Parashat Shelach 5785 – 06/21/2025
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.
Bamidbar 13:1-15:41
The third premise of the Mutakallimūn has to do with the nature of time.
This is their saying that time is composed of instants, by which they mean that there are many units of time that, because of the shortness of their duration, are not divisible. This premise is also necessary for them because of the first premise. For they undoubtedly had seen Aristotle’s demonstrations, by means of which he has demonstrated that distance, time, and locomotion are all three of them equal as far as existence is concerned. I mean to say that their relation to one another is the same and that when one of them is divided the other two are likewise divided and in the same proportion. Accordingly they knew necessarily that if time were continuous and infinitely divisible, it would follow of necessity that the particles that they had supposed to be indivisible would also be divisible. Similarly if distance were supposed to be continuous, it would follow of necessity that the instant that had been supposed to be indivisible would be divisible – just as Aristotle had made it clear in the “Akroasis.” Therefore they supposed that distance is not continuous, but composed of parts at which divisibility comes to an end, and that likewise the division of time ends with the instants that are not divisible.
This is a sort of “atomic hypothesis” for time. It appears from Rambam’s words that there was also an “atomic hypothesis” for space. Apparently, both Aristotle and the Mutakallimūn were as uncomfortable with the concept that space and time are continuous as they were with the idea that matter is continuous. Now our conceptions of space and time are dependent on objects and their changes or motions. Space is related to the relationship between objects – the distance between my head and my feet is about 180 cm, for example. Time is related to motion – the earth goes around the sun, giving us the (solar) year, and spins on its axis, giving us a day.
When Rambam speaks of locomotion being related to space and time I think he is thinking of the problems raised by Zeno’s Paradoxes. These all have the general form: To get from A to B I first have to go halfway. Then I have to go half of the remaining way. Then half the remaining way, etc. ad infinitum . Since there are an infinite number of steps, one never reaches point B. Of course the paradox is that we absolutely do get to point B. How do we resolve the paradox? We actually have to use some mathematics that was not available to Rambam, and certainly not to Aristotle or Zeno.
First, let’s consider the distance. Let x be the distance between A and B. First we go halfway, or ½x. Then we go half of the remaining distance, or ½ x ½x = ¼x. The total is ½x + ¼x = ¾x. Going one step further we go 1/8 x for a total of (7/8) x. Now we are only 1/8 of the way left. Another step and we’re only 1/16 of the way left, etc. As we go further and further out we get ever closer and closer to B. To formalize this idea, we say that for any degree of closeness to B that we want, there is a number of steps that will get us closer to B than the specified degree of closeness. If I want to have only 1/32 of the way from A to B left, I have to go 5 steps. 1/64 requires 6 steps. Since I have an infinite number of steps, I can get arbitrarily close to B simply by going enough steps. We say that we approach B as a limit.
Now, suppose that I am going at a speed which would let me cover the distance from A to B in 1 minute. I will cover the first ½ of the distance in ½ minute. It goes half the remaining distance in ¼ min, etc., just like with the distances. And just like we can get arbitrarily close to point B, we can also get arbitrarily close to one minute in time. In other words, even though there are, theoretically, an infinite number of steps, the total distance of all those steps is the distance from A to B and the total time is 1 minute. In other words, the sum of an infinite number of step can be a finite number. This idea was developed over the few centuries beginning around the time of Newton. The idea that infinity was real, and that there were different “sizes” of infinity, remained for Georg Cantor (1845-1918) to elucidate.
The Mutakallimūn didn’t have the work of Newton or Leibnitz or Cantor to go on, so they instead dispensed with the continuous nature of time and space. This solves the Zeno paradox problem, because however small the instants of time or the “particles” of space may be, there will be a finite number of them between point A and point B. With the infinite number of steps disposed of, we can confidently set out for point B and beyond.
I might add that it is this very cutting off of infinity which was at the very foundation of quantum mechanics. In the 1890’s, Max Planck was studying “black body radiation,” which is the radiation from an idealized, non-reflective (“black”) body in thermodynamic equilibrium with its surroundings. Black-body radiation has a characteristic spectral curve, the exact shape of which depends on the temperature. However, when Planck tried to derive the curve and the formula for the total energy radiated, under the assumption that atoms would radiate in a continuous fashion (i.e. at any energy at any wavelength), he got a total energy radiated by the black body that was infinite, which obviously does not agree with observations. He therefore assumed that instead the black body radiated energy in packets, which he called “quanta,” with the energy of one quantum being a constant divided by the wavelength (shorter wavelengths = higher energy). The constant is now called Planck’s constant in his honor. These quanta of energy are extremely small, but they serve as a lower-limit cutoff that disallows the creation of an infinity of radiated energy, in much the same way that the “instants” of time serve as a cutoff of what we think of as the continuum of time that prevents us from worrying about an infinite number of ever-smaller intervals. (Incidentally, in 1905 Einstein used the idea of quanta of energy to explain the photoelectric effect — it was this paper for which he won the Nobel Prize, and not for either Special or General Relativity.)
There is a deeper connection between quantum mechanics and our question of the granularity of time and space. First we note that when we apply quantum mechanics to fields, we find that there is an infinite amount of energy in the vacuum – space with no particles in it. Physicists use various hand-waving arguments to explain these infinities away, but mostly they just ignore them. Now if we try to unite quantum mechanics with General Relativity, where space-time is a dynamic player in physics, rather than a passive background to it, there is a disconnect between the deterministic laws of General Relativity, where the gravitational field has a very specific value at every place and at all times, and the non-deterministic nature of the wave function, which only assumes a definite value when it is measured. This violates Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle. This has led some physicists to speculate that while on terrestrial scales space and time appear to be continuous, on very small scales, defined by the very small Planck’s constant, space and time may, in fact, be granular. Whether this gets rid of the infinities in quantum field theory I don’t know. But it is suggestive of the granularity of space-time postulated by the Mutakallimūn, so we should ask whether they might have been on to something and we’re just catching up with them.
Now one consequence of the granularity of time is that each instant of time is like a creation unto itself, and any continuity between instants is an artifact of our senses, which cannot distinguish one instant from the next. This is not a bug, it’s a feature. For the Kalām holds that Gd creates the universe anew at every instant of time, and any continuity we see, or any apparent cause and effect relationship we adduce from the behavior of objects, is only because Gd decides to create and recreate the universe like that. And if Gd decides at some moment to change the course of “nature,” that may appear miraculous to us, but it’s simply Gd’s Will expressing itself. This comes in handy if you’re trying to reconcile philosophy / physics and Scripture.
From the point of view of Vedic Science, the ultimate reality is transcendental to time and space, and it is in the dynamic tension between Pure Consciousness as Observer and Pure Consciousness as Observed that time, space, and motion arise. But they arise only virtually, within the nature of Pure Consciousness. We only perceive objects within space and time – that is, the whole realm of physics and everything that arises from physics – because of our limited awareness. The same limited awareness that makes the wave function appear to collapse, that is bound by the Uncertainty Principle, can cause space and time to collapse into granularity, but it is only an apparent granularity until we attain Unity Consciousness and see everything as a continuous wholeness.
We’ll continue with this next week Gd willing.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Shelach
This parashah begins with Gd telling Moses “Shelach Lecha” / “Send for thyself,” spies to explore the Land of Canaan. Literally, “Shelach Lecha” means “send for thyself” (Gd tells Moses spies are not necessary to enter the Promised Land but, if he wishes, he may “send for himself”) but we can take it to mean “go to thy Self,” the Universal, Unlimited state of our awareness. This view implies that people should experience the state of awareness in which transcendent and details are experienced as expressions of the Single Whole – the Self is experienced as integrating the desert in which they were with Infinite Lushness. Canaan (“Synchronicity”) symbolizes the state of awareness in which the barrenness of material existence is raised to All-Pervading Love and Joy and the individual and the community are restored to Wholeness, Oneness. At this level, everyone is Inside, no one is outside and so spies cannot exist.
When we look at the parashah this way, we can infer that of the twelve “men of distinction” who were sent to spy on Canaan, Caleb and Joshua saw the land of Canaan from the perspective of their Universal Self – (Torah says Caleb saw it with a different spirit than the other spies): Therefore, they naturally, spontaneously perceived the land as Gd declared it: a land of Integration which was given to the Children of Israel, a land which they could easily enter with Gd’s protection.
The other ten leaders of the tribes did not perceive from this level: they perceived from the restricted level of the surface of awareness, the boundaries; they perceived as if they were still slaves in Egypt (“Mitaraim”: restrictions) and so they perceived themselves and the Children of Israel as being weak, unable to prevail against the might of the people of the land.
It is commonly said (Zohar and Midrash, according to Rav Yehuda Berg of the Kabbalah Center) that the spies gave a false report and that they did so because they were afraid to lose their distinction; they were afraid to enter a land without restrictions, in which everyone would be a person of distinction. But perhaps the logic I present above – which seems consistent with what Torah says – is valid. They perceived from the level of restrictions and so they did not have the unrestricted Holiness needed to enter the Holy Land.
From this standpoint, the sending of spies into Canaan was a test of the people’s readiness, holiness, to enter the Promised Land. They failed the test and so Gd chose to delay the entrance until all those who lacked holiness had passed away and the rising generation and newborns would have sufficient holiness to enter Canaan.
We can also look at this symbolically: One example is that the twelve tribes may represent the twelve pairs of ribs connected to the backbone (Jacob, the father). The failure of the tribes was equivalent to being unable to draw nourishment from the backbone: i.e., they had no backbone and therefore were afraid, no matter what Gd said to Moses. The forty years waiting was the time it took to re-connect the ribs to the backbone, to have direct experience of the integrated, whole Self of their father, Jacob, and of Gd, the Supreme Father, and so to regain the nourishment needed to be confident, to trust in Gd.
The parashah ends with Gd saying, “I am the Lrd, your Gd, who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your Gd. I am the Lrd, your Gd”
And this echoes with Gd’s words earlier in Torah, “Be thou holy for I am holy”.
It is our opportunity through our spiritual practice, especially our daily routines, to deepen our experience of the transcendent inside and outside our individual personalities, and to integrate them both into our daily lives and the lives of our community, the world, the Universe, Gd., thus becoming Holy as Gd is Holy and to experience every place as Holy Land, the Land of Canaan, the place of Freedom, the Promised Land: then the Promised Land is wherever we are, around us, inside us, everywhere.
Baruch HaShem