Parashat Vayigash 5783 — 12/31/2022
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 44:18-47:27
Rambam continues his discussion of the dangers of “beginning with the divine science” and how Torah prevents these difficulties:
Rather have they been hidden because at the outset the intellect is incapable of receiving them; only flashes of them are made to appear so that the perfect man should know them. On this account they are called secrets and mysteries of the Torah, as we shall make clear. This is the cause of the fact that the Torah speaks in the language of the sons of man, as we have made clear. This is so because it is presented in such a manner as to make it possible for the young, the women, and all the people to begin with it and to learn it. Now it is not within their power to understand these matters as they truly are. Hence they are confined to accepting tradition with regard to all sound opinions that are of such a sort that it is preferable that they should be pronounced true and with regard to all representations of this kind – and this in such a manner that the mind is led toward the existence of the objects of these opinions and representations but not toward grasping their essence as it truly is. When, however, a man grows perfect and the mysteries of the Torah are communicated to him (Chagigah 13a) either by somebody else or because he himself discovers them…
We discussed earlier the different levels on which the dictum the Torah speaks in the language of man can be understood. On one level, it can mean that not every letter of Torah, or odd grammatical construction, means anything specific or anything from which a nuance of halachah can be derived. Rather, it’s just the way the language is used in everyday life – it’s the vernacular idiom.
The deeper level of understanding of this dictum comes from Vedic Science. According to Vedic Science, all of creation is just a pattern of vibration of Pure Consciousness, the silent basis of everything both subjective and objective. Since the basis of all creation is Consciousness, and human beings are not only conscious, but able to experience Pure Consciousness directly, it should come as no surprise that human beings are capable of cognizing these fundamental fluctuations of Consciousness on the level of their own awareness. That means that in a manner like intuition (“in + tuition” = inner learning), the knowledge and perception of these fluctuations is just “there” in our awareness, without our going through some obvious thinking process to determine what they are. They are fluctuations of our own Self; they are completely intimate to us, not something objective.
The Veda is the record of these fluctuations as they manifest and ramify. But the Veda is also intelligible Sanskrit words and sentences. According to Vedic Science, the phonology, the semantics and the grammar of Vedic Sanskrit are the laws of nature that govern the manifestation of Consciousness into all its patterns of expression. The sequence of sounds that make up the Sanskrit word for any object is the underlying structure of that object. And yet, Sanskrit is a language that can be spoken by human beings and used in everyday life. So on a very deep level, nature speaks in the language of human beings.
Jewish tradition holds that what I have derived above regarding Sanskrit is true of Biblical Hebrew. How this can be true of two very different languages is for another time, but it does give us an insight into the language of human beings issue. It turns out that the language of human beings is in fact the language of nature, and Torah, at its most fundamental level, is a record of the laws of nature encoded in human speech.
Now it is clear that not everybody is walking around cognizing the most fundamental vibratory structures of Pure Consciousness – very few experience Pure Consciousness at all. What is necessary is a procedure to remove impurities from our consciousness and our bodies, so that the experience of Pure Consciousness is so well established that we can perceive the tiniest fluctuations of Pure Consciousness within itself. This procedure is the TM and TM-Sidhi programs, as we have noted many times.
However, this process of purification can take some time. As we have discussed, Maharishi’s idea of an ideal education involves learning Scripture by heart starting from a very young age, and practicing techniques for the purification and expansion of consciousness, so that the verses of Scripture are readily available to elucidate and confirm the experience of growing consciousness.
Rambam seems to be describing the earlier stages of the expansion of consciousness, where one is steeping oneself in Scripture, but has not yet been fully purified / awakened. In that case, we can only perceive the words of Scripture on the surface level of meaning. We read “Bible stories” and treat them as if they were just pretty stories. There are people who never grow out of this level of understanding of the Bible, and they reject religion altogether, especially when the codes of conduct of their religion forbid or restrict the enjoyment of various sensual pleasures. Incidentally, in traditional Jewish education, instruction in Scripture begins not with the nice stories of Genesis, but with the rather dry rules of sacrifice in Leviticus. A Rabbi once explained that if you teach a 3-year-old the stories of Genesis, then when he grows up he’ll remain with that 3-year-old understanding, and it will be harder to uproot it later in life as he gains a broader perspective.
Scripture has meaning on many, many levels, from the transcendental to the surface. The key to understanding Scripture is to begin by understanding it at whatever level of consciousness we are at, and gradually probe more and more deeply into the hidden meanings beneath the surface. As Rambam says, we can do this by taking guidance from one who has gone farther than we have and knows the path, and we can also do it by expanding our consciousness in a systematic way so that we spontaneously begin to see deeper and deeper truths in what we are reading. But we cannot try to understand Scripture totally on the level of Pure Consciousness until we have established Pure Consciousness in our awareness. This we do using the technology of consciousness that Vedic Science provides us.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Vayigash (“and he drew near”)
To whom do we wish to draw near? Most importantly, to Gd, to Wholeness, All-in-All, One without a Second, All Included, Nothing left out. People who can help us get closer are people we do our best to draw near to.
To draw near to Gd, we would like to be healthy and happy and we would like to have those who are dear us to healthy and happy, too. If we are happy and they are suffering we want to draw them near to us. In this parshah, Joseph plays tricks on his brothers in order to get his whole suffering family to draw near to him and, more importantly, to Gd.
Previously, the famine in Canaan caused Jacob to send ten of his sons to Mitzrayim (Egypt) to draw near the food supply Mitzrayim had stored up during years of abundance. Mitzrayim had stored up food because Joseph correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams about seven sickly cows swallowing seven healthy ones and seven shriveled heads of wheat swallowing seven healthy ones. Joseph’s interpretation was that seven good years of abundant food would be followed by seven years of famine. He suggested to Pharaoh, the ruler of Mitzrayim, that he store up food during the abundant years so they will have enough during the famine years. Pharaoh was wise enough to recognize that Joseph was divinely inspired and made Joseph viceroy of Mitzrayim, second only to Pharaoh and de facto ruler of Mitzrayim.
When Joseph’s ten brothers draw near Joseph played tricks on them in order to get his youngest brother, Benjamin, and his father Jacob also to draw near so the whole family would be re-united as a family not as a collection of individuals lost in their own desires. When a family is drawn together in this way, this is a taste of the reunion of isolated streams of life so they are brought together to experience the Wholeness that is greater than any of Its expressions, a taste of the reunion of the diversity of creation with the Unity that is Gd, the Wholeness within which all individuals exist as expressions of Wholeness.
This is a taste of teshuvah, a taste of what life is like when the isolation of individuality is graced by the Wholeness of Gd and all limitations dissolve in the Unlimitedness of Gd.
One of the tricks Joseph plays is to hide a silver goblet in his brother Benjamin’s bag so he can discover it and claim that Benjamin is a thief and must serve as Joseph’s slave.
The reunion begins when Judah draws near to Joseph, appealing to him that he will serve as slave to Joseph, instead of his brother Benjamin, child of his father Jacob’s old age. Judah pleads that Benjamin is most dear to his father and his father would die if Benjamin does not return to him.
Joseph is moved by Judah’s loyalty to his father and reveals that he is their brother Joseph, saying for them not to regret their selling him into slavery because it was all ordained by Gd to save the family at time of famine.
In our own lives, we can look at our own faults and those we see in others as being ordained by Gd in order to cause us and others to let go the limited level of awareness we have and move to a greater wholeness and to Wholeness. It is a good lesson in letting go regrets and resentments and living in gratitude and forgiveness.
“Drawing near” is a means to get a taste of the reunification not only of Joseph’s family but also of all individuals with Gd. Torah gives a hint of this greater unification by sometimes calling Jacob, “Jacob” and sometimes “Israel”. “Jacob” means “heel,” spirituality clinging to the heal of materialism to infuse spirituality into materialism. “Israel” means something like “in the Splendor of Gd,” “embracing Gd,” “prevailing over Gd.” This is spirituality opening itself to the One Spirit, the Wholeness that is Gd.
When given the news that Joseph is alive and functional master of Egypt, as Jacob he is mistrustful but when he sees the wealth Joseph gave to his brothers, “his spirit is revived” and now that he believes Joseph is still alive, his trust in Gd is restored–he is called “Israel” and as Israel he sets out for Egypt, making offerings to God at Beersheba (“well of the oath”, and “well of seven”) where Abraham and Abhimelech swore an oath that recognized Abraham’s right to the well and to the land around it, giving Abraham some evidence that Gd’s promise to give him and his descendants land is being fulfilled.
When our lives are pure, then the signs that we are living in harmony with Gd’s Will become apparent to others and our right to the fruits of our labor is honored.
At the highest level, the land we want is the Land of Wholeness, One without a Second; the well we dig is out spiritual practices that open our awareness to the Inexhaustible Water that is Gd.; and the fruits of our labor are Full Restoration of our Awareness to the reality that we are One without a Second playing the roles of us and of all.
When we trust that all happens according to Gd’s Will, that everything is done with the purpose of restoring us to Oneness, then we are no longer Jacob, spirituality clinging to the heel of materiality, but Israel, raised by the perception of Wholeness as the Essence of materiality, to awareness of our own Wholeness, our own Oneness.
Gd gives Israel a vision in the night, yet he calls to him “Jacob, Jacob,” – though Gd may refer to us in our limited aspect it is to wake us up to our Unlimitedness. Gd tells him not to be afraid of going to Egypt because Gd will protect him, make him a great nation, take him into Egypt and raise him from there.
chabad.org suggests that Jacob and Israel refer to qualities of the human being: as Jacob we are innocent, but toil; but as Israel we are children of God, and enjoy the tranquil, non-toiling relationship beyond struggle.
Loyalty (“Love thy neighbor as thyself”) is a means to reunification with the Jacob aspect of ourselves, the human servant aspect. “Offering” to Gd is a means to unfold more of the Israel aspect of ourselves, the divine aspect. Through love of our neighbors/family, all beings/all diversity, we raise the toiling aspect of ourselves to the higher level of our Self– non-toiling, delighting as Children of God, delighting in the Oneness that is our Self, the Only Self, Pure Delight, Free from toil.
Today, in Judaism, we give prayers instead of animals as our offerings. Through Love we draw near and our actions and prayer become Pure reuniting us to all, as we rise to All-in-All, One without a Second,, Pure Love, Pure Joy, Pure Delight.
This is a good lesson that Torah teaches us through the story of Joseph and his family drawing near.
Baruch HaShem.