Parashat Chayei Sarah 5785 – 11/23/2024
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.
Bereshit 23:1-25:18
In chapter I:70 Rambam returns to his linguistic analysis:
To ride [rachob]. This word is equivocal. The first instance in which it is used means man’s riding in the usual manner on beasts: He was riding upon his she-ass [Num 22:22]. Afterwards it is used figuratively to designate domination over a thing, for a rider dominates over and rules that which he rides. Thus the dictum: He made him ride on the heights of the earth [Deut 32:13]; I will make thee to ride upon the heights of the earth [Isa. 58:14] – meaning that you shall dominate the heights of the earth; I will make Ephraim ride [Hos 10:11] – that is I shall make him dominate and rule. In this sense it is said of Gd, may He be exalted: The rider of the heavens is helping you [Deut 33:26]; the interpretation of which is: He who dominates the heavens. Similarly: The rider in the aravot [Ps 68:5]; meaning: He who dominates the highest heaven encompassing the universe.
Rambam, as is his wont, takes a verb that has a quite prosaic meaning, finds the expanded, figurative meaning, and applies that meaning to Gd. In our case, the plain meaning is to ride, as on an animal, while the figurative meaning is to dominate, and I might add, to control.
What is of more interest is that Gd rides on aravot, which is the highest of the seven heavens in Rabbinic thought. The translator notes that “the usual meaning of aravot is “desert” or “plains.” Rambam writes:
The textual words of the Sages, may their memory be blessed, which are repeated in every relevant passage [Chagigah 12b], assert that there are seven heavens and that aravot is the highest encompassing the universe. Do not think it blameworthy that according to their reckoning there were seven heavens, whereas there are more than that [RAR: According to medieval astronomy/theology]. … What is intended here is to call attention to the fact that they constantly indicate that aravot is the highest part of the universe. … Thus it is clear that the term refers solely to one heaven: that which encompasses the universe.
It appears that the structure Rambam is envisaging is this. Bear in mind that Rambam flourished between the time of Ptolemy and Copernicus, Kepler and Newton. The Ptolemaic system of cosmology had the earth at the center of a set of concentric spheres, all rotating at different speeds, and with the heavenly bodies embedded in them. In some cases, to make the system agree with observations, especially the retrograde motion of the planets during parts of their cycles, the system added so-called epicycles, or smaller spheres that were embedded in the main spheres. The Ptolemaic system lasted for a very long time because it was extremely accurate in matching observations, to the precision with which we were able to measure. With the invention of the telescope we were able to measure more accurately, and eventually were able to develop a simpler, more elegant, and more accurate cosmology based on a universal law – Newton’s law of gravity. (For those who know their history, yes, Copernicus lived about 100 years before the telescope. He presumably developed his heliocentric system on theoretical grounds.) We will return to this point.
It is very easy to see how such a notion could arise. It is everyone’s common experience that the heavens seem to be a great dome above the earth, populated by the stars and planets, the sun and the moon. From the observation that some objects (e.g. sun, moon, planets) seemed to move faster than others (e.g. stars), it was easy to posit that some spheres were closer to earth and others were farther away. Hence, the heavens are visualized as concentric spheres, nesting one within the other, with the earth at the center and Gd “riding” and controlling the entire universe from “atop” the highest sphere, the aravot.
Now, as we have pointed out on several occasions, creation is structured in layers. On the level of physics, we have the surface layer of different objects. These objects are made of molecules, which are made of atoms, which are made of subatomic particles, which themselves are levels of excitation of various underlying fields. These fields are unified in a hierarchical fashion, and at the basis, we believe (the details haven’t all been worked out yet), is one Unified Field.
When we say that the universe is structured in layers, this does not mean that the layers are in different places, or even that they refer to different objects. Molecules are not different from atoms. They are made of atoms, and it is useful to consider them on their own levels, but ultimately, they are just two different descriptions of the same reality. The same can be said for all the other “layers” of creation, down to the Unified Field. There is just one creation, and the “layers” are something that exists in our consciousness, as we attempt to view this one, unified creation from different angles.
The smaller, “more fundamental” layers correspond to higher energy – there is more energy in splitting an atom than in splitting a molecule. The energy of 20,000 tons of TNT (chemical energy, molecular level) is equal to the energy of approximately one gram (1/28 th ounce) of matter that was converted to energy in a nuclear explosion (atomic energy). Similarly, it takes higher energies to probe the smaller layers – huge particle accelerators are needed to produce the high-energy particles that are used to “see” into the deep structure of the nucleus. It may be that we need the energy of the cosmos to probe the level of the Unified Field. This is why cosmology and particle physics are so intimately intertwined in modern physics.
What does this say about the heavens? We look up in the sky and think that is the heavens, but I think that is just an analogy for the reality that all the gross, earthly, and celestial, spiritual “levels” of creation, interpenetrate each other at all places and at all times. Rather than being concentric circles, the outer ones driving the inner ones. There are levels of creation that are subtler than the physical, and these layers also interpenetrate. We experience this when we do TM – the mind settles down through the different layers of thought – all of which are in the same “place,” in our mind!
Rambam tells us that Gd “rides” on the highest heaven – meaning that Gd is the Prime Mover, who moves the highest heaven (i.e. the subtlest level of creation) which then moves the grosser/lower levels, down to the earthly / material level. But as we have seen, this whole “levels” thing is just our way of thinking about creation. In reality, all the levels (all the “heavens” and earth) are one creation, and Gd permeates it all. Gd created the universe and directs it on every level, because there is only one universe.
As always, this analysis is mine, and I make no representation that it is what Rambam “really meant.” It does, however, get around an objection to the position that Gd rides on the highest heaven – if the heavens are separate in some way, does that mean that Gd can only influence the other layers of creation from the first, highest (subtlest) layer. I doubt Rambam would endorse that way of thinking. However, we will, Gd willing, continue with his exposition next week.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Chayai Sara
After Sarah passes, with Gd’s Presence in her as it was and in Abraham, Abraham sends his servant, Eliezer, to look for a spouse for his son, Isaac.
What qualities would we want in a servant who we send to an unfamiliar world to select a spouse for our beloved child?
What strategy would the servant use to select exactly the right spouse?
Eliezer’s name means “Help of my Gd”: Eliezer is servant of Gd first, Abraham second.
This is the perfect quality we want in a servant: the servant will act according to Gd’s Will and our desire will be fulfilled in alignment with Gd’s Will.
Abraham, therefore, trusts not only Eliezer’s loyalty but his competence—his competence on zeroing in on the right bride and his judgment in making sure she really is the right one.
Eliezer’s strategy is not to stay within his limited ability but to ask Gd for guidance. As he approaches a well in the country to which he is sent he prays in his heart that Gd will bring a woman to the well who will offer to give him not only a drink from her pitcher that he asks for but also that she will offer to provide water for his camels also, even without his asking. Eliezar values generosity as a sign of love and appropriateness.
Before he even finishes this prayer, a woman appears who fulfills his request.
This a sign of considerable purity in Eliezer and also in the woman, who is Rebekah and who becomes Isaac’s wife.
Rebekah leads Eliezer to her family and Eliezer explains his mission: to find a bride for his master Abraham’s son, Isaac.
“Will you marry him?” his family asks.
“Yes, I will,” Rebekah replies, a sign not only of generosity but of her own judgment that Eliezer is connecting her with the love that Gd intends for her, a marriage that will enable her to be not only a good and happy wife, but a good servant of Gd.
“Will you leave tomorrow?” Eliezer asks.
“Yes, I will,” Rebekah replies, a sign of trust.
And when Rebekah meets Isaac, they love each other and Isaac is comforted for the loss of his mother, proof that Eliezer was a good and competent servant, one who fulfilled his master’s wishes, one to whom Gd responds even before the wish of his heart is completely stated.
In our lives we do our best “to love Gd with all our heart and soul” and “to love our neighbor as our self” so that we are good servants of Gd and, therefore, also of ourselves, our families, our communities and also we are trusting recipients of Gd’s messages and increasingly can act as Gd’s messengers and servants.
We do our best to be trustworthy, competent, loving, generous and to welcome in the Shekinah, Gd’s Presence, Gd’s Bride. We do this not only on Shabbat but every moment so that, more and more, Gd’s Presence lives in us. And we seek to restore ourselves and to be restored to the Oneness, within which the duality of Gd and us exists. This is the marriage of the self to the Self and the marriage of the Self to the Self. This is Eliezer finding Rebekah as a bride for Isaac.
Not only the meaning of this parshah helps us in this delightful activity but even more fundamentally, the sound.
Here is Rabbi Michael Slavin, from the Chabad Brooklyn central synagogue, where the Lubavitcher Rebbe presided, reading “Chayei Sara”:
Chayei Sarah Audio Recording