Parashat Korach 5784 — 07/06/2024
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.
Bamidbar 16:1-18:32
In addition to the Tetragrammaton (lit. 4-letter name) there are 12 and 42 letter names of Gd that purport also to encapsulate Gd’s essence (i.e. they are not associated with Gd’s actions, like “the Merciful One”). Rambam discusses them now.
Furthermore, though they used a name having twelve letters, that name was in sanctity inferior to the name having four letters. In my opinion the most probable supposition is that the name that had twelve letters was not one name but two or three, the sum of the letters of which came to twelve. This name was uttered in all the cases in which the name having four letters occurred in the reading of Scripture, just as we utter today in the same cases the letters aleph and dalet. Now this name also, namely, that having twelve letters, is undoubtedly indicative of a notion more particularly pertaining to Gd than is the case with regard to what is indicated by aleph and dalet. [RAR: The name that begins with Aleph-Dalet is the Name as we actually read it in prayer. It has the connotation of mastery – literally it means “My Master” with the “Master” part being in the plural, like the “royal we,” to connote absolute mastery.]
What is the difference between the Name of 4 letters and the Name of 12 letters (OK, 8 letters)? Both purport to be names that encapsulate Gd’s Essence in some way, but of course one is more elaborated than the other, and the 42-letter name is more elaborated still. Rambam asserts that these long Names are actually a number of names all written together without spaces. This is not an absurd suggestion, as Hebrew texts in the Biblical and Talmudic period were commonly written that way. A Torah scroll does generally have spaces between the words nowadays, but they are sometimes pretty small spaces and you have to know what you’re doing to be able to read it.
Now in truth, no Name can capture Gd’s transcendental Essence, simply because the transcendent is beyond any words, or sound, or sequence of sounds. As we have discussed, the transcendent has the quality of consciousness, and therefore, being conscious, and being unified and solitary, it can only be conscious of itself. This virtual duality within the nature of the transcendent, being both Observer and Observed, sets up, in Maharishi’s words, an infinite frequency vibration between the two – since they are the same and not at all separated, whatever is vibrating between the two doesn’t have to go anywhere, so the frequency can, in fact, be infinite.
Maharishi goes on to describe how this infinite frequency vibration breaks down systematically into lower frequencies, which can interact with one another in ever-ramifying patterns that appear to us as the manifest universe. It is these patterns of vibration on the very subtlest level of manifestation – indeed on the border between the transcendental unmanifest and the world of manifestation, that form the sequence of sounds that we know as the Veda.
Maharishi points out that the sequence of sounds form what he calls apaurasheya bhashya or “uncreated commentary.” Each phrase of the Veda provides a kind of commentary on the parts that have gone before. This is not an intellectual commentary. The way I understand what Maharishi is saying, it is rather a systematic elaboration of what has gone before, introducing new ramifications at each step of the way, unfolding what was latent in the previous sequences of sound. In other words, the structure of the Veda comments on itself. Again, this is a “commentary” or elaboration that is embedded in the structure of the language itself, not in the surface meanings of the words as we might translate them from the Sanskrit.
Now let’s go back to the issue of the various Names of Gd. The following of course is my speculation; it’s going to take a lot more time transcending before I have direct perception of these matters. No name can capture the fullness of Gd’s essence; perhaps it can only reflect it in its structure. But that structure has layers, so to speak, and the subtler layers are contained in the more expressed one. That is, the more expressed layers of structure elaborate what is inherent in the subtler ones. We can see this is the structure of physical creation. At the basis of all forms and phenomena is the Unified Field of all the laws of nature. Inherent in the Unified Field is the ability to vibrate in different modes, and these modes correspond to the elementary particles of nature. Thus they are an elaboration of the Unified Field, something more concrete as it were. The different atoms of the Periodic Table are made of elementary particles, which thus elaborate on the level of the elementary particles – they bring out qualities that are not expressed on the deeper levels, but inhere within them in an unmanifest form. Similarly, we have the level of molecules, which are made of atoms, the level of objects, which are made of molecules, etc. Each stage is a commentary on, or an elaboration of, the subtler level.
Perhaps this is what is going on with the Names of Gd. The Tetragrammaton is the simplest Name, both grammatically and conceptually, denoting as it does Pure Being. Then the 12-letter or 42-letter names would be elaborations of the Tetragrammaton. There are those who assert that the entire Torah is a “Name” of Gd, and of course it is the most elaborate of the “Names” – although since the Torah is the “blueprint of creation,” all of manifest creation is itself an elaboration of Gd’s Name, all the way up to the level of concrete reality.
Rambam further assets that the longer, more expressed Names, are lower in holiness than the shorter ones. We can understand this too in relation to the structure of creation – the more manifest and concrete the level, the “farther” it is from its transcendental source, which is the source of holiness. Since these more elaborated names are somewhat more concrete and expressed, they don’t need to be so zealously guarded, as they don’t have the same power as the Tetragrammaton, although they certainly aren’t to be bandied about as if they were nothing. As the level of consciousness of the community decreased, the kohanim were forced to descend to a lower level Name in blessing the people, until today, when we don’t use any of these special name at all. Gd willing we will be successful in raising world consciousness so that we can all know Gd and all His holy Names.
I want to emphasize once again that these speculations are my own. I am not asserting that this understanding is what Rambam actually meant, only that I think it may be a useful construct by which we may understand the reality Rambam is describing.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Korach
“Korach” means “baldness, ice, hail, frost.” By leading an insurrection against Gd-chosen Moses, Korach showed baldness of spirit, iciness and frost of heart and a hail of deluded thought.
Parashat Korach reminds us that what is important in life is to live in harmony with Gd, not to worry much about our status relative to other humans–“to love Gd with all our heart, all our soul, all our might” and to “love our neighbor as ourself.”
Korach, Moses’ first cousin, along with 250 other leaders of the Children of Israel challenge Moses’ right to lead, claiming that all of Israel is holy and Moses should not place himself above everyone. They did not love Gd with all their heart, soul and might otherwise they would have felt Gd’s leadership flowing through Moses. They did not love their neighbor as their selves otherwise they would have been happy for Moses to be such an open person that Gd could flow through him.
Korach and the others forgot that Moses was selected by Gd, not by himself, to lead the Children of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land: They forgot that when the 10 Commandments were given out, all of the Children of Israel were frightened that they would die if they heard any more of Gd’s voice: they requested Gd to give the rest of Torah to Moses – so they also placed Moses above them, more pure, more capable.
Moses pleads with the Levites to be grateful for what they have been given but they do not listen. Moses tells them to bring their fire pans (the pans through which they make offerings) and we will see whose offerings Gd accepts.
Gd tells Moses He will destroy the rebels.
At the appointed time, Moses tells the people of Israel, paraphrase. “We will see who Gd wishes to lead. If these people die a natural death, then they are right. If not, then Gd has appointed me to lead.”
The ground opens up and Korach, Datan and Aviram are swallowed up while 250 are consumed by fire.
Moses’s genuineness is confirmed.
We see a lot in Torah of complaining, sinning, Moses pleading for forgiveness for his neighbors, the Children of Israel. A lesson we can learn from Moses is to be open to Gd, to love our neighbor as ourselves (our Self), to plead with others to be open also, and to plead with Gd that he forgive those who lack openness.
In such ways, little by little, person by person, we help to create a world in which harmony, respect, friendliness, love, contentment, fulfillment exist.
In such a world, Torah is experienced not just as words in a book but as the living, eternal reality of the liveliness of Gd, of One. We function not just as our individual selves but as Totality functioning through all.
And this world is the Real World – achievable soon. Let’s continue creating it and request that Gd bring it NOW!
Love and Love and Love,
Baruch HaShem