Yom Kippur 5785 – 10/12/2024
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.
Best wishes to all for an easy and meaningful fast.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah
We are in the period of the aseret y’mei t’shuvah / 10 days of “repentance,” so I want to take a brief look at a couple of points of the liturgy of the season.
One of the great highlights of both the Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur liturgies is the Un’tanneh Tokef prayer. It talks about how all of us pass before Gd and are judged for our past actions, and our fate for the upcoming year. The highlight is when the congregation responds: uteshuvah, utefillah, utzedakah ma’avirin et ro’a hagezeirah / But Repentance, Prayer and Tzedakah avert the severity of the decree.
Here are some things to think about. “The decree” is basically the negative karma we’re going to receive for any wrong actions we may have done, and which must be rectified. The statement in the prayer is that the right action we perform: repentance, prayer and tzedakah, can ameliorate some of this karma, but it appears that it cannot cancel it out altogether. Thinking about it as a physicist (which might be wildly inappropriate!), I think of the karma coming in as a wave. To avoid the wave altogether one must create a wave of the same amplitude, but opposite phase, so that the two waves destructively interfere, canceling each other out. Of course this is very hard to do – on the surface level we can’t really control the phase of a wave, so getting the two to align properly is not possible. We can, however, create positive effects in the atmosphere that can have some ability to offset (avert the severity of) the karma.
That was not my main point though; rather I want to take a look at the three solutions to our karmic problem. I think that they provide a good, step-by-step guide to creating a better life for both the individual and society.
First, teshuvah. The word’s root meaning is “return,” and the common understanding is returning to Gd and to Gd’s Torah. What does it mean to return to Gd? Is it a physical thing? Mental? Emotional? All of the above? How do we accomplish this return? Do we get more stringent in our observance? Do we study Torah for more hours of the day? To a certain extent, all the above are valid approaches. We do want our minds, our bodies, and our emotions to connect with the highest values of life, and our Torah gives us ways to make that connection. By studying Torah, we put our minds in tune with Gd’s Mind, as it were.
But I think there is a deeper meaning to teshuvah. Let’s first ask, who is returning to Gd? We think it’s our individual self, because under normal circumstances, that is the only self we know. But in truth, that small self is not our true self – deep inside our individuality is our unbounded, eternal, universal Self, and it is that Self that really can approach Gd. Our small self is literally too small and too imperfect to approach Gd – it would get swallowed up the way the light of a match gets swallowed up in the bright sunlight. This is something we experience year by year – all our good intentions and resolutions go out the window in the harsh glare of physical reality. Our “repentance,” in many or most cases is just a sham. Because we are still imperfect, finite human beings, any temporary emotional high we get quickly dissipates once we walk out of synagogue.
Only the unbounded Self can approach Gd. Only when we have transcended all the petty concerns of daily life and established ourselves in infinity, can we begin to stand and enjoy Gd’s infinite light. Only when our mind is completely settled can we begin to comprehend Gd’s Word. Only from this state is our teshuvah real, lasting and effective. And how do we get to this state? We allow the mind to settle down in an effortless manner until we transcend the finest level of thought and become our true Self. So by returning to the Self, we create a situation where we naturally return to Gd.
Second, tefillah, prayer. The word “to pray” is l’hitpallel, which is a reflexive form, literally meaning “to speak to oneself.” The common understanding of prayer is that it is a conversation with Gd. I think we can understand this in the same way that we looked at teshuvah. Speaking to our self should be read as “speaking to our Self” – in other words, bringing the mind into contact with the Self, which is Pure Consciousness. With repeated experience of Pure Consciousness, this Self becomes a permanent feature of our awareness, along with the activity of our individuality. Our infinitely expanded, settled state of awareness then becomes the basis for a conversation with Gd. Since our thoughts are now coming from the infinite reservoir of consciousness at the basis of our awareness, they can reach Gd with their full power intact, and without any distortion. More to the point, since our thoughts are coming from what Maharishi describes as the home of all the laws of nature, they are perfectly in accord with Gd’s Will. So tefillah, based on teshuvah, also ameliorates any incoming karma.
Finally tzedakah, which is generally translated as charity, but is really closer to justice. When we give charity to a poor person, we are giving our resources to the poor person because we feel like it, out of pity perhaps. Not so tzedakah – when we give tzedakah to a poor person we are acknowledging that all our resources are from Gd, and it is up to us to redress imbalances in resource distribution. Tzedakah is a mitzvah, and the semi-autonomous Jewish communities in Europe actually taxed people for their tzedakah obligations. The point of this mitzvah, besides the obvious and immediate advantages to the recipient, and the advantages to society that the poorest members can be sustained and can contribute, also has the advantage to the giver of releasing him, to some extent, of his bondage to the physical, surface values of life. Of course, this detachment is much easier to realize when one knows his or her true Self to be unbounded, eternal, and transcendental to all of finite creation. This state of consciousness is cultured primarily by t’shuvah / transcending and also by tefilliah, where we consciously reflect on our infinite status vis-à-vis Gd’s even greater infinite status. In that state all of our action becomes tzedakah, justice, bringing order wherever there is disorder.
Maybe we can look at this sequence as handling the transcendent (teshuvah), thought (tefillah) and action (tzedakah), all in the direction of perfection of human life. When we reach that level of perfection, we are impervious to any negative influence, even those we may have created earlier in our development. The decree may still be there, but it has lost its sting.
At lunch on Rosh haShanah our Rebbetzin read a beautiful piece on Psalm 27, which is recited after the morning and afternoon services between the first of Elul and Shemini Atzeret. In this Psalm, King David says, achat sha’alti me’et Hashem, otah avakesh, shivti vet Hashem kol y’mei chayai / One thing do I ask of Gd, that I seek – to dwell in the house of Gd all the days of my life. The writer, a busy Jewish mother and an educator, asks – only one thing?!? I have a million things to ask for – my kids’ health and learning, keeping my household in order, success in teaching my students, etc. etc. etc. She comes to the conclusion that really, if one is dwelling in the house of Gd, that is all one really needs to be fulfilled. I would just add that the house of Gd is really the transcendent, and if we have that, we really do have everything, because our thoughts and actions have the support of all the laws of nature, and therefore everything that we need and everything we want to accomplished, is handled simply and naturally. As Maharishi used to say, if we want to control all the resources of a territory, don’t run after one and then the next. Just capture the fort that rules the territory and the whole territory is yours!
G’mar chatimah tovah!