Parashat BeHa’alotcha 5782 — 06/18/2022
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 8:1-12:16
I want to go a bit more deeply into the concept of closeness and distance that we began last week. The plain meaning is of course closeness or distance in space. The earth is close to the sun, astronomically speaking, a medium distance if we consider the solar system by itself, and is very far from the sun by terrestrial standards. We know from Relativity theory that space is part of a larger entity, space-time, and that space-time is curved by matter, sometimes to the point that a piece of space-time gets pinched right out of existence (black hole). According to many candidate unified field theories, space and time are actually generated from some larger-dimensional space, and there is presumably some measure of distance (i.e. closeness or separation) in this higher-dimensional space.
We also saw that in our human experience there are other dimensions of closeness or distance. There is emotional closeness or distance, and there can be intellectual closeness or distance – great minds think alike. These other dimensions, being subjective, may not have a numerical value associated with any two states, but we can tell, subjectively when we are close or far apart. Our most important dimension of closeness is the spiritual – how close are we to Gd? What brings us closer to Gd and what drives us farther away? Rambam writes:
You must, however, hold fast to the doctrinal principle (lit. root) that there is no difference whether an individual is at the center of the earth, or, supposing that this were possible, in the highest part of the ninth heavenly sphere. For he is not farther off from Gd in the one case and no nearer to Him in the other. For nearness to Him, may He be exalted, consists in apprehending Him; and remoteness from Him is the lot of him who does not know Him. And there are very many gradations in being near to or far away from Him in this respect. … Sometimes the word [RAR: touch] is intended to signify the approach of one body to another, and sometimes union through the cognition and apprehension of a certain thing. For one who apprehends a thing that he did not apprehend before has, as it were, approached a thing that previously had been remote from him. Understand this.
Rambam makes clear that closeness to Gd is not a spatial event. I believe that when he speaks of a person’s being in the highest heaven, he is talking about an actual place, rather than a spiritual place – this is why he contrasts it with the center of the earth. Gd is not in the heavens in a spatial sense. However, even if we do take the highest heavens and the center of the earth as very exalted and very lowly spiritual states respectively, Rambam’s statement can still be understood by remembering that Gd, being infinite and unbounded, is as remote from the spiritually adept as He is from the spiritually obtuse. This is not to argue that ignorance is bliss, by the way! This is because no matter what our definition of place or distance is, it does not relate to Gd in the least. As our Rabbis put it, Gd is the Place of the world, the world is not the place of Gd.
Now I would like to consider the concept of being “close” to Gd from another perspective. We say in Vedic science that Pure Consciousness, by its nature as consciousness, has a virtual duality (subject-object duality) within its nature. Pure Consciousness taking the role of the Observer is the subjective pole, while Pure Consciousness taking the role of Observed (object of observation) is the objective pole. Subjectivity we know to be unbounded – we experience Pure Consciousness on the level of our individual subjectivity, and Pure Consciousness is unbounded. Objectivity has to do with objects, and objects are bounded. Maharishi describes this virtual polarity as the collapse of “A” to “K,” as we have discussed, and the Kabbalists call it tzimtzum, contraction. Gd, as it were, “contracts Himself” to “make room” for creation.
From Gd’s perspective, all this is a description (and probably an incomplete one) of His own internal dynamics. Nothing in creation is separate from Gd, and there is no question of anything in creation moving closer or farther away from Gd. As we said earlier, the concept of space, no matter how abstract, has no application to Gd.
From the perspective of creation, however, there is room to talk about separation. It is only from the point of view of creation that we have to think of Gd’s contracting himself, because in this view creation is indeed separate from Gd. Since we perceive ourselves as separate from Gd and Gd is something outside ourselves, we can perceive a “distance” or a “closeness” from Gd. This distance or closeness is a measure of the relationship we have with Gd, and that is governed by our level of spiritual development / purity of our nervous system.
This is, in fact, the whole story of creation. Once Gd has an incipient creation, it grows and ramifies and individuates. As the individuality gets stronger, “distance” from Gd increases, like a stubborn toddler who still runs back to his mother eventually matures into a rebellious teenager who stays alone in his room brooding, and then a mature adult, able to live independently on his own. Then the adult has children of his own and the circle is completed.
Creation, from the point of view of created beings, works the same. As we individuate, we become more and more bounded, more different from unbounded Gd. As we continue to grow, our boundaries expand, until, first on the level of the mind, then on the level of perception, we become unbounded again, as close to Gd as a created being can be.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Beha’alot’echa
Gd commands Moses to tell Aaron, the High Priest, when he lights the seven lamps (of the menorah) he should light them turning toward the face, the middle lamp.
Symbolism of Light: It’s easy to see that this light of the menorah symbolizes the Light of Gd, which is not separate from Gd, but Gd’s Nature. The lamps symbolize not only the Light of Gd but also all the other uncountable and inseparable attributes of Gd; for example, Love, Joy, Compassion, Justice, Purity, Totality, Perfection.
Lighting the lamps in the Temple symbolizes lighting the lights inside our own temple — our own personality and physiology.
Symbolism of seven lamps: This can be the seven more concrete qualities given to the Sephirot, qualities of Gd; can be the qualities of the seven traditional planets; can be seven days of Creation, many sevens.
Can also be, in essence, revealing the Many within the One: though Gd is One, Gd has detail, infinite detail, and seven just gives a sense of the Infinity that is Gd. And of the seventh, the Day of Rest, the Light of Rest, that contains all the others within it and integrates them.
Symbolism of lighting toward the face of the menorah: Rashi comments that this is the middle lamp, the central lamp, not on a branch of the menorah but part of the central column. The symbolism can be that we always need to turn diversity toward the Center that Unifies.
Symbolism of raising the lights: The literal translation of “Beha’a lot’echa” is not just “light” or “kindle” but “cause to ascend.” The idea is that one just warms the wick enough so it rises by itself. Symbolically, we move with devotion toward
Love of Gd, Love of our neighbor, Love of our Self, and just a small move brings a large result—the Light of Gd, of One, Lights us up.
Symbolism of single piece: The Menorah was made of a single piece of gold symbolizing that All is One, though it appears as many.
Symbolism of gold: Gold symbolizes purity: Many in Fairfield tell of experiencing their consciousness as Golden Light.
May we all experience today and always the Light of Gd, of One, fully lit within ourself, fully lit within our neighbors and all creation!
We are the Light and the Love!
Baruch HaShem