Parashat VaEtchanan 5785 – 08/09/2025
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.
Devarim 3:23 – 7:11
Rambam now moves on to the eighth premise of the Mutakallimūn:
It consists in their assertion that there exists nothing except substances and accidents and that the natural forms are likewise accidents. The explanation of this premise is as follows. According to them, all bodies are composed of atoms resembling one another, as we have made clear when setting out the first of their premises. These atoms differ from one another only with regard to accidents and in nothing else. Thus according to them, animality, humanity, sensation, and rationality are all accidents having the same status as whiteness, blackness, bitterness, and sweetness, so that the difference existing between an individual belonging to one species and an individual belonging to another is like the difference between individuals belonging to the same species. In consequence, the body of heaven, even the body of the angels, or even the body of [Gd’s] throne, as it is imagined in fantasy, and the body of any insect you like from among the insects of the earth or of any plant you like, are, according to them, of one substance, differing only with regard to accidents and in nothing else. And the substances of which the universe is composed are the atoms.
This idea, that all atoms are the same in substance, and differ only in accidents / attributes, is getting somewhat closer to a modern view of the structure of the physical world. Creation is structured in layers, and each layer is more abstract than the one above it. For example, living beings are composed of molecules. There is an almost infinite variety of living beings, but there is a limited number of molecules that make them up. These molecules are more generic, more abstract than the tissues and organs and bodies of living creatures. The molecules, in turn, are made up of atoms. These atoms number 92 (naturally occurring atoms), with many of them having a few variants which affect its physical properties, but not their chemical properties. The atomic level is simpler and more abstract than the molecular level. There are thousands of types of molecules, with different attributes, but there are only 92 atomic elements – and the characteristics of the atoms have very little to do with the characteristics of molecules. It is actually the interaction of the more abstract atoms with one another that creates the less abstract molecular level.
Below the atomic level is the level of the elementary particles, which are fewer than the kinds of atoms, and again, their properties are quite different from those of the atoms, and it is their interaction with one another that creates the atoms. The properties of the atoms emerge from the properties, and interactions , of the elementary particles. Similarly, the properties of molecules emerge from the properties and interactions of the atoms that make them up. At every level it is the interaction between the components of a system that give rise to the special attributes of the system. As we go up the hierarchy, we get more individuality and more complexity, and the systems or objects are more concrete and less abstract. In the other direction, we get to more abstract, simpler and less diverse levels, as our examples have shown.
Of course, in the times of the Mutakallimūn, and certainly in the days of the great Greek philosophers who first proposed the existence of atoms, this layered structure was not known. Consequently, all they had to work with, it seems, were substance and accidents. The substance was the atoms, and all the variety lay in the accidents. Since all the atoms were the same, there was no theory under which they could combine to form real systems, especially as each atom seems to occupy one atom of space at every atom of time. This is not a criticism of anyone of that era – the understanding of the importance of interactions in creating the hierarchical structure of the objective world came much later in the development of thought, and especially scientific thought.
As we have discussed many times in these drashes, Pure Consciousness is the ultimate basis of all of creation. Pure Consciousness is likened to the Unified Field of physics. In physics, all forms and phenomena are seen as complex patterns of vibration of the Unified Field – that is, they exist “within” the Unified Field as it were, and they are made up of nothing but the Unified Field. It is the self-interacting nature of the Unified Field that gives rise to all these complex patterns. For example, on the level of individual fields, the electron field interacts with the photon (electromagnetic) field. From the Unified Field perspective, we have the one Unified Field self-interacting – that is, the equations governing the Unified Field are non-linear – there are feedback loops built into its structure that allows it to create phenomena that would not be possible were those loops not there. So on the surface level, systems are created by interacting parts. On the Unified Field level, systems are created by the Unified Field interacting with itself.
It is this Self-interaction that gives us our analogy to Pure Consciousness. Pure Consciousness is transcendental to all its expressions. On its own level there is nothing other than itself to be aware of. This Self-referral nature of Pure Consciousness is the basis of all of its expressions, as Pure Consciousness plays the role of both Observer and Observed. As we have discussed, this virtual duality within Pure Consciousness ramifies into further loops and eddies that we perceive as the forms and phenomena of creation. Just as everything we see in the physical world is described as being the virtual fluctuations of the Unified Field within itself, so all of creation is just the patterns of fluctuations of Pure Consciousness within itself. All the hierarchy of systems that we see around us are just consciousness enjoying all the limitless possibilities inherent in its own nature.
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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 even 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