Parshiyyot Behar-Bechukotai 5785 – 05/24/2025
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.
BeHar: Vayikra 25:1-26:2
Bechukotai: Vayikra 26:3-27:34
Rambam’s third point of difference between an individual human (microcosm) and the structure of the universe (macrocosm):
The third point is this. The rational faculty is a faculty subsisting in a body and is not separable from it, whereas Gd, may He be exalted, is not a faculty subsisting in the body of the world, but is separate from all parts of the world. For the governance and the providence of Him, may He be exalted, accompany the world as a whole in such a way that the manner and true reality of this accompaniment are hidden from us; the faculties of human beings are inadequate to understand this. On the one hand, there is a demonstration of His separateness, may He be exalted, from the world and of His being free from it; and on the other hand, there is a demonstration that the influence of His governance and providence in every part of the world, however small and contemptible, exists, May He whose perfection has dazzled us be glorified!
The first two differences between the structure of the world vis-à-vis Gd, and the structure of the individual vis-à-vis its “governing principle.” The first difference is that the relationship between the individual and its “governing principle” is that the relationship is mostly peer-to-peer – both sides give and both sides receive. Gd, however, is a 100% giver – Gd is full, Wholeness, Self-sufficient and completely fulfilled. There is nothing that any of Gd’s creatures can give Gd. Even our moral choices, which are what we can give to Gd, are only possible because of Gd’s having given us the power to choose freely.
The second difference is that in the case of the individual, the heart is inside, protected, and the other limbs stand outside and offer protection (think heart and rib cage, or brain and skull). Gd, on the other hand, stands “outside” as it were and protects His creatures. This appears to me to be an example of Gd’s Giving nature, while we, His creatures are on the receiving end of Gd’s overflowing goodness. So, these two points seem to be parallel to one another.
In the third point, I think the difference is more profound. Rambam differentiates between a person’s rational faculty, and Gd in His role as the governing principle of creation. The principle difference is in the dimension of whether the governing principle is essential to the governed. In the case of an individual, the rational faculty governs our life, but it is not our essence, according to Rambam. It resides in the body, “and is not separable from it.” In other words, the rational faculty in each one of us is a part of our personality, part of our individual existence.
This is completely different from Gd. Gd is at once transcendent (“His separateness… from the world”) and immanent (“the influence of His governance and providence in every part of the world…”). This is a conundrum that has bedeviled philosophers for millennia, and we have discussed it in different words already. If humans have free will, how can Gd know everything? The conclusion that we came to there, and which I believe we are forced to come to here as well, is that the question only has validity from a state of consciousness where individualities exist separate from universality. In such a case we can view the situation as if the universal wholeness, Gd, is actually separate from the individuals in creation, since we see that Gd acts in the world and interacts with those individual creatures. On the other hand, Gd is unbounded and eternal, beyond space and time, and beyond the whole realm of action.
From the perspective of Unity Consciousness however, the question doesn’t even get started. Wholeness is all that there is – the transcendent, once perceived as silent and detached, is now seen as frothing with virtual, internal activity – which is what we, with limited awareness, perceive as creation. Gd, in His capacity as transcendent wholeness is ever-silent, but in His capacity as containing and creating world within His own nature, is ever-dynamic and ever-present in those creations – how could He be otherwise, since those creations exist within Him! From one point of view the question is insoluble, from the other, it doesn’t even arise.
With that we will bring to a close our discussion of this very long chapter (I:72 for those of you keeping score). We have touched upon some of the major issues surrounding the structure of creation as the Greeks and their later followers understood it, and how Maharishi’s knowledge can deepen our understanding of this structure, and perhaps point to ways of reconciling the Greek view with modern science as well.
Rambam’s next chapter is an even longer chapter, devoted to a discussion of one of the great systems of Islamic philosophy, the kalām. Before we dive into that however, I want to take a break and write about Shavuot, which begins the Monday night after next Shabbat, Shabbat BaMidbar, the beginning of the Book of Numbers.
Chazak, Chazak v’Nitchazeik!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Behar-BeChukotai
The main thing that we can learn from these parshiyyot is to schedule regular periods of rest into our lives and schedule deeper, longer rest also regularly: just as we are to rest every seventh day and the land is to rest every seventh year and all are to be freed in the 50th year.
“Behar” means “on the mountain,” literally, Mt. Sinai; symbolically, that highest level of our awareness when we are able to hear Gd and to express Gd’s Will in our everyday actions
Also, since Rabbinic tradition derives “Sinai” from “sin-ah,” “hatred,” a reference to the hatred of other nations for the Jews who received the Word of Gd, we might see Mt. Sinai as being the mountain of Wholeness which is hated by those who know only pieces. But Wholeness doesn’t mind just as a parent doesn’t mind the anger of a child.
Contacting the Mountain of Wholeness within us through rest, loosens the restrictions that veil Wholeness, opens our awareness to fuller happiness and ability and dissolves fear and hatred. The Sabbath and the Sabbatical Year are examples of means to gain this rest and to gain the experience that brings trust and releases doubt and fear.
But even on days other than the Sabbath, we begin the day with prayers, afternoon prayers and evening prayers as we conclude our day. These prayers and other spiritual practices we may do provide rest that opens us more to Wholeness.
Ideally, our continued prayers, activity, and Sabbaths become integrated and we experience a continuous state of lively rest that pervades every moment of our day: we become perfectly attuned with Gd and are restored to Full Awareness, that Gd is One, that our individual personalities are roles that Gd plays, and we are One with the One, we are All in All, the One and Only “I.”
In Behar, Gd declares that land belongs to Gd and cannot be sold permanently. And just as every 7th day, we must rest from work, so also every seventh year, the land must rest. In truth, everything belongs to Gd including our energy, our thoughts, our body and all these must rest, not only during sleep but also during days, hours and moments when we take a break from our projects. I’ve seen it commonly advised to take a break from the computer for 10 seconds every ten minutes and 10 minutes every hour.
In this parshah, Gd tells Moses about the Sabbatical year: every seventh year, no work is to be done on a field and the produce is free for anyone to take: human or animal.
Lev 25: 21. Gd says that in the sixth year, He will bless the land so that it produces enough for three years, and, thus have not only enough for the sixth year, but for the seventh and the eighth also.
Symbolically, the Sabbatical can mean that when we are fully attuned to Gd, our work is easy, and the benefits of it do not feel hard-earned but like Gifts from Gd, Gifts that we can share freely, KNOWING that Gd is our Shepherd, we shall not want. So the Sabbath is not only every seventh year, or day, but the all-time reality of our life; each moment Gd is giving us rest, each moment is bearing fruit for itself and for the future.
And the seventh Sabbatical, the 49th year, all work ceases, all indentured servants are set free.
Just as the land belongs to Gd, so does everyone and everything, including servants.
Symbolically, this can mean that the restrictions we place on the freedom of our thoughts and feelings to flow into action–restrictions that come from, for example, from our choice of professions, daily routines, residence – the restrictions are released and we can live life freely in the confidence that Gd is Blessing us. Revealing Gd as our thoughts and feelings, renewing our lives.
Interestingly, when we look at the cortex of the brain, the grey matter, we see it has six layers and below the cortex is white matter. We can look at this as a concrete basis, symbolizing the six days in which Gd created/revealed the separation between Heaven (the subtle) and Earth (the gross); the seventh is the day of rest. Similarly, in terms of years, and in terms of seven times seven years—each group of six is a subtler level of the cortex and of the affairs of the physiology and of our lives governed by that level; each seventh is, similarly, a transcendence within the layer to a more restful level of functioning.
So Torah is built into our physiology, our physiology is built of Torah, and by attuning ourself to Torah, tune every aspect of our personality to Gd and Gd’s Creation – we become capable of loving Gd with “all our heart, all our soul, all our might” and we become capable of loving not only “our neighbor as our self” but also all of Gd’s Creation – land, crops, animals, mountains.
Torah and the various aspects of Rabbinical Guidance (Talmud and Siddurs, for example) and our healthy life style create the routines and intuition that can return us to full knowledge of the Oneness that is Gd Pure Love, capable of Loving Itself and our neighbor, all Creation, as our Self.
“Bechukotai” means “By my decrees”: Gd declares that when we follow Gd’s Decrees, all will be well. Rain will fall, harvests will be abundant, we will be at peace, victorious over enemies, fertile (“productive”), and be aware of Gd’s Presence. The opposite will happen if we do not follow Gd’s Decrees.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman, author of Tanya, dedicated to unifying the ritualistic ways of the Vilna Gaon, with the Joyful ways of the Bal Shem Tov, comments that “Bechukotai” comes from the word “chok,” which means “engraved” and so we need to follow Gd’s decrees to such a deep and natural extent that we do not even to have to think about doing right – the decrees are engraved in our soul and we automatically follow them.
Signs of this engraving are experiences of expanded awareness, increased contentment, spontaneity, Love and Joy, more support for our projects, less resistance, more compassion, patience, ability to find solutions to problems, decreased problems.
My experience with members of our congregation is that everyone radiates great Joy, sharing it through every action, becoming more and more aware and Aware of Gd’s Presence every moment and experiencing every moment the softening of the duality of Gd and us, the unceasing experience of Oneness.
More and more, we are living on the mountain and we are instruments of Gd’s Decrees.
Life is definitely worth living!
Baruch HaShem