Parashat Ekev 5785 – 08/16/2025
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.
Devarim 7:12-11:25
Rambam continues his exposition with the 9th premise of the Kalām:
It consists in their assertion that accidents do not serve as a substratum for one another. According to them, it may not be said that one accident has as its substratum another, which latter has as its substratum a substance. In their opinion all accidents, in the first place and in the same way, have substance as a substratum. They avoid the opposing doctrine because it has as its necessary consequence that an ultimate accident may not subsist in a substance unless a primary accident precedes it in subsisting in it. They do not wish to admit this in the case of certain accidents, desiring to create the possibility that certain accidents may subsist in any substance that they may happen to encounter without any need for another accident previously providing the substance with a proprium. This is in accordance with their view that all accidents provide a proprium. Furthermore, from another angle it may be seen that the substratum to which an accident may attach itself has to be stable and has to endure for a certain time. However, as an accident, according to them, does not last for two units of time – I mean for two instants – how can it be possible according to this hypothesis that it should serve as a substratum for something other than itself?
I think in management-speak this is called “flattening the org chart.” Instead of having multiple layers, those layers are reduced to a very few. I think the idea is to spread responsibility and ownership of the enterprise throughout the workforce. Of course, in our case, what we have flattened out is the layered structure of reality. Accidents are what distinguish one thing from another – since the atoms are all the same in terms of their substance, the only thing that can distinguish them is their accidents, which are features that are, as it were, painted on top of the substance. Since each of the accidents is independent of all the others in this view, the accidents at any one place are simply the sum total of all the accidents. Remembering that the negation of an accident is also an accident, we see that there can be an infinite number of accidents piled on every single atom of substance in creation.
This concept that the whole is equal to the sum of the parts is very different from the kind of systems we’ve been describing, where the parts of a system interact with one another. Systems where the parts interact are called “non-linear,” while those where there is no interaction are called “linear” systems. Without interaction, the pieces of a linear system pass each other like ships in the night. In fact, if the parts don’t interact with one another, it’s a bit hard to call it a “system” at all; it’s just a collection of objects that act completely independently of one another.
In fact, we find that the whole concept of “accidents” that superimpose on a single type of substance, is very much at odds with what we have discovered about the structure of physical creation. There is, indeed, one underlying substance, the Unified Field, but it does not have accidents applied on top of it. Instead, it is self-interacting, and these self-interactions give rise to the various forms and phenomena that we see around us. In other words, what used to be seen as accidents, is now seen as the structures that arise from the interactions between the components of each system, and ultimately, from the self-interaction of the Unified Field. (I would remind everyone at this point that the details of the Unified Field have not been fully worked out, and there are many areas of puzzlement.)
Now Rambam indicates that the motivation behind this premise is that the accidents cannot last for more than one unit of time – “forcing” Gd to recreate the universe at each unit of time. The point of view from the Unified Field is quite different. The Unified Field exists, and its virtual, internal dynamics are beyond space and time. The universe as we see it, along with space and time, emerge out of the Unified Field, and since this dynamic nature of the Unified Field is itself eternally ongoing, it means that universes are continually being created and evolving and, presumably being destroyed, at every moment of eternity. If this is hard to get our minds around, it’s not surprising. We – our bodies – exist in space and time, and our perceptions are all space- and time-bound, and it is difficult to get beyond that framework.
The Mutakallimūn tried to address Gd’s Omnipotence and complete freedom of action in the way we have described. With the development of physics, and the widespread dissemination of the knowledge of consciousness that we have from Maharishi, we can give a subtler understanding of Gd’s infinite creativity. The real challenge before us, however, is to raise our consciousness to the point when our understanding becomes full and total, and it is a lived reality, rather than just an intellectual construct.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Eikev
Eikev” means “Because.” This parshah begins with Moses saying “..Because you will heed these ordinances and keep them and perform, then the Ld, your Gd, will keep for you the covenant that Gd swore to your forefathers” – chabad.org “
This includes Blessing, Loving, Protecting, Preventing illness, Providing manna in the wilderness so that all will know that ”…man does not live by bread alone, but rather by, whatever comes forth from the mouth of the Ld does man live.” (Deuteronomy, 8:3, chabad.org translation).
Since everything comes forth from the mouth of Gd – all the diversity and stages of Creation were and are continually created from Gd’s words – this statement needs interpretation.
A good way to look at this is that Gd wants us to humbly open ourselves to the Wholeness that is Gd and not to be lost in fragments like material bread.
This principle allows us to experience and act on all the commandments Gd has given in Torah – not just the Ten, but all 613.
Trying to obey them from the limited level of our individualities, would be hard and, currently, impossible since some of the commandments depend on the existence of the Temple. And yet Moses speaks Gd’s word to us in this parshah: obey and be blessed. disobey and be cursed.
Through humility, however, we open our heart to Wholeness, to all the streams, letters, words, stories, commandments that perpetually reside in Wholeness, Gd, One. We go beyond the limited interpretation of Gd’s Words and experience Gd within Them: we are not limited to the Bread of Gd’s Mouth but Experience the Wholeness within which each limited value of Gd Exists.
Moses says (Deuteronomy 11:22) “For if you keep all these Commandments which I command you, to do it, to love the Lord, your Gd, to walk in all Gd’s Ways, and to cleave to Gd…”
“…then all be well, the Ld will drive out the nations before you and the land shall be yours.”
Putting Gd first, loving Gd, we are guided by Gd’s Love to walk in Gd’s Ways and our life is a life in harmony with Gd.
This harmony grows when we humbly prepare ourselves each day with whatever of Torah we can, whether it is letter or spirit, and innocently do our best to live a good life, a holy life, being practical, but not letting our concept of practical be limited to our own material needs, rather letting it serve the purpose of loving Gd, loving Wholeness, not being lost in detail, being charmed by detail only to the point that it serves the growth of Love of Gd, of Wholeness, in our life, and spreads it to all lives.
In this way the appropriate commandments and the appropriate obedience occurs to us as they are needed in a joyful, effortless way so that our lives become a blessing and Gd’s Blessings come to us and through us to all around us.
In our congregation, we do seem to be humble, joyful, loving, blessed so we seem to be substantially following Gd’s commandments as Moses presented them in time 3500 years ago and, as on the deep level of Wholeness, Moses is still presenting them to us, and Gd is still Blessing us and Giving us the simplicity to love, be Loved and to be restored to the Awareness that there is nothing but Wholeness, Gd, One, and we are This One, playing the game of hide-and-seek, playing the roles of our individualities and of all individualities, including each of the 613 Commandments, all nations, all souls.
Baruch HaShem