Parashat Bamidbar 5785 – 05/31/2025
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.
Bamidbar 1:1-4:20
I generally steer a wide berth around politics in these essays. My political views, in essence, are very simple: we need large groups practicing TM and the TM-Sidhi program together, and the various political differences we have will start to resolve themselves. We have good theoretical reason to believe that this is true, and we have some evidence that it is, in practice, true. Some of this evidence has been published in peer-reviewed journals. The theoretical structure that supports this assertion is this. During the TM program we contact the Unified Field of Consciousness, the underlying source of energy and intelligence that sustains evolution in the universe. This field exists everywhere, at all times, and it is stimulated by the human mind’s settling down and coming into conscious contact with it. The techniques of the TM-Sidhi program take this stimulation deeper, and if a large group of people are practicing together, there is a synergistic effect that greatly multiplies that stimulation, and creates a powerful effect of coherence throughout creation. Disharmony decreases automatically with this increase in coherence, and society becomes “kinder and gentler.”
On the empirical side, this framework has been vindicated in a number of landmark studies. The first, in the early 1980’s in Israel, found that the quality of life increased and the level of violence and terrorism decreased as the number of TM-Sidhi practitioners increased, and vice versa. A study in Washington, DC, in the 1990’s showed that crime rate decreased during the period over the summer when the number of TM-practitioners exceeded a critical number. Finally, a large study covering the entire US analyzed various negative trends in society (crime, traffic accidents, etc.) in the period before 2007, when the average number of practitioners was below a critical threshold of 2000, during the period 2007-2011, when the threshold was exceeded, and after 2011, when the numbers had dropped off. The results were that the negative trends, which were all trending upward in the pre-trial period, turned around and decreased during the trial period, and resumed their upward course in the post-trial period. The “trial” was impromptu – the numbers were analyzed after the fact; we gladly would have kept the numbers above 2000 had we been able to, but we were not.
Now I want to get on to the politics, specifically Israeli politics. One of the major issues roiling the country is drafting Hareidi men into the IDF. With Israel fighting enemies on several fronts, the need for additional manpower is pressing. The IDF is a citizens’ army, built to fight short wars, so all the reservists can get back to their farms and businesses and families. This war has been going on for 19 months, especially against Hamas, but also against Hezbollah, against the Houthis, and at its root, against Iran. This has been a great strain on the economy and on civil society. Unfortunately, the Hareidim have been adamant in insisting that they will not shoulder their share of the burden. They claim that they are so busy with Torah study, and it is actually Torah study that keeps Israel safe. Of course the secular segment of society doesn’t believe that this is anything more than self-serving malingering. This argument is creating the same kind of disunity that led to Hamas’ invasion in the first place.
Now despite my tone, I actually agree with the Hareidim on a theoretical level. As we discussed at the opening of this essay, large groups of people contacting the universal Pure Consciousness creates a tremendous wave of coherence in the world and in society. This protects the society from negative influences coming from outside, creating a kind of shield around the nation (rashtri kavach or national shield in Sanskrit), a spiritual dome corresponding to the physical iron dome. The argument that the Hareidim make is that prayer and study of Torah creates this “spiritual dome” over the country. The idea is that the job of the Jewish people is to connect creation and Gd, aligning the activity of creation with Gd’s Will. When humanity, led by the Jewish people, is doing Gd’s Will, Gd showers blessings on humanity and nature. So the Hareidi argument is that their contribution to the state and to the Jewish people is their intense Torah study and prayer which protect us from our enemies and guarantee our prosperity. They contribute to the spiritual economy, and in return, expect to be supported by the material economy.
In the early days of the state, when the Jewish population was two million and there were perhaps 500 yeshiva students who wanted a deferment for Torah study, this was not a problem. Nowadays there are some 50,000 yeshiva students, a 100-fold increase, but the total Jewish population has only increased 3- or 4-fold. Now, supporting all those students and their families has become a burden even in peacetime. During this war, the strain has increased many times. This strain has caused people to look more closely into the “economics” of the deal. Has the Hareidi community really enhanced either economic productivity or national security? I think a telling incident may answer the question. During a time of particularly heavy rocketing a young yeshiva boy asked his Rebbe, a great and renowned leader of the community, if he should seek safety back in the US, where he was from. He was told not to leave the yeshiva, that the Torah study and prayer would be enough to keep the rockets away. He did not say that the rockets would stay away from the rest of Israel.
We have discussed that the “real” Torah, the Heavenly Torah, which was projected down to our earthly plane to guide our behavior, exists on the transcendental level of life, from which Moshe Rabbeinu was able to cognize it. It follows that “real” Torah study involves preparing our mind to cognize Torah on its own level, which is the same transcendental level that we experience in our consciousness when we meditate or do the TM-Sidhi program. This is not to disparage or minimize the value of intellectual study of the Torah we have. It likely does provide some refinement of the intellect and expansion of consciousness. But even 50,000 yeshiva students, assuming all are assiduously studying and praying, don’t seem to be able to produce the same documented effects that 2000 or 4000 TM-Sidhi participants produced.
What would end the wars, create peaceful societies living together in peace, promote all the economies of the region, and turn the world back into the Garden of Eden, would be to have those 50,000 yeshiva students practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi program twice daily, along with their other studies. That would improve their learning and their praying, and bring the Messianic Era that much closer.
Back to Rambam next week Gd willing.
Chag Shavu’ot Same’ach!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat BaMidbar (In the Desert, the Wilderness)
The desert/wilderness symbolizes both barrenness and transcendence. Depending on our level of awareness we perceive it either as the opportunity of transcendence or the sorrow of barrenness. Fortunately, even the sorrow is temporary because the relation between Gd and Israel, Gd and human, Wholeness and expression, is such that Gd more and more deeply unfolds the opportunities within the seeming barrenness, eventually revealing to each individual that even within the barrenness there is Gd and Gd Is all there is, each individual is an expression.
We have a saying, “Gd helps those who help themselves,” not selfishly but as members of a community dedicated to service of Gd, Full Restoration of Awareness. For those experiencing bamidbar as transcendence helping our selves means acting with Love to bring the Transcendent Self into the everyday life of our self and our community.
For those who are experiencing bamidbar as sorrow, acting to create joy in that sorrow, fertility in the barrenness, is the way to reduce the sorrow and reveal the Transcendent within it.
We have another saying “Gd is in the details” meaning: “Don’t just look at the Transcendent as an Abstractness but see the liveliness within it; see it vibrating; hear it singing.” And also meaning “Look more carefully, more lovingly, into the barrenness and find opportunities for growth and happiness.”
When we don’t just pray to Gd for help but act from our own side to fulfill our desires then Gd is more and more revealed as the Source of our desires and our actions and not only is our immediate desire fulfilled but the purpose of all life is fulfilled: the return to experience the Oneness which we Are and which expresses Itself within Itself as Infinite Detail, Infinitely Harmonized.”
In this parshah, Gd commands a census—revealing the details of the population of the Children of Israel – at least, of the males of military age – and revealing the detailed opportunity to serve.
We also say, “You count!” People can get the sad feeling that they don’t matter: they’re just one person in a crowd. With a census it becomes clear that everyone counts, matters. We also say, “Stand up and be counted!”: stand up for what you believe in. The census requires everyone to stand up and acknowledge they are not just individuals, they are part of the Children of Israel, the Community of the World, dedicated not just to their individuality but to Gd.
When Gd gives details or asks for details, Gd is showing us something of the Details of Gd, of the All-in-All. Gd is Showing us that Gd Is not just an abstract mass of Fullness, Gd has a Structure, just as do our bodies, our communities, our nations, planet, Universe. In the census that took place in Bamidbar, I could not think of any way the number “603,550” – the number of males of military age, excluding the Levites that were counted – connects to the Nature of Gd and I found only one source on the Internet that addresses the issue.
The source looks at the census from the point of view of Gematria, a traditional way of interpreting Torah from the standpoint of the symbolism intuited from comparing one word to another through the use of the numerical value that each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has.
The author looks at the earlier census Gd commanded and to this one, finds the number 1820 is significant in terms of one aspect of the difference between the censuses, and finds that this number is significant in terms of some of the Names of Gd and also the nature of Creation, of Amen, of the Messiah.
I mention this source, because from the standpoint that Gd is in the details, the author is attempting to attend to the detail of the census, to find meaning in it, and since every aspect of Torah is useful in our life, paying attention to its detail is an action that helps reveal to us the Nature of Gd as All-in-All, One that is All-in-All.
The parshah also describes the separate roles of the three Levite clans and also the spatial orientation of the different tribes in the encampment: Levites, including Moses, Aaron and Aaron’s sons, in the inner circle, the twelve tribes around that in the groups of three tribes for each direction.
Here we have a possible symbolism of Gd not just in terms of numbers but also in terms of space: not that Gd is limited to space that we can perceive with our senses but that Gd is Wholeness with a structure that we can perceive more and more as through our actions we attend to the details of Torah and of our lives as members of families, communities, planet, universe.
We have in Torah: “Gd created Man (Humanity) in His own Image” Genesis 1:27.
Torah is the Liveliness of Gd, One with Gd, and so to look at its structure and meaning helps us to find the way, the ways, in which we are Images of Gd, and to gradually find that we are not merely Images of Gd, but expressions of Gd. We find that Gd fully Acts through us.
Let us continue standing up to be counted, to act in the Service of Gd so that we can continue growing together and Fully Remember and Experience our Oneness.
Baruch HaShem