Parashat Bemidbar 5783 — 05/20/2023
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.
Bamidbar 1:1-4:20
Rambam is not finished with his analysis of the word “heart”:
It [heart] is also a term denoting will. Thus: And I will give you shepherds according to My heart (Jer 3:15); Is thy heart right as my heart is? (II Kings 10:15) – that is, is thy will like my will in rectitude? Sometimes the word is figuratively applied with this meaning: That shall do according to that which is in My heart and in My soul (I Sam 2:35), the meaning of which is: he shall do according to My will; And Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually (I Kings 9:3) – that is, My providence and My will.
Note that we have a similar usage in English: “I didn’t have the heart to fire him right before the holidays.” It means that I couldn’t muster up the will to do the deed, although the implied reason is emotional rather than rational. This fits with our understanding that the heart is the seat of the emotions. That implication is absent in the verses Rambam chose, because, as we discussed earlier, in Rambam’s thought the heart is not the seat of the emotions, but rather the seat of thought.
Note that here Rambam does not need to provide a figurative meaning to Will when it applies to Gd, because the will is not something corporeal – it is totally a phenomenon that takes place within consciousness. In the case of human will, it is generally the body which carries out the will, that is, actualizes that which the person wills in actual objective existence. In the case of Gd, where Gd’s Will is indistinguishable from Gd’s essence, and all objective existence exists within Gd as Gd’s own virtual dynamics, no body is needed for Gd’s Will to be done. Since all possibilities are contained within Gd, Gd’s Will – Gd’s ability to choose is entirely unconstrained.
Some commentators argue that our being created “in Gd’s image” means that we have free will, although of course its exercise is constrained by various factors, physical, historical, etc. The more our awareness is stationed on the level of Pure Consciousness, the less constrained it becomes; when one is fully enlightened, according to Maharishi, one can do anything, “and anything means anything.” In other words, if we can project our thoughts from the unboundedness of Pure Consciousness, we can move nature to produce any result our hearts desire.
Rambam continues with another aspect of “heart”:
It is also a term denoting the intellect. Thus: But an empty man will act with his heart (Job 11:12), meaning that he will cognize with his intellect. And similarly: A wise man’s heart is at his right hand (Eccles 10:2) – that is, his intellect is directed toward the perfect things. This use is frequent. It is in this sense – I mean that indicative of the intellect – that the term is applied figuratively to Gd in all the passages in question, save certain exceptional ones where it sometimes is used to indicate the will. Every passage should therefore be understood according to its context. In this way [heart] is applied to the intellect in the verses: And lay it to thy heart (Deut 4:39), And none considereth in his heart (Isa 44:19); and all the others that are similar. In the same way Scripture says: But the Lord hath not given you a heart to know (Deut 29:3), in a way analogous to its saying: Unto thee it was shown that thou mightest know (Deut 4:35). As for the dictum of Scripture: And thou shalt love the Lord thy Gd with all thy heart (Deut 6:5) – in my opinion its interpretation is: with all the forces of your heart; I mean to say, with all the forces of the body, for the principle of all of them derives from the heart. Accordingly the intended meaning is, as we have explained in the Commentary on the Mishnah and in Mishneh Torah, that you should make His apprehension the end of all your actions.
Now, as we have opined in the past, Rambam does not mean by “intellect” what we normally call the intellect in everyday speech. I believe Rambam means by “intellect” more of an inner knowledge at the finest level of thought, the singularity of thought that contains both fact and logic and which produces knowledge on their basis. In other words, by “heart” it seems that Rambam is intimating thought that comes from the very subtlest level, right before Transcendental Consciousness. In fact, this is where Vedic Science places the intellect. The intellect is that which distinguishes, and the very finest level of intellect is therefore on the level of the finest distinction, which is right before the level at which no distinctions are possible, which is the transcendent.
To summarize the past three weeks’ discussion, “heart” has many meanings, of which Rambam highlights 4: (a) thought, (b) opinion, (c) will and (d) intellect. All of these are clear when applied to human beings. When applied to Gd, Rambam doesn’t need to resort to figurative explanations, because in all these cases the item is not separate from Gd’s essence – Gd’s thoughts, opinions, will and intellect are all inseparable from Gd Himself. Or in other words, Gd is all heart.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Bamidbar (In the Desert, the Wilderness)
The desert/wilderness symbolizes both barrenness and transcendence. Depending on our level of awareness we perceive it either as the opportunity of transcendence or the sorrow of barrenness. Fortunately, even the sorrow is temporary because the relation between Gd and Israel, Gd and human, Wholeness and expression, is such that Gd more and more deeply unfolds the opportunities within the seeming barrenness, eventually revealing to each individual that even within the barrenness there is Gd and Gd Is all there is, each individual is an expression.
We have a saying, “Gd helps those who help themselves,” not selfishly but as members of a community dedicated to service of Gd, Full Restoration of Awareness. For those experiencing bamidbar as transcendence helping our selves means acting with Love to bring the Transcendent Self into the everyday life of our self and our community.
For those who are experiencing bamidbar as sorrow, acting to create joy in that sorrow, fertility in the barrenness, is the way to reduce the sorrow and reveal the Transcendent within it.
We have another saying “Gd is in the details” meaning: “Don’t just look at the Transcendent as an Emptiness, but see the liveliness within it; see it vibrating; hear it singing.” And meaning “Look more carefully, more lovingly, into the barrenness and find opportunities for growth and happiness.”
When we don’t just pray to Gd for help but act from our own side to fulfill our desires then Gd is more and more revealed as the Source of our desires and our actions and not only is our immediate desire fulfilled but the purpose of all life is fulfilled: the return to experience the Oneness which we Are and which expresses Itself within Itself as Infinite Detail, Infinitely Harmonized.”
In this parshah, Gd commands a census – revealing the details of the population of the Children of Israel – at least, of the males of military age – and revealing the detailed opportunity to serve.
We also say, “You count!” People can get the sad feeling that they don’t matter: they’re just one person in a crowd. With a census it becomes clear that everyone counts, matters.
We also say, “Stand up and be counted!”: stand up for what you believe in. The census requires everyone to stand up and acknowledge they are not just individuals, they are part of the Children of Israel, the Community of the World, dedicated not just to their individuality but to Gd.
When Gd gives details or asks for details, Gd is showing us something of the Details of Gd, of the All-in-All. Gd is Showing us that Gd Is not just an abstract mass of Fullness, Gd has a Structure, just as do our bodies, our communities, our nations, planet, Universe. In the census that took place in Bamidbar, I could not think of any way the number “603,550” – the number of males of military age, excluding the Levites that were counted – connects to the Nature of Gd and I found only one source on the Internet that addresses the issue.
The source looks at the census from the point-of-view of Gematria, a traditional way of interpreting Torah from the standpoint of the symbolism intuited from comparing one word to another through the use of the numerical value that each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has.
The author looks at the earlier census Gd commanded and to this one, finds the number 1820 is significant in terms of one aspect of the difference between the censuses, and finds that this number is significant in terms of some of the Names of Gd and also the nature of Creation, of Amen, of the Messiah.
I mention this source, because from the standpoint that Gd is in the details, the author is attempting to attend to the detail of the census, to find meaning in it, and since every aspect of Torah is useful in our life, paying attention to its detail is an action that helps reveal to us the Nature of Gd as All-in-All, One that is All-in-All.
The parshah also describes the separate roles of the three Levite clans and also the spatial orientation of the different tribes in the encampment: Levites, including Moses, Aaron and Aaron’s sons, in the inner circle, the twelve tribes around that in the groups of three tribes for each direction.
Here we have a possible symbolism of Gd not just in terms of numbers but also in terms of space: not that Gd is limited to space that we can perceive with our senses but that Gd is Wholeness with a structure that we can perceive more and more as through our actions we attend to the details of Torah and of our lives as members of families, communities, planet, universe.
We have in Torah: “Gd created Man (Humanity) in His own Image” Genesis 1:27.
Torah is the Liveliness of Gd, One with Gd, and so to look at its structure and meaning helps us to find the way, the ways, in which we are Images of Gd, and to gradually find that we are not merely Images of Gd, but expressions of Gd. We find that Gd fully Acts through us.
Let us continue standing up to be counted, to act in the Service of Gd so that we can continue growing together and Fully Remember and Experience our Oneness.
Baruch HaShem