Parashat VaEtchanan 5786 – 07/25/2026
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. The text we are working from is the two-volume translation by Prof. Shlomo Pines, University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Devarim 3:23 – 7:11
Dear readers,
There are a number of short weeks coming up for me. The week of 7/19 is Tisha B’Av. The week of 8/2 I will be heading to Winnipeg for the Bar Mitzvah of my oldest grandson! On 8/31 I will be traveling to Fairfield to bring someone to the last part of the digital TTC, and the week of 9/20 I will be picking him up (Monday of that week is also Yom Kippur). The week after that is Sukkot. What this means is that for the next weeks my entries will probably be a bit shorter than normal, which many may see as a positive development! If need be, we’ll dip into the archives for some oldies but goodies.
Bob
Before we go on to Rambam’s consideration of the other two opinions on the issue of creation in time, I want to comment on a couple of teachings I recently heard. The first is from Sefer haChinuch / The Book of Education, which is a 13 th century Spanish compendium of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, according to Rambam’s reckoning. (There are several lists of the 613 mitzvot , which differ in some details – the Torah itself doesn’t have a numbered list, and interpretations can differ, as can the rules different commentators use to select which mitzvot to count.) The second is the book Mesillat Yesharim / Path of the Upright by R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707-1747), which is a work that delineates the steps to perfection according to Jewish tradition.
Sefer haChinuch lists the 613 mitzvot in the order in which they occur in the Torah. Mitzvah 84 is from Parashat Mishpatim, and is the mitzvah of the Sabbatical Year (Shemittah year). Now the word Shemittah comes from a verb that means “to let go.” Among the laws of the Shemittah year are that the land has to lie fallow, we can’t plow or plant, or even harvest anything that grows on its own. This mitzvah only deals with these agricultural items, but later, the Torah also requires us to cancel any debts we may have outstanding – that is, we forgive any debts anybody owes us. We let go of our land and we let go of our money. (I am reminded of the famous Jack Benny skit where he is being held up at gunpoint. The robber says, “Your money or your life.” No response. The robber repeats his demand. Benny says, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking!”)
Sefer haChinuch writes (Artscroll’s translation):
Among the underlying purposes of the mitzvah is to instill in our hearts and draw a powerful image in our minds of the matter of Creation of the universe – that in six days Hashem made the heavens and the earth (Ex 20:11), and regarding the seventh day, on which He did not create anything, He instructed Moses to write an expression of resting with regard to Himself [i.e., on the seventh day]. [RAR: This next part actually relates to our current chapter in Rambam.] Now, in order to remove, uproot and expunge from our thoughts the notion of an ever-existing universe, that the deniers of Torah believe, and through which they [try to] destroy all of [Torah’s] watchtowers and breach its ramparts, it becomes incumbent upon us to spend all of our [cycles of] time, daily and yearly, to reflect upon this matter – we are to count six years of work and rest in the seventh. The matter of Creation will thus never depart from before our eyes. … Therefore Gd, blessed is He, commanded that we relinquish ownership of all that the land brings forth in this [7th ] year, so that man will remember that the land that brings forth produce for him year after year is not bringing it forth of its own strength and constitution, for there is a Master over it and over its owner, and when that Master so desires, He commands the landowner to relinquish ownership over the produce.
Basically, the point of Shemittah is to recognize that Gd, Who is infinite silence, is the creator of the universe and all the activity in it. Further, it cultivates within us an understanding that all the action we perform is actually not our action, but Gd’s. One is reminded of the verse in the Bhagavad-Gita that Maharishi loved to quote (II:45) nistregunyo bhavarjuna / Be without the three gunas O Arjuna.
The three gunas are the three forces that govern all activity – creation, maintenance and destruction. The instruction to Arjuna is to transcend the entire field of activity and know that his own Self, his essential nature and that of every person, is transcendental, unbounded and eternal. In the process of transcending we let go of the field of action and allow the mind to settle down effortlessly until it experiences the transcendental Pure Consciousness. At that point the mind is devoid of any hint of relative creation. When we come back to the field of activity, some of the transcendental value comes with us and infuses the nature of the mind. With repeated practice, the mind and nervous system are cultured to be able to maintain transcendental Pure Consciousness along with waking, dreaming and sleeping states of consciousness. At this point I think we have reached the level of Shemittah – our Self, which we recognize as transcendental, has let go of the entire creation. It is only our created self – our body, mind, intellect, emotions, ego – that are still involved with the three gunas, without being bound by them.
The Mesillat Yesharim / Path of the Upright is based on a Talmudic passage (“the baraita of R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir”) which lays out the steps to enlightenment. One is reminded of the Eight Limbs of Yoga (Ashtanga Yoga) which are often interpreted as a series of steps to enlightenment. As Maharishi points out, however, these are limbs of the body of Yoga, and the practice of meditation allows them to develop all together, rather than sequentially. I suspect the same is true for R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir’s teaching, but for now I will list the parts as a ladder, as this is what the original does. The first step is zehirut / vigilance . We need to be vigilant to act in accord with Gd’s Will as expressed in Torah, and to avoid transgressing Gd’s Will. Vigilance leads to zerizut / alacrity . We need to be vigilant for mitzvah opportunities and then run to perform them (or in the case of negative commandments, run away from transgressing them). Alacrity leads to nekiyut / cleanliness . Cleanliness means keeping a neat and orderly inner and outer environment. If we come from a place of order, then we don’t waste energy getting our tasks done; we are one-pointed and focused on the action at hand.
Cleanliness leads to perishut / separation or abstinence . This is separation from the relative world, consistent with accomplishing our tasks. The idea is to not get caught up in the pleasures of the world; they are too small to matter compared to the bliss of Pure Consciousness. Abstinence leads to taharah / purity . Repeated transcending allows the nervous system to throw off stress, thereby purifying the system and allowing it to function properly. Purity leads to chassidut / piety. Chassidut is more than what we ordinarily call “piety” – it has the connotation of going beyond the letter of the law. The root is chesed, which is loving kindness. So, at this level, we are overwhelmed with love for all creation, and this gives us the intuition into right action.
Piety leads to anavah / humility . When we experience unboundedness, our petty individual concerns pale in comparison. Moshe Rabbeinu is described in Torah as very humble, more than anyone on the face of the earth . It’s not that Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t know or appreciate who he was. He was perfectly able to stand his ground when necessary (e.g. in the confrontation with Korach). But he was evaluating himself not in comparison to others, but in comparison with Gd. In such a case, humility is the only option. Humility leads to yirat chet / fear of sin . Fear in this context has the context of awe. Fear of sin, in its essence, is a state of consciousness in which violating the laws of nature is impossible, because our awareness is fully expanded, unbounded, eternal, with no personal agenda pulling us away from Gd’s Will. Finally, fear of sin leads to kedushah /holiness . Holiness means wholeness of awareness, a constant connection with the Divine. This is the goal of human life.
I think it’s pretty easy to see how transcending regularly develops all these stages of growth simultaneously. If our mind is clearer, we can be more alert to our surroundings, we can act on our thoughts more quickly and effectively, our brain functioning becomes more coherent and cleaner and orderly. When Transcendental Consciousness becomes more established in our mind we know ourselves to be separate from activity, our nervous system becomes purified, and our heart expands so that waves of love, for other people and for Gd, flow through us. When we get closer to Gd we are constantly humbled and awed by Gd’s greatness, and violating His Will becomes impossible, not so much through fear, but because angering or saddening our beloved Gd is the last thing we would ever want to do. Finally, as our awareness comes on to Unity Consciousness we reach the peak of human existence, which is holiness / wholeness of life.
So, the key to the whole process of growth is to transcend and get out of the field of action, to “be without the three gunas,” and I think this is actually the essence of Shemittah. During the Shemittah year we leave behind all our attachments to the land and its fruits, and, if we have people who owe us money, we withdraw from that asset as well. The essence of Shemittah is letting go, and the essence of letting go is transcending, where we let go of everything – thoughts, perceptions, everything. We become pure soul, pure spirit, our pure Self. That Self is Pure Consciousness, consciousness without anything mixed into it. And the result of this Shemittah that we do twice a day is expansion of our consciousness so that Pure Consciousness is maintained along with our active, individual self. At that point, we can plow and plant, sow and reap, but our state of Shemittah consciousness is real and permanent.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat VaEtchanan (“I entreated”)
Deuteronomy 4
“Play nice; don’t fight.” Momma may have said this to us and our playmates when we were children:
Moses tells us that Gd says it to us always. When we stay together, when we are a community, a nation,
Gd appears to us and leads us out of trouble and into the good land, the Good Land, and which we directly experience that Gd is Gd, there is no other.
“For you are a holy people to the Lord, your God: the Lord your God has chosen you to be His treasured people, out of all the peoples upon the face of the earth.”
וכִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּךָ בָּחַר | יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לְעַם סְגֻלָּה מִכֹּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה:
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 and living though our ancestors were afraid they would die if they even heard one word more of Gd’s voice than they heard when He gave the 10 Statements/Utterances/Commandments at Mt Sinai.
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 so serve Gd, even though this sometimes meant challenging Gd.
This openness meant Moses could be in Gd’s Presence without fear.
This openness meant he was open to the Holiness that is Gd and was, therefore, himself 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 community we have people of many religions, and many who are not much observant of the details of their religion but we have a community that is extraordinarily friendly: “love thy neighbor as thyself, thy Self” is very much the reality of our community. Perhaps from Gd’s point of view, we Jews are a little more loving, a little more friendly, humble, open than others in our community but my perception is not fine enough to say this is so or not so.
I do feel that our religion can be 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 and the Rabbis, our parents, our family, our elders, our teachers, our friends: as we grow in respect and humility, in love and a desire to serve Gd and our neighbors, we lose any fear that might cause us to put obstacles between us and Gd’s Presence: we become open for Gd to reveal Gd’s Oneness within us, and we become Us and we become One.
Lovely! Let us keep doing it!
Baruch HaShem