Parshiyyot Tazria-Metzora 5785 – 05/03/2025
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.
Tazria – Vayikra 12:1-13:59
Metzora – Vayikra 14:1-15:33
We are back to reading double portions this year. Since Parashat Bamidbar is always read on the Shabbat before Shavuot, the three double portions in Vayikra – Tazria-Metzora, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim and Behar-Bechukotai – are grouped in such a way to achieve this outcome. This year, all three pairs are read as double portions. Shavuot begins in the evening of Sunday, June 1. It is traditional to stay up all night studying Torah on Erev Shavuot.
Rambam’s passage from last week continues:
Accordingly it behooves you to represent to yourself in this fashion the whole of this sphere as one living individual in motion and possessing a soul. For this way of representing the matter to oneself is most necessary or most useful for the demonstration that the deity is one, as shall be made clear. By means of this representation it will also be made clear that the One has created one being. For just as it is impossible that the limbs of a man should exist separately while being truly the part of a man – I mean to say that the liver should exist separately or the heart should exist separately or the flesh should exist separately – so is it impossible that the parts of the world should exist, in this permanent existence with which our discourse is concerned, without one another in such a way that light would exist without the earth or the earth without the heavens or the heaven without the earth.
It appears that Rambam is likening the individual to the cosmos (although he will modify this position shortly) in that both are wholes that are composed of parts, with the whole being more than the sum of the parts. In the same way, the universe is seen as an organic whole made up of various parts, with the whole, again, being much more than the sum of its parts. Rambam implies that the unified nature of the different levels of creation, from its entirety to the individuals that make it up, is due to the Unity of the One Who created the universe, namely, Gd.
In Vedic Science, the ultimate basis of creation is Pure Consciousness, which is an indivisible Unity, not made up of parts – a simple Unity. As we have discussed, such a simple Unity is vastly different from the multiplicity we see around us, that emerges from it. This multiplicity is actually patterns of internal vibration of the Unity. The vibrations come in different levels, from the gross level, which appears to us as the material world, to the subtler levels, to the most subtle level of vibration, which is sometimes called the celestial level. This level is also unified – it is active, but it is like the fundamental vibration of Pure Consciousness, an infinite vibration as Maharishi calls it, and therefore subtly active but still unified and undifferentiated. It is only when the infinite vibration breaks down into lower frequency vibration that we begin to have diversity.
Rambam’s point here seems to be that even in the midst of the diversity we see a unity. This unity is the unity of different parts functioning together as an organic whole – like our bodies, which are composed of different organs, all acting together to allow the organism to fulfill its purpose. The universe as a whole is similar, as we have noted. But there is a deeper level of understanding of the relationship between unity and diversity. When we see that all of the diverse elements of creation are nothing more than Unity itself, expressing Itself to Itself, we no longer have to fall back on the idea that parts, working together, make up a greater whole. Rather, wholeness is not only the primary reality, it is the only reality! The whole process of creation and evolution – that is to say, Wholeness breaking into parts and the parts’ gradual reunification, is no longer necessary. Our vision is dominated by the reality of Wholeness, vibrating within its own nature. In Maharishi’s words from the Science of Creative Intelligence course, we go “here to here through there, which we ultimately recognize as also ‘here’.” This is the reality of Unity Consciousness.
Rambam goes on to introduce Gd into this picture:
In the same way there exists in being something that rules it as a whole, and puts into motion its first principal part, granting it the power of putting into motion, in virtue of which this part governs the things that are other than itself. And if one supposed that this thing had passed into nothingness, it would have to be supposed that the existence of this sphere as a whole, that of its principal and that of its subordinate parts, had also passed into nothingness. For it is in virtue of this thing that the existence of the sphere and of every part of it endures. This thing is the deity, may its name be exalted. It is only with a view to this that it is said of man alone that he is a small world, inasmuch as there subsists in him a certain principle that governs the whole of him. And because of this, Gd, may He be exalted, is called in our language the life of the world . Thus it is said: And swore by the living One of the world (Dan 12:7).
Rambam is working his way from the creation back to the Creator. Above, we discussed that the essential unity of creation reflects the unity of its source, which Rambam here, interestingly, refers to as “the deity.” Now Rambam is certainly not shy about referencing Gd directly, so I’m not sure why he uses this term here. Perhaps it is simply the philosophical idiom of the time, or perhaps he uses this term to denote a “generic” deity, which does not have the specific characteristics of the Gd of the Bible. In other words, we can prove things about Gd without referring to any specific qualities of Gd, except perhaps Gd’s Unity.
In any event, Rambam quickly moves on from “the deity” to Gd, who is likened to the soul, or driving force, in the human being. I imagine that this is the “rational soul,” as opposed to the animal or vegetal souls, which are lower levels that govern the more automatic functions. This rational soul is the part of the human being that, if it shuts down, continued human life is impossible, although perhaps one could be in a “persistent vegetative state,” with only the lower levels of the soul being functional. In the same way, were “the deity” to detach from the world, or, theoretically, to become non-existent, the world would necessarily cease to exist. Gd is the necessary existent for all else to exist, and it is Gd’s functionality that makes the world function.
Of course from Vedic Science we understand that the functionality of Pure Consciousness is on the basis of its Self-Referral nature – consciousness is always conscious, and it can only be conscious of itself, as there is nothing outside it to be conscious of. From this virtual duality comes all multiplicity. But all this multiplicity is nothing other than the internal dynamics of Unity. Thus, Pure Consciousness is the basis of all existence – were it to not exist, nothing would exist, because everything is nothing other than Pure Consciousness.
I would like to make one last point. We have put Rambam’s discussion of Gd and Maharishi’s discussion of Pure Consciousness in parallel. I will point out again that I am not implying that the two are identical. They share many characteristics, and one might argue that if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. When dealing with infinities, however, this is not always so clear. Take the positive integers (there are an infinite number of them) and the positive even integers (also an infinite number of them). The positive integers contain an infinite number of members (the odd integers) that are not even, yet the two sets (positive integers and positive even integers) have exactly the same number of members. (Every positive integer can be matched with its double, which is a positive, even integer, and every positive even integer can be matched back to its half – it’s even, so its half is an integer.) So in the realm of the infinite two things can both look, walk and quack like ducks, but neither is a duck, nor are they the same as one another. It’s also possible we’re using different languages to describe the same thing, which is beyond the ability of any language to describe or define.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Tazria – Metzora
Tazria means “childbirth”: symbolically, the successful completion of any project. This parshah presents Gd’s commands about the states of being unclean and clean and also about the date for celebrating the beginning of a new year. When we are clean, we can enter the Sanctuary and get the added ability to enjoy Gd’s Presence that the Harmonious Nature of the Sanctuary provides. Similarly, it seems to me, a new year provides such an opportunity since it is an opportunity to let go any troubles that might have been veiling our experience of Gd’s Presence.
Oddly, a woman is considered unclean for some time after she gives birth: I say, “oddly,” because considering the Holiness of giving birth, we might expect that a new mother would be particularly clean and therefore most able to perceive Gd’s Presence and most welcome to enter the Sanctuary.
Nechoma Greisman on chabad.org suggests an explanation that makes sense to me: Gd has commanded that a person who touches a dead body is ritually impure; when a woman is carrying her fetus in the womb, she is extra pure – she has two lives. When the child is born, she has only one inside herself, and so there is, in a sense, a loss of life. So, she needs a bit of time and some ritual to feel fully alive again inside herself and not dependent upon her child outside herself to feel fully alive.
Whether this makes sense to everyone, I do not know and I would be very happy to hear from anyone, especially mothers, about its plausibility.
In other areas of our lives – for example, working on some extended project for work, home, service to community – there would certainly be the desire to celebrate when the project is complete but there might also be a feeling of loss, a feeling of emptiness because we no longer have the joy of hope to connect us to Gd’s Presence, we no longer have the silent prayer “Gd, please help!” We have, instead, the joy of fulfillment, but perhaps some loss of the feeling that we need Gd and therefore less attention to the various spiritual practices that we do to connect to Gd.
Hopefully, we don’t have much of a loss, and we don’t have much time before we return to the perspective that what matters most in our life is not the fulfillment of any particular project, even childbirth, but deepening our connection with Gd, restoring our awareness to Fullness, to the experience of Oneness, Wholeness.
Parashat Metzora teaches us the importance of living in love so that we do not set ourselves apart from our neighbors, near and far; we do not speak ill of others and we do not feel that we are better than others. Whatever skills we have, we remember, as the joke goes, “You’re unique, just like everybody else.” It’s only through “loving Gd with all our heart, all our soul, all our might” and “loving our neighbor as our self (our Self)” that we can return to Full Awareness of the Source, Gd, our own Full Nature.
This parshah tells us we need to look at our lives as something we are personally responsible for and that is certainly vital for us to do. It is also vital that we ask what is the source of our thoughts, our decisions, our right actions, our wrong ones? What is the source of our health and our afflictions?
In Parashat Metzora, the angle is that the individual who has an affliction, a skin disease, is personally responsible. True!
But Torah and the parshah do not discuss that the thoughts and actions that lead to health or afflictions come to the individual from the Source the individual does not know. We need to rise to the level of awareness where we are aware of the Source, are One with the Source, are the Source and then our actions as individuals will always be healthy for us and everyone, never harmful, never!
Through love we rise to Love, to Happiness, Joy, Return to Full Awareness of One.
According to a Rabbinic drash, “Metzora”, short for three Hebrew words (motzi shem ra) means “saying bad things about people.” When a person develops skin lesions – incorrectly thought by some to be similar to leprosy – the community takes it as a sign that he has consistently spoken bad things about people and is therefore spiritually impure. Chabad.org comments beautifully that through failure to love he has isolated himself from the community. Part of the healing process is that he should be physically isolated from the community. Gd commands that he stay outside the camp (interpreters comment this has the value of allowing him time to reflect on his immoral behavior, to commit himself to moral behavior and to be healed; some also comment that this protects the members of the community from being further harmed, perhaps infected, by him). It is also a physical reminder of how damaging he has been to himself by isolating himself from his neighbors through his unloving thoughts, speech, actions; and through his conception of himself as greater than others.
When a kohen (priest) goes outside the camp and sees that the metzora is healed of his skin affliction, the process of purifying the metzora‘s whole personality, his soul, begins.
Chabad.org again comments beautifully that by leaving the camp where Gd’s Presence is so manifest in order to see if the metzora has been healed, the kohen is showing great love, he is a great role model for the metzora.
The purification process continues with two birds, spring water in an earthen vessel, a piece of cedar, a scarlet thread and hyssop.
One bird will be slaughtered, its blood put in the spring water in the earthen vessel. The other bird, the cedar stick, the scarlet thread and the hyssop will then be dipped in the water.
Rashi, the most-quoted commentator on Torah, observes that the birds constantly chatter and it is the chatter of the metzora that needs to be purified, restored to loving; the cedar tree is tall and so it symbolizes the haughtiness with which the metzora considered himself higher than others (and through the naturally tall cedar he can naturally be restored to his full height as a human being, an expression of Gd, High without Limit).
One bird is slaughtered: this is the old speech, unloving. The other bird lives: this is the healthy speech to which the metzora now becomes attached.
Spring water is a common symbol of purity and so it symbolizes the purity which the metzora will return to. Earth is a common symbol of Love, of stability, and so it symbolizes the stable love the metzora will return to.
The scarlet thread symbolizes the red tongue, to be purified by dipping it in the water.
Hyssop is a symbol of purity (it was used to paint the blood on doors to protect our ancestors from the plague of the death of the first born) and also a symbol of humility – it was used by our ancestors for so many purposes it serves as a symbol of willingness to serve Gd in whatever way Gd chooses.
Our religion, whatever spiritual practices we do, help us to act purely, to become increasingly aware of our Source, to become increasingly healthy, whole and to prevent ourselves from falling ill.
We have a very loving, joyful congregation, a blessing, a Blessing!
Baruch HaShem.