Parashat Yitro 5785 – 02/15/2025
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.
Shemot 18:1-20:23
Rambam, having established that we can learn something of Gd’s ways by studying His creation, now proceeds to outline the structure of that creation. What he presents in Chapter I:72 is an Aristotelian / Ptolemaic view of the structure of the world. Now we tend to pooh-pooh this view as naïve and wrong-headed compared to our more “advanced” knowledge, and indeed the mathematical sophistication of our models is impressively accurate. However, it must be said that to the limits of observability in its time, the Ptolemaic system was also impressively accurate, even though the assumptions on which it was based were substantially different. What I would like to do for this chapter is to outline Rambam’s descriptions of creation and contrast it with the description of modern physics. In some cases, I think we will see some striking parallels, albeit in very different language. We may also be able to look at the Ptolemaic system as a description of subtler layers of creation. This is going to be a voyage of discovery for me, and I invite your feedback.
Rambam begins by describing the structure of creation as a whole:
Know that this whole of being is one individual and nothing else. I mean to say that the sphere of the outermost heaven with everything that is within it is undoubtedly one individual having in respect of individuality the rank of Zayd and Umar. The differences between its substances, I mean the substances of this sphere with everything that is within it, are like unto the differences between the limbs of a man, for instance. Thus just as Zayd, for instance, is one individual and is at the same time composed of various parts of the body such as the flesh and the bones and of various mixtures and of several spirits, the sphere in question as a whole is composed of the heavens, the four elements, and what is compounded of the latter. In that sphere there is absolutely no vacuum; it is solid and filled up. Its center is the sphere of the earth, while water encompasses the earth, air encompasses the water, fire encompasses the air, and the fifth body encompasses the fire. There are many spheres, one contained within the other, with no hollows between them and no vacuum in any way whatever. For they are perfectly spherical and cling to each other, all of them moving in a circular uniform motion in no part of which there is acceleration or deceleration. I mean to say that none of these spheres moves more quickly at some times and more slowly at others. On the contrary, every one of them follows its nature in its velocity and the direction of its motion. However some of these spheres have a more rapid motion than others; the most rapid of all being the motion of the heaven encompassing the universe. This heaven is endowed with the diurnal motion and moves all the other heavens simultaneously with itself, as a part is moved in a whole, for all these heavens are parts of it.
Let’s take this one piece at a time.
Know that this whole of being is one individual and nothing else. I mean to say that the sphere of the outermost heaven with everything that is within it is undoubtedly one individual having in respect of individuality the rank of Zayd and Umar.
Apparently Rambam is not talking about what we would call the wholeness of life – the perception of Pure Consciousness permeating all levels of creation – in fact, the perception that all of creation is the internal dynamics of Pure Consciousness. Rather, it appears that Rambam is considering the entire creation as one large system, which Gd created and supervises. That is, the system of creation is composed of parts, like a human body, but it a whole that is more than the sum of the parts. The implication is that there is the creation and the Creator, and the two are separate and distinct. Incidentally, this separation between Gd and the creation has a parallel in Maharishi’s description of Cosmic Consciousness. In Cosmic Consciousness, Pure Consciousness is established permanently as our own Self, while the rest of creation is evaluated as non-Self, bounded and finite. There is an absolute separation between the absolute, unchanging Self, and the bounded, ever-changing non-Self.
Thus just as Zayd, for instance, is one individual and is at the same time composed of various parts of the body such as the flesh and the bones and of various mixtures and of several spirits, the sphere in question as a whole is composed of the heavens, the four elements, and what is compounded of the latter. In that sphere there is absolutely no vacuum; it is solid and filled up. Its center is the sphere of the earth, while water encompasses the earth, air encompasses the water, fire encompasses the air, and the fifth body encompasses the fire.
The vision of creation is a set of spheres, with the heavenly objects (the stars and planets, the sun and the moon) embedded in them. The earth is at the center, and the sphere is completely filled, “with absolutely no vacuum.” Now some of this contradicts modern physics, and some of it, in a strange way, seems to be supported by modern physics.
For example, the idea that the earth is at the center of the universe appears to have been dethroned by Galileo some 400 years ago (although the Catholic Church, which proscribed his work and forced him to recant, only came around to admitting this in 1979). In the heliocentric system the sun was the center of the universe and the planet, including the earth, go around the sun. The sun, in turn, was dethroned to a small star on the outskirts of the Milky Way, circling the center of the galaxy. As our understanding grew, especially with Einstein’s General Relativity, we began to understand that the entire 3-dimensional universe is the surface of a 4-dimensional sphere. This is hard to visualize, so think of the 2-dimensional surface of a 3-dimensional sphere. If you pick any spot on the surface and “look” in every direction, it looks exactly the same. We can say that every point on the surface of the sphere is the center of the surface (not the center of the sphere). First, earth was the unique center of the sphere that is the universe. Later it got moved farther and farther to the periphery. Finally, we find that every point in the universe can be considered the center of the universe, which is indeed a great sphere, only it’s a sphere in 4 dimensions. The old view is overthrown, but the new one still retains some elements of the old.
As to the sphere’s being filled up, with no vacuum in it, quantum field theory has something to say about this. In quantum field theory all space is filled with various interacting fields. These fields have various levels of excitations, just like an atom has different levels of excitation. The state of least excitation of the field is called the vacuum state, and it has infinite energy (or so the mathematics tells us, physicists don’t really know what to make of this energy). So the universe is indeed filled up, but it is filled up with the vacuum, which itself is very far from empty!
And in fact, the development of modern physics points to all fields’ being aspects of one Unified Field. All the particles we see, and all the combinations of particles – atoms, molecules, people, stars – are different patterns of vibration of the Unified Field. In fact, it appears that even space and time somehow are generated out of the Unified Field. All of creation is just an expression of the Unified Field, it is nothing but the Unified Field, vibrating within itself. This vision is more like Unity Consciousness, as we have discussed. I think this view of life is beyond the considerations that Rambam is presenting here.
To be continued…
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat Yitro
Yitro, the name of Moses’ father-in-law, means “abundance, plenty.” Supremely Abundant and Plentiful is Gd” so this parshah’s name suggests that even as human beings we can rise to the level of Oneness with Gd, the level of Oneness in which the duality between Gd and us exists as a play, some fun in which Gd plays the role of us and guides us in the fun of earning to play better and better with Gd, the Supreme Player so that we are restored the Awareness that Gd is All, playing the roles of us and all the details of Life.
Yitro was priest of the Midianites – Midian was a son of Abraham and Keturah and his name is commonly translated as “strife, contention.” What kind parents would give their son such a name? Just as “Yisroel” (Israel) is usually translated as “wrestled with Gd” or “prevailed over Gd” yet it is better to translate it as “embraced Gd,” “united with Gd” so it is better to translate “Midian” as “evaluate, judge, play.”
This meaning is especially apt because in this parshah Yitro, hearing the news of Gd’s triumph over Egypt (Mitzraim, “Restrictions”) evaluates this victory, declares that the Gd of Israel is Supreme, and begins to worship Gd and also apt because, using his evaluating ability, he recommends to Moses that he not act as judge in all cases brought to him but that he appoint a hierarchy of judges who can evaluate the less complicated cases and only those which require the full attention of Moses’ Consciousness, need be brought to him. Then Moses, when a case is brought to him can fully “make known Gd’s statutes and teachings.”
This sets up the central portion of Torah, the Divine Situation in which Gd Himself makes known His Primary Teachings and not only Moses but all our ancestors get a view of Gd and hear His Voice.
This Blessing is something Gd has prepared Moses for but the other Children of Israel Gd has not yet fully prepared and so they are frightened and say to Moses (paraphrasing) “You listen to Gd and tell us what Gd says; if we hear Gd directly, we will die.”
They say this after Gd appears to them as Fire, and they hear Gd’s Voice as Gd gives out the fundamental principles of our faith (actually, of any moral life) what are commonly called the “Ten Commandments” but which literally mean “the ten words” or “the ten sayings.” And, though they are guides to Holy Living, they are most importantly descriptions of qualities of Fully Enlightened people.
Moses responds, “Fear not for Gd has come to exalt you in order that Gd’s Awe shall be on your faces and you shall not sin.”
Nonetheless, the people remain away from the mountain, as Gd commanded, while Moses approaches Gd and Gd tells Moses what further to say to the people.
Since the purpose of life is to return to the Primordial Oneness in which the separation between individual and Gd does not exist, we must find some way that we can experience Gd without being afraid and then to dissolve the separation – to not stand in the way when Gd dissolves the separation – between us.
The Ten Commandments/Sayings can be looked at as descriptions of how we live when we are in harmony with Gd and when Oneness dominates in our awareness; they can also be looked at as guides to behavior so that we rise to the level in which the Harmony is Full and the separation dissolves, both from our side and from Gd’s.
This is the level when we are aware that all our behavior is fully an expression of Oneness and even though we appear to each other’s senses as limited individuals, with limited physiologies, in reality we are Totality, All-in-All, Oneness behaving as finite individuals while remaining All.
Just our simple, innocent, decent lives raise us in this direction, return us little by little and in a way, a lot by a lot, to Love, Joy, Wholeness, Oneness.
Our parents, family, friends, teachers, prayer books (siddurs), Torah, words of the wise (Kabbalah), weekly services, special holidays all add extra delight, comfort and speed to this Restoration.
Let’s continue!
Baruch HaShem