Parashat Vaera 5785 – 01/25/2025
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.
In memory of Esther Berkowitz, Hadassah bat Yisroel A”H
Shemot 6:2-9:35
This week I want to continue discussing Rambam’s approach to gaining knowledge, and especially as it relates to the intersection of Scripture and science/philosophy. We left off noting that the relationship between science and religion has become contentious because science prioritizes objective knowledge verifiable by repeated experience, while faith communities prioritize knowledge derived from Scripture. The question is, do we trust our sensory experience (possibly augmented by technology), or do we trust our intellect to discern the true meaning of Scripture? I would like to suggest that in our normal, bounded state of consciousness we can trust neither, while in the state of Unity Consciousness both approaches to the truth converge on the same point, the singularity of consciousness within ourselves.
Modern science uses what we call the objective means of gaining knowledge. The basic assumption underlying objective science is that there is an objective world “out there,” meaning outside our consciousness. It exists whether or not anyone is aware of it (or any part of it) and it is the same no matter who is looking at it or measuring it. It consists of individual, localized objects within space and time, which can be observed by anyone.
With the advent of quantum mechanics around 1900 these assumptions were called into question, and eventually became untenable in the face of experimental results. Without going into the whole story of the development of modern physics, the notion that reality is made up of discrete particles went out the window with the discovery that “particles” have wave qualities, and therefore cannot be localized. Further development into quantum field theory demonstrated that “particles” are actually states of excitation of underlying fields – the unlocalized field, existing throughout time and space is the primary reality and it is only when we restrict our awareness through the senses that we get the probabilistic result that are characteristic of quantum physics.
One of the most significant of the ideas underlying quantum mechanics is the idea that the consciousness of the experimenter somehow affects the object of observation. This is sometimes known as the “collapse of the wave function.” When we try to ask where a particle is, the wave function, which is not in any one specific place, is forced to behave like a bounded particle. It can do so, but we can never specify exactly where that “particle” will be – we can only specify probabilities that it will be in any particular place. The non-localized wave function “collapses” to a single point, and it is the consciousness of the experimenter (perhaps expressed by some particular set up of the experimental apparatus) that forces the phenomenon to localize. No longer is the objective world “out there” to be discovered – rather it is inextricably bound up with the subjectivity of the observer.
The reason that we turned to the objective means of gaining knowledge is because in ordinary consciousness our subjectivity is variable. If we get a good night’s sleep the world appears clear. If we don’t, everything is blurry. Has the world changed objectively? Of course not – it’s the same sun and moon, the same family and friends, but our evaluation is different. The purpose of the objective means of gaining knowledge is to exclude the variability of the subject, by subjecting the object of observation to repeated observations, potentially by different people or groups of people. Unfortunately, as we have seen, the results of quantum mechanics call this program into question.
Another approach to gaining knowledge is the subjective approach. This can take several forms. Sometimes one has a deep intuition (“inner knowledge”) about a phenomenon. Einstein, when developing the theory of Relativity, said that he was able to visualize internally (i.e. in his mind’s eye) the dynamics of the system he was considering – he only worked out the mathematics later. In my own case, when I was working on my dissertation, I was soaking in a hot bath with my mind disengaged, when I transcended spontaneously and saw the entire dissertation in a point, deep inside me. Over the next 3 weeks the dissertation unfolded exactly as I had seen it inside me. We have all had experiences of knowing something was about to happen before it happens, or having a déjà vu experience. As we learn to think on subtler and subtler levels, such experiences become more and more common.
Another means of gaining knowledge is through Scripture. According to Maharishi, Scripture is a record of the cognition of the fundamental vibrations of consciousness expressed as human language. This is really the highest level of intuition — it is complete knowledge of the most fundamental structure and functioning of the entire relative world. This cognition is also the highest level of the objective means of gaining knowledge, as it is based on the eternal, unchanging Pure Consciousness that is our own Self and is also the basis of creation. The ultimate knowledge of objective reality comes when we realize that the objective world is not “out there” at all – it is the internal dynamics of our own Self.
Knowledge is different in different states of consciousness. In ordinary waking state, we can barely see the nose in front of our face. Our knowledge is limited and mostly either fully incorrect, or at best partial knowledge. We get some information through our senses about the outside world, and that outside world is clearly distinguished from our inner world, the world of our consciousness. When we reach the highest state of consciousness, Unity Consciousness, then there is no longer an inside or an outside, just an unbounded continuum of consciousness, the fluctuations of which we understand to be the apparent forms and phenomena of creation. Creation, and the knowledge of creation, are what we are in our essential nature. Creation is my Self, Scripture is my Self, I am Total Knowledge in the state of Unity. This is the fulfillment of knowledge, and the fulfillment of Rambam’s program of integrating “science” and Scripture.
***********************************************
Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Va’eira
“Va’eira” means “He appeared.” Gd answers Moses’ complaint that Pharaoh has not listened to his message from Gd: let my people go. Gd tells Moses that He is appearing to Moses in Full Strength to deliver the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He will make them a great nation.
Exodus 6:2 — “Gd spoke to Moses and He said to him, “I Am the Lrd.”
Exodus 6:31 — I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob with [the Name] Almighty Gd but [with] My name YHWH, I did not become known to them.”
As “Elohim” Gd speaks to Moses. He tells him He is “YudHeWawHe.” He then tells Moses that he appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as “EL ShaDaI but as “YudHeWawHe” He did not become known by them (Rashi’s commentary).
Assuming this is so, we’ll tentatively look at YHWH as describing four different levels through which Gd, Totality, Appears within Gd. These levels range from Maximum Abstraction to Maximum Concreteness—the four worlds of Kabbalah: Beriyah, Atzilut, Yetzirah and Asiyah; from this point of view Gd is telling Moses that Gd is giving him the whole range (manifest, at least) of existence and this should give Moses confidence that although Pharaoh and the Children of Israel have not listened to Moses so far, they WILL listen because now Gd is giving him Total Support so Moses should do as Gd commands – tell Pharoah to free Gd’s people.
There seems to be a hierarchy through which Gd is recognized by humans and it seems that neither Abraham, Isaac nor Jacob recognized the Full Wholeness within which the Hierarchy exists – they did not experience complete Oneness, despite Torah telling us that Abraham was “given every blessing.” Something seems to have been left out of their awareness that seems to be given to Moses – at least, Gd is presenting Gd to Moses from all levels of Hierachy, and from the Wholeness within which they are increasingly “manifest” expressions.
In the rest of the Parshah, Gd tells Moses that He will bring about 10 plagues through Moses and Aaron, hardening Pharaoh’s heart each time so that Pharaoh, who has denied Gd as One, will come to recognize that Gd is One, within whom all the Egyptian deities are but small expressions. These plagues occur and Pharaoh says he will let the Israelites go but Gd hardens his heart and he changes his mind.
We might look at the physiological symbolism of Gd, Moses, Pharaoh, Egypt and Promised Land from many angles. Dr.Tony Nader, whose books on Human Physiology and Ramayan in Human Physiology are familiar to many Beth Shalom congregants, presents a model which we might adapt to Torah for those people, places, things and events for which I have as yet found no Kabbalistic physiological representation.
For example, Gd would be the Total Physiology but also at every level of physiology Gd would be the Totality but especially the Central Governing Aspect. Canaan, the Promised Land, would correspond to a healthy physiology; Egypt would correspond to a stressed physiology. Pharaoh particularly would correspond to a stressor of the whole physiology.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg in his book “Body, Mind and Soul”: Kabbalah on Human Physiology, Disease and Healing says that all disease results from a lack of gratitude. From this angle, the slavery in Egypt resulted from our ancestor’s losing the ability to be aware of Gd as the Source of All Goodness and losing gratitude for all they had. The return to freedom results from returning to recognition of Gd as the Source of All and from increasingly living their lives with a desire to attune to Gd in gratitude – not attuning through a mood but through the natural reality which occurs as we respect others, are kind to them, grateful to them, and through our respect for them, respect Gd, Gd’s Kindness and are grateful to Gd. Our gratitude rises to the level where we “Love Gd with all our heart, all our soul, all our might” and “we love our neighbor as ourself/Self.”
In present times and in any time, our return to freedom occurs the same way.
Torah study – listening, reciting, thinking about and acting in accord with is a good tool to bring us into alignment with Gd and naturally to good health, good relations with others.
Prayer, especially the prayers of our siddur which generally do not ask Gd for help but praise Gd for Gd’s Qualities, beyond our ability to know intellectually as an Object of our awareness: Gd is only Known to Gd and only by rising to the Level of Oneness with Gd can we experience our individual human self as an Expression of Gd and thus bring Full Knowing into our awareness which has become Awareness.
I continue to be very encouraged with the great friendliness, love and joy that I experience in so much of our Fairfield residents and very strongly in our Beth Shalom Congregation. I am very confident that the spiritual exile, the illness of our planet, the enslavement in the restrictions of limited awareness, is ending and that we are participating in ending it and I am confident that many of us are coming very close to Gd and will return to Oneness, beyond the duality of Gd and creation – no plagues needed!
Baruch HaShem!