Parshiyyot Matot-Masei 5785 – 07/26/2025
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.
Matot: Bamidbar 30:2 – 32:42
Massei: Bamidbar 33:1 – 34:29
Rambam continues the chapter with a detailed critique of the whole program of the Kalām as he summarized in the passages we discussed last week. It is a long passage and I will try to summarize the arguments.
First, Rambam points out that some philosophers in the Kalām tradition do not agree that each atom with its accidents need to be (re)created at every moment in time. Some accidents can last for more than one atom of time, although according to Rambam, they posit no rule by which we can determine which accidents are fleeting and which lasting. The reason that they take this position is that they wish to hold that there is no such thing as nature, and any appearance of regularity is due to Gd’s creating atoms and their accidents in a sequence that gives the appearance of regular nature.
This, of course, is the direct opposite to the assumptions of modern science. The fundamental premise of science is that there is an object nature, which has its specific laws, and that these laws can be discovered by analyzing the patterns that we see in nature. In the case of objective science, we observe nature by measuring it – measurement means comparison to a standard, e.g. a meter stick or a stopwatch or the like. These comparisons can then be expressed by numbers, and the laws of nature are expressed as mathematical expressions that relate these numbers. Based on these mathematical expressions, numerical predictions can be made about future events, and those predictions checked against the actual measurements made. Based on the degree of accuracy of the predictions we judge the validity of the proposed laws.
In such a system, while we may acknowledge that Gd created the system (along with the fundamental constants of nature, such as the charge of an electron), once the system is created, we do not have to rely on Gd’s continuous creation of the system – it seems to be self-sufficient and able to run on its own. In the words of Laplace (1749-1827), “I have no need of that hypothesis.” In fact, an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence is sometimes called a deus ex machina – “a Gd from outside the machine.” It makes it a lot harder to explain the miracles (say those recorded in the Bible) with this assumption, and in fact for centuries various thinkers have tried to explain away miracles as unusual confluences of natural causes, generally with limited success.
It seems that a complementary approach is needed. As I’ve been writing this I’ve also been listening to a class on the Book of Proverbs. In chapter 3, verse 19 it says, Hashem founded the earth with wisdom; He established the heavens with understanding; through knowledge the depths were cleared and the heavens dripped dew. In other words, wisdom, knowledge and understanding – what we might call “science,” are the mechanism by which Gd creates nature. In the world of Proverbs, wisdom is Torah, and Torah, as we have discussed, resides within our Pure Consciousness, the blueprint or template of what we call manifest creation. Therefore, we can find out both about nature and about Gd by studying the laws of nature in physics and chemistry etc. This is transcending – going from the outside in. We can also transcend directly, experience the dynamic, internal, virtual activity of Pure Consciousness, and from that learn about the outer universe. As I have opined before, this is true Torah study, on the basis of which diving into Biblical and Rabbinic literature is most fruitful.
Where we run into trouble is when we try to figure out (even from Scripture) how Gd runs the universe, and then extrapolate from that to declare how the universe actually operates. Until we rise to the level of Vedic cognition, we will not know the laws of nature from inside ourselves – and we have only our intellects to try to figure out Gd’s intellect. This is a non-starter of course – human intellect will never be at the level of Gd’s intellect: as far as the heavens are above earth, so are My thoughts above your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9 – this is part of the haftarah for minchah on a public fast day). Therefore, to try to work from knowledge of Gd’s ways to the ways of nature is not a fruitful way to go. A history of the Catholic Church’s interactions with Galileo should be sufficient warning. Furthermore, when religious dogma clearly and obviously contradicts sensory data, it only leads religion into disrepute.
Rambam spends the rest of the section dealing with other objections to the premise that accidents last only a moment and that Gd creates the entire universe at every moment in time, and concludes: With regard to beliefs of this kind, it has been said in my opinion and in that of everybody endowed with an intellect: “Or as one mocketh a man, so do ye mock him (Job 13:9) – this being in truth the very essence of mockery.
I think we’re ready to go on to the 7th premise next week.
Chazak! Chazak! V’Nitchazeik!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Matot-Massei
Why are the parshiyyot “Matot and “Massei” combined? “Matot” means literally “wooden staff” but figuratively a tribe of Israel. “Massei” means “journey.”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe comments (https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/92383/jewish/Matos-Masei-Home-and-Away.htm) that during prayer people are like branches of the divine tree and we are at home but outside of prayer we are like wooden staffs, people in exile from the “King’s Palace.” We need to be firm and strong to do right action so we journey home.
In Matos, there is a discussion of vows, when they can be annulled and when they must be kept. We can think of the time when a vow can be annulled as a time when we are connected to the tree and we have the supple nature of a live branch. The time when the vow must be kept is a time when we are like a wooden staff: we must be firm and strong to keep the vow.
Parashat Matos begins with Moses declaring that Gd has said whatever we vow to Gd to do or to refrain from doing, we must do or refrain from; the exceptions are a daughter’s vow may be annulled by her father and a wife’s by her husband at the time of hearing the vow. Rashi adds a third and fourth source of annulment, based on the fact that Moses spoke these words to the princes and not to all Israel: a single expert may annul (The Lubavitcher Rebbe says “a sage”) or three laymen.
I found the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s discussion particularly helpful: he presented the view that we need to bind ourselves to Gd as the Wholeness and let nothing stand between us and the Will of Wholeness so we are always knowing it and doing it. Similarly, we need to betroth ourselves to Gd and do Gd’s Will so the bondage of the world is annulled, and we rise to the state of marriage to Gd, to Oneness, with the “children” of our marriage being our good deeds.
We must rise to the level of marriage with Gd in which with Gd’s help we annul the bonds that keep us and our world in illusion, concealing Gd’s Presence: We become Live Branches on the Divine Tree, no longer wooden staffs.
“…nullifying in himself and the world, the masks of illusion that hide G d’s presence from man. And this power is “retroactive,” that is, beyond the normal limitations of time and space. Just as a vow binds and an annulment breaks the bond, so he, with the help of Gd, releases the world from its bondage, from falsehood, finitude and the concealment of Gd.
Torah Studies: Mattot
”Matos
Matos also deals with a battle: here again when we are facing challenges that isolate us from Wholeness, we must be supple branches of the Tree of Life and also firm like a wooden staff so that we are not lost in the fragments of life but experience Wholeness, draw on Wholeness and transform challenges and battles into opportunities to stay connected to the Tree or return to it if we are in exile.
Our Tradition helps us move in this direction.
Massei deals with journeys, battle, apportioning land, cities of refuge. Gd chooses Joshua and Eleazer and a chieftain from each tribe to apportion the land. Why did Gd choose Joshua and Eleazer to lead to the Promised Land, destroy the inhabitants and apportion the Land even though they were less than Moses, a prophet never equaled in the life of Israel?
The same principle that the Lubavitcher Rebbe uses in reference to annulment of vows by father or betrothed or husband, applies here:
Neither Moses nor Joshua nor Eleazer was the real leader, the real shepherd, the real High Priest: Gd is the Leader, the Shepherd, the High Priest.
As David puts it in Psalm 23 “The Lrd is my Shepherd, I shall not want; he leadeth me to lie down in green pastures, besides the still waters. He restoreth my soul…”
And in Joshua I:5-9, Gd puts it this way to Joshua:
“5 No man shall stand up before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you. I will not weaken My grasp on you nor will I abandon you.
6 Be strong and have courage; for you will cause this nation to inherit the land that I have sworn to their ancestors to give to them.
7 Just be strong and very courageous to observe and do in accordance with all of the Torah that Moses My servant has commanded you. Do not stray therefrom right or left, in order that you succeed wherever you go.
8 This book of the Torah shall not leave your mouth; you shall meditate therein day and night, in order that you observe to do all that is written in it, for then will you succeed in all your ways and then will you prosper.
9 Did I not command you, be strong and have courage, do not fear and do not be dismayed, for the Lrd your Gd is with you wherever you go.” Translation from chabad.org
Moses, Joshua and Eleazer are not merely historical figures. They are also levels of consciousness within us and symbolic of aspects of our physiology. So Gd guides Joshua and Eleazer as Gd guided Moses and all that they do is Gd’s Will – perfect!
And when we open ourselves innocently to Gd, to Wholeness, Oneness – our actions are fully guided, perfect!
Prayer, Torah reading, good actions and the various spiritual practices we do lead us on our journey from exile in individuality to Fulfillment as Wholeness.
Baruch HaShem