Parashat Miketz 5786 – 12/20/2025
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.
Bereishit 41:1-44:17
We’re getting to the end of Rambam’s 25 premises:
21. Everything that is composed of two notions has necessarily that composition as the cause of its existence as it really is, and consequently is not necessarily existent in respect to its own essence, for it exists in virtue of the existence of its two parts and of their composition.
22. Every body is necessarily composed of two things and is necessarily accompanied by accidents. The two things constituting it are its matter and its form; and the accidents accompanying it are quantity, shape, and position.
Rambam is taking the position that all bodies are composite. I think this will be a prelude to showing that Gd is not composite, and therefore, by implication, Gd is not a body. Furthermore, anything that is composite is not a necessary existent, i.e. something that must exist for anything else to exist, because it depends on its components for its own existence. Again, this is in opposition to Gd, Whose existence is necessary and the “ground of all Being,” in Tillich’s formulation (see https://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2025/01/not-entity-but-being-itself-paul.html for more information).
Incidentally, the idea that Gd is Being, rather than a being, is apparently not original with Tillich, as it’s exactly the direction we seem to be heading with Rambam’s exposition, 7 centuries earlier. Nevertheless, as I have tried to express in these essays, it is a very good counterweight to the “objectification” of Gd that I have argued is very common in Jewish thought. And this “objectification” is a function of our limited awareness, which sees our self as bounded, limited, and separate from all other beings, including Gd . So, from this limited perspective, Gd is outside us, rewarding and punishing our behavior according to our conformity with His Will.
I think Tillich’s view, and I believe what we will see is also Rambam’s view, is that Gd is the ultimate Being, infinite, eternal and all-pervading, and that the “world and all that is therein” exists within Gd. We are not separate from Gd, we are also infinite and unbounded, and manifestation and reflection of Gd’s perfection. I believe that this is also the view of Vedic Science, which holds that “Consciousness is all that there is,” and that creation is the virtual, internal dynamics of Consciousness. The language differs a bit, but I think the idea is basically the same.
23. It is possible for whatsoever is in potentia and in whose essence there is a certain possibility, not to exist in actu at a certain time.
24. Whatsoever is something in potentia is necessarily endowed with matter, for possibility is always in matter.
25. The principles of an individual compound substance are matter and form. And there is no doubt about the necessity of there being an agent, I mean to say a mover that moves the substratum so as to predispose it to receive the form. That is the proximate mover, which predisposes the matter of a certain individual. At this point it is necessary to engage in speculation with regard to motion, the mover, and the moved. However, with regard to all this, everything that it was necessary to explain has already been explained. The text of the words of Aristotle is: “Matter does not move itself” (Metaphysics xii.6.1071b29-30). This therefore is the capital premise calling for an inquiry concerning the existence of the Prime Mover.
The primary distinction Rambam (and Aristotle) make when it comes to bodies is that of matter and form. This actually is parallel to the distinction in physics between matter and forces, or, in the language of quantum field theory, between matter fields (like electrons and quarks) and force fields (like photons and gluons). Almost all matter fields obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle , which states that two identical particles cannot be in the same quantum state. Now electrons obey the Exclusion Principle, and therefore as the number of electrons in an atom increases, the electrons stack up in all the quantum states that exist around a positively charged nucleus. This structure is the basis of all of chemistry, which is the structural underpinning of material creation.
Force fields, on the other hand, are governed by Bose-Einstein statistics, which allows for any number of identical particles to be in the same quantum state. The coherent light generated by a laser is an example of this – all the photons in the laser beam are coherent, because they are all in the same quantum state. But the main effect of force fields is to mediate the interactions between matter fields. The strong force keeps the protons and neutrons in the nucleus bound together, and the electromagnetic force governs the interaction between the electrons and the nucleus, and between atoms. That is, the form of the substance is governed by the nature of the forces between the particles of matter that makes up the bulk matter that we see and feel.
This analogy between substance-form and matter-force is not perfect of course. However, it doesn’t really matter (no pun intended) because in modern “grand-unified field” theories, there is a symmetry between matter and force fields that bespeaks a deep unity between them. All of the forms and phenomena in creation can be described as the interaction between matter and forces, or it can be described as the one, unified field of matter and forces together, interacting with itself. Both perspectives are valid, each on its own level. It just depends on which level we wish to operate for a particular application, where we want to station our consciousness / measuring apparatus.
Chag Chanukah Same’ach!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Miketz
We have two sayings that help inform this parshah:
“God is in the details”;
“The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts.”
In this parshah, Joseph, an unwilling representative to Egypt-Mitzraim, the Land of Restrictions, from Canaan, the Land of Synchronicity, of Harmony, successfully interprets two dreams of Mitzraim’s ruler, Pharoah, and is given de facto control of Mitzraim.
This is Harmony bringing the parts together so they can make a Whole.
Joseph correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams of seven fat cows devoured by seven lean cows and of seven healthy stalks of wheat devoured by seven lean stalks to mean that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine and therefore, Mitzrayim should store up during the fat years so it would have enough to last through the lean years.
Joseph’s Harmony was so great that Pharoah recognized the validity of Joseph’s interpretation and Joseph’s integrity was so great that Pharoah gave him control of organizing the stocking up, organizing which gave him de facto control of the kingdom.
Meanwhile, Harmony in Canaan had already been disturbed by Jacob’s failure to raise his children so that all felt equally loved – even though each might have different skills, some might be wiser, some more skilled in battle, some more skilled in leadership, in peace….
Jacob has failed to completely attend to detail and to reveal Gd in the details of everyday life and relationships in Canaan: Canaan was only partially Canaan, only partially and superficially, The Land of Synchronicity.
And the Harmony was broken further by the sons not learning to flow with Jacob’s behavior and to give love from their side to raise themselves and him to the level where they could feel Full Love, no matter what the surface appearance.
This resulted in betrayal of Jacob’s trust, selling Joseph into slavery, lying to their father, and, eventually to famine in Canaan—a solid breakdown of the Plenty that exists when Canaan is Whole, functioning to bring all details into synchronicity, into harmony, and to Reveal Gd as the Wholeness, the Totality, which brings Complete Synchronicity, The Wholeness that is Oneness, of which all the parts are Expressions.
With the famine in Canaan, in Synchronicity, Jacob’s sons had to go to Mitzraim, raised by Gd through Joseph, to a land of Synchronicity, Fullness.
And they will abandon the land Canaan to settle in Raised Up Mitzraim, until eventually Wholeness breaks down there and several hundred years later, they need to escape restrictions, return to Canaan within themselves and to the physical land of Canaan. Of this we will learn more in the next Parshah.
This Parshah teaches us, that even in the midst of the ups and downs of life, we can maintain our purity, our Joyful and Reverent Daily Routine, so that we can Love Gd with all our Heart and Soul, Love our Neighbor as Our Self, and bring Harmony into fragmentation, Wholeness into limitations.
Of course, there are deeper levels of interpretation: All is Gd’s Plan as Joseph later tells his brothers. There are no mistakes in Torah, no villains, no heroes, only Gd telling stories to teach us how to integrate the fragments of life into Wholeness– and at the deepest level, Torah is Gd Humming Torah within Himself, within The Self, our Self, the Only Self.
To this we in our community our rising: Joy and Love, which we have a lot of, radiate a lot of, share a lot of are signs of the return to Wholeness, Teshuvah.
Gd, the Self, is Joy, is Love and with our Love and Joy, we are returning.
Baruch HaShem