Parshiyyot Chukat-Balak 5783 — 07/01/2023
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.
Chukat: Bamidbar 19:1-22:1
Balak: Bamidbar 22:2-25:9
Rambam continues exploring the different meanings of the word nefesh.
It is also a term denoting the will. Thus: To bind his princes according to his soul (Ps 105:22 – Artscroll: To imprison his princes at his whim…), which means: through his will. Similarly: And deliver not Thou him unto the soul of his enemies (Ps 41:3 – Artscroll: You will not give him over to the desire of his foes), which means: Thou will not deliver him to their will. In my opinion this is similar to: lf it be according to your soul to bury my dead (Gen 23:8 – Avraham says this to the Hittites when he is negotiating for a burial place for Sarah), which means: if it be according to your purpose and will. And similarly: Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My soul could not be toward this people (Jer 15:1 – Artscroll: I would have no desire for these people – Rambam’s translation is quite literal), the meaning which is that I have no will toward them – that is, I do not wish that they endure.
Of course, this is almost exactly the same as Rambam wrote for the word ru’ach:
It is also a term denoting purpose and will. Thus: A fool uttereth all his air (Prov 29:11 – Artscroll: The fool vents all his anger), his purpose and will. Similarly in the verse: And the air [Artscroll: spirit] of Egypt shall be made empty within it, and I will make void the counsel thereof (Isa 19:3); it says that [Egypt’s] purposes will be divided and its governance will be hidden. Similarly also in the verse: Who hath comprehended the air of the Lrd (Artscroll: Who can appraise the spirit of Hashem), or who is familiar with His counsel that he may tell us? (Isa 40:13).
In speaking of Gd’s Will (in BeHa’alot’cha 5783) we spoke about movement and direction, since ru’ach means “wind” in its root meaning. Nefesh on the other hand refers more to breath. Although breath famously has two directions – in and out – it is still more associated with one’s essence. Thus, the Sanskrit Atman or Self, is from the root meaning air (as in Atmo-sphere), and nefesh can be used to mean “to draw breath.” Now the breath is associated with our essence, as the Talmud comments when discussing Gd’s blowing into Adam’s nostrils the “breath of life” – when one breathes out, he breathes out from his deepest essence.
This comports with Rambam’s idea that Gd’s Will is inseparable from Gd’s essence. What does this mean? Compare Gd’s Will to our will. If it is our will to do something, that involves an action, and that involves a projection of our consciousness into the world “outside.” If we want to write our name, our will, which is a mental phenomenon – something in our consciousness – has to be projected into our arm to pick up a pen and paper and move in a specific way. All of this is in the objective world, outside of our consciousness (at this point in the discussion). Our will governs our interactions between our self and our environment.
With Gd the situation is completely different. There is nothing outside of Gd. As we have discussed, all creation and all the activity in creation is the internal dynamics of the Creator – without changing, all change takes place within Gd. Therefore, Gd’s Will cannot be directed outward, because there is no outward. Gd’s Will is expressed in Gd’s own internal, virtual functioning. When our awareness rises to the level of Unity Consciousness, our perception rises to the experience and understanding of not only this fact about Gd, but that the same is true of our own Self. The flat, silent transcendent that we experience in the beginning days becomes the great wholeness that pervades all of creation, that is unchanging, unbounded, eternal and the arena where all creation takes place. At this level we have truly made our will identical with Gd’s Will, completely internally directed.
Rambam asserts that when nefesh is used in relation to Gd it always means “will”:
In all cases in which the term soul is applied to Him, may He be exalted, it has the meaning of will, as has already been set forth by us [in Chapter I:39] with regard to the dictum of Scripture: … that shall do according to that which is in My heart and in My soul (I Sam 2:35 – Artscroll: who will do as is in My heart and in My desire) – the meaning of which is: in My will and purpose. One should interpret according to this sense the verse: And His soul was grieved in the misery of Israel (Judg 10:16 – Artscroll: then His spirit could not tolerate the travail of Israel), which means that His will refrained from rendering Israel miserable.
He then goes on to point out that using the word in the sense of “soul” can lead to problems:
This verse was not translated at all by Jonathan ben Uziel, for he took it as using the term [soul] in its first sense, thought that he had met with a case of affection being ascribed to Gd, and accordingly refrained from translating [i.e. interpreting] it.
Now the first sense that Rambam quotes at the beginning of the chapter is the “animal soul,” which is that which gives a body independent movement. It seems difficult to think that Jonathan ben Uziel would have applied the term to Gd using that meaning. However, in Rabbinic parlance, the word “first” can often mean “earlier,” and not actually the very first element of a list. After “animal soul,” Rambam mentions “blood” and “rational soul” before moving on to “will.” “Blood” can’t really be applied to Gd, but “rational soul” perhaps could. The rational soul can be associated with “affections” (emotions, or responses to outside stimuli), but of course any emotion or reaction cannot be associated with Gd. In other words, the rational soul is a part of the human make up which can’t be extrapolated to Gd, whereas the will may be a part of our makeup when we speak in human terms, but is actually indistinguishable from Gd when we’re speaking in Divine terms.
Next week we’ll take up another common root: chay = “life.” L’Chayim!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Chukat – Balak
In this parshah, Miriam dies, the well that follows her dries up, the people complain, Gd tells Moses to take his rod, speak to a rock and water will come out of it, Moses instead strikes the rock. Gd denies him entrance to the Promised Land for his disobedience – there are different rabbinical theories about why Gd denies Moses entrance but Torah is very clear that Gd did deny Moses entrance.
Does that mean that Moses lost his chance for teshuvah, return to primordial Oneness?
Put it another way: when Moses is denied entry to the physical land of Canaan, Eretz Israel, does that mean he’s also denied entrance to the spiritual Promised Land, the land of fully developed awareness?
No, this Land he can enter. And, perhaps, since he has been a conduit for Gd to speak through him, he is already in this Land. He struck the rock because Gd guided him to strike the rock, even though Gd told him to speak to the rock.
Let us see what we can find in Torah and in this parshah that supports this view, not only for Moses but for every generation, including our own and all future generations.
1. “Be Thou holy”:
Gd many times said, “Be thou Holy, for I Am Holy” (for example, Leviticus 11:44) and has given many directions that suggest how this can be done; for example, “Love the Lrd thy Gd with all thy heart, all thy might and all thy soul”. This Love is something Moses clearly has: even when he pleads with Gd to give forgiveness to wrongdoers, Moses is loving Gd with all his heart and soul, pleading for the life of people who are expressions of Gd, even though Gd is seeming to hide within them, even though they seem to be unaware that they are the Whole hidden in Its Expressions. “Loving Gd” is something that clearly doesn’t depend on entering the physical Promised Land.
2. Gd earlier in Torah (Numbers 12:8) describes Moses as someone with whom Gd speaks mouth to mouth, clearly, not in riddles.
What will make the physical Promised Land a spiritual place will be the ease with which people can perceive Gd’s Presence in it: since Moses is already in Gd’s Presence (and serves as the physical body through whom Gd’s Voice speaks to the people) Moses is already living in the spiritual Promised Land even though he cannot enter the physical Promised Land.
3. Going beyond duality.
Teshuvah, return to Oneness, requires going beyond the struggle between opposites; for example, requires seeing that Gd is within Egypt (“Mitzrayim”, restrictions), within the wilderness/desert (barrenness/Transcendent Fullness) and within the Promised Land (“Canaan?, synchronicity, Wholeness with its details, freedom along with restrictions).
In serving Gd, anyone, not just Moses, can experience this Awareness that Gd is All-in-All, Wholeness containing duality and multiplicity.
4. Perceiving Gd in All.
Experiencing that All is One requires perceiving Gd in All. When Gd denies Moses entrance into the physical Promised Land, He is forcing Moses to experience freedom within restrictions: to accept the restriction of not entering the physical Promised Land and to find freedom within that restriction. Gd is the Restrictor and the Restriction: The Restriction is Filled with Gd’s Presence. Gd is setting up the condition in which Gd as Gd begins to reveal Himself fully to Gd, playing the role of Moses; Gd begins to reveal Himself as Unlimited, and His Moses role begins no longer to be lost in weeping over loss, exulting over gain, but begins to perceive himself as the Wholeness that flows in Streams of Loss and Gain, of Weeping and Exulting.
The same thing happens to us: Gd hides within each of us, playing the role of the limited people that we are and Gd may sometimes give us restrictions that force our limited self to surrender, open to Gd within our self, as Gd–always Gd, always Whole, always One–begins to soften the limits and to reveal that we are what we always are: One!
This Revelation becomes clearer, deeper, longer lasting, through our innocent desire and actions to serve Gd, to do God’s Will, as we know it from family traditions, religious traditions, spiritual practices, Torah on the surface, Torah in the Transcendent and our intuition.
Parshat Balak
In this parshah, we are reminded that Gd is always Protecting us, Blessing us: by doing our best to follow Gd’s Will, this Protection and Blessing becomes clearer and more livable in our daily life. Balaam, though requested by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel could only speak what Gd gave him to speak and that was blessings for Israel. Although Balaam was forced to give a blessing, he would have been happier to curse and tried to find ways to do so.
From our side we can be armored in purity and receive and give only Blessings by behaving like Moses who served Gd with all his heart and soul in leading Israel to high spiritual consciousness and to the physical Promised Land,
Or we can behave like Balaam, always holding something back so we can make a personal profit if at all possible. According to Jewish legend, Balaam was made a prophet so that the non-Jewish nations could not say, “If we only had our own prophet, like Moses, we could also have served Gd
From another view, Balaam played the role of Balaam in order to have the fun of playing a high role with selfish aspects, then removing the prophet status so Gd could have the fun of living as a person who had to find a way to live with substantially diminished perception and skill.
Balaam lost his status as a prophet after his advice to Balak to set up the conditions of harlotry and idolatry that would tempt a people too weak to resist – despite the blessing they had so recently received.
This parshah shows us that we need to be alert:
We really need to be following the straight path and we cannot forget that our good life is a gift from Gd for being good people; we cannot sharply depart from the Path of Virtue. Hardly a moment after Gd blessed Israel through words he put into the prophet Balaam’s mouth, the people are sinning with harlots from Midian and worshiping their gods – abandoning Wholeness for partiality.
Key in the blessings of this parshah are the words, “Ma Tovu ohalecha Yaakov mishkanotecha Yisroel”: “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwelling places, O Israel”. This is the prayer we recite when we enter the synagogue. And these words Gd put into Balaam’s mouth instead of the curse that Balak, king of Moab, wanted Balaam to speak.
Balak means “Destroyer”; Balak, the king of Moab, sends messengers asking Balaam (his name means “no nation”, he does not serve a nation, a whole: he is a prophet that can be hired by individuals to bless or curse) to curse Israel as they pass through Moab.
Balaam replies that he can only speak what Gd puts in his mouth to speak and try though Balak does and try though Balaam does, Gd puts only a blessing for Israel in Balaam’s mouth.
This is the comforting side of this parshah: The warning side is the sinning with harlots and worshiping their idols, actions which result in a plague and Moses ordering each of the judges in the community to slay two wrong-doers to stop the plague.
The parshah ends with Pinchas, grandson of Aaron, slaying an Israeli prince along with the harlot he took into his tent in full view of the community.
Though today we can certainly not take up a sword and slay a wrongdoer to end plagues and immorality in our community, in the world, we can do our best to live good, pure lives so that our community, our world, is blessed by Gd flowing through us and everyone feels comforted by this Blessing.
In this time when the Covid-19 pandemic is certainly plaguing our world this purity is the foundation upon which all such other things rests.
Our congregation can and is creating a world in which Gd’s Presence is becoming more visible (perhaps not in the mainstream news) but in everyday life and setting up the conditions so, as Rabbi Tuvia Bolton likes to say when ending his commentary on the weekly parshah:
“Moshiach Now!”
Baruch HaShem