Parashat Teruma 5785 – 03/01/2025 – Parashat Shekalim
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.
Shemot 25:1-27:19
A calendrical note: This Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Adar, the first day of the lunar month Adar. Adar is the month in which Purim falls (it will be next Friday 3/14), and is the month before Nisan, the month in which Pesach falls. We count the months from Nisan, so Adar is the 12th month. If the year is a Jewish leap year and there are two Adars, then Adar I is the 12th month and Adar II is the 13th. In this case, Purim is in Adar II. This year is not a leap year so there’s just one Adar. The Sabbath immediately before or of Rosh Chodesh Adar is called Shabbat Shekalim, because the yearly Temple tax of ½ shekel from every male over age 20 was collected during Adar, so the announcement would be made on Shabbat Shekalim. There is a special maftir and haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim. Shabbat Shekalim is the first of four special Shabbats leading up to Pesach:
• Shabbat Shekalim,
• Shabbat Zachor where we are instructed to remember what Amalek – and its modern descendants – did to us. Haman was a descendent of Amalek and Shabbat Zachor is the Shabbat before Purim (3/8 this year)
• Shabbat Parah, where we remember the purification rites one had to go through to prepare for Passover (see Numbers 19) – Parah refers to the Red Heifer, the ashes of which are integral to this ritual.
• Shabbat haChodesh which is the Shabbat of Rosh Chodesh Nisan, and warns us that Pesach is almost here!
……….
Rambam continues to describe the spheres of which the cosmos is composed:
These heavens have different centers. The center of some of them is identical with the center of the world [RAR: i.e. the earth, the innermost sphere] while the center of others is eccentric to the center of the world. Some of them move perpetually in a motion proper to them from the east to the west, while others move perpetually from the west to the east. Every star in these heavens is a part of the heavens in which it is fixed in its place and has no motion proper to it. It is seen as being in motion only because of the motion of the body of which it is a part. The matter of this fifth body [RAR: the body that encompasses fire, see the quote from the last two weeks] as a whole, which is endowed with circular motion, is not like the matter of the bodies composed of the four elements that are contained within it.
Some things about this I find curious. First, if we have a set of spheres, one within the other, with no gaps in between them, then it is hard to imagine how one or more of those spheres can be eccentric to the whole setup. If that were the case, either there would have to be a gap in the “inside” of the sphere that encompasses the eccentric sphere on the side opposite to the offset of the eccentric sphere, and a thinning of the encompassing sphere on its inside on the same side as the offset, where the inner, eccentric sphere pushes into the inside of the encompassing sphere. If you draw yourself a picture it will become clear (while if I try and draw you a picture it will become more opaque). Also, if the outer sphere is rotating at a different rate than the inner one then the bulge of the inner eccentricity will move respective to the inner surface of the outer sphere as it rotates. This would be OK if the spheres where elastic in some way, but I think the idea is that they are hard, so they can carry the stars that are embedded within them. Another possibility is that the spheres do not fit tightly within one another, but rather have gaps that are filled with a fluid through which they can rotate. In that case it is the fluid which deforms, and not the inside of the encompassing sphere. I don’t know what answer Rambam might give to this question.
A second question has to do with some of the spheres’ moving west to east. It is not clear to me which sphere that might be, because every celestial object rises in the east and sets in the west. Even when the planets exhibit retrograde motion, that is, west to east motion, that is in relation to the “fixed stars” and not with respect to the earth. Even while in a retrograde cycle, the planets still rise in the east and set in the west. In fact, it is to explain retrograde motion that Ptolemy introduced epicycles, small spheres whose centers are on a large sphere and which rotate at their own speed as the main sphere rotates at its speed. The result, as viewed from the center (i.e. the earth, where we are) is that most of the time the “star” (actually the planet) embedded in the epicycle seems to go in the right direction (east to west, same as the sun and mood), but when the epicycle swings around, the “star” in it appears to go retrograde.
From the Copernican point of view the planets appear to go retrograde as the earth swings by them in its orbit around the sun (in the case of Mercury and Venus, whose orbits are inside of the earth’s orbit, as they swing past the earth in their orbits). The exact timing and extent of the retrograde periods can actually not be reproduced exactly using epicycles, and later astronomers, trying to maintain the Ptolemaic system, introduced a series of epicycles upon the epicycles. I think if you are allowed an unlimited number of epicycles you can actually produce any perceived pattern of prograde and retrograde movement, but of course this probably takes us pretty far from reality. (Incidentally, his is a very general phenomenon in the area of modeling physical processes – the more free parameters you have, the more you can “tune” the model to any degree of accuracy you want. In the words of a former colleague of mine, “Give me 3 free parameters and I can draw an elephant. Give me 4 and I can wag its tail!”) In this respect, the Copernican (heliocentric) system provides a much simpler and more natural explanation of the phenomena.
Ultimately, the Ptolemaic system was founded on the concept that the heavens had to display a kind of ideal behavior, and tried to shoehorn reality into this system. When the proverbial apple hit Newton on the head, he realized that the same laws that apply to objects on the earth also apply to objects in space. The focus shifted from the objects in the universe to the laws which bind them together and govern their motions. This approach not only dethroned the earth from being the center of the universe, it also dethroned the heavens of their special status as radically distinct from earth in both substance and laws of its behavior. This view has extended itself into modern physics, which views the universe and everything in it as a pattern of vibration of a universal Unified Field.
Rambam will continue explicating his conception of the structure of the universe by describing the elements that make up the objects we see in the world.
****************************************************************************************
Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Terumah
Terumah” means “gift” or “offering.” In this parshah, Gd asks our ancestors to give a gift of an offering from their heart. Then He gives the Great Gift of detailed instructions for building a Sanctuary so that our ancestors will see Him dwelling within the Sanctuary, so that He “may dwell in their midst.” The detailed instructions make it clear that the Sanctuary is an expression of the same pattern that is present in the universe and in the human body. In the human body, for example, Gd created 248 limbs which correspond to the 248 positive commandments of the Bible – in the Sanctuary, there were 48 beams, 100 hooks and 100 loops.
Obviously, Gd is Everywhere, Omnipresent – He dwells everywhere. So this statement “may dwell in their midst” means that the harmony between their open hearts and the Sanctuary created in part by their offerings will be so great it will resonate with the personalities and physiologies of all who enter; even our ancestors who just a few days before were terrified by the sound of the Lord’s voice.
Neither modern synagogues – for example, Beth Shalom – nor modern homes seem to be built according to the plan of the Sanctuary so what can we do in order to be aware of Gd’s dwelling within our synagogues, our homes, our minds, feelings, egos, bodies?
The key seems to be in Gd’s command to Moses:
“Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering.”
By behaving with generosity to all, we make offerings to Gd because “love thy neighbor as thyself – Self — is inextricably intertwined with “love the Lrd, thy Gd, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might.”
Another way to make offerings to Gd and to be aware of Gd’s Presence is through the daily prayers of our religion: waking, morning, afternoon, evening and bedtime. These have the value of opening our hearts even though we may be fatigued or stressed. The Joy of Gd’s Presence enters into the words and to our awareness.
Each of us is an individual expression of Gd, finely crafted to play a particular role in the Cosmic Story, the Divine Plan and so each of us may intuit a particular way at a particular moment or routinely that we can offer to Gd: Whatever way we can offer to Gd, let us offer and let us be fully aware of Gd’s Presence dwelling within us and around us.
Baruch HaShem