Rosh haShanah / Parashat HaAzinu 5785 – 10/05/2024
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.
Devarim 32:1-52
Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, peaceful year of enlightenment.
L’Shanah Tovah uM’tukah
We’re going into a short work-week with a “3-day holiday” (two days of Rosh haShanah on Thursday and Friday, followed by Shabbat), so I will keep this entry brief, I hope. Incidentally, I might point out that the second day of Rosh haShanah has nothing to do with the Diaspora – Rosh haShanah is two days in the land of Israel as well as everywhere else in the world. The reason for this is as follows. Rosh haShanah is the only festival that falls on the first of the month. For centuries, the first of the month was determined by the appearance of the New Mood, and witnesses’ coming to testify to that even at the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Depending on whether the witnesses arrived in time, the New Moon might be declared on the 30th day from the previous first of the month (i.e. Elul has 29 days) or the 31st day (Elul has 30 days). Therefore, out of doubt, both days were observed even when the Temple stood in Jerusalem. The second day of the other holidays (“2nd day of the Diaspora) was an accommodation to the fact that actual runners had to go out to all the communities of the Diaspora to tell them when the Sanhedrin had declared the New Moon. Since some communities couldn’t be reached in time, the custom arose to observe two days of the other holidays. Now that we have a fixed calendar, Elul is always 29 days, and the other months are fixed (except for Cheshvan and Kislev, and there are formulae to determine if those two months are 29 or 30 days). We retain the old customs so that we don’t forget our history and our connection with our Land and with nature.
Now on to Rambam. When we left off we had learned that the intellect in actu is identical with the intellectually cognized object, which is the pure form of that object, and I speculated that this “pure form” of the object stands at the boundary of Pure Consciousness and manifestation – it is the very faintest vibration of Pure Consciousness within itself that provides a distinction between one thing and another (and therefore gives the intellect something to work with).
You should not then think that the intellect in actu is a certain thing existing by itself apart from apprehension and that apprehension is something else subsisting in that intellect. For the very being and true reality of the intellect is apprehension. … Accordingly that which has been assumed to be an intellect in actu has nothing belonging to it except the form of the piece of wood. Accordingly it is clear that whenever intellect exists in actu, it is identical with the intellectually cognized thing. And it has become clear that the act of every intellect, which act consists in its being intellectually cognizing, is identical with the essence of that intellect. Consequently the intellect, the intellectually cognizing subject, and the intellectually cognized object are always one and the same thing in the case of everything that is cognized in actu.
As I pointed out, this identity of intellect, subject and object seems to be a model of what Maharishi calls the samhita of rishi (subject), devata (intellect) and chhandas (object) which forms the fundamental virtual structure within Pure Consciousness that gives rise to the perception of creation. It is the tension between these three elements that creates an “infinite frequency vibration” within Pure Consciousness that then ramifies into lower frequencies (the “pure forms”?) and thence into manifest creation. Of course, in this view manifest creation is really just the virtual internal dynamics of the unmanifest Pure Consciousness.
Rambam goes on to discuss the other type of intellectual cognition, potential cognition (cognition in potentia):
If, however, potential cognition is assumed, they – that is, the intellect in potentia and the potentially cognizable object – are necessarily two things. It is as if you said the hylic intellect subsisting in Zayd is a potential intellect, and similarly this piece of wood is in potentia an intellectually cognized object. Indubitably these are two things. When thereupon the intellect becomes actual and the form of the piece of wood is realized as intellectually cognized, then the intellectually cognized form is identical with the intellect – that very intellect, which is an intellect in actu, being the one by means of which the form was abstracted and intellectually cognized. For everything that has an existing act exists in actu. Thus every intellect in potentia and potentially cognizable objects are two things. Moreover, everything that is in potentia must undoubtedly have a substratum supporting this potentiality, such a substratum as, for instance, man. Thus there are three things: the man who supports that potentiality and who is the intellectually cognizing subject in potentia; the potentiality that is the intellect in potentia; and the thing apt to be intellectually cognized, which is the potentially cognizable object.
Just as Rambam posits an identity between subject, intellect and object when we are dealing in actu, so he posits a distinction between the three when dealing in potentia. Now this makes good sense – when the intellect is only in potentia it has not yet made a connection with the object, which also remains in its potentially cognizable state. It is only in the transition between a potential cognition and an actual one that the link is actually forged.
Now this seems a bit backwards, but I think it’s just a matter of perspective. I think we can look at it like this: when we’re talking about the samhita of rishi, devata, and chhandas we are starting with the transcendent Pure Consciousness and describing the mechanics by which the One becomes Many. When Rambam is talking about the intellect’s joining of subject and object into a single, unified whole, he is describing the process by which the Many become One – in other words he is looking at the process of re-integration of the creation so that it more perfectly reflects the unbounded pure consciousness from which it arose. This is the whole process of creation and redemption – the One becomes Many (Adam gets thrown out of the Garden of Eden; Jacob and his family go down to Egypt from the Land of Israel), then the Many gets reintegrated into the One (Gd takes Israel out of Egypt and back to the Land of Israel; Mashiach will get us all “back to the Garden”). Every quest story has the same plot. It appears to be a universal archetype, structured on the most basic level of creation.
I promised to make this brief and I’ve already gone beyond brief, so I think I will wrap this up either next week or the week after. May we all have a fantastic year in 5785 – a year of growth and enlightenment, peace and prosperity, health and happiness. L’shanah tovah!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat HaAzinu
“Ha’azinu” means “Listen”: not just “hear” but “listen, listen with full attention.”
As he speaks to our ancestors (and to us), Moses calls upon Heaven and Earth to listen. Not only Heaven and Earth outside us, but within us.
He praises Gd and rebukes Israel from turning away from Gd. Moses concludes by telling our ancestors (and all generations) to set our heart to his words so that we may command our children to obey Torah. Better than this is to live so Torah is alive in us and our words and lives will be so alive we need not command our children to obey Torah – they will Live in our Universal Love, in Torah and will naturally be and act in harmony with Torah.
The central message in Moses’s song is that there is no god besides Gd.
Gd Says, “See now that it is I! (who Am your Rock and Your Shelter). I Am the One and there is no god like Me.” See now that I, I am the One, and there is no god with Me; I kill and give life, I struck down and I will heal, and none can save from My Hand.” Deuteronomy 32:39
As we realize this, we realize the implications of Gd’s Being One: not only is there no god besides Gd, there is nothing but Gd and all that exists is an expression of Gd, within Gd. Everything is Gd from the Universe, to galaxies, stars, planets, mountains, trees, people, ants, stones and quantum bubbles; all actions, thoughts, feelings, decisions, memories and plans.
And so, when Gd praises or rebukes, Gd is Praising or Rebuking Gd; Gd is playing a game in which Gd is the Director, Screenwriter, Actors, Camera Crew, Audience and Reviewers. Gd is the virtuous and the villains.
Gd is all thoughts and all decisions, all actions and all roles.
But, that said, we can’t spend our lives constantly thinking “Gd is All, Gd is my thought, I have nothing to do with anything…” and so on.
We have free will to act naturally, spontaneously, just being the people we are, with the personalities and skills we have, yet always favoring what we know to be right, letting our heart always fill with love for Gd and our neighbor.
Torah as Divine Sounds and Glowing Streams in our consciousness: Torah as meaning, literal and symbolic; Torah in the vast range of commentaries on it; Torah in our feelings, thoughts and conversations, help us to develop a firm sense of right and wrong, help us to act with wisdom, and to better and better return to our Source – Gd.
Gd Hides, playing the roles of every limited value: humans, galaxies, ants, stones, quantum strings; Gd Guides the seeking to return for all roles and Reveals Gd to the roles as Gd Chooses.
So not only at the time of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur but every moment always, let us do the greatest kindness, the greatest love, to ourselves and our neighbors and attune ourselves to Torah, to Gd: naturally, spontaneously comfortably, easily but steadily, consistently, routinely, uniting more and more with Universal Love and Joy, the One and Only “I”: Gd.
Baruch HaShem