Parashat Pinchas 5786 – 07/04/2026
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.
Bamidbar 25:10-30:1
Rambam concludes his discussion by applying the concept of “overflow” to Gd (and secondarily to the angels):
The meaning of all this is that these actions are the action of one who is not a body. And it is His action that is called overflow. This term, I mean “overflow,” is sometimes also applied in Hebrew to Gd, may He be exalted, with a view to likening Him to an overflowing spring of water, as we have mentioned. For nothing is more fitting as a simile to the action of one that is separate from matter than this expression, I mean “overflow.” For we are not capable of finding the true reality of a term that would correspond to the true reality of the notion. For the mental representation of the action of one who is separate from matter is very difficult, in a way similar to the difficulty of the mental representation of the existence of one who is separate from matter. For just as the imagination cannot represent to itself an existent other than a body or a force in a body, the imagination cannot represent to itself an action taking place otherwise than through the immediate contact of an agent or at a certain distance and from one particular direction.
So, the necessity of the concept of overflow is due to the difficulty of explaining the way that something which is not a body (i.e. not physical) affects bodies. This makes good sense. Bodies are physical, forms, intellects; angels, Gd are spiritual, and generally, never the twain shall meet. This is actually not that hard to understand. In our everyday experience, consider the sense of sight. When I see an object, photons hit the object, go into my eye, impact the cells in my retina, which causes electrical impulses to go to my brain by the optic nerve, where there are additional structures that further process those electrical impulses, until, magically, a mental image of the object appears in our consciousness. By the same token, if I want to do something, it starts out as a purely mental construct, and then magically gets transduced into electrical impulses that go from brain to muscles, making our bodies move and interact with other objects in the material world.
So, from the point of view that the material world and the spiritual world are two separate things, we have a conundrum, which we kind of paper over by calling it an “overflow” from the spiritual to the material. However, Vedic Science gives us a different way of approaching this issue. We have seen that in the physical realm, the different “layers” of existence (e.g. subatomic, nuclear, atomic, molecular) are not really distinct layers of matter, separated in space and/or time, but are actually just different levels of explanation of one unified phenomenon that we call creation. The smaller the elements of the layer, the higher the energy it takes to explore them, but they interpenetrate one another in reality. Therefore, it is probably incorrect to think of a flow of energy or intelligence from one level to another in a purely physical sense. If we think of creation as a pattern of vibration of the Unified Field, then the “levels” really disappear, and what we used to call “levels” are really just the degree of detail with which we want to investigate those vibratory patterns.
What I have just written is more or less the Unity Consciousness perspective, where wholeness, the Unified Field, is all that there is and creation is just the internal, virtual self-expression of that wholeness. If we step down a bit, and consider Pure Consciousness as something separate from relative creation, then indeed we need to see how the infinite energy and intelligence of the absolute, silent Pure Consciousness “flows” into the active, relative creation. For this, the idea of overflow may be useful. From the point of view of physics, it is not clear (to me at least) what this overflow might be.
From the point of view of consciousness, we experience in meditation that our mind contacts Pure Consciousness, and when we come out, some of that infinite energy and intelligence has become infused into our individual mind. Our thoughts come from our consciousness, so to the extent that our consciousness is filled with the infinite energy and intelligence of Pure Consciousness, to that extent our thoughts, and ultimately our actions, will display energy and intelligence, and impart them into the material world through our actions. One can see how a description of this process looks like cascading “overflows” from one level to the next.
Rambam describes how this description of overflow contrasts with a simpler, but more material description of the way Gd interacts with the world:
Accordingly when it was established as true among some belonging to the multitude that the deity is not a body or that He does not draw near to that which He does, they imagined that He gives commands to the angels and that they accomplish the actions in question through immediate contact and the drawing near of one body to another, as we do with regard to what we act upon. They also imagined that the angels were bodies. Some of them believe that He, may He be exalted, gives a command to a particular thing by means of speech similar to our speech – I mean through the instrumentality of letters and sounds – and that in consequence that thing is affected. All this follows imagination, which is also in true reality the evil impulse. For every deficiency of reason or character is due to the action of the imagination or consequent upon its action.
In other words, “overflow” is an antidote to a description of action that requires direct contact, in the same way that in physics fields are a subtler description of the influence of one object on another over some distance, with no actual contact necessary. We have discussed the development of the idea of fields in previous entries, but in brief, something that started out as a simple mathematical trick was eventually found to be able to carry energy and momentum, and eventually turned out to be the whole of physical creation (Unified Field).
R. Sacks once described the basic problem of both Greek philosophy and Jewish philosophy as the gulf between a transcendent Gd and a finite creation. How can the two interact? In (approximately) his words: The philosopher looks at the world and asks, How can there be a Gd? The Jew experiences Gd and asks, How can there be a world? Rambam uses the concept of overflow to answer these questions, to connect the transcendent with the creation. But I think the question only arises when we see Gd and creation as separate. In Unity Consciousness, the question doesn’t even get started.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Pinchas
The most upbeat and relevant meaning of “Pinchas” is “oracle,” one who can see the choices we need to make in order for the future to be good and the choices to avoid in order to prevent harm. There are other meanings given to it and an extensive discussion about whether the word is Egyptian or Hebrew in origin but since Pinchas acted as an oracle in this parshah, this seems the most appropriate.
Israel, including Pinchas, was a bit slow in this parshah – it wasn’t until a plague was caused due to many Israelites being beguiled by prostitutes that Pinchas acted to slay an Israel prince and a harlot, thus ending the plague.
Gd is All: Pinchas, the oracle; Balaam, the prophet-for-hire and Moses, the servant of Gd, are all roles Gd plays. Gd plays the roles of the Children of Israel of ancient time and now—all beings, including us. Playing the roles of limited beings, God Hides and Seeks while remaining Gd. As Gd, Gd Reveals.
Gd’s Ways are Known only to Gd and hidden from we limited beings but Gd Guides our seeking, Gives us Clues. Torah, on the levels of story, symbol and sound Guides us to right actions that dissolve our limits and make us fully aware that our individual selves are roles Gd plays.
In this parshah, hardly a moment after Balaam recognizes Israel’s virtue by saying, “How goodly are thy tents, Oh Jacob, thy dwelling places, Oh, Israel,” Balaam (Gd in disguise) arranges for beautiful harlots to go among the Israel males; many are entranced and fall for their mesmerizing beauty.
Why did Gd, as Balaam, do this? We cannot know but one guess is that Gd wanted Israel not to become complacent and vain due to the blessing but wanted them to remain humble and alert, aware that they were still dependent on Gd and needed always to keep their hearts pure.
Although this parshah is named after Pinchas who stopped a plague by slaying a prince and a prostitute who openly violated the laws against adultery, the central event in this parshah is Gd fulfilling Moses’ request to appoint someone to lead B’nai Israel into the Promised Land. Gd tells Moses to lay his hands on Joshua so that some of Moses’ spirit will enter Joshua and Joshua will be able to lead the people into the physical Promised Land. According to the Gemara the elders of the generation called this a “great embarrassment”, that Joshua was like the moon whereas Moses was like the sun.
If the Gemara is correct then the question arises, “Why did Gd appoint a leader who was less than Moses? who had only part of Moses’ spirit?”
Perhaps Moses did not need to enter the Promised Land to experience Teshuvah (Full Awareness) – he already had it, being soaked in Gd’s Presence as he was.
The Children of Israel, however, including Joshua, did need to enter the Promised Land in order to be fully aware of Gd’s Presence. If all of Moses’ spirit were given to Joshua, then he also would have no need to enter the Promised Land and the people would have no leader.
What can this mean in our lives?
The Promised Land is within us even when we are acting in the (relative) desert that is the ordinary life of human beings. The qualities of our awareness that are less than full – our thoughts, our feelings, our sensory awareness – lead us to the Wholeness, the Promised Land that transcends them and pervades them.
These thoughts, feelings, sensory awarenesses are like Joshua – they allow us, through use, through practice, to experience more and more refined levels of them and eventually (Dear Gd, Please! Now!) to experience the Promised Land, the Wholeness, the Oneness in which Torah, Gd, we humans and all creation are experienced as One.
Now, please, Now!
Baruch HaShem