Parashat BeHa’alot’cha 5786 – 06/06/2026
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 8:1-12:16
Rambam now continues his discourse on the structure of creation:
Thus even on this hypothesis, our ordering of the universe in which we counted the spheres of the fixed stars as one sphere – just as we have counted the five spheres of the planets, in spite of the multiplicity of their spheres, as one sphere – would not be disarranged. For, as you have understood, our purpose is to count all the forces that we have apprehended in a general way in that which exists without troubling to give a precise account of the true reality of the intellects and the spheres.
The first order of business was to establish the number of spheres and their contents. These are five: (1) The transcendental realm, higher than the highest heaven, which is Gd’s abode; (2) the sphere of the fixed stars; (3) the sphere of the planets [we discussed how all 5 of the classical planets were above the sun and fit into one sphere]; (4) the sphere of the sun and (5) the sphere of the moon. The earth is at the center of this system, and is the realm of what Rambam calls “generation and corruption” – that is birth and growth and death and decay. This is a layered, or hierarchical structure, and we recognize the similarity to our modern model of creation, with its layered structure of objects, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, etc. Now Rambam will go on to explain the relationship between the layers.
For the whole intended purpose is to show that the existents that are below the Creator, may He be exalted, are divided into three parts: one of them being constituted by the separate intellects; the second, by the bodies of the spheres, which bodies are substrata to permanent forms in such a way that a form subsisting in them does not go over from one substratum to another and that a substratum is immutable in its essence; and the third, by the bodies subject to generation and corruption, which have one matter in common.
The “separate intellects” are the angels, the celestial being to whom Gd delegates the operation of specific parts of creation. We have discussed this in previous essays, and Rambam will discuss it in more detail further on. The spheres are the substrate for forms that are unchanging – that is, the heavens and the heavenly bodies are, in this view, eternal. This of course contrasts with our modern view, in which the stars and planets are quite mutable and governed by the same laws of physics (although often driven to extreme limits by the extreme cold, or density of the environment). In other words, we believe now that the same laws of nature govern the entire universe, and the heavenly bodies may be different in magnitude, but not in type, from terrestrial objects. The lowest level is the terrestrial level where objects are created and destroyed – this is the world of change, of boundaries, which we inhabit.
Rambam now goes on to consider the connection between these levels:
It is further to show that governance overflows from the deity, may He be exalted, to the intellects according to their rank, that from the benefits received by the intellects, good things and lights overflow to the bodies of the spheres, and that from the spheres – because of the greatness of the benefits they have received from their principles – forces and good things overflow to this body subject to generation and corruption.
So not only do we have a hierarchical structure, but one in which the “higher” levels control the lower levels. This control (“governance”) is through the flow downward of goodness and benefits from the highest layers to the lower ones. At the top of course is Gd, Who is infinite goodness and infinite energy, and this energy and intelligence structures the levels below. The levels below that are fed from overflow from the levels above. Rambam elaborates:
In effect a thing that is perfect in some kind of perfection sometimes possesses this perfection within such limits that it perfects the thing itself; perfection does not, however, pass over from it to something else. Sometimes its perfection is within such limits that a residue of perfection is left over from it for something else. It is as if you said, by way of example, that there is an individual who has wealth sufficing only for his own necessities, no residue being left over from it from which someone else might receive a benefit; and that there is another individual who has enough wealth for a residue to be left over from it sufficient for the enrichment of many people, so that this one may give a measure of it to another individual through which this second would also become rich, while a residue is left over from it that suffices for the enrichment of a third individual. The case of being is similar. For the overflow coming from Him, may He be exalted, for the bringing into being of separate intellects overflows likewise from these intellects, so that one of them brings another one into being and this continues up to the Active Intellect. With the latter, the bringing into being of separate intellects comes to an end.
I’d like to wrap this up by comparing Rambam’s description with that of Vedic Science. We look at the world as if it were outside ourselves, and we see a layered structure, as we have discussed numerous times. Our own mind has a layered structure, which we experience when we transcend during TM from the surface level of thought, through finer levels, to the transcendent level of Pure Consciousness. The evolution of a thought begins as an impulse of Pure Consciousness and becomes progressively more concrete as it moves towards the surface of the mind. On the objective side we see a similar kind of structure. At the boundary between Pure Consciousness and its expressions are the fine fluctuations of the most refined values of the laws of nature. These fluctuations also become progressively more ramified and highly structured, forming concrete objects.
In all these cases we have not so much a flow of “goodness” or “perfection,” but a process by which the fluctuations of Pure Consciousness form larger and more complex structures. We have an example from Unified Field theory. At the simplest level, the vibrations of the Unified Field appear to us as individual particles. On another level, the “particles” interact with one another and form systems. These systems are nothing other than more complex patterns of vibration of the same Unified Field. The interaction between the particles is really an interaction of the Unified Field with itself. Thus, the protons, neutrons and electrons interact to make atoms, the atoms make molecules, and so on. Rather than a “flow downward,” this is more like a “build upward.”
The subtext here, however, is that all “creation” is actually virtual vibration within Pure Consciousness. This contrasts with the general tendency in the West to externalize Gd, as we have discussed. Of course, from the limited, human perspective, Gd is outside us and we are part of creation. From the perspective of Unity Consciousness, I believe the picture is not so simple. We are in Gd, as Gd is everything (ayn od milvado), but insofar as our mind and personality and perception are all expanded to infinity, we can, as it were, say that Gd is in us as well.
Finally, we have discussed the layered structure of creation, and argued that far from being separated in any physical way, all the “layers” interpenetrate and are merely different levels of understanding of one phenomenon – creation itself. Nature is one unified whole, and there is no real difference between atoms and molecules. The whole of creation is one pattern of vibration of the Unified Field, or Pure Consciousness. Creation moves and evolves as a whole, all the pieces acting and interacting together. Gd is One, creation is one. Division, duality are only in our imagination.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Beha’alot’cha
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 “Behaalotecha” is not just “light” or “kindle” but “when you step up, cause to ascend.” In one sense, the High Priest had to step up to light the menorah – so, too, we need to rise to light our awareness so we can perceive the Menorah that is One with Gd, within us and everywhere. In another sense, for the High Priest and for us, when we rise, we just warm 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.
May we all experience today and always the Light of Gd, of One, fully lit within ourselves, fully lit within our neighbors and all creation!
We are the Light and the Love!
Baruch HaShem