Parshiyyot Matot-Mas’ei 5786 – 07/11/2026
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.
Matot: Bamidbar 30:2 – 32:42
Mas’ei: Bamidbar 33:1 – 34:29
Rambam now turns to the issue of whether the universe was created in time. He identifies three opinions on the matter:
1. The Jewish opinion, based on Genesis, which is that the universe and everything in it was created from nothing by Gd at a particular instant. Time itself is part of this creation.
2. The philosophers’ opinion, that creation out of nothing is impossible, and the heavens and heavenly bodies are subject to generation and dissolution.
3. Aristotle’s opinion, which agrees that creation out of nothing is impossible, but holds that the heavens are not subject to generation and dissolution.
He begins with the first opinion, which is the one he will presumably champion:
The first opinion, which is the opinion of all who believe in the Law of Moses our Master, peace be on him, is that the world as a whole – I mean to say, every existent other than Gd, may He be exalted – was brought into existence by Gd after having been purely and absolutely nonexistent, and that Gd, may He be exalted, had existed alone, and nothing else – neither an angel nor a sphere nor what subsists within the sphere. Afterwards, through His will and His volition, He brought into existence out of nothing all the beings as they are, time itself being one of the created things. For time is consequent upon motion, and motion is an accident in what is moved. Furthermore, what is moved – that is, that upon the motion of which time is consequent – is itself created in time and came to be after not having been.
Genesis 1:1 says Bereishit bara Elokim et ha-shamayim v’et ha-aretz. This is variously translated In the beginning Gd created the heavens and the earth [KJV] or When Gd began to create heaven and earth [Rashi]. In either of these translations, there appears to be an element of time. “In the beginning” is an expression of time, as is “When Gd began.” Both of these indicate a beginning of some kind, and when we think of a beginning we naturally think about what happened before. (Incidentally, the Rabbis roundly condemned those who would speculate about what was before, what will be after, what is above, what is below.)
Nonetheless, as Rambam points out, one of the things that is created out of nothing is time itself. As we discussed a few weeks ago, this comports with the understanding of modern physics. Very quickly after Einstein published his General Relativity (1916), Alexander Friedman showed that one solution to Einstein’s equations was a universe that was expanding. When Edwin Hubble (after whom the space telescope was named) discovered that the universe was, indeed, expanding, the so-called “Big Bang” theory was considered confirmed. The corollary, and source of the name “Big Bang,” is that at earlier times the universe was smaller, and at some billions of years in the past the entire universe, including space and time themselves , were compressed into a point, a singularity of infinite density.
But the main point is that before the Big Bang there was no time – there was just eternity. As Rambam says, “He brought into existence out of nothing all the beings as they are, time itself being one of the created things. For time is consequent upon motion, and motion is an accident in what is moved.” This creation of time means that we can walk history backwards, but when we get to the point of creation we can no longer ask what was “before,” because there is no before at that point.
If we’re talking about the Big Bang, “before” the Big Bang there was no space and no time, and therefore no physics, because physics takes place within space and time. Even if we consider space and time to be part of the dynamics of physics, as General Relativity teaches, if there is no space or time, there are no dynamics at all, and therefore no physics. There are no questions that make any physical sense without space or time. If we are considering the Biblical account of creation, we are again, according to Rambam, left with the conundrum that time itself is a created thing (since it depends on the motion of objects, and is therefore created along with objects), and asking what came “before” creation again makes no sense. Gd is all that there is and is eternal, uncreated, always existing, and therefore transcendental to time.
There have been attempts in physics to resolve this issue. In one interesting proposal, it is pointed out that an absolute singularity would appear to violate the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle – if everything is rolled up into a point, then its “position” is known exactly, which means that its “momentum” is not known at all. What “momentum” would mean if everything is compressed into one point is unclear. The proposed resolution of this is to posit that the beginning of the universe was not a single point, but a very tiny region, with a size given by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle itself. From this point, the idea is that the universe began expanding, and it will expand to a maximum size, then contract to this tiny bundle, then expand again. This is a cyclical view of universal evolution. It is unclear what, if any, information about the structure of the collapsing universe that might be carried into the next “Big Bang.”
In the world of String Theory approaches to Unified Field theory, we start with a multidimensional space, and some of the dimensions get “rolled up” into the observed 3 space and 1 time dimension. In this case, time is indeed something that has been created out of a subtler substrate. I am currently in a seminar on string theory, so perhaps I will soon have a better explanation of this whole area.
We have already seen Maharishi’s take on time and history: “Time is a conception to measure eternity.” Pure Consciousness is eternal, but out of Pure Consciousness comes all of material creation, including time. Maharishi describes the cycles of time in his commentary to chapter 4, verse 1 of the Bhagavad-Gita. These cycles continue on eternally, from creation to creation. If time is part of each creation, then it is possible that each of these cycles had its own timeline, and while the implication is that the various cycles follow one after another, if each has its own time dimension, it is unclear what “one after another” would mean in such a situation.
In all these cases we run into a particular problem. We live and act in time, and it is almost impossible for us to consider any activity outside of time. In fact, of course, activity, motion, change, all imply time. But if time is something created from the timeless, eternal substrate of existence, what does it mean to say the universe was “created in time.” Does “in the beginning” imply a logical beginning, rather than a temporal beginning? Even logic, going from one step to another using the rules of logic, appears to me to have an implicit temporal dimension. Even the notation of logical progression, such as a→b contains a directional arrow suspiciously like the “arrow of time.” It appears to me that any sequential process has a temporal idea at its basis.
Rambam will continue this discussion, and we will pick it up next week Gd willing.
Chazak! Chazak! V’Nitchazeik!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Matot-Masei
Why are the parshiyyot “Matos and “Masei” combined? “Matos” means literally “wooden staff” but figuratively a tribe of Israel. “Masei” 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 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.
Masei 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