<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Aspaqlaria</title>
</head>
<body>
<style type="text/css">
h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;}
div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul {
list-style-type:square;
padding-left:1em;
}
div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote {
padding-left:6px;
border-left: 6px solid #dadada;
margin-left:1em;
}
div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li {
margin-bottom:1em;
margin-left:1em;
}
table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active {
color:#000099;
font-weight:bold;
text-decoration:none;
}
img {border:none;}
</style>
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Times New Roman, Times, serif;line-height:140%;font-size:12px;color:#000000;">
<table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%">
<tr>
<td width="99%" style="vertical-align:top">
<h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;">
<a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp" title="(http://www.aishdas.org/asp)">Aspaqlaria</a>
</h1>
</td><td width="1%"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table id="itemcontentlist" style="clear:both;padding-top:.5em;border-top:1px solid #999;">
<tr>
<td style=" margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;">
<p xmlns="" style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;line-height:115%;">
<a style="font-family:Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/314099072/types-of-thought-gender-differences.shtml">Types of Thought: Gender Differences</a>
</p>
<p style="font-size:12px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Times New Roman, Times, serif;line-height:140%;font-size:12px;">
<span>Posted:</span> 17 Jun 2008 04:31 PM CDT</p>
<div style="margin:0;font-family:Times New Roman, Times, serif;line-height:140%;font-size:12px;color:#000000;"><p>In a <a title="Kibbush and Chizuq" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2006/11/chayei-sarah-kibbush-and-chizuq.shtml">post on <em>parashas </em>Chayei Sarah</a>, I included R’ Aharon Soloveitchik<sup><em>zt”l</em></sup>’s take on gender differences as reflected in <em>halakhah</em>. Men have an overly strong sense of <em>qibbush</em>, to conqure and subsue, women have a better balance with <em>chazaqah</em>, making and developing.</p>
<p>In this post, I would like to add Rav Hirsch’s (RSRH) take, which I believe dovetails quite well with Rav Aharon’s.</p>
<p>First, his translation of Tehillim 45:14 is “But the king’s daughter is all glorious within, more than the golden borders of her raiment.” As Michael Poppers pointed out, this better fits the hyphenation of “<em>kol-kevudah</em>” as well as the use of “<em>kevudah</em>” not “<em>kevudas</em>“. The commentary reads:</p>
<blockquote><p>“But”, the singer adds with infinite tact and delicacy, “though the princess may appear glorious and splendid in public, she reveals her true glory in quiet, more private circles, and the splendid qualities she shows there are much greater than the exquisite beauty of the gold borders which shine at the hem of her garment.” Penimah “within,” is always used to designate an inner recess as opposed to the outer chambers.</p></blockquote>
<p>What may better capture RSRH’s position is his comments on “<em>peru urvu umil’u es ha’aretz <strong>vikvishuhah</strong></em> — be fruitful and multiply and fill the world <strong>and subdue it</strong>” in Judaism Eternal, ch 11 (The Jewish Woman).</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Vikvshuha </em>is read malei [full, ie with the vav], but written chaseir [deficient]. In other words, while it is read as though both should participate in conquering the world, it’s written “<em>vikivshah</em>“, that only one of them should.<br />
… [T]he command to “subdue”, and with it to procure the means necessary for marriage and for founding a household, is addressed only to the male sex, to whose function it belongs to compel the earth through labour to serve the needs of man. Hence the command to marry and found a household has absolute force only for the male sex. Since, however, these commands are after all addressed to both sexes, it is obvious that for the performance of man’s task of building up the world the Law-giver reckoned on the harmonious and equal co-operation of both sexes. Further, by excusing the famale sex from the hard labour of subduing and mastering the earth, … [H]e left it free to be devoted to the higher and more humanistic task of employing the products of man’s labour for the ethical purposes of building up a house and family, that is to say, in the service of his true vocation and his welfare as a human being.</p></blockquote>
<p>Rav Hirsch peaks in terms of “inside” vs. “outside”, community in service of its members, vs the expansion of the community’s domain, reach, and standard of living. The similarity to Rav Aharon’s dichotomy of <em>qibbush </em>extending our reach vs. <em>chazaqah </em>developing what we have is quite strong, although not identical.</p>
<p>For this reason, Rav Hirsch writes, male is called <em>zachar</em>, memory, standard-bearer of history, while female is called <em>nekeivah</em>, that which receives — in this case, a vocation. Yirmiyahu writes, “<em>Ki vara H’ chadashah ba’aretz, nekeivah tisoveiv gever</em> — for Hashem created something new in the world, female surrounds man” (31:21). Ther prophet doesn’t contrast <em>neqeivah</em> with <em>zakhar</em>, female with male, but with <em>gever</em>. <em>Gever </em>is a term for man which focuses on the male tendency for qibush. As the mishnah says, “Who is a hero [<em>gibor</em>]? One who conqures [<em>hakoveish</em>] his inclination.”</p>
<p>It is in this sense of <em>negeivah</em>, along with <em>gever </em>as a figure of <em>qibbush </em>that RSRH uses to explain Yirmiyahu. Man does nothing but provide a foundation, the means; woman’s job is to provide the ends. “And there is a danger that he may completely lost himself in this struggle, that in striving to acquire his means he will lose sight of his real vocation… This is an error which can almost be regarded as the key to all the mistakes made in history. It is then the woman who leads him back to what is truly human in him.”</p>
<hr /><strong>Binah and Da’as</strong></p>
<p>The gemara makes two statements about cognitive differences between men and women.נ</p>
<blockquote><p>נשים דעתן קלות - Women, their <em>da’as</em> are “light”</p>
<p>בינה יתרה נתנה להן - Extra <em>binah </em>was given to them.</p></blockquote>
<p>The fact that women are described as being more focused on <em>binah </em>than on <em>da’as</em> in comparison to men ties this post to t<a title="Types of Thought: Progressions" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2008/06/types-of-thought-progressions.shtml">he previous one</a>. In the following, I take the Tanya’s position on defining <em>da’as</em>, but I use Rav Hirsch to explain <em>binah</em>, since it resembles the Tanya’s but provides more detail.</p>
<p>We described <em>da’as</em> as knowledge. But not simply the memory of ideas, the knowledge that changes how we think. It is thus both <em>da’as</em>, the synthesis of <em>chokhmah</em> and <em>binah</em>, as well as <em>keser</em>, their source.</p>
<p><em>Binah</em> is deductive and inductive reasoning. According to Rav Hirsch, the word is related to <em>livnos</em>, to build, and <em>bein</em>, between, making distinctions. I would suggest from this that each connotation is based on a different kind of reason:</p>
<p>Deductive reasoning builds conclusions from existing ideas. If all people are mortal, and John is a person, John is mortal.</p>
<p>Inductive reasoning divides cases into categories about which we can form rules. If we see one duck and it flies, and another duck and it flies, and another, we eventually concludes that ducks in general fly. (Of course, someone could similarly conclude that all birds fly, until his case collection includes an encounter with an ostrich or penguin.)</p>
<p>In what way is there a conflict between <em>da’as</em> and <em>binah</em>? <em>Da’as</em> limits our modes of thought. In thinking the way one is supposed to for a discipline, one may be more accurately working within the discipline, but one will be blind to an answer if it happens to fall outside the discipline.</p>
<p>Only men can serve on a court, both for deciding cases, and in the legislative and interpretive capacity of courts of men with Moses-derived ordination. And from there, we have rules about only men giving <em>hora’ah</em> and only men testifying to those judges in questions of guilt. (Anyone can testify about the permissibility of an object, which is why I can rely on my wife in the kitchen.)</p>
<p>Making <em>halakhah</em> is a discipline, following the laws of how to make laws. Thus, it’s relegated to men. The greater creativity and deductive ability of a woman’s <em>binah</em> doesn’t produce a more right answer. However, when it came to aggadic issues, where the criterion is truth, not legal process, it was the women who historically saved the Jewish People from major errors — from their unwillingness to follow the men in building the golden calf until “<em>neqeivah tesoveiv gever</em>“.</p>
<hr />
So far, I’ve made a hash of things. I took ideas from people who contradict on how they define different terms, and blended their ideas together on the terms in which they agree. In the next entry, <em>be”H</em>, I will try to provide a more dictionary-like collection of the words for various types of thought.</p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.5.1&publisher=f8bf82e5-151c-4e02-87c9-d87bfa760e3e&title=Types+of+Thought%3A+Gender+Differences&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aishdas.org%2Fasp%2F2008%2F06%2Ftypes-of-thought-gender-differences.shtml">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Aspaqlaria?a=su9LiI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Aspaqlaria?i=su9LiI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Aspaqlaria?a=zf17fI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/Aspaqlaria?i=zf17fI" border="0"></img></a>
</div></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table id="footer" style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp">Aspaqlaria</a>
<br>To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailunsub?id=4187981&key=cQD876uioH">unsubscribe now</a>.</td><td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner</td>
</tr>
<tr xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Inbox too full? <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Aspaqlaria"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" style="vertical-align:middle" alt="(feed)"></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Aspaqlaria">Subscribe</a> to the feed version of Aspaqlaria in a feed reader.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;" colspan="2">If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: Aspaqlaria, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>