Parashat Vayikra 5786 – 03/21/2026
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.
Vayikra 1:1-5:26
Rambam continues discussing angels. Returning to our citation from last week:
As for his [i.e. Aristotle’s] saying that these separate intellects are also intermediaries between Gd, may He be exalted, and the existents, and that it is through their intermediation that the spheres are in motion, which motion is the cause of the generation of the things subject to generation: this too is the textual teaching of all the books.
Rambam associates angels with “separate intellects.” He further elaborates:
Now our discourse here shall deal only with the angels, who are separate intellects. For our Law [i.e. Torah] does not deny the fact that He, may He be exalted, governs that which exists here through the intermediation of the angels. Thus there is the text of the Sages with reference to the dictum of the Torah [Gen 1:26]: Let us make man in our image, and its dictum [Gen 11:7] Come, let us go down, which dicta are in the plural. They [i.e. the Sages of the Talmud] said: The Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, does nothing without contemplating the host [pamalya] above. Marvel at their saying contemplating, for Plato uses literally the same expression, saying that Gd looks at the world of the intellects and that in consequence that which exists overflows form Him.
It took me a while to coax Microsoft Bing to give me information about “separate intellects.” It actually gave me some very interesting information about a “unified intellect” which I will discuss below. But eventually I found a paper that explains it at (PDF) GUIDE 2:4 THE ARISTOTELIANS’ THEORY OF THE SEPARATE INTELLECTS AND THE SOULS OF THE SPHERES. There are 9 spheres (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon among the planets, plus the sphere of the fixed stars and the outermost sphere, which controls the movement of all the one it contains), and corresponding to them, 9 separate intellects. Rambam discussed (see our entry for Ki Tisa of this year – two weeks ago) that since the motion of the sphere (circular motion) is quite distinct from the natural motion of the four elements – air and fire to rise and earth and water to fall – there must be some internal motivating force that causes them to move in the manner in which they do (and, in the case of the planets, which sometimes go retrograde, that motion can appear quite complex). This internal motivator Rambam calls the soul. Thus, since the spheres are, in a way, living creatures, he dubs them separate intellects.
It seems to me that there may be a correspondence between “separate intellect” and “individual consciousness.” When we think of intellect in terms of Vedic Science, we are talking about a particular faculty of the mind, particularly, the analytic faculty which takes things apart and investigates the parts and their interrelationships. It can give us knowledge all the way to the boundary of the transcendent; in the transcendent itself there are no parts and no separation, so no place for the intellect per se. Similarly, in Jewish thought, the intellect (binah) is that which distinguishes between (bein) one thing and another. It is one of the sefirot, or Divine emanations, and is paired with chochmah (wisdom), the intuitive power to grasp something as a whole. Thus we have analysis (intellect) and synthesis (wisdom) together to give whole knowledge.
If I am correct, then what Rambam (and presumably Aristotle) are describing are the most subtle, inclusive and powerful levels of consciousness. The spheres control the activity of the lower worlds (i.e. our earth), and all the individual consciousnesses within it. If people have consciousness, then whatever is “above” people must have consciousness too! As we proceed up the hierarchy the consciousness gets more and more expanded and universal, because as we go up the hierarchy the individuals have more and more control over what goes on below them. At the top of the hierarchy, of course, is Gd, Who is completely universal and controls everything in Creation, and Whose Consciousness must also be completely universal. Gd, of course, is not an angel, nor anything else in creation, and therefore Gd’s Intellect, if we can speak of such a thing, must not be a “separate” Intellect, in the sense that Gd is not separated from anything in creation. On the other hand, since Gd is transcendental to all of creation, His Intellect is the ultimate “separate” intellect, in the sense that the transcendent is detached from and completely beyond, all of creation. We will return to this apparent paradox shortly.
We know from our experience with TM that we each have an individual consciousness and there is also a universal value of consciousness, Pure Consciousness, which we can infuse into our individual awareness. We first experience it as Transcendental Consciousness during meditation, when it is the total content of our experience. When it is fully established along with the individual consciousness (waking, dreaming and sleeping), we experience as the universal, infinitely silent aspect of our personality, while the individual aspects of our personality (senses, mind, intellect, ego) continue acting in the world of activity. This is Cosmic Consciousness. When our perception rises to the point that all outside objects are also perceived in their infinite value, then everything, the full range of our subjective world and the full range of the objective world, is evaluated as one, unbroken, unified field of Pure Consciousness. This is Unity Consciousness. Each individual consciousness is then evaluated as a reflection of the unbounded Pure Consciousness. That is what we are, that is what everyone and everything is.
Now interestingly, this idea had already been put forth by the Greeks, and picked up by their medieval successors, Jewish, Muslim and Christian. It has been named monopsychism in recent times. “Monopsychism is the doctrine that there is only one intellect or soul shared by all human beings, rather than numerically distinct intellects in each person. In its most influential formulations, monopsychism concerns the intellective soul—the faculty responsible for universal, abstract thought—rather than sensory or vegetative functions” (Source: “monopsychism” – Philopedia). It would seem that monopsychism is the opposite of the idea of separate intellects, or individual consciousness, but I think that the two are compatible.
The level of Pure Consciousness corresponds to this one intellect that is shared by all human beings, and indeed, is the most fundamental level of all existent things. But when Pure Consciousness structures itself into human nervous systems, each of those individual nervous systems reflects a different aspect of Pure Consciousness, and we experience those reflections as individual consciousness – separate intellects if you will. Consciousness is universal, but it is also particular, and it is in the human nervous system that both aspects of consciousness can coexist.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Vayikra
“Vayikra” means “and He Called.” Gd called to Moses to describe to him the Five Offerings- “Offerings” in Hebrew is “korbanot” which means “draw near.” Through our open hearts, sharing our love and our resources we limited beings draw near to Gd, the Unlimited.
The Five Offerings (Korbanot):
Ascending Fire: to atone. To be At One
Meal: a gift from one whose life is dedicated to generosity.
Peace: made when making peace with others by dedicating one’s life to Gd.
Trespass: to compensate for unintentional infringement on others’ rights.
Sin: pay in full the debt of one’s unintentional failures and weaknesses, failures of one’s personality.
“Atonement” means “at-Onement” – restoring our awareness so we remember that we are a fascinating role that Gd is Playing within Gd. What we really offered when we offered the physical offerings in the days of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and of the First and Second Temple was ourselves: we offered the limits of ourselves to Gd to dissolve them in the Fire of Love so as to restore us to Wholeness, Oneness, Fulfillment.
This is what we do today when we use prayers instead of physical offerings: we offer our limits to Gd to Dissolve them in the Fire of Love and to Restore us to Wholeness, Oneness, Fulfillment.
And this is what we do today, whether formally praying or in the midst of the rest of the activities of our life: Through our right actions in any way, we draw near: we draw near with our innocence, our naturalness, our kindness, our gratitude. We draw near with our simple, easy life that seeks to be in attunement with Gd and Gd’s Will, seeks to easily (but quickly!) return to Primordial Oneness, beyond the duality of Gd and soul, the Oneness within which all multiplicity exists as expressions.
Ahhh! Little by little: and suddenly! Home free! Home!
Baruch HaShem.