The Book of Proverbs, the second book of the Writings, is essentially a father talking to his son and teaching him ethics and morals, in general a positive way of life. There is a common motif that threads the entire Book of Proverbs: the relationship between a man a woman. King Solomon describes both men who are good and men who are not so good in their relationship and likewise, women. A good woman is one who is completely loyal to her beloved and there are women who are not so. Learning how to relate and treat a woman is the thread running through the entire book.
In our previous teaching in this series, we drew a correspondence between the three parts of the Bible and the types of intelligence, the faculties of the intellect, and the physical parts of the brain. As we saw, the faculty of wisdom corresponds to the right lobe of the brain, to the first part of the Bible—the Five books of Moses—and to intellectual intelligence. The faculty of understanding corresponds to the left lobe of the brain, to the Bible’s second part, the Prophets, and to emotional intelligence. Finally, the faculty of knowledge, which corresponds to the Bible’s third part, the Writings, corresponds to the back lobe of the brain, which has a right side and a left side to it.
Faculty
Part of brain
Part of Bible
WisdomRight lobe
Five Books of Moses
Understanding
Left lobeProphets
Knowledge
Right side of back lobe
Writings
Left side of back lobe
The left side of knowledge corresponds with the feminine and the right side with the masculine. In the Torah, knowledge means cohabitation with one’s wife thereby fulfilling the Torah’s first commandment to, “be fruitful and multiply” (ּבוְרוּ פ). This is the secret of knowledge, to know how to properly relate to one’s wife in particular, and in general to teach men and women how to relate to one another, the basic thread that runs throughout the words of Proverbs.
Regarding the types of intelligence, we saw that there were two different models for corresponding them to the sefirot and to the parts of the Bible. The first model was that wisdom is intellectual intelligence that is needed to learn the 613 commandments of the Torah. Understanding, which is seeded in the heart, corresponds to emotional intelligence. The two sides of knowledge correspond to intuitive and instinctive intelligence.
FacultyPart of brainPart of BibleType of IntelligenceVital Organ
WisdomRight lobe
Five Books of Moses
Intellectual Brain
UnderstandingLeft lobeProphetsEmotionalHeart
Knowledge
Right side of back lobe
Writings
IntuitiveKidneys
Left side of back lobe
InstinctiveLiver
The second model represents the more common structure that people associate with the brain. According to this model, the right lobe of the brain and the sefirah of wisdom correspond to intuitive intelligence and the left lobe and the sefirah of understanding correspond to intellectual intelligence. This leaves the posterior lobe and the sefirah of knowledge, which correspond to emotional and instinctive intelligence.
FacultyPart of brainPart of BibleType of IntelligenceVital Organ
WisdomRight lobe
Five Books of Moses
Intuitive Brain
UnderstandingLeft lobeProphetsIntellectualHeart
Knowledge
Right side of back lobe
Writings
EmotionalKidneys
Left side of back lobe
InstinctiveLiver
We also noted that only the left side of knowledge remains consistent over both models —the instinctual intelligence. The other three each have two possibilities, as follows:
FacultyPart of brainPart of BibleType of IntelligenceVital Organ
WisdomRight lobe
Five Books of Moses
Intellectual/Intuitive
Brain
UnderstandingLeft lobeProphets
Emotional/Intellectual
Heart
Knowledge
Right side of back lobe
Writings
Intuitive/Emotional
Kidneys
Left side of back lobe
InstinctiveLiver
The Two Dimensions of Wisdom and Understanding
Wisdom is either intuitive or intellectual intelligence. If we want to combine them together, we will call it intuitive-intellectual intelligence. For example, there might be a person who is intellectual; this individual learns and studies a great deal but he or she also possesses an intuition at the “top” of the intellectual effort. This is a type of soul. This means that to truly integrate and appreciate the Five Books of Moses and its commandments, one must be an intuitive-intellectual. To understand how both types of intelligence can correspond to wisdom let us introduce another point regarding the sefirot.
Each of the sefirot corresponds to a persona (partzuf) in Kabbalah. Wisdom and understanding are special in this respect because in Kabbalistic terminology, they both possess two distinct personas (partzufim). The higher persona of wisdom is known as “supernal father” (הָאּלִא עּבַא) and the lower persona is called “Israel the elder” (אבָל סֵאְשִי), or literally, “Israel the grandfather.” Note that the grandfather image is here lower than the father image. The higher persona of understanding is called “supernal mother” (הָאּלִא עּמִא) and the lower persona is known as, “comprehension” (הָנּבוּת), which is almost synonymous with understanding. In the Torah, we find the three terms “wisdom understanding knowledge” (תַעַּה דָינִּה בָמְכָח) but sometimes we find it as “wisdom comprehension knowledge” (הָנּבוּה תָמְכָח תַעַּד).
In Kabbalah, comprehension refers to the mother’s uterus, where the fetus develops and is prepared to enter reality. The fetus represents the emotional attributes that will emerge from understanding. The emotions include: love, fear, and compassion—the three basic emotions—and three lower, active emotions, confidence, sincerity, and verity (meaning that one fulfills or verifies oneself ). The lower three emotions are in some ways more profound and difficult to properly understand than the three higher emotions. We may say therefore that our comprehension is pregnant with emotions; it is the emotional realm of understanding. When we described that the sefirah of understanding represents emotional understanding (according to the first model), we were referring mostly to comprehension, rather than to the supernal mother.
The supernal mother, though it goes together with the supernal father, reflects the lower persona of wisdom, Israel the elder. This is because the lower part of wisdom represents the intellectual part of wisdom while the higher part of wisdom is the intuitive intelligence of wisdom. However, the supernal mother is pure intellectual intelligence—this is the regular way that we understand the relationship between the brain’s left lobe (intellect) and its right lobe (intuition).
Following this correspondence, we can say that the Prophets require intellectual-emotion. This does not simply refer to emotional intelligence, meaning that within the intellect itself there are emotions. In Chasidic thought we describe this type of emotion as an emotional tendency within normative ruling. Thus, for example, in the times of the Mishnah (specifically 1st to 2nd centuries), there were two great and central schools of thought known as the House of Shamai and the House of Hillel. Though both were of deep intellectual abilities, the House of Shamai tends to make rulings that forbid and the House of Hillel tends to make rulings that permit. If they both have intelligence—they both know the Torah in all its intricacy from beginning to end—how can it be that they have a pronounced tendency to prefer rulings that forbid or permit? We call this the emotional dimension within intelligence. These are not the emotions of the heart at all. They are emotions within the mind itself. It is a description of how the mind tends, after having gone through all the intellectual arguments. My tendency can tell me that something should be permitted, and my mind can tend to forbid it. So, despite having the same facts before them, two people can come to a different ruling; something within the mind itself tends either this way or that.
Once again, understanding (the supernal mother) is the purely intellectual component within the sefirah of understanding and comprehension is the lower aspect of the sefirah of understanding, which contains emotions, but not emotions from the heart, but emotional tendency within the mind.
Intuitive/Emotional Intelligence
Let us now focus on the two options regarding the right side of the sefirah of knowledge. It can correspond to either the intuitive intelligence or the emotional intelligence. The soul’s power to give birth to the (first three) emotions stems from the right side of knowledge, while the power to give birth to the second set of emotions—the active or pragmatic emotions—stems from knowledge’s left side. The left side of knowledge is instinctive intelligence and is identical in both models and corresponds to the liver, while the right side corresponds to the kidneys. A simple observation in this respect is that we have only one liver, but we have two kidneys, indicating that there are two possibilities for the right side of knowledge, and only one possibility for the left side.
In any case, we have that the right side of knowledge can correspond to either intuition or to emotion. To unite them in the same way that we united wisdom and understanding, we say that the right side of knowledge means to intuit emotion, which can be demonstrated with “love at first sight.” Falling in love in this way is an example of an intuition that manifests an emotion. As noted earlier, the relationship between a man and a woman, particularly in marriage is related to the sefirah of knowledge and to the Writings in the Bible. The most foundational story of love at first sight is that of Jacob and Rachel, a clearly intuitive emotion that Jacob felt.
Instinct is also very important in marriage. The Torah describes the union between Adam and Eve as, “he will cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” This is not a description of either an intuition or an emotion that develops between a husband and wife, rather it is the description of an instinct. The Torah is telling us that human beings (and animals) possess a necessary instinct for our survival, to cling to our spouse and to become one flesh, which refers to either a shared child or to the actual physical union between the male and female. In either case, to become one is instinctual. This instinct is so great that the instinctive intelligence to unite is perhaps above everything—even the intuitive intelligence. The right side of knowledge is the intuitive emotion. We can describe this as a person who feels he can rely on what he feels to be right. You must be very pure in your soul to be able to intuit, i.e., rely on your emotions.
We have now additional depth in understanding the types of intelligence and the parts of the Bible. The Pentateuch corresponds to the intuitive intellectual, as explained. The Prophets are the intellectual emotions, because God gives them the prophecy; it is not based on their own emotions. The prophet can speak either good or bad, but it must be God’s words, as he or she is nullified to God’s word. What comes from God is part of the intellect, like a student sitting before his master. Nonetheless, the prophets are very emotional as these feelings are part of the intellect itself. But this is not the case with regard to the Writings in the Bible. The Writings are the product of man’s soul. Unlike prophecies, they do not descend from above to below but rather ascend from below to above.
