Parashat Vayetze 5782 — 11/13/2021
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.
Happy Birthday to Rebbetzin Chaya Green!
Bereshit 28:10-32:3
Rambam continues to discuss the necessity for speaking in parables:
Know that whenever one of the perfect wishes to mention, either orally or in writing, something that he understands of these secrets, according to the degree of his perfection, he is unable to explain with complete clarity and coherence even the portion that he has apprehended, as he could do with the other sciences whose teaching is generally recognized. Rather there will befall him when teaching another that which he had undergone when learning himself. l mean to say that the subject matter will appear, flash, and then be hidden again, as though this were the nature of this subject matter, be there much or little of it. For this reason, all the Sages possessing knowledge of Gd the Lord, knowers of the truth, when they aimed at teaching something of this subject matter, spoke of it only in parables and riddles.
Here I believe Rambam is reiterating the necessity of speaking about the transcendent only in parables, because words and concepts, being finite, cannot capture the infinite. It appears from Rambam’s words that he is describing a situation in which the experience of the transcendent is clear to the speaker (“one of the perfect”), but the process of expressing that experience in words takes on the characteristics of the growth of the experience itself – flashes of felicitous expression, capturing an aspect of the experience, then waiting for the next flash to fill out the picture (you thought I was going to say “flesh out the picture,” didn’t you?). Eventually, if one is on the level of Vyasa, one might get enough flashes (or more likely be bathed in light all the time) of expression that all of them, taken together, give a holistic expression to the transcendental reality. Incidentally, while we are on this point, I would like to quote something from Prof. Ivry that I think will become generally useful as we go on.
In the first chapter of Eight Chapters, Maimonides describes the human soul in terms discussed by Plato, Aristotle, and Galen. The originally Platonic division of the soul into reason, spirit, and appetite is mentioned, followed by a brief outline of the five faculties Aristotle first delineated: the nutritive, sensory, imaginative, rational, and appetitive faculties.
Rambam, as we will see, holds that prophecy is the experience of the transcendent filtered through the imaginative faculty – that is, the faculty that makes images. Indeed, the prophetic writings are very vivid and almost pictorial. I wonder if the parables of which Rambam speaks use the rational faculty more, as they seem to be aimed at the intellect – perhaps to break intellectual boundaries. Although the prophets certainly used parables, they’re more commonly associated with the Sages of the Talmud, which were composed after prophecy ceased and intellectual understanding came to the fore. Perhaps the Sages were hinting to us that the intellect, which works on the level of differences, can only take us so far. I hope we’ll be able to come to a more definitive understanding as we proceed further into the text.
Rambam goes on to explain that it is the necessity to speak in parables that creates the perplexity his Guide aims to solve:
We also saw that if an ignoramus among the multitude of Rabbanites should engage in speculation on these Midrashim, he would find nothing difficult in them, inasmuch as a rash fool, devoid of any knowledge of the nature of being, does not find impossibilities hard to accept. lf, however, a perfect man of virtue should engage in speculation on them, he cannot escape one of two courses: either he can take the speeches in question in their external sense and, in so doing, think ill of their author and regard him as an ignoramus – in this there is nothing that would upset the foundations of belief; or he can attribute to them an inner meaning, thereby extricating himself from his predicament and being able to think well of the author whether or not the inner meaning of the saying is clear to him.
The purpose of the Guide is not to enlighten the ignorant. Rather, it is to help the almost-enlightened get over the last few hurdles standing between him and true, full knowledge. If the ignorant think they understand the meaning of a parable, because they believe that the surface value is all that there is, well, the Gita (III:29) tells us, “the wise do not delude the ignorant.” It is useless to explain something that is too subtle for the hearer to understand. Think of trying to explain the intricate structure of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony to someone who is deaf. (Yes, I know that Beethoven was deaf.) But a music student can appreciate what you are telling them, and as they grow in musical maturity, they will understand it on progressively deeper levels, until they begin having insights of their own.
I think perhaps this procedure of teaching by parable has the same underlying methodology. Along with techniques to develop direct experience of the transcendent, study of the parables with an enlightened teacher can shape the mind until the structure of the transcendent is enlivened in the person’s awareness.
We are almost finished with Rambam’s introduction to the first part. In the next few weeks, we will be able to move on to the actual text of the Guide, Gd willing.
**********************************************************************
Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Vayetze
“Vayetze” is translated as “and he left.” We can look at this as “and he transcended”: left the limited world of conflict and duality, moving toward Peace and Unity. After obtaining Esau’s birthright, the physical birthright of the first-born son, Jacob leaves Gerar (“circle”) for Charan, (possibly meaning “parched” but possibly meaning “purified” something which can happen through exposure to heat.) Charan is the land of his uncle Laban , “white.” His purpose is to flee Esau’s anger and to find a wife. On his way he dreams of a ladder in which angels ascend and descend.
“Circle” symbolizes “Wholeness”; “white” symbolizes “purity,” so a purified place would be a good place for someone who has been residing in Wholeness to live. Of course, Laban behaves in ways that do not seem very pure but the spirit of the land helps Jacob make the best of this.
On his way, Jacob rests and dreams of a ladder in which angels ascend and descend and dreams of Gd, beyond the ladder, telling him He will Bless him, Make him a great nation, Be with him.
Jacob names the place ”BethEl,” Gd’s House. Since Gd’s Home is Everywhere, this particular place is a door to Gd, to Wholeness, and is a taste of the land of Wholeness Jacob just left but seems never to leave.
Chabad.org quotes Maimonides as saying that the place where Jacob dreamed of the ladder and of Gd speaking to him is the same place where the Altar of the Holy Temple stood, where David and Solomon built an altar, where Abraham bound Isaac, where Noah built an altar, where Cain and Abel made offerings, where Adam made offerings and from whose earth Adam was fashioned.
This is obviously a very special place but it is not just a physical place in a particular spot on Earth: it is a place in our heart, in our soul. As Torah says, “Be still and know that I am Gd.”
We have the ability to experience Gd not only at the place of Jacob’s dream but also within our Stillness and to build the Altar of the Holy Temple within this Stillness, becoming aware of Gd, Gd’s Altar of Holiness, of Liveliness, of Blessing, of Love.
Our congregation seeks to do this. Let us continue more and more sweetly, easily, lovingly and experience the Altar in our Still, Lively, Loving, Blessed Consciousness – which is within us and everywhere.
Audio reading of Parashat Vayetze:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3481592/jewish/Vayeitzei-Audio-Recording.htm
The trope in the reading, ascending and descending tones, give the joyous feeling of ascending and descending Jacob’s ladder – the Ladder, our Ladder.
A common Kabbalistic view of the ladder is that it represents prayer, which enables us to ascend from our material world to increasingly spiritual worlds, and eventually to intimacy with Gd. This view derives particularly from the Zohar, one of the foundational texts of Kabbalah. The Zohar’s view is that the ladder represents the four worlds (Atzilut, , Beriyah, Yetzira, Asiyah) ranging from the most unmanifest, most heavenly, to the most manifest, most physical.
Prayer is the means through which we ascend to come close to Gd, to join with Gd, Who stands above the worlds, Who is One, within which all multiplicity exists as expressions. These four worlds – and a fifth, Adam Kadmon, more subtle still, are mentioned in Isaiah, 43:7, and are considered to exist within the Ein Sof (The Endless), Gd beyond description.
Asiyah is the physical world, the world of action, our familiar world.
Higher and subtler than this is Yetzirah, the world of formation, then Beriyah, the world of creation.
Still higher is Atzilut, the world of intimacy.
• Lurianic Kabbalah precedes Atzilut with Adam Kadmon, (The Primordial), which includes all potential creation in latent form.
How is prayer the means to ascend this ladder and to go beyond the veils with which Ein Sof pretends to hide itself? One fundamental kabbalistic view of prayer, according to livingwisdom.kabbalah.com, is given in Genesis when Gd gives Adam the power to name all beasts and fowls and thus to become master of the power of words and master of the world the words describe.
The prayers in our siddur, the prayers of our services, are primarily praises of Gd, expressions of gratitude through which we use words to increasingly appreciate Gd in subtler and subtler, more and more complete ways and thus ascend the ladder to be One with Gd, “standing above.”
We can use these prayers today and every day, and also our own innocent, heartfelt prayers to climb the Ladder and return to Oneness.
Let’s continue doing this.
Baruch HaShem