Parashat Vayeshev 5786 – 12/13/2025
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.
Bereishit 37:1-40:23
Continuing with Rambam’s 25 premises:
18. Everything that passes from potentiality to actuality has something other than itself that causes it to pass, and this cause is of necessity outside that thing. For if that cause were that thing and there were no obstacle to prevent this passage, the thing would not have been for a certain time in potentia, but would have always been in actu . If, however, the cause of the passage from potentiality to actuality subsisted in the thing, and if there was at the same time an obstacle to it, which was subsequently completely removed, there is no doubt that the factor that put an end to the obstacle is the one that caused that potentiality to pass into actuality, Understand this.
The point here is very similar to the point Rambam makes regarding motion. In the case of motion, Rambam states that everything that moves must have a mover. Along with the premise that there can be no infinite chains of causes, this leads us to the idea that there must be a Prime Mover, which Rambam will identify with Gd. In the same way, Rambam speaks of change in general (motion is just one kind of change, namely, change in position) – anything that changes must have something that causes it to change.
The current premise talks about a different kind of change, namely actualization of a potential. This potential could be potential existence – that is something comes into existence that was only a potential object or system. It could also be a characteristic of an object or system, such as a color or a shape – in Rambam’s terms, an accident or the system. The point is that there are many, many possible outcomes of any process, and the forces that pick which possibility is instantiated may be both internal and external.
We have discussed in a previous entry that there is an approach to quantum mechanics that embodies this idea that all potentialities are actual, all of the time. To recap briefly, there is a fundamental law that governs virtually all physical processes, called the Law of Least Action. Every process in nature has a starting point and an ending point, and theoretically there are an infinite number of paths to get from start to finish. Each of these paths has a number associated with it, called the action. The path we actually see nature taking is the path for which this number is minimum, hence the path of Least Action. Of all the potential paths, only this one path is actualized.
The great physicist Richard Feynman proposed a quantum-mechanical explanation for this phenomena. He proposed that there is a wave associated with each path, and the number of wavelengths is equal to the action divided by Planck’s constant (which is a very small number). The paths near the path of least action have values of the action very close to the path of least action (think of being in the bottom of a valley – you’re not going up, nor are you going down, when you’re right at the minimum point). Therefore the waves associated with those paths all have just about the same number of wavelengths and they interfere constructively. The paths that are far from the minimum have all different values of the action, and therefore the waves associated with them interfere destructively.
All we see is the path of least action, where there is constructive interference – as if this one path emerges from the ocean of all possible paths. But note that the mechanism for this emergence is the existence of all the other paths in actu , to use Rambam’s term. The paths must really be there in order for the path of least action to emerge from them. In fact, it is only our limited vision that focuses on the path of least action and ignores the other paths. In fact, according to this view of physics, nothing is potential – all potential paths are actually existent, although most are below the threshold of perception in waking state of consciousness. I believe this view is deeper than the principle Rambam just outlined, and I think that when we get into Rambam’s discussion of Gd we will return to it, and we will be able to connect it with the Vedic Science view of Consciousness as the ultimate stuff of creation.
19. Everything that has a cause for its existence is only possible with regard to existence in respect to its own essence. For it exists if its causes are present. If, however, they are not present, or if they become nonexistent, or if their relation that entails the existence of the thing in question has changed, that thing does not exist.
20. Everything that is necessarily existent in respect to its own essence has no cause for its existence in any way whatsoever or under any condition.
These premises remind me of the difference between Aristotelean physics and Newtonian physics. In the ancient world it was believed that in order for a body in motion to remain in motion, it required a force, because the natural (“default”) state of a body was at rest. This seems to be obvious – if the wind dies down, the sailboat stops moving. If something is rolling along a flat surface and you stop pushing it, it will come to rest.
If we look more deeply into the matter, we realize that the propelling force is just overcoming friction, which is itself a force that opposes motion. If we eliminate friction, we get Newton’s First Law of Motion, which states that a body in motion continues in motion in a straight line at a constant speed, unless acted upon by an outside force . (The first clause, that a body at rest remains at rest, is just a special case of the second clause, where the speed is zero.) In other words, the “natural” or “default” state of motion is straight-line, constant-speed motion. This is a more dynamic conception.
The two promises seem to indicate that existence requires a constant force to maintain itself (at least finite existences), as if the default state is non-existence. I think a more holistic view is that Existence is the natural state of life, and that the force of evolution that cause growth and expansion is the default state of existence, rather than just stasis. As Rambam goes on and describes Gd as a “necessary existence,” not depending on anything outside to maintain Himself, I think we will see a way to harmonize the two views. But I am speculating, and getting rather ahead of myself here, and we still have five more premises to go. I hope we can finish this introduction in the next week or two.
Chag Chanukah Same’ach!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Vayeshev
This parshah begins with telling us that “Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojourning, the land of Canaan.” “Canaan” seems to derive from the Hebrew “kana,” to bring into synchronicity.
It seems that “dwelt” is more stable than “sojournings” and we can get a sense that the difficulties that Jacob experienced with his uncle Laban and his brother Esau are now over and he is living peacefully in a land where all the parts work synchronistically, harmoniously.
And yet this peace and harmony are upset when Jacob gives preferential treatment to his son Joseph and more deeply when Joseph angers his brothers by telling them and his father two dreams that seem to indicate he will dominate them.
Despite this break, Gd’s hand is in this as Joseph tells his brothers when his ability to dream and to interpret dreams have led him to become de facto ruler of Egypt (Mitzraim: restrictions) and a famine has forced his brothers and father to leave Canaan, the land of harmony, to obtain food from Egypt, the land of restrictions. Canaan may be both a real land and a symbolic land: the famine may be a famine in the perception of Jacob and his sons that caused them to lose sight of the full harmony of the land. To restore their perception to wholeness, Gd arranges for the brothers to sell Joseph into slavery so that Joseph’s ability to dream has arranged for him to become virtual ruler of Egypt and for Egypt to store up food during the seven full years that he predicted will be followed by seven years of famine.
One way to look at this is that when our perception of harmony is of limited scope, our perception of harmony can be easily broken by misbehavior and then we find ourselves not dwelling, but sojourning, in a land of famine, forced to leave it to struggle for food , material and spiritual, in a land of restrictions, a superficial world that nonetheless allows us to survive, even though not in the harmony we had previously enjoyed.
A message that I draw for myself and for our world is that it is very important that we always act open- heartedly, place Gd/Oneness first, treat everyone fairly, with love, and thus extend the range of harmony we perceive and enjoy, and the range within which we do not mind and fully forgive the seeming offenses of others.
Most importantly, we need to do our best to innocently remind ourselves from time to time that Gd’s Plan may not be clear to our vision and so we need to do our best to be open to whatever comes, to somehow gracefully adapt.
Then we extend the range of Canaan, of harmony, to include the realm of Egypt/Mitzraim, restrictions and harmony prevails–Jacob in our souls is “Israel” “one who prevails over Gd, embraces Gd” (really, it is Gd within Jacob who prevails over Gd during this stage of Gd’s revealing to Jacob Jacob’s true Nature—Pure Oneness).
With Pure hearts our souls and our world return to awareness of the Oneness that Is Always All There Is.
Today! Let this happen today for everyone, all souls, today and let it last unendingly!
Baruch HaShem.