WHAT ARE RETROSPECTION, INTROSPECTION, AND EXTROSPECTION?
Let's now continue to examine another important, deep way to envision the three powers or faculties of the mind, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, which correspond to the three parts of the Bible, the Five books of Moses and the Prophets and the Writings. One speaks of three different perspectives on reality. One is called retrospection, the other is extrospection, and the third is introspection.
If I look or contemplate deeply the past and try to learn from the past what to do now in the present, how to see and how to understand, how to relate to the present, how "the past teaches the present" (a Hassidic saying), that's retrospection.
If I just try to contemplate and understand the reality which appears before my physical as well as my spiritual eyes, relating to reality as an objective truth, that's called extrospection.
If I look deeply into myself and try to understand my own motives and my own inner reality, or to reckon within myself my spiritual state of being (cheshbon nefesh in Hebrew) that's introspection. Introspection arouses me to improve and better myself. This is the basis of doing teshuvah, of returning to God, and returning to a good and true path of life. Teshuvah requires introspection, meaning that relatively extrospection is objective, whereas introspection is subjective.
RETROSPECTION: THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES
But it all begins with retrospection, re-experiencing the past, aware of the great influence that the past has on the present and the future.
Retrospection can mean that I recall all of my past memories in this lifetime. I try to understand, through re-living, the traumas that I have experienced from my early youth until this present day and how they have shaped my perspective on life and my attitude toward others. I think of how to heal the wounds that they have left on my psyche.
But there's a much deeper form of retrospection. In Pirkei Avot—the Ethics of the Fathers—we are taught that one should see and know, “From where did you come?” (אתּן בִּיַּאֵמ). The first word of this phrase, “from where” is actually the answer to the question, because it also means “from nothingness.” In other words, you should constantly be aware that you were created from nothing—you are something created from nothing. That is what your ultimate memory is—a deep spiritual Divine memory of how you were created ex nihilo. This is not just a statement about the past, the distant past. It is stating that at this very moment, and in every moment of life, you are being created out of nothing. It is as though in every split second, one should see himself returning to nothing and being created anew; from something back to nothing and then something again. That's what I should see, that's the ultimate retrospection: to understand where I came from and where I am constantly coming from—from the highest Divine level, from the ultimate source of the soul, from the Divine nothing.
There are many stories of great tzaddikim, great righteous souls, that said that I remember the nothing—the nothingness from which I became. The recognition of “from where did you come?” that I came from nothing, this is the deepest meaning of wisdom. In the Bible, it corresponds to the Five books of Moses.
To understand this correspondence better, we might ask what are the Five books of Moses? In simple terms, the Five Books of Moses begin with the Creation of the world itself, something from nothing. In the Prophets and in the Writings, there is no explicit, simple description of the entire process of Creation, only at the beginning of the Five books of Moses. Then, they describe the history of the people of Israel as well as righteous Gentiles who either physically descended from Abraham or spiritually descended from Abraham (Abraham is "the father of the multitude of nations")—all those who believe in one God.
All people who believe in the God of Abraham originate in and descend from Abraham, either physically or spiritually. All children of Abraham must retrospect and know their origin. The Jewish people, as defined in Halakhah (Torah law), are the children of the sons of Jacob, the third of the patriarchs. So, for Jews, that too is our origin. But on the universal plane, Jews too, of course, are the children of Abraham. Retrospection is to recognize your origin, where you came from, which indeed is the foundation of your life. If you know your origin, then you know who you are and what you are supposed to do in life. That will lead you and direct you in all your life's endeavors. That is the essence of retrospection, which corresponds to wisdom.
SEEING NEW BIRTH
The sages teach us that a person is wise if he can see the process of new birth. New birth can relate either to a future birth—i.e., seeing what is about to become, to be born—or it can relate to seeing how in the present moment, now, in this very moment, I am being born anew. And in general, it means seeing how the entire world, including all peoples on earth, were and are continuously being born ex-nihilo.
Seeing new birth is the ultimate form of retrospection. And once more, that corresponds to the mind of wisdom and in the Bible, that is the foundation of the Five books of Moses, particularly the first book, Genesis (the beginning), that begins with the Creation of the world, and teaches us the history, the stories of the patriarchs and the matriarchs.
The continuation of the Bible in Exodus and on, teaches us about the exile of the Jewish people, the sons of Jacob, in Egypt, and the redemption, the salvation from Egypt, and them the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Now this is all what we have to retrospect: how the Torah was given to us, how we received the word of God directly, envisioned every voice. We saw the voices of God speaking to us and teaching us to observe 613 commandments. This is all retrospection.
EXTROSPECTION: THE PROPHETS
What about the Prophets? Prophets see the world as it is in the present moment, as it is with all its ups and downs. When they see the downs, they try to correct and rectify them by rebuking the people, all with constructive criticism so that they may understand their current situation and return to God. God asked Adam, after the primordial sin, Ayekah, meaning “Where are you?” He did not immediately rebuke him for his sin, knowing that for the chastisement to be constructive Adam must first realize 'where he is,' to what depths he fell. That is the meaning of “Where are you?” Where do you now find yourself as a consequence of your actions."
That is what the prophets are coming to say, and they're coming to say it right now in the present moment. They observe reality as it is, and they are sure that reality indeed exists objectively. The prophet is not looking into himself, he is looking at the other, he is looking at the people. He is trying to relate to the people as they are, objectively, and trying to help them awaken to their present state of being, to improve their ways, to become better, spiritually. The true prophet promises the people, in the Name of God, that if they improve spiritually, God will send them His blessings, spiritual as well as physical blessings.
INTROSPECTION: THE WRITINGS
What about the Writings? The writings are about introspection, beginning with Psalms. In Psalms, King David is looking into his own soul, and he is crying to his Creator from within his own soul.
The next book, Proverbs, is the introspection of a father, who makes a reckoning of his own experiences and teaches his son based on his own experience. The sages provide another definition for wisdom (the wisdom of knowing—da'at). They say, “there is no wise man but he who has experienced the issue at hand.” When a father has gone through the trials of life, then based on his own life experience, he can teach his son the true "way of life."
But then comes, perhaps the most introspective book in the Bible, the book of Job. The topic of the book of Job is how to deal with his suffering. Suffering is a totally subjective experience. Job looks into himself, introspection, and attempts to cope with his own suffering and understand, o' God, why?! Not understanding the ways of God he even comes to criticize the ways of Divine Providence (the prophets, from above down, rebuke the people, in the Name
