking with Gd — definitely teshuvah — and Noah as being a righteous person, one who Gd trusts to maintain life on our planet when the rest of humanity, due its wickedness, is destroyed in the flood.
So even early in Torah, even taken on the level of meaning, we see examples of the fruit of the seed appearing: people who walk with Gd, who are righteous.
And also, very importantly, Gd’s Torah, One with Gd, flowed though Moses — what wonderful Teshuvah! Punctuated by the Word, the Command, the Kiss of Gd’s mouth which Parshah V’Zot HaBrachah tells us Moses was the way Moses died. By the Dying by the Touch of Gd is certainly Teshuvah.
Before he died , the man of Gd, the servant of Gd, gathered all the tribes together and spoke to them first as one, as the Children of Israel, giving them the command to obey Torah, then he gave specific blessings to each tribe. This is revealing first unity, then the diversity within the unity. This is action that in its Fullness, restores each individual in a community not only to unity with the community while retaining the special individual role but also, symbolically, to Oneness.
So, the Five Books of Moses end with ripe fruit.
Having considered the fruit, let us consider the seed which is contained within the fruit and to which we return as on Simchat Torah we begin again reading.
Bereshit begins in Hebrew: “Bereshit bara Elohim et HaShamayim v’et Ha’aretz…”
The way this is commonly translated to English, Bereshit reads: “In the beginning, Gd created heaven and earth…”. Since Gd is Beginingless and Endless, this cannot be true.
The way the ArtScroll Chumash and chabad.org translate it, it reads, “In the beginning of Gd’s creating the heavens and the earth…”
This is better and according to scholars more grammatically correct but still puts Gd in time and the reality is that time is a role Gd plays in pretending to be limited.
Gd is always One, Unity in Diversity, as it is described in Maharishi Vedic Science, so let’s look at “beginning.”
The best way of looking at the meaning of ‘beginning” is that it refers to any point in the infinite liveliness of Gd because at any point, separation and unification are always going on, everywhere and so at any point heaven and earth are always being separated and united.
Within every point is the Whole Unbounded Ocean of Gd and everything is always going on everywhere, in sequence and also in simultaneity. To Gd, Gd is always Totally Present, Infinitely Lively, Infinitely Silent, Omnidirectional, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnijoyful, Omniloving, and so the idea of beginning is just part of Gd’s “let’s pretend” to be limited.
In addition, Wikipedia notes that not only is “bara” a verb that is only used in reference to Gd but it doesn’t mean “create,” it means “differentiate/separate, assign roles to.” From this standpoint, heaven and earth though they are always One, are perpetually separated/distinguished/ from each other and given special roles. So, Bereshit refers to the beginning of distinguishing “heavens”, the inner, subtle, abstract levels of the details of God, from “earth”, the concrete aspect.
Jeff Benner (ancient-hebrew.org) translates “bara” as “shaped”: from this standpoint, there is neither creating nor separating, there is only refining what already exists.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, in his “Body, Mind and Soul: Kabbalah on Human Physiology, Disease and Healing”, notes that “create” and “heal” in Hebrew have the same root: b-r-a: from this angle, we can say that the beginning of Torah is always the beginning of healing, of Teshuvah, of healing individual humans of their limits and restoring us to our unlimited status as impulses of One and also restoring us to our status as the Full Ocean of One functioning through our individual personalities and bodies.
What a Joy to Be Restored to full memory of the reality that only One exists and we are This!
So, creation, healing begins, when Torah, which in its fullness is the fundamental liveliness of Gd, beyond language, beyond grammar, beyond definitions, Gd conversing with Gd, begins to be perceived by individual humans.
And there are surely many more interpretations of “Bereshit Bara Elohim”: our own intuitions will also add to the cornucopia.
On the ordinary human level of awareness, this variety of interpretations is consistent with the way we experience life. Again, as Maharishi puts it, “Knowledge is Structured in Consciousness.” As we rise to higher levels and to Consciousness beyond levels – the Wholeness within which all levels exist — we are able to see the usefulness of each interpretation.
We humans are individual impulses of Gd who pretends to be limited for the fun of playing Hide and Seek, Peek-a-Boo in us, so He, pretending to be we limited souls, can have the fun of seeking as us, and Gd as Gd, can have the pleasure of Hinting and Revealing, through Torah sounds, Torah stories, Torah mitzvot and whatever way He wishes.
In this game, this Game, little by little, and also suddenly, we find as Gd’s Grace Reveals.
Gd dissolves the veils of limits and reveals to us that Gd is All, within us and all around us, everywhere, One without a Second.
And this can happen with any sound of Torah, any word, any parshah, even the last one as we suddenly See and Know the Truth within the Stories.
And it can happen Now! And any Now! Wherever we are and whatever we’re doing.
Because Torah in a written book is only the most infinitesimal aspect of Torah as One with Gd, Torah can hint to us and reveal to us when we’re eating breakfast, walking down a street, snoozing — at any time, any place.
Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil as well as the serpent, are within us, ready to be clearly experienced as Omnidirectional, All-in-All Points of One, and the duality between Gd and the uncreated creation, is ready to be experienced as the Fun of Gd, always within Gd as One. So, too, are the all the details of Torah as the Book and Torah as Gd. Bereshit is a good seed that bears good fruit in V’Zot Habracha and it is also the Fruit that sprouts to become all the Books of Torah and to loop back to itself with V’Zot HaBracha.
So we all do our best to tune to Gd/Torah with “Be still and know!”; with “to love Gd with all our heart, all our soul and all our might”, with “love our neighbor as our self”, as our Self, and as we do we begin to see, hear, taste, touch, smell the Beauty of Gd in every leaf, every sound, every bite of food, everyone and everything – everywhere.
Sukkot/Hoshanah Raba/Shemini Atzeret?Simchat Torah are special times of Joy to make our tuning more charming, delightful, effective.
Very encouraging!
Let’s keep on tuning.
Practice! Practice! Practice!
Baruch HaShem.