Parashat Yitro 5786 – 02/07/2026
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.
Shemot 18:1-20:23
The fifth body, namely, the sphere, cannot but be either subject to generation and corruption – in which case movement would likewise be subject to generation and corruption – or, as the adversary says, not be subject to generation and corruption. If the sphere is subject to generation and corruption, it is the deity, may His name be sublime, Who brought it into existence after its having been nonexistent. This is a first intelligible, for everything that exists after having been nonexistent must have of necessity someone who has brought into existence – it being absurd that it should bring itself into existence. If, however, the sphere has not ceased and will not cease thus to be moved in a perpetual and eternal movement, it follows necessarily from the premises that have been set forth before that the mover that causes it to move in this eternal movement is not a body or a force in a body; it is in fact the deity, may His name be sublime. Thus it has become clear to you that the existence of the deity, may He be exalted – who is the necessary of existence that has no cause and in whose existence in respect to His essence there is no possibility – is proved by cogent and certain demonstrations, regardless of whether the world has come into being in time after having been nonexistent or whether it has not come into being in time after having been nonexistent. Similarly, demonstrations prove that He is one and not a body, as we have set forth before.
Rambam has proven that question of the existence of Gd, and the question of the creation of the universe or its permanent existence, are independent of one another. In particular Rambam has shown that whether or not we find that the universe is eternal or created at some point in time, the existence of Gd as creator can still be established. In Rambam’s time, whether the universe is eternal or not was a matter of philosophical speculation. Nowadays, it is a matter of empirical science.
This independence of a theological question from an empirical question is very significant. Let us hearken back to the Renaissance, where the question of whether the sun revolved around the earth or the earth around the sun, was just becoming a scientific question. The idea that the earth was the center of the universe was, as we have seen, a given in the Middle Ages. Rambam certainly thought it was the case. The Catholic Church made it an article of faith, and arranged their theology around it. Needless to say, this made the Church very invested in a particular assertion. A few centuries later, this assertion would be proven scientifically inaccurate.
Rambam lived in the twelfth century. By the fifteenth, the Copernican revolution was well underway. Very precise measurements of the positions of the planets, the sun and the moon, became harder and harder to describe using the Ptolemaic, geocentric system of cycles and epicycles, and easier to describe using the Copernican, heliocentric system. Kepler refined the ideas by showing that the planets moved around the sun in ellipses, and by the late 17 th century, Newton’s description of gravity allowed us to derive Kepler’s ellipses from first principles. In the meantime, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake (in 1600) and Galileo was forced to recant his heliocentric views. Galileo’s books were banned in the early 1600’s and the ban was not lifted until 1822.
The problem was that the Church based its philosophical position on a question of empirical fact. Since it turned out that they were empirically wrong, the whole underpinning of their position came undone, and that of course could lead to all kind of heresies. The ultimate problem arises when one pins one’s view of life to a set of assertions that don’t match reality. This problem is not confined to the Catholic Church nor to the Middle Ages – one sees it playing out in our newspapers and on television and on the internet. There are those who deny good science to their detriment (and often to the detriment of society and to humankind in general) and there is, unfortunately, plenty of fad-driven pseudoscience as well.
I think it was part of Maharishi’s genius that he recognized that just as the mind and body are connected, so philosophical reality and empirical reality are connected. Every “spiritual” experience has a corresponding state of the physiology, particularly the nervous system. These states can be studied and mapped, providing a concrete correlate to the completely abstract experience of Pure Consciousness. In this way the teachings of Scripture can be grounded in practical reality. As Maharishi has commented, “Yoga is skill in action.” The ultimate verification of knowledge is in the field of knowingness, Pure Consciousness aware of itself, which transcends both subjective and objective means of gaining knowledge. It is only when we are detached from this field that doubts can creep in and verification is necessary.
In the rest of this chapter Rambam reiterates that the point of the Moreh Nevukhim is to elucidate Torah in the light of philosophical truth. Gd willing we will continue with his exposition next week.
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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 learning to play better and better with Gd, the Supreme Player, so that we are restored to the Awareness that Gd is All, plying 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 of 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 makes known Gd’s Primary Teachings and not only Moses but all our ancestors get a view of Gd and hear Gd’s 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 separation dissolves, both from our side and from Gd’s.
This is the level when we are always 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