Parashat Shelach 5783 — 06/17/2023
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 13:1-15:41
Moving on from ru’ach / spirit, air, wind, breath, Rambam next (chapter 41) considers a closely related word: nefesh / soul, blood, will, individual .
Soul [nefesh] is an equivocal term. It is a term denoting the animal soul common to every sentient being, Thus: … wherein there is a living soul (Gen 1:30). And it is also a term denoting blood. Thus; Thou shalt not eat the soul / blood with the flesh (Deut 12:23 – this is the prohibition of eating blood; Torah equates the blood with the life). It is also a term denoting the rational soul, I mean the form of man. Thus: As the Lord liveth that made us this soul (Jer 38:16 – the verse uses the word again in its continuation: I shall not put you to death nor turn you over to those people who seek your soul! – here it means life). And it is a term denoting the thing that remains of man after death. Thus: Yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life (I Sam 25:29 – again the continuation of the verse uses the word nefesh to mean life)
Rambam starts off with a usage of nefesh that seems quite similar to ru’ach: “It is also a term denoting the animal spirit … It is also a term denoting the thing that remains of man after his death and that does not undergo passing-away.” There are some differences however. Thus, It (nefesh) is also a term denoting the rational soul, I mean the form of man. Now it would seem that the animal soul (neshama beheimit) and the rational soul (neshama sichlit ) are two very distinct things, yet Rambam seem to assert that the same word is used for both. Also, for ru’ach he says it is the thing that remains of man after his death and that does not undergo passing-away. For nefesh he says, And it is a term denoting the thing that remains of man after death, without mentioning that it does not undergo passing-away. Perhaps this is because he has just noted this fact with regard to ru’ach and doesn’t feel the need to repeat it here.
Rambam mentions two kinds of “souls” in these passages: the animal soul and the rational soul. The former is that which animates both animals and human beings, as opposed to inanimate objects. Both words are associated with the breath: ru’ach chayim is “the breath of life,” for example. When we speak of Gd’s “resting” on the Sabbath, one of the expressions used is shabbat vayinafash / He stopped and took a deep breath (literal translation). The animal soul is that part of our inner nature that deals with the physical world, including our own physical desires. It is necessary for us to fulfill our tasks on earth, as those tasks have to do with improving and perfecting creation. It is not in opposition to our spiritual and intellectual strivings, which are the purview of the rational soul. Rather they are complementary to it. The dichotomy between mind and spirit common in Western thought is distinctly non-Jewish. We are not called upon to deny or suppress our bodies or our desires, but rather to transcend them and harness them to the service of evolution, both personal and cosmic.
The rational soul is that part of our mental world that can reason and abstract. Rambam calls it the “form of man” because, I believe, it is unique to man among all earthly creatures – it is what distinguishes human beings from all other animals. It is what gives us the ability to love, to appreciate beauty, to create art and to create mathematics and science as well. This is obviously a higher level of functioning than the animal soul, which moves the body around. The animal soul is supposed to be subservient to the rational soul, as a horse is supposed to be subservient to the rider. We get into trouble when the horse-and-rider roles get reversed, and the animal soul leads us to do what we (i.e. the rational soul) know to be wrong.
According to our esoteric tradition, there are five levels of soul – two of them are called nefesh and ru’ach. The five levels are (thanks to 5 Levels of the Soul – JewishPath.org ):
- Nefesh (creature – the lower soul) relates to behavior and action. Nefesh is the particular name of the lowest in the five levels of soul described in Kabbalah, associated with physical vitality.
- Ru’ach (spirit) relates to the emotions. Ru’ach is the second of the five levels of soul, associated with the vitality of one’s emotional life.
- Neshamah (inner soul) relates to the mind and intelligence. The Neshamah is the breath of life that Gd Breathed into the first man; the third of the five levels of soul, associated with the vitality of intelligence.
- Chayah (living one) relates to the bridge between the first flash of conscious insight and its super-conscious origin. Experiencing awareness of Gd as continually creating the world.
- Yechidah (single one) relates to the ultimate unity of the soul in Gd, as manifest by pure faith, absolute devotion and the continuous readiness to sacrifice one’s life for Gd.
What we see is that, at least in Kabbalah, the nefesh is the lowest level of the soul, relating to behavior and action. This appears to be the way that Rambam defines the “animal soul,” the soul that simply keeps the physical body moving and acting. Ru’ach is the next higher level, dealing with the emotions, and neshamah appears to be the “rational soul” that Rambam discusses, according to JewishPath.org.
The fact that Rambam’s description does not align completely with the Kabbalistic literature is perhaps not surprising. Rambam must certainly have been aware of the Kabbalistic writings, but the extent to which he afforded them credence is something I don’t know. He does have quite a bit more to say about nefesh however, and we will continue with this next week, Gd willing.
**********************************************************************************************************************************
Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Shelach
This parshah begins with Gd telling Moses “Shelach Lecha? Send for thyself spies to explore the Land of Canaan. Literally, “Shelach Lechah” means “send for thyself” (Gd tells Moses spies are not necessary to enter the Promised Land but, if he wishes, he may “send for himself”) but we can take it to mean “go to thy Self”, the Universal, Unlimited state of our awareness. This view implies that people should experience the state of awareness in which transcendent and detail are experienced as expressions of the Single Whole are integrated – the Self is experienced as integrating the desert in which they were with Infinite Lushness. Canaan (“Synchronicity”) symbolizes the state of awareness in which the barrenness of material existence is raised to All-Pervading Love and Joy and the individual and the community restored to Wholeness, Oneness. At this level, everyone is Inside, no one is outside and so spies cannot exist.
When we look at the parshah this way, we can infer that of the twelve “men of distinction” who were sent to spy on Canaan, Caleb and Joshua saw the land of Canaan from the perspective of their Universal Self (Torah says Caleb saw it with a different spirit than the other spies): Therefore, they naturally, spontaneously perceived the land as Gd declared it: a land of Integration which was given to the Children of Israel, a land which they could easily enter with Gd’s protection.
The other ten leaders of the tribes did not perceive from this level: they perceived from the restricted level of the surface of awareness, the boundaries; they perceived as if they were still slaves in Egypt (“Mitzraim”: restrictions) and so they perceived themselves and the Children of Israel as being weak, unable to prevail against the might of the people of the land.
It is commonly said (Zohar and Midrash, according to Rav Yehuda Berg of the Kabbalah Center) that the spies gave a false report and that they did so because they were afraid to lose their distinction; they were afraid to enter a land without restrictions, in which everyone would be a person of distinction. But perhaps the logic I present above – which seems consistent with what Torah says – is valid. They perceived from the level of restrictions and so they did not have the unrestricted Holiness needed to enter the Holy Land.
From this standpoint, the sending of spies into Canaan was a test of the people’s readiness, holiness, to enter the Promised Land. They failed the test and so Gd chose to delay the entrance until all those who lacked holiness had passed away and the rising generation and newborns would have sufficient holiness to enter Canaan.
We can also look at this symbolically: One example is that the twelve tribes may represent the twelve pairs of ribs connected to the backbone (Jacob, the father). The failure of the tribes was equivalent to being unable to draw nourishment from the backbone: i.e., they had no backbone and therefore were afraid, no matter what Gd said to Moses. The forty years waiting was the time it took to re-connect the ribs to the backbone, to have direct experience of the integrated, whole Self of their father, Jacob, and of Gd, the Supreme Father, and so to regain the nourishment needed to be confident, to trust in Gd.
The parshah ends with Gd saying, “I am the Lrd, your Gd, who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your Gd. I am the Lrd, your Gd.”
And this echoes with Gd’s words earlier in Torah, “Be thou holy for I am holy.”
It is our opportunity through our spiritual practice, especially our daily routines, to deepen our experience of the transcendent inside and outside our individual personalities, and to integrate them both into our daily life, thus becoming Holy as Gd is Holy and to experience every place as Holy Land, the Land of Canaan, the place of Freedom, the Promised Land: then the Promised Land is wherever we are, around us, inside us, everywhere.
Baruch HaShem