Parashat Shoftim 5783 — 08/19/2023
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.
Devarim 16:18-21:9
Over the past two weeks Rambam has been describing ways of finding out about external objects or people. We showed how all these methods, which all use bounded means of gaining knowledge, cannot provide complete knowledge of whatever it is that we are investigating. Now Rambam takes up the subject of applying these kinds of methods to Gd:
Now in all that we have said by way of parable there is nothing to give an indication of the ruler’s essence and of the true reality of his substance in respect of his being a ruler. A similar thing has occurred with regard to the knowledge of Gd, may He be honored and magnified, given to the multitude in all the books of the prophets and also in the Torah. For necessity required that all of them be given guidance to the belief in the existence of Gd, may He be exalted, and in His possessing all the perfections. I mean to say guidance to the belief that He does not merely exist, as the earth and the heavens do, but that He is an existent who is living, possessed of knowledge and of power, active, and having all the other characteristics that ought to be believed in with reference to His existence. This shall be made clear later on. The minds of the multitude were accordingly guided to the belief that He exists by imagining that He is corporeal, and to the belief that He is living by imagining that He is capable of motion.
Rambam first points out that the methods we have been discussing do not represent methods of gaining knowledge of the essence of the object under observation. At best, it treats the object as a black box with some internal algorithms that determine behavior given certain inputs. Since the set of observed behaviors is finite, it can at best constrain the possible theories of the internal dynamics to some region(s) of the space of all possible theories, but it can never nail it down to one or another of the possibilities. Unless we want to take the existentialist view that “existence precedes essence” – i.e. by our activity we create our essence – analysis of activity will never give us a clue as to the essence of a thing.
It seems clear that when Rambam speaks of something’s “essence,” he is referring to some aspect of the thing that is unchanging and uncoupled from the various actions and qualities that adhere to that thing. For example, almost all human beings have two hands with four fingers and a thumb on each one that allow us to communicate quickly via text message, but if, Gd forbid, one should lose a finger (say to frostbite, while attempting to text in sub-zero weather), this would not make the person any less human in their essence. The hands and fingers are “accidents” and our essence doesn’t depend on the specifics of these “accidents.” Even if someone is born with some abnormality, they are still human, and our laws and customs all recognize this fact.
If the essence is not physical, it would not be surprising that physical means would be insufficient to determine the essence of a person. We can observe the person’s behavior, and perhaps, to some extent, manipulate it with a system of rewards and punishments (“Skinner Box”). But if a finite number of observations cannot even give us certain knowledge of the operation of a physical black box, it can give us even less knowledge about the mental and emotional state of the person. The way we usually find out about a person’s inner life is through mental and emotional interaction with them, not through purely physical, mechanical interaction. This is called “getting to know” someone, or “connecting with someone.” The connection is made on a level that transcends the purely physical.
When we apply these considerations to Gd, the issues are magnified, to say the least. Gd is completely non-physical, abstract, and we cannot really use any physical means to find out about Gd. Here is what Rambam says:
For the multitude perceive nothing other than bodies as having a firmly established existence and as being indubitably true, for anything that is not a body, but subsists in a body, is existent; but its existence is more deficient than that of a body, as it requires a body in order to exist. That, however, which is neither a body nor in a body is not an existent thing in any respect, according to man’s initial representation, particularly from the point of view of the imagination. Similarly the multitude do not represent to themselves the notion of life as anything other than motion and consider that that which has no local motion due to its will is not alive, despite the fact that motion does not pertain to the substance of the living but is an accident attaching to it. Similarly apprehension, as it is habitually known among us, comes about through the instrumentality of the senses, I mean to say through hearing and seeing. And similarly we do not know nor can we represent to ourselves how a notion can be transmitted from the soul of one individual who is among us to the soul of another individual except through the instrumentality of speech, which is a sound produced by the lips, the tongue, and the other organs of speech.
We can gain some knowledge of Gd by seeing the way He acts in the world, as the Psalmist says:
The heavens declare the glory of Gd, the firmament tells of His handiwork
Day after day brings expressions of praise, and night after night bespeaks wisdom.
There is no speech and there are no words, their sound is unheard. (Psalm 19:2-4)
This gives us some idea of Gd’s grandeur, but of course not of His essence. Indeed, even all the discoveries of astrophysics about the size and intricate complexity of the universe, can only increase our awe and reverence for Gd, but give us no more insight into His essence than before.
If we want to “get close to Gd,” our tradition recommends prayer. Prayer, in ancient times, apparently meant something other than what it means now. It is said that the “ancient ones” used to “wait” an hour before praying, then they would pray for an hour, then they would wait another hour afterwards. Now one would imagine that this “waiting” did not involve discussing the local sports scores or reading ancient, yellowed copies of People magazine. It must have meant preparing the mind to settle down and expand to its infinite value, from which the thoughts expressed in prayer can be projected. This is consistent with the halachic requirement that prayer only be done with m’yushav da’at – a settled mind. We get to this settled state, of course, by the natural process of transcending thought and letting the fluctuations of the mind cease. When this happens, we contact our own infinite essence, and eventually grow to Unity Consciousness where we see that same infinite essence as the essence of every bit of creation. Perhaps this is as close as we can get to understanding Gd’s essence.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Shoftim
Parshat Shoftim has the theme of “Justice” and illustrates through this the discussion of appointment and behavior of judges and kings, the need for witnesses to prevent violations of Torah law and witnesses to attest that a crime has been committed.
In discussing Gd’s Judgment given on Rosh HaShana, Rebbetzin Tiporah Gottlieb said something very lovely, in a recent jewishworkshop.com webinar: “Gd Judges us to see what we need” – judgment is not a matter of punishment or reward: it is a matter of determining (so to speak – Gd always knows, no need to make a special point of determining on a particular occasion) on Rosh HaShanah, the Head of the Year, what we need. Gd gives us Justice, what we need.
“Justice” means that which will bring us to Full Attunement with Gd: only in perfect attunement can we act completely justly – but good intentions and good actions from innocent hearts can move us in the right direction.
“Shoftim” means “judges” and this parshah speaks about judges, kings and prophets, people who might be sufficiently attuned to Gd that they can serve as intermediaries between us and Gd to know what we need and to guide us to act more and more justly until our hearts are completely pure, our souls are just and we are “Holy, as Gd is Holy.”
In this parshah, Moses tells us that in Hebron, Mt Sinai (Exodus says “Sinai,” Deuteronomy says “Horeb”) our ancestors heard Gd’s voice and bade Moses to go on the mountain and speak with Gd, lest they die. Gd tells Moses they have said well: an intermediary is needed.
And Moses speaks of judges, kings and prophets who will be appointed and will arise: intermediaries who will guide us when we are still not pure enough to be completely at ease in Gd’s Presence, to “love Gd with all our heart, all our soul and might” which includes perceiving Gd everywhere and so “loving our neighbor as ourselves” – which requires us to know our self as Self, One, and to Love our neighbors as expressions of our Self, within our Self.
Fortunately, there can be a situation and come a time when we do not need intermediaries, when we know Gd directly:
In Jeremiah 31:33-34, Gd says we will all know Him: no intermediary is necessary.
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying `Know G d,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:33)! (translation from “Modern Times”, by Jacob Immanuel Shochet, posted on chabad.org).
Joy is rising in our world, though the headlines may not seem to show it. Soon we will be pure enough, our world will be pure enough, open enough to Gd, to Love, so that the fear of Gd’s voice which existed at Sinai/Hebron will no longer rise.
“Justice” seems a bit of an austere word: Think of it as “Love,” as in “Love Gd above all else” and “Love Thy neighbor as thy self [Self]” and it feels better. Where there is Love, there is no blemish, no violation – there is Perfect Attunement, Justice.
“Shoftim” means “judges” and the commandment to establish judges indicates that people are not able to act completely in harmony with Gd’s Will, so there will be disagreements. The appointment of judges also suggests that there are some people, the judges, who are able to act at least to a good degree in accord with Gd’s Will – promising help to those a bit out of tune to get into tune and participate in a harmonious society.
Judges will be appointed in every generation and they will administer justice without bias and they will teach Torah law and people must follow, not deviating. Teaching Torah law means not just teaching the 10 utterances, the 613 commandments, for people to memorize and follow: it means teaching harmony with Torah, which is harmony with Gd, teshuvah, return to Oneness. It means teaching people to realize they are impulses of Gd, characters in a story Gd, One, tells within Himself/Herself/The Self.
At this time, we don’t seem to have judges at the level Gd intends. But, fortunately, we are growing in the ability to spontaneously Love and to create the world so pure that judges will be prophets, as will we all; rabbinical courts will be temples for Torah recitation, singing, dancing in the Joy of Oneness – no disagreements to resolve, no needs to diagnose and prescribe paths to satisfaction.
Shoftim repeats the law against idolatry and adds a law against sorcery: both involve putting trust in a partial value not in the Wholeness that is Gd. Our synagogue community is growing in Wholeness, as we can see in the Joy shining in us so that we are guiding our life more and more within Wholeness, in Fulfillment, so there is less chance we will get drawn into fragments of Life.
Shoftim talks about kings: they are like judges in their power and Gd commands them to be humble, not to think themselves better than others, and each king is commanded to write a copy of the Torah Scroll for himself, to keep it with him [or her!] always. Greatness comes from humility, because humility is the awareness that the individual is only great through connection to Wholeness, Gd, the Self. What is commanded for a king can certainly be useful for anyone. Learning to create our own Torah scroll in the way that the trained sofers, Torah scribes, do would be a wonderful experience in attuning ourselves to Torah on the level of meaning, language, words, but also on the level of letters, the level of the way body, mind, feeling, ink, pen and parchment interact to produce letters, words, spaces, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, all of Torah in written form. This delightful action can help reveal to us the Torah that is not words on paper but the Liveliness of Gd, One with Gd.
To become a Torah scribe requires considerable training and Torah scrolls created by them are quite expensive so for most of us, we will probably have to substitute reading the Torah, reciting Torah, and keeping a printed copy of Torah by our bedside or some other place that is convenient. But, now and again, we can copy the words by hand, the best we can and rise through this Joy.
Torah is on the Internet in many places and so anytime we are near a computer, we can take a few minutes now and again to dip into Torah and return to our other activity with some fine refreshment. In a deeper sense, “writing our own Torah” means experiencing Torah as fundamental vibrations of Consciousness, of Gd – experiencing this within our own consciousness. Writing and reading Torah in our everyday world can help this experience to grow. To make a real Torah scroll would take long training but we can write with regular pens and regular paper, a paragraph, a page a day, whatever we have time for. Even one word or one letter has Gd’s Wholeness within it,
Shoftim describes the creating of cities of refuge: Here we see justice in another form – places where someone who accidentally killed will be safe from retribution. Better to rise in purity so that our world rises with us and there are no accidents, much less accidental killings, and no need for cities of refuge.
Symbolically, “cities of refuge” are places within our own awareness where stressful thoughts, memories, anticipations do not arise – A Transcendental realm within our awareness.
Unblemished offerings:
These symbolize the purity that justice is—unblemished. Since the real offering is not the physical offering, or even the prayers that we offer today as a substitute for the physical offerings: the real offering is our self. So we offer ourselves to Gd as the Mi Shebeirach prayer says: “Give us the courage to make our lives a blessing.”
Witnesses:
As an example of standards of evidence, two adults witnessing someone about to break Torah law were required to warn him. In a world, where all live in Canaan, the Promised Land, fully realized Synchronicity/Integration, this might not even be necessary for small children. But even when it is, in a world where everyone experiences “The World is My Family” anyone seeing any child in danger of breaking a law would certainly unhesitatingly, lovingly warn the child. Symbolically, two adults mean both our waking state self and our Transcendental Self. A child is a thought rising that wants to blossom into action.
Rules of war:
Peace terms are to be offered before attacking a city. In a world where everyone is in harmony with Gd, with One, wars will not arise. Similarly, wars will not arise within our mind regarding different choices, interpretations.
No Wanton Destruction:
For example, no cutting down a fruit tree that is bearing fruit in order to use its wood to build a house. A harmonious world shows us exactly the appropriate materials and tools at exactly the right time. A harmonious mind bears fruit for action and the action leads to not merely a wooden house, but to The Home of Fulfillment.
Action:
When a dead body is found without witnesses to the murder: the whole community is held responsible; it is the community’s lack of attunement to Torah, to Gd, that led to the crime. With each of us becoming more and more attuned, the community becomes attuned, murder does not occur. Similarly, no useless thoughts, dead thoughts, arise in our mind: we think from the Source of Thought and every thought that arises is Live.
These specific examples of justice depend on our attunement to Wholeness, to Oneness, and this depends greatly on the justice, the purity, of our daily routine. When our daily routine is healthy, we see things as they are, act appropriately in a spontaneous way.
Shoftim is an aspect of Torah that gives specific examples of the qualities of judges and specific examples of ways to ensure that justice is done. Through our reading, reciting, hearing, writing this passage we can move to the Universal Justice that is Love, Joy, Harmony, Oneness, Wholeness, Gd, Self.
How nice!
Baruch HaShem