Parashat Vayeshev 5783 — 12/17/2022
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.
Bereishit 37:1-40:23
Rambam continues to describe the dangers of speculation in areas where one is not prepared to go:
Know that to begin with this science is very harmful, I mean the divine science. In the same way, it is also harmful to make clear the meaning of the parables of the prophets and to draw attention to the figurative senses of terms used in addressing people, figurative senses of which the books of prophecy are full. It behooves rather to educate the young and to give firmness to the deficient in capacity according to the measure of their apprehension. Thus he who is seen to be perfect in mind and to be formed for that high rank – that is to say, demonstrative speculation and true intellectual inferences – should be elevated step by step, either by someone who directs his attention or by himself, until he achieves his perfection.
Here it seems that Rambam is not merely lamenting the dangers of “divine science,” but rather is offering a solution to those dangers so that the benefits of divine science may be more broadly enjoyed. The answer is through education. The written Torah of course is available to anyone who is literate. With translations (and the Aramaic Targum and Greek Septuagint translations have been available for 2000 years), anyone can read the Written Torah, therefore, according to Rambam, it has to be written in a kind of coded way, so that the simple people cannot get in over their heads.
The Oral Torah, on the other hand, has to be taught orally. This allows each teacher to evaluate their students individually and teach them in an appropriate manner. Even today, when the Oral Torah (Talmud, Midrash and perhaps the Zohar and other esoteric works) has been written down, one cannot really immerse oneself in these areas without a teacher to guide one’s studies. As R. Sacks points out, the difference between having a teacher as opposed to just having a book, is that the content of a book is static, and is also easily misunderstood. Thus, for each book, many books of explanation, commentary and interpretation have grown up. Many commentaries on the Bible have their own commentaries, and the “multiplying of books” continues to this day. This is why we say the Torah is “written in stone” and the tablets of stone that Gd gave Moshe Rabbeinu speak to this reality.
Oral teaching on the other hand involves the interaction of the consciousness of the teacher directly with the consciousness of the student. Drawing on my own experience teaching both physics and TM, instruction involves transmitting the structure of knowledge that the teacher has in his own consciousness, into the consciousness of the student. This has to be done serially, through the medium of language, even when the structure of knowledge is multidimensional. At each step in the way, the teacher must check and correct a partially built structure, until the knowledge has been mastered and integrated into the student’s awareness. This is an interactive process and cannot be done solely with a book, although a book can help as a reference or a starting point for discussion. In Maharishi’s words, “Knowledge in the books remains in the books; it’s never there when you need it.”
Maharishi has described the ideal educational system starting at age 3 or 4 with the children memorizing the Veda. They are of course also taught to meditate, so that they can experience the transcendent as soon as their nervous system is ready for it. As the child’s experience grows, the verses that he has memorized are there to verify and validate the experiences he has just had. As the child matures and their intellect starts to develop, other aspects of the Vedic literature are introduced. By the time the student has graduated, the holistic structure of complete knowledge has been structured in his or her awareness. The student is fully prepared for life, with complete inner understanding of the subtlest mechanics of creation and full intellectual understanding of both inner and outer life.
The central point of this educational system is giving each student the ability to experience the transcendent directly. The transcendent is the Unified Field from which all creation springs, and establishing it in the awareness of the individual is tantamount to making the individual’s awareness isomorphic to the structure of creation. Since awareness is self-reflective, we can know everything intuitively. The intellectual understanding comes later to fill out the picture, but it is the establishment of the transcendent in the awareness that is key. I believe this is what Rambam means when he says that the student “should be elevated step by step, either by someone who directs his attention or by himself, until he achieves his perfection.”
We will continue with this discussion next time, Gd willing.
**************************************
Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Vayeishev
All of Torah is a means to return our awareness to the reality of One without a Second, the One and only “I.” Each parshah has its particular way of doing this.
What is the particular contribution Parashat Vayeishev makes to our awareness being restored to One?
“Vayeishev” means “and he lived”: This parshah begins by telling us that “Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojourning, the land of Canaan.” “Canaan” seems to derive from the Hebrew “kana,” to be brought into synchronicity. Being brought into synchronicity with One in its details is certainly restoration of our awareness being restored to One.
“Living” is a stable experience, not just a momentary flash but an experience that continues day to day, year to year. It implies that the experience of conflict due to duality has been resolved and the difficulties that Jacob experienced with his uncle Laban and his brother Esau are now over and he is living peacefully in a land where he is synchronized and the land is synchronized: all works harmoniously.
And yet this peace and harmony are upset when Jacob gives preferential treatment to his son Joseph and more deeply when Joseph angers his brothers by telling them and his father two dreams that seem to indicate he will dominate over them.
Yet Gd’s hand is in this as Joseph tells his brothers when his ability to dream and to interpret dreams have led him to become de facto ruler of Egypt (Mitzraim: restrictions) and his brothers and father have left Canaan, the land of harmony, to obtain food from Egypt, the land of restrictions, after Joseph has arranged for Egypt to store up food during the seven years of fullness that he predicts will be followed by seven years of famine.
One way to look at this is that when our land of harmony is of limited scope, its harmony can be easily broken by misbehavior, and then we find ourselves not living, but sojourning, struggling in a land of restrictions, a superficial world that nonetheless allows us to survive, even though not in the harmony we had previously enjoyed.
We learn from Joseph and this parshah that it is very important that we always act open-heartedly to extend the range of harmony we enjoy, and that we do not mind and fully forgive the seeming offenses of others.
Then we extend the range of Canaan, of harmony, to include the realm of Egypt/Mitzraim, restrictions, and harmony prevails, Jacob is Israel “one who prevails over Gd” (embraces Gd to reveal the Oneness of Gd that expressed as Jacob), We are also Israel when we embrace Gd as Jacob did and return to awareness of the Oneness that Is Always All There Is.
Then we live in the world of Synchronicity: we experience abundance spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, socially and environmentally. There is no famine and we raise restrictions to Expressions of Oneness.
Today! Let’s do this today and let us continue always!
Baruch HaShem