Parashat Beshallach 5784 — 01/27/2024
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.
Shemot 13:17-17:15
In Parashat Ki Tisa, which we will read in just a few weeks (March 2) we have the situation with the golden calf. It is very depressing of course, and makes you want to scream, “No! Don’t do it!” However, in the aftermath of Moses’ breaking of the two tablets he had brought down from Mt. Sinai, there is a very fascinating dialog between Gd and Moses, where Moses asks for knowledge of Gd and Gd agrees to give him that knowledge to the extent he is capable of grasping. To me, it turns the disaster right on its head into one of the most spiritually uplifting parts of Torah. I will quote the passage here (Artscroll translation) and then Rambam will dissect it:
Chapter 33:
11. Hashem would speak to Moses face to face, as a man would speak with his fellow; then he would return to the camp. His servant, Joshua son of Nun, a lad, would not depart from within the tent.
12. Moses said to HASHEM, “See, You say to me, ‘Take this people onward,’ but You did not inform me whom You will send with me; and You had said, I shall know you by name, and you have also found favor in My eyes.’
13. And now, if I have indeed found favor in Your eyes, make Your ways known to me, so that I may comprehend Your ‘you have found favor in My eyes.’ But see that this nation is Your people.”
14. He Said, “My Presence will go and provide you rest.”
15. He said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go along, do not bring us forward from here.
16. How, then, will it be known that I have found favor in Your eyes – I and Your people, unless You accompany us, and I and Your people will be made distinct from every people on the face of the earth!”
17. HASHEM said to Moses, “Even this thing of which you spoke I shall do, for you have found favor in My eyes, and I have known you by name.”
18. He said, “Show me now Your glory.”
19. He said, “I shall make all My goodness pass before you, and I shall call out with the Name Hashem before you; I shall show favor when I choose to show favor, and I shall show mercy when I choose to show mercy.”
20. He said, “You will not be able to see My face, for no human can see Me and live.”
21. Hashem said, “Behold! There is a place near Me; you may stand on the rock.
22. When My glory passes by, I shall place you in a cleft of the rock; I shall shield you with My hand until I have passed.
23. Then I shall remove My hand and you will see My back, but My face may not be seen.”
As you can imagine, Gd’s Face and Hand are anthropomorphic terms that refer to something much more refined, and the cleft in the rock is much more than a mountain goat hideaway.
Know that the master of those who know, Moses our Master, peace be on him, made two requests and received an answer to both. One request consisted in his asking Him, may He be exalted, to let him know His essence and true reality. The second request, which he put first, was that He should let him know His attributes. The answer to the two requests that He, may He be exalted, gave him consisted in His promising him to let him know all His attributes, making it known to him that they are His actions, and teaching him that His essence cannot be grasped as it really is. Yet He drew his attention to a subject of speculation through which he can apprehend to the furthest extent that is possible for man. For what has been apprehended by [Moses], peace be on him, has not been apprehended by anyone before him nor will it be apprehended by anyone after him.
Rambam explains that the request to know Gd’s essence is in verse 18 where Moses asks, “Show me now Your glory.” The request to know Gd’s attributes is in verse 13: “…make Your ways known to me, so that I may comprehend Your ‘you have found favor in My eyes.’”
Gd’s “ways” implies activity – a “way” (derech = road) is something that we go along to get from one place to another, perhaps from home to some place where we had some task to perform. Alternatively, the image could be of Gd sitting at the center of a network of roads, controlling the activity of creation by means of messengers to the different corners of His realm. Gd’s “ways” then would not be Gd’s direct actions, but rather the messengers themselves. These messengers, in Jewish tradition, are angels. Modern Rabbis have identified angels with laws of nature, and of course in Vedic Science the laws of nature are the different styles of functioning of Pure Consciousness. So what Moses was asking Gd was a comprehensive knowledge of the very subtlest level of functioning of Pure Consciousness within itself.
As we have discussed before, Vedic Science describes the manifestation of creation from primal unity as beginning with the establishment of a virtual Observer-Observed duality within that unity. This is possible because the primal unity is conscious, and is therefore only conscious of itself, as there is nothing else it can be conscious of. Once One has become Two, further ramification into multiplicity is possible. Maharishi describes the process of this ramification as follows: Since consciousness as Observer and consciousness as Observed are not separate at all, an infinite frequency vibration is set up between them. This infinite frequency vibration then progressively breaks down into lower frequency vibrations in a set sequence. These vibrations are what Maharishi calls the laws of nature and they can be cognized by a sufficiently refined consciousness. I believe that when Moses asks Gd to show him Gd’s ways, he is asking for a cognition of the laws of nature by which the universe is governed. It is Rambam’s contention that Gd granted Moses this level of cognition. Presumably in the many years shepherding in the desert, Moses had had plenty of opportunity to prepare himself spiritually – that is, purify his consciousness – so that such a cognition would be possible for him.
On the other hand, apprehending Gd’s Essence is another matter entirely. In a beautiful talk on higher states of consciousness, Maharishi explained that as our perception of wholeness expands from the first level of perception, to the second level and on and on until it encompasses all of creation, so that what we see is unbroken unity and wholeness, it is important not to take over one’s perception of one’s spiritual master. The reason for this is to preserve a smidgen of individuality so that one can enjoy the unity they are experiencing. In other words, for unity to be enjoyed, there must be an individual to enjoy it. That individual can be totally steeped in unity, but there must be some tiny bit of individuality left, or we just have unity knowing itself, which is basically where the whole process of creation began. This little shred of individuality is called in Sanskrit leishāvidya, or “remains of ignorance.” It has to do with the fact that we still have a body with a nervous system that mediates the perception of unity. I believe that this is what Gd is referring to when He tells Moses, “You will not be able to see My face, for no human can see Me and live.” “Living” in this case means having a human nervous system, and as long as we have that we cannot, as Rambam tells us, apprehend Gd’s essence fully, without any individuality’s intermediating.
We will continue this discussion next week Gd willing.