Parashat Yitro 5784 — 02/03/2024
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.
Shemot 18:1-20:23
Rambam now examines the relationship between our knowledge of Gd and Gd’s reaction to us and to our activity:
His request regarding the knowledge of [Gd’s] attributes is conveyed in his saying: Show me now Thy ways, that I may know Thee, and so on. [Ex. 33:13]. Consider the wondrous notions contained in this dictum. For his saying, Show me now Thy ways, that I may know Thee, indicates that Gd, may He be exalted, is known through His attributive qualifications; for when he would know the ways, he would know Him. Furthermore his saying, That I may find grace in Thy sight, indicates that he who knows Gd finds grace in His sight and not he who merely fasts and prays, but everyone who has knowledge of Him. Accordingly those who know Him are those who are favored by Him and permitted to come near Him, whereas those who do not know Him are objects of His wrath and are kept far away from Him. For His favor and wrath, His nearness and remoteness, correspond to the extent of a man’s knowledge or ignorance.
We have speculated, based on Vedic Science, that knowledge of Gd’s “ways” means knowledge of the laws of nature by which Gd runs the world. Now these laws of nature are the faintest virtual fluctuations within Gd’s own nature – the angels perhaps, which were created first – the finest expression of Gd’s unknowable essence. This knowledge is not simply intellectual knowledge; rather it is the experience of these fluctuations within the perceiver’s (Moses’ in this case) consciousness when it has settled down to its least excited state.
What does this have to do with Gd’s favor or Gd’s wrath? Here is my guess. When our consciousness settles down and experienced Pure Consciousness, it is experiencing that basic level of creation from which all the laws of nature emerge. As we have discussed, with repeated experience of Pure Consciousness, the mind and physiology become trained to maintain the experience of Pure Consciousness within activity. That means that in seed form, all the laws of nature are present in our consciousness at all times, even if we don’t have them in the focus of our awareness at all times. But they are there as the background of all our activity.
Now in truth, Pure Consciousness is at the basis of our awareness all the time, even if we are blissfully (or not so blissfully) unaware of its presence. The reason that we are unaware of its presence is that we have stress/impurity in our nervous system, or in religious terms, sins staining our soul (the two are, I believe, correlates of one another) that distorts our awareness, creates static in our system as it were, that covers up and obscures the delicate structure of Pure Consciousness, and all we are left with are Pure Consciousness’s cruder manifestations.
An important point is this: all our actions are based on the level of our consciousness. If our consciousness is distorted by stress/sin, then our activity is distorted and creates more stress/sin. Activity which is not in accord with the laws of nature, according to Vedic Science, is activity that is a strain on the individual and creates stress and strain in society, and even in the cosmos. Again, I think we can translate this into religious terms, action that is opposed to the laws of nature is action that is opposed to Gd’s Will. Gd created the world for good, and when human action goes against the laws of nature that Gd set up to implement that good, that action will be opposed to the laws of nature and to Gd’s Will. Conversely, action that is in accord with the laws of nature produces only good effects at every level of creation.
If our awareness is continually open to Pure Consciousness then our action, which stems from our level of awareness, is spontaneously in accord with the laws of nature. Sin, or contrary action, is not possible, even if we don’t consciously calculate all the myriad ramifications of action – a task which would not be possible in any case. Rather, since our awareness was merged with the source of all the laws of nature, our actions, arising from that level and proceeding to the level of actual action with no distortion, would spontaneously take into account all the laws of nature that guide the entire universe.
Think about driving a car. You know the rules of the road, and you know how your car reacts in different conditions, and you are aware of the traffic around you and you even have a sense of what other drivers are likely to do. None of this information is in your conscious awareness, yet your actions in driving the car are based on all this subliminal information. In the same basic way, but on a much larger scale, all our actions are calculated based on the level to which all the laws of nature are subliminally available to us, and when we have eliminated all the stress from our nervous system, that level is 100%, and our actions are life supporting for all creation.
Now we see how the level of natural law that one lives is correlated with Gd’s favor or otherwise. If we act in accord with all the laws of nature then we produce a completely harmonious effect in the environment with the result that our own life proceeds in an easy and blissful manner. This, in religious terms, is “finding favor in Gd’s eyes.” On the other hand, if stress is distorting the application of natural law in our behavior, then our actions are based on partial values of the laws of nature and may produce locally pleasing results, but only at the expense of harming some other part of the universe. Such actions cause stress and strain for both the individual and the community, and this strain appears as suffering. It appears as if Gd is punishing us for our wrong actions, but these “punishments” are simply a natural reaction that tries to reduce the level of strain by correcting the behavior. As our Rabbis tell us, Gd’s reactions to us are measure for measure according to the quality of the action.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Yitro
Yitro, the name of Moses’ father-in-law, means “abundance, plenty.” Supremely Abundant and Plentiful is Gd so this parshah’s name suggests that even as human beings we can rise to the level of Oneness with Gd, the level of Oneness in which the duality between Gd and us exists as a play, some fun in which Gd plays the role of us and guides us in the fun of earning to play better and better with Gd, the Supreme Player so that we are restored the Awareness that Gd is All, plying the roles of us and all the details of Life.
Yitro was priest of the Midianites – Midian was a son of Abraham and Keturah and his name is commonly translated as “strife, contention.” What kind of parents would give their son such a name? Just as “Yisroel” (Israel) is usually translated as “wrestled with Gd” or “prevailed over Gd” yet it is better to translate it as “embraced Gd,” “united with Gd” so it is better to translate “Midian” as “evaluate, judge, play.”
This meaning is especially apt because in this parshah Yitro, hearing the news of Gd’s triumph over Egypt (Mitzrayim, “Restrictions”) evaluates this victory, declares that the Gd of Israel is Supreme, and begins to worship Gd and also apt because, using his evaluating ability, he recommends to Moses that he not act as judge in all cases brought to him but that he appoint a hierarchy of judges who can evaluate the less complicated cases and only those which require the full attention of Moses’ Consciousness, need be brought to him. Then Moses, when a case is brought to him can fully “make known Gd’s statutes and teachings”.
This sets up the central portion of Torah, the Divine Situation in which Gd Himself makes known His Primary Teachings and not only Moses but all our ancestors get a view of Gd and hear His Voice.
This Blessing is something Gd has prepared Moses for but the other Children of Israel Gd has not yet fully prepared and so they are frightened and say to Moses (paraphrasing) “You listen to Gd and tell us what Gd says; if we hear Gd directly, we will die”.
They say this after Gd appears to them as Fire, and they hear Gd’s Voice as Gd gives out the fundamental principles of our faith (actually, of any moral life) what are commonly called the “Ten Commandments” but which literally mean “the ten words” or “the ten sayings”. And, though they are guides to Holy Living, they are most importantly descriptions of qualities of Fully Enlightened people.
Moses responds” “Fear not for Gd has come to exalt you in order that Gd’s Awe shall be on your faces and you shall not sin.”
Nonetheless, the people remain away from the mountain, as Gd commanded, while Moses approaches Gd and Gd tells Moses what further to say to the people.
Since the purpose of life is to return to the Primordial Oneness in which the separation between individual and Gd does not exist, we must find some way that we can experience Gd without being afraid and then to dissolve the separation – to not stand in the way when Gd dissolves the separation – between us.
The Ten Commandments/Sayings can be looked at as descriptions of how we live when we are in harmony with Gd and when Oneness dominates in our awareness; they can also be looked at as guides to behavior so that we rise to the level in which the Harmony is Full and the separation dissolves, both from our side and from Gd’s.
This is the level when we are always aware that all our behavior is fully an expression of Oneness and even though we appear to each other’s senses as limited individuals, with limited physiologies, in reality we are Totality, All-in-All, Oneness behaving as finite individuals while remaining All.
Just our simple, innocent, decent lives raise us in this direction, return us little by little and in a way, a lot by a lot, to Love, Joy, Wholeness, Oneness.
Our parents, family, friends, teachers, prayer books (siddurs), Torah, words of the wise (Kabbalah), weekly services, special holidays all add extra delight, comfort and speed to this Restoration.
Let’s continue!
Baruch HaShem