Parashat VaEtchanan 5784 — 08/17/2024
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.
Devarim 3:23 – 7:11
Rambam continues his discussion of speech, and especially Gd’s speech:
The intention here is to indicate that predicating speech of Him is similar to predicating of Him all the actions resembling ours. Thus the minds of people are rightly guided toward the view that there is a divine science apprehended by the prophets in consequence of Gd’s speaking to them and telling it to them so that we should know that the notions transmitted by them from Gd to us are not, as shall be made clear, mere products of their thought and insight. But this subject has already been mentioned by us.
I think that Rambam is preparing us to understand the notion of prophecy. Our common understanding of prophecy is that Gd “speaks” to the prophet. We need to understand what Gd’s speech is in order to understand what prophecy is. When we say Gd “spoke” with someone, the underlying assumption is that Gd is “outside” us and communicates to us in much the same way as we would communicate with another human being. Now it is not clear that this is an appropriate assumption. Gd does not have a mouth, nor lips nor vocal cords, etc. Gd is entirely transcendental to all of the created world, and of course Gd’s interactions with the created world are fundamentally different from the interactions of people and objects that exist within the created world. So Gd’s speech is not the same as our speech, and what we hear when Gd communicates with us is not the same kind of hearing that takes place when people communicate with one another.
Rambam continues:
The purpose of this chapter is to set forth that the words speaking and saying are equivocal, applied both to utterance by the tongue – as when it says, Moses spoke; And Pharaoh said – and to notions represented by the intellect without being uttered – as when it says, Then said I in my heart; Then I spoke in my heart; And thy heart shall speak; My heart said unto thee; And Esau said in his heart. This meaning is frequent. The terms in question are also used to denote wishing, as in the verse, He thought to have slain David. It is as if it said he wished to slay him, that is, gave his mind to it. Thus: Thinkest thou to kill me, the interpretation and meaning of it are: do you want to kill me? And also in the verse: But all the congregation wanted [lit “said”] to stone them with stones. This meaning likewise is frequent. Now in all cases in which the words saying and speaking are applied to Gd, they are used in one of the two latter meanings. I mean to say that they are used to denote either will and volition or a notion that has been grasped by the understanding having come from Gd, in which case it is indifferent whether it has become known by means of a created voice or through one of the ways of prophecy, which we shall make clear.
The equivocality here seems to be that speech can be external – something we say to someone else, or something that is said to us – or it can be internal – the dialogue we have within ourselves, or an intention we have. Rambam tells us that the two ways that the word is used with respect to Gd have to do with Gd’s Will (internal) or Gd’s communication to humans (external). As far as the internal conversations go, Rambam doesn’t have a problem with this. Since Gd’s Will is coextensive with Gd, characterizing it as speech or thought doesn’t really imply anything untoward about our understanding of Gd – the whole process is beyond our understanding in any event, although Vedic Science can perhaps give us some insight, as we will see (and as you can probably guess from some recent posts).
When it comes to Gd’s communication with human beings, we are, essentially, back to the problem of how a transcendental Gd can interact with a finite world. The difference is that in the case of speech, we are talking about the consciousness of the recipient – how it is that Gd’s Word (what Gd wants to convey) gets into that consciousness. Is it through “created speech” – that is an actual sound that anyone could have heard, or is it something that takes place within the consciousness of the recipient (prophetic vision or dream)? On the one hand, it doesn’t really matter how the knowledge / information is conveyed. On the other hand, analyzing the mechanics might give us an insight into the interaction of Gd and the human race.
The case of “created speech” is the easier one to deal with. This is a physical interaction of Gd with the physical world, to create sound, which the listener hears and then interprets. It has the same explanation as any other physical interaction, like splitting the Sea or destroy Sencheriv’s army at the gates of Jerusalem. Whether that explanation is completely satisfying or not is another story, but it seems to me that this kind of communication is not different in kind from other ways in which Gd interacts with creation.
I might interject here that with regard to Moshe Rabbeinu it says that Gd spoke with him from within the tabernacle, and it was a loud voice, but Moshe was the only one who could hear it. The implication is that it was “created speech” but of a special kind that kind of slides over into the other kind of communication, which is direct communication between Gd and the prophet’s consciousness.
I think there are two ways to approach this second type of communication: from a lower state of consciousness than Unity Consciousness and from Unity Consciousness. The characteristics of consciousness prior to Unity Consciousness is a distinction between the Self and the non-Self, that is, between subject and object. In such a case we would describe the transfer of knowledge as something coming from outside – in other words we think of Gd as an object Who communicates with us in some way. In this case it is not by “created speech,” but rather some more direct communication from Gd’s Consciousness to the receiver’s consciousness. Since Gd can operate at the most basic level of existence, presumably He can “put” structures of thought into anybody’s head. This is the kind of description that we read in the Prophets – the Word of Gd came to me… and the like.
From the point of view of Unity Consciousness there is no real difference between the Self and the objective world. The Self is infinite and unbounded, but the created universe is not really finite either – everything in creation is a pattern of vibration of the infinite Self, and in Unity Consciousness we recognize this on the level of mind, intellect and senses. That means that by going inward and uniting with our own consciousness we have perfect intuitive knowledge of the transcendent and its patterns of vibrations. In this case, the receiver cognizes directly the particular structures of thought that are appropriate for that time and place. Because on the level of the transcendent there is a kind of melding of the receiver’s mind with Gd’s Mind, so to speak, Gd does not have to convey information to the receiver; rather that information is already structured in the receiver’s consciousness and he or she only has to access it from within. (For it to make sense and be transmitted to the receiver’s ultimate audience there has to be a process of taking this cognition and putting it into words and images that ordinary people can understand, but that is a separate process, which Rambam will describe later on in his treatise.)
Our Torah describes this kind of direct cognition in Num 7:89, where Gd is said to be speaking to Moshe from between the Cherubim atop the Ark holding the tablets. Rashi there comments on the odd grammatical form of the verb he spoke and interprets it as a reflexive form. He says that Gd was speaking to Himself and Moses was just listening in as it were. While the language is still “objective,” the idea of Gd’s speaking to Himself captures the Self-referral nature of consciousness, and Moshe’s “eavesdropping” captures the idea of his cognition of Gd’s internal dialogue, which can only be on the level of Moshe’s Pure Consciousness.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Va’Etchanan
“Va’etchanan” means “And I pleaded.” Moses says he pleaded with Gd to let him enter the Promised Land but Gd said, “No.” You can only view it from the mountain.
To be in the Promised Land is to Be, to Be Fully Restored to the Awareness that our individualities are Gd in disguise, to Be fully restored to the Awareness that we are All-in-All and that our individuality is one cherished role of the Infinite roles we play.
The surface level of this parshah doesn’t tell us this; it tells us the story of Moses only from the individual level and we have to perceive that Moses was only speaking about his physical body entering the physical Promised Land: his soul was already in real Promised Land, Oneness with Gd – Gd Spoke through Moses.
“Play nice; don’t fight.” Momma may have said this to us and our playmates when we were children.
Moses reviews the events since leaving Egypt, including the Ten Commandments/Statements/Utterances, which tell us in detail that we should play nice with Gd, not fight Gd; we should not fight our parents; we should not fight truth; we should play nice with our spouses, with everyone. In many different ways Gd declares in the 10 Commandments that we should cherish Gd above all and we should cherish every aspect of life as an expression of Gd, respect all and live in honor and in peace. When we play nice in this way, we stay together, we live as members of a community, of a nation, moving together along a sacred path.
When we play nice, Gd appears to us and leads us so that trouble does not approach us but we are guided into the good land, the Good Land, the land of our soul in which we directly experience that Gd is Gd, there is no other and the physical land wherever we are is Holy, the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 7:6 “For you are a holy people to the Lrd, your Gd; the Lrd, your Gd, has chosen you to be His treasured people, out of all the peoples upon the face of the Earth.” (translation, chabad.org)
What qualities do we as the Jewish people have that make us holy that Gd loves us particularly and protects us?
The answer to this may lie with the qualities that Moses had, the qualities that enabled him to be in Gd’s Presence a though our other ancestors were afraid they would die if they even heard one word more of Gd’s Voice than they heard when Gd gave the 10 Statements/Utterances/Commandments at Mt Sinai (some say Mt. Horeb).
What qualities were those? Do we as Jews have them specially? Are we Jewish if we don’t have them? Is anyone who has them holy and treasured by Gd whether they are Jewish or not? How can we get these qualities of holiness if we don’t have them? Increase them if we do?
Torah tells us that Moses was the humblest man there was: and humility means he was completely open to Gd; though Gd preserved Moses’ personality, Moses used it entirely to serve Gd, even though this sometimes meant challenging Gd. It also meant that he was aware that everything he did, every thought he had, was Gd acting through him, thinking within him.
This openness and awareness meant Moses could be in Gd’s Presence without fear.
This openness meant he was open to the Holiness that is Gd and therefore, he experienced himself as holy, treasured, special.
This quality our ancestors also had some of, enough to be special enough to deserve special attention.
Would we say today that the mere fact of being born Jewish, raised Jewish, converted to Judaism makes us holy, treasured, special? Some would, I don’t.
In our world we have people of many religions, and many who are not much observant of the details of their religion but most people in the world seem to be friendly though the mass media seem to favor reporting hostility and corruption “Love thy neighbor as thyself, thy Self” seems to be the most common nature of the human heart, Perhaps from Gd’s point of view, we Jews are a little more loving, a little more friendly, humble, open than others but my perception is not fine enough to say this is so or not so.
I do feel that our religion is a good source of guidance to grow in holiness, friendliness, Love of Gd above all, Love of our neighbor as our Self.
These qualities we can continue to grow in by doing our best to follow the guidance of Torah, the Rabbis, and the Righteous, the Tzaddikim; our parents, our family, our elders; our teachers, our friends: as we grow in respect and humility, in Love and in the desire to serve Gd and our neighbors we grow in Awareness of Gd’s Presence. Through these good desires and actions we lose any fear that might cause us to put obstacles between us and Gd’s Presence and we lose any fear that would cause us to put distance between ourselves and our neighbors; we become open so Gd Reveals Gd’s Oneness within us; we play nice: we don’t fight.
Life becomes Lovely! Let us keep acting this way, growing this way, and experience Fulfillment, Holiness we can live and share with everyone.
Baruch HaShem