Skip to content


Parashat Vayelech 5783 — 10/01/2022

Parashat Vayelech 5783 — 10/01/2022

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 31:1 – 31:30
Rambam now has a short discussion of the work of Onqelos (c.35 – 120 CE), whose Aramaic translation of Torah is considered authoritative. Onqelos was a Roman convert to Judaism and is considered a Tanna (teacher of the Mishnah). Where the Torah itself uses equivocal terms freely, assuming that the reader or hearer will not take them literally, Onqelos takes no chances and translates these terms in a way that unambiguously associates them with some (finite) aspect of Gd’s manifestation, e.g. the Shechinah. Here is what Rambam has to say:

Onqelos the Proselyte was very perfect in the Hebrew and Syrian [RAR: i.e. Aramaic] languages and directed his effort toward the abolition of the belief in Gd’s corporeality. Hence he interprets in accordance with its meaning every attribute that Scripture predicates of Gd and that might lead toward the belief in corporeality. Thus whenever he encounters one of the terms indicative of one of the kinds of motion, he makes motion to mean the manifestation and appearance of a created light, I mean the Indwelling or the action of providence. Thus he renders, The Lord will descend by the words, The Lord will manifest Himself; And the Lord descended , by the words, And the Lord manifested Himself . He does not translate: And the Lord came down. He also translates, I will descend now and see by, I will manifest Myself now and see. This occurs continually in his interpretation. However, he translates, I will descend with thee into Egypt , by, I will go down will thee lo Egypt! And this is a very marvelous story that indicates the perfection of this distinguished man as well as the fine quality of his interpretation and of his understanding of things as they really are. This translation also reveals to us an important matter regarding prophecy. For in the beginning of the story, Scripture says: And Gd spoke unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob, and so on. And He said, I am Gd, and so on. I will descend with thee into Egypt. Now in view of the fact that the beginning of the passage includes the statement that this happened in the visions of the night, Onqelos did not think that it would be unseemly to conform wholly to the text in his rendering of what was said in the visions of the night. This was the correct procedure. For this passage contains a relation of what was said and not a relation of a story of such as is to be found in the verse: And the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai. For that is a relation of what took place within matters having existence. On this account [Onqelos] uses in connection with this the term “manifestation” and discards in his rendering everything indicative of the existence of motion. On the other hand, he left in his translation the things of the imagination – I mean the retelling of what was said to him – as they are according to the text. This is a marvelous thing. Through this your attention will be drawn to the fact that there is a great difference between that which is said to happen in a dream or in the visions of the night, that which is said to happen in a vision and apparition and that of which it is said without qualification: And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, or, And the Lrd said unto me.

In other words, Onqelos, who has the freedom to render the Biblical text into Aramaic in a non-literal sense, translates anthropomorphic descriptions in terms of some created aspect of Gd, such as Gd’s Shechinah, or Gd’s Word. In other words, Onqelos makes explicit what Rambam has been saying in the last several chapters – when Scripture says Gd moved or did something, it really means that some created aspect of Gd did those actions. This is necessary, of course, because Gd is not subject to any limitations of time or space or any other attribute, so Gd, in His Essence, cannot (or does not need to, to put a more positive spin on it) move or act.

As I have speculated in previous posts, I’m not sure that this completely solves the problem of Gd’s acting in the world. If Gd is completely transcendental then there doesn’t seem to be an interface between Gd and the created world. Saying that it’s Gd’s Indwelling or created light hardly solves the problem – it merely pushes the interface closer to Gd. How does Gd interact with this created light? How does Gd move His Indwelling Presence to affect the world and its inhabitants?

Rambam goes on to describe a situation where Onqelos leaves the Hebrew text as is: Now in view of the fact that the beginning of the passage includes the statement that this happened in the visions of the night, Onqelos did not think that it would be unseemly to conform wholly to the text in his rendering of what was said in the visions of the night. This was the correct procedure. For this passage contains a relation of what was said and not a relation of a story of such as is to be found in the verse: And the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai. For that is a relation of what took place within matters having existence. At the end of this chapter Rambam will promise to delve much more deeply into the phenomenon of prophecy, but for now he seems to distinguish between subjective (“visions of the night”) and objective (“matters having existence”) reality. In the case of subjective descriptions, there is no problem if we use anthropomorphic language, because that is the way the prophet or visionary actually experienced Gd. In other words, no statement about Gd’s nature is being made, only about human experience.

In the case of “objective” reality, we really are trying to convey something of Gd’s essence, but trying to convey that to finite minds. Thus the Torah text uses anthropomorphic language, presumably assuming that people would know enough to not take these terms literally. Of course they had the direct experience of Gd’s Revelation at Mt. Sinai, so presumably they had a better understanding on an intuitive level than the rest of us do, what Gd is all about. And they saw “that Gd could speak with a human being and he would not die.” They also had 40 years with Moshe Rabbeinu to integrate and internalize the experience, plus whatever techniques Moshe might have taught to keep the experience lively and to stabilize it in activity.

Onqelos came 1500 years after the Revelation, when presumably the memory had faded, and whatever techniques had been available were no longer understood or widely practiced. Now people were interpreting the Bible too literally, and there was no experiential corrective, either from direct experience or from prophets who had more or less direct experience. Consequently, Onqelos had to use his translation to make explicit what was intuitively clear many centuries ago. Lest you think we are much more sophisticated nowadays, I invite you to listen to some of the rantings of “Biblical fundamentalists.”

The fundamental problem here is the progressive loss of knowledge of the technique of transcending and experiencing the transcendental reality directly on the level of the mind. Once that knowledge is re-established, we’ll start to see Torah as an actual record of Gd’s internal dynamics within our own Pure Consciousness.

An easy and meaningful fast for all!

*******************************************************************************************************************

Commentary by Steve Sufian

Parashat Vayelech (“And he went”)

Although Vayelech means “and he went,” Moses says to the people “I am 120 years old today and I can no longer go out or in.” The symbolism of 120 as 3 x 40 is strongly suggestive: 40 days of the flood, 40 days three times to receive Torah, 40 the age at which Isaac and Esau married… “Forty” seems to be symbolic of Fulfillment. Three times forty seems to be symbolic of three levels of Fulfillment, the material surface, the spiritual depth and the Wholeness that integrates them.

To not be able to go in and out is symbolic of being established in Wholeness, in Gd, so that every motion is within and there is never any going out or coming back.

Very inspiring to have a leader who is so established, very promising to us that we can also achieve this state. Very inspiring to realize that Moses symbolizes that aspect of ourselves that serves as a messenger bringing Wholeness to all details of ourselves.

In Parashat Vayelech, Moses told our ancestors (and us) to have courage as they pass over the Jordan into the Promised Land: Gd is with you, and will destroy your enemies. But Moses also said that our ancestors will turn from Torah, and Gd will hide His Face from us, but that Torah shall not be forgotten from the mouths of their descendants.

Our descendants are not only our children but ourselves of the next moment and the next… This means that though we close our heart at this moment and turn away from Torah, yet at any time, we can open our heart and Torah will be there as It Always Is (Torah is the Word of Gd, the Liveliness of Gd, never separate, always there).

When we open our heart, we are new people, descendants of the old people that we no longer are but our descendants, new people, people in whom Torah and Gd are alive in our hearts, our words, our actions and in the response of Gd to us.

As Rosh HaShanah passes and Yom Kippur nears, this is a reminder that the New Year is not only a New Year in calendar time but an opportunity for a new year in our hearts, souls, thoughts, speech, actions and in the response Gd gives us—a time when we open to Gd and Gd opens to us so no part of Gd’s Face is hidden and we remember and live the Oneness which we always are (though we may have played Hide and Seek with It), and not only remember and live but enjoy everywhere, all around us, Gd/Torah singing to us, dancing to us, in the sky, earth, pebbles, streams and leaves, in all people, in all souls—everywhere.

It is a reminder that the Day of Atonement approaching really is the Day of At-Onement, a day in which all our vows to Gd are annulled because the separation between Gd and us is annulled.

This is a preview of the opportunity for the celebration of Purity, A Clean Slate. Fulfilled Year, Fulfilled Us, Fulfilled World

A great time!

Baruch HaShem