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Types of Thought: Progressions
 
Posted: 06 Jun 2008 01:38 PM CDT
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/306282495/types-of-thought-progressions.shtml


The first of the requests of the Shemoneh Esrei is Birchas haDa’as, the blessing on understanding.

We first state “Atah chonein le’adam da’as – You grant humanity understanding, um’lameid le’enosh binah – and teach man comprehension.” What is da’as that is chonein, granted freely, whereas binah is taught, and therefore requires that the student participate by learning it? And why is da’as a feature of adam, whereas binah is that of enosh?

The Reisha Rav, R’ Efrayim Levine (HaDerash vehaIyun, Parashas Bereishis), explains that da’as is knowledge

of a single fact. Singular, like Adam, an individual. While “adam” means man, it is not pluralized. On

the other hand, binah is the ability to combine ideas in order to produce new ones. Binah is most effective in

a community, as anyone who studied with a chavrusah experienced. One of the forty-eight ways necessary to acquire Torah listed in Avos is “pilpul hatalmidim – the sharp give-and-take of the students”. (Beraisa Avos 6:6) The usual Hebrew word for people is anashim, plural of enosh. Enosh, Adam’s grandson, was the first generation to consist of multiple nuclear families living together. Adam and Chavah were a unique couple. Their children Kayin and Hevel certainly could not combine into a society, leaving Sheis and his wife as another unique couple. Until Enosh, there was no concept of “society.” Thus, binah was incomplete until Enosh.

Perhaps we can answer our first question by utilizing R’ Efrayim Levine’s idea. Binah requires working

at the idea, the give and take. Da’as may be gifted, but binah cannot be fully absorbed that way. This is the

need for ameilus baTorah, toiling in Torah, “melameid le’enosh binah.”

The Eitz Chayim, the tree-structure of the 10 sefiros of Qabbalah describing how G-ds Good flows down to us, is described either with keser, a Crown that is the source of chokhmah and binah, or it has daas, thei synthesis of chokhmah and binah. We can look at daas either as the product of thought, or as the source for future thought. The da’as of an idea is both what it is upon which binah acts, as well as the conclusion toward which binah works. This might distinguish daas from the realm of zikaron. Its not just knowledge, its knowledge that shapes thought.

Daass role in binah is pretty straightforward. They even teach courses in deductive and inductive reasoning; there are lists on line of common fallacies of reasoning (proof by authority, post hoc ergo propter hoc, etc) Proper reasoning is a skill to be learned. The connection to chokhmah is less obvious. On the right is a famous picture by WE Hill My Wife and My Mother-in-Law (published 1915) that might help. Who one sees in the picture is decided preconsciously by what one brings to the experience. See also my earlier essay Free Will and Environment.

Shlomo Hamelech writes, “Have you found devash - honey? Eat only your limit of it lest you fill yourself and vomit it” (Mishlei 25:16). The Vilna Gaon explains the metaphor of honey, devash, as coming from its being an acronym of de’ah, binah, and seichel (insight). One’s progress in Torah needs to be slow and progressive. “Eat only your limit” – attempting for too much too rapidly invites failure.

The pasuk does not make sense if it means the cerebral and abstract pursuit of Torah. The Alter of Kelm

told a student celebrating his third Siyum HaShas, “It is not a discussion of how many times you have gone

through Shas, but how many times Shas has gone through you.” It is of that kind of Talmud Torah that Mishlei speaks. And it is that kind of self-changing wisdom that we ask for when we request dei’ah, binah, vehaskeil – knowledge (dei’ah), developed through reason (binah) to be applied in one’s life (haskeil).

Someone who tries for results without the skills, for deiah without daas, haskeil without seikhel, tevunah without first aspiring for binah, can not retain either - they get vomitted out.

This version of the text recognizes the progression set up in the opening of the berachah. Adam receives

da’as, Enosh develops it as binah, and request from Hashem that this progression continue into haskeil. However, it has the clause “chaneinu me’itecha – grant us from You,” which does not fit binah, and

certainly not haskeil. Haskeil must be self-developed; people must have the power to shape how they apply their knowledge as action, or else there is no free will.

Perhaps the Nusach Sefarad chose a different progression because this implication is difficult. But it does so at the expense of continuity with the ideas already developed. In Nusach Sefarad, the progression is chochmah, insight, according to the Tanya (Likutei Sichos, ch. 2), the gifted-from-G-d awareness of an idea, raw, undeveloped. This is then developed in binah, and da’as, knowledge, is produced.

Rather than Ashkenaz’s progression from knowledge to action, Nusach Sefarad gives the progression from

inspiration to knowledge. Nusach Ashkenaz focuses on how the intellect is used for self-perfection, sheleimus. Sefaradim and Chassidim speak of knowledge as a flow from G-d’s Divine Wisdom, a connection to Him, temimus. (See also the posts on the forks topic, the difference between the misnageids quest for perfection in the image of G-d and the Chassids life-mission of cleaving to Him.)

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Three Modes of Tefillah
 
Posted: 06 Jun 2008 01:37 PM CDT
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/306282496/three-modes-of-tefillah.shtml


>From Avodah v24 n215, submitted by R Moshe Y. Gluck:

R Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained the Zohar that says that there are three types of Tefillos: Tefillah LAni [the prayer of the poor] is the Tefillah that comes from the depths of the heart, with tears and beseeching, like a pauper begging. This prayer is most accepted before Hashem.

Tefillah LMoshe is with deep thought, and Hisbodedus [self seclusion] about Hashem and Yichudo [His Unity], until one reaches the level of knowing that Ein Od Mlvado [there is nothing but Him]. Tefillah LDovid - who was the Nim Zemiros Yisroel [composer of the pleasant songs of Israel]- is to request closeness to Hashem, Tzamah Nafshi Lelokim [my soul is thirsty for G-d] When one experiences such a feeling, he wants to and is capable of singing with the whole world in the praise of Hashem. (See Perek Shirah.)

Perhaps all three modes were captured by R Eliezer Azikri in the opening line of Yedid Nefesh:

Yedid Nefesh, the Beloved of the soul, was the subject of David haMelekhs thirst. Closeness to His beloved.

Av haRachaman, the merciful Father, reaches out to His child. The pauper appeal to his Father, begging for His loving help.

Moshe pleas meshockh avdekha el Retzonekha, draw Your servant toward Your Will. The quest is for comprehension of that Will. Hashem calls him Moshe avdi  Moses my servant (Bamidbar 12:7), but we dont want to put too much of a fine point on that, since He also speaks of David avdi (Tehillim 89:21), and we find in Hallel David writes I am your eved, the son of your maidservant (ibid 116:16). But it is Moshes prayer in particular that is one of comprehending Hashems will. As in his encounter after the Golden Calf:

וַיֹּאמַר:  הַרְאֵנִי נָא, אֶת-כְּבֹדֶךָ.

And [Moshe] said: Show me, please, Your glory.
וַיֹּאמֶר, אֲנִי אַעֲבִיר כָּל-טוּבִי עַל-פָּנֶיךָ, וְקָרָאתִי בְשֵׁם ה, לְפָנֶיךָ; וְחַנֹּתִי אֶת-אֲשֶׁר אָחֹן, וְרִחַמְתִּי אֶת-אֲשֶׁר אֲרַחֵם.

And [Hashem] said: I will make all My Goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Hashem before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will be merciful to whom I will show mercy.
- Shemos 33:17-19


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