Continuing our series on the Tanach (see issues 151, 152, 153, 157, and 158), we bring the final installment (for now) taught by Rav Ginsburgh in English and published here for the first time. This meta-analysis of the Tanach using Chasidic terminology provides us with general guidance on how to learn each part: the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings.
This is all meant to serve as an introduction to what will be a linear study of the Book of Proverbs to be published soon.
In this article, HaRav Ginsburgh focuses on the connection between the sefirah of knowledge and the Writings in general and the Book of Proverbs in particular.
In our previous teachings on the Bible, we explained that the Book of Proverbs, the second book of the Writings, is essentially a father speaking and teaching his son ethics, morals, and an overall positive way of life. We did not yet mention that there is another motif, a thread that runs throughout the whole Book of Proverbs: the relationship between men and women.
There are good men and not-so-good men in relation to women, and the same is true in the opposite direction. There are good, righteous women who are totally loyal to their beloved, and there are women who are not. Learning how to relate to women is a thread that goes together with the other principles the father is trying to convey and teach his son.
The relationship between men and women is associated in the Torah with the sefirah of knowledge (da'at), which in general is the sefirah associated with the Writings, the part of the Bible in which the book of Proverbs appears. Let us expand on this association based on our previous articles on the topic.
THE BIBLE AND THE INTELLECT
The Writings are the third of the three parts of the Bible. The first part, the Five Books of Moses, corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom, the first intellectual faculty, and the second part, the Prophets, corresponds to the sefirah of understanding, the second intellectual faculty. These two correspond to the right and left lobes of the brain, respectively. We explained that the Writings correspond to the sefirah of knowledge (da'at), the third of the intellectual faculties, which anatomically is situated in the middle and to the back. It rests at the top of the spinal cord. Since it is in the middle, it divides into two, a right side and a left side. In Kabbalah we are taught that the right side is the relatively masculine side and the left side is the relatively feminine side.
In the Torah, the word da'at appears in the context of Adam knowing Eve and thus means to unite or cohabit with one’s wife in order to bear children, which is the first all-inclusive commandment in the Torah, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and conquer it.”
The secret of da'at is to know how to properly relate to one’s wife. In general, men must know how to relate to women, and women must know how to relate to men.
TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE
There are four types of intelligence in the soul: intellectual, emotional, intuitive, and instinctive. There are two ways to correspond these four intelligences to the four intellectual faculties: wisdom, understanding and the two sides of knowledge (da'at).
According to the first model, wisdom is intellectual intelligence, because to properly study and learn the 613 commandments of the Torah, to which wisdom corresponds, one must use intellectual intelligence to properly comprehend what the Torah is really instructing us to do. Understanding is emotional intelligence following the statement that “understanding is the heart.” Thus, the two sides of knowledge are intuitive intelligence and instinctive intelligence.
The second model follows the more common association of the right and left lobes of the brain with intuitive intelligence and intellectual intelligence, respectively, thereby leaving the third backside of the brain to the two sides of knowledge, which would then correspond to emotional and instinctive intelligence.
Between the two models, only the left side of knowledge remains the same and corresponds to instinctive intelligence. The other three intellectual faculties have two possibilities. We can deepen our insight into these three by considering how the two possibilities can be united in each. This, in turn, will provide us with a much clearer understanding of what the three parts of the Bible—the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings—are about and reveal more about the deeper meaning of the Book of Proverbs.
THE DOUBLE INTELLIGENCES: INTUITIVE INTELLECT AND INTELLECTUAL EMOTIONS
Wisdom corresponds to both intuitive and intellectual intelligence. Combining them, let us call this intuitive-intellectual intelligence, which can describe someone who is an intellectual, because he thinks a lot, learns a lot, studies a lot, but above his intellectual intelligence he also possesses powerful intuition; intuition is always above intellect. Since wisdom corresponds to the Five books of Moses, that means that to really appreciate and integrate the commandments and the laws of the Torah appearing in the Five books of Moses, one must be an intuitive intellectual.
Both wisdom and understanding have a higher and lower aspect known as a partzuf. The higher partzuf of wisdom is the supernal father. The higher partzuf of understanding is called the supernal mother. The lower partzuf of wisdom is known as “Israel the elder,” or “Israel the grandfather,” despite it being lower than the supernal father aspect of wisdom. The lower partzuf of understanding is called “comprehension,” which is almost synonymous with “understanding” since they are both derived from the same root but they obviously have distinct meanings. In the Bible, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge often appear as wisdom, comprehension, and knowledge.
The Kabbalistic example of “comprehension” is the womb of the mother where the fetus that will be born develops, grows, and prepares to be born into reality. The fetus growing in the womb represents the emotions—the three basic emotions: love, fear, and compassion and the three lower emotions, which actively manifest through actions: confidence, sincerity, and verity (meaning that you verify, actualize, or fulfill your mission in life). Usually, the three lower emotions are more difficult to properly understand than the three higher emotions. Comprehension, depicted as the pregnancy of the emotions within the mother’s womb, is thus the emotional intelligence associated with understanding in the first model. The supernal mother is the pure intellectual intelligence of understanding, the common way of understanding the intelligence of the brain’s left lobe.
Even though the supernal mother is aligned with the supernal father and they are referred to as a pair that does not part, in some ways it reflects the lower aspect of wisdom (Israel the elder), which is the intellectual intelligence of wisdom (the supernal father is wisdom’s intuitive intelligence). Still, viewing the supernal mother and father as intellectual and intuitive intelligence is the common approach to understanding the brains left and right lobes, respectively.
Applying this to the Bible, we can now say in a more detailed and sophisticated way that the wisdom and understanding required to learn and integrate the Five Books of Moses and the Prophets are intuitive intellectualism and intellectual emotion, respectively.
Intellectual emotion is not simple emotional intelligence because what we are referring to is to the fact that within the intellect itself, there are emotions; our intellectual intelligence is pregnant with emotions. In Kabbalah and Chasidut this is understood in the context of a question regarding two great sages, both of whom have great minds—profound understanding and intellectual intelligence. Yet, these two sages do not agree; one tends to rule more permissively, a trait associated with the right axis, and the other tends to rule more prohibitively, a trait associated with the left axis. If they are equally smart, where does the leaning to the right or to the left come from? They are both intelligent. They both know the Torah from beginning to end, all the intricacies of the Torah. How can it be then that one tends, in general, in almost every case that appears before him, to permit and the other tends to prohibit? This is where the emotions present within the intellect come in.
These are not the emotions of the heart at all. These are identified as the emotions of the mind itself. The way that the mind tends, after knowing everything there is to know about a topic, can be in either of two directions. The two sages have the same facts before them. Objectively, they are equal. But there is something deep within the mind itself that tends either to permit or to forbid, and this is the emotional intelligence within the intellectual intelligence.
In discussing the meaning of intellectual emotion, we have also gained a clarification of the difference between understanding (binah) and comprehension (tevunah). Understanding is the purely intellectual side of the sefirah of understanding, also known as the supernal mother. Comprehension is the lower aspect of understanding, referring to the emotions within the intellect. But they are both part of the one sefirah known as understanding, which is why understanding can be described as the intellectual emotions with which the Books of Prophets should be studied.
In passing, let us note that the classic example of two sages who demonstrate the leaning to permit or prohibit are Hillel and Shammai. They are both great intellectuals, but Hillel almost always leans to the right and Shammai, his companion, because he has different emotions of the mind, almost always leans to the left.
KNOWLEDGE: INTUITIVE OR EMOTIONAL
Now let us turn to the two possibilities we have for the right side of the sefirah of knowledge, which can be either intuitive intelligence or emotional intelligence. In a previous discussion, we explained that the right side of knowledge corresponds to emotional intelligence because it is knowledge that actually gives birth to the emotions. Understanding is pregnant with the fetus. But the power in the soul that actually gives birth to the six emotive faculties (from love to verity) derives from the right side of the sefirah of knowledge.
In our previous discussion of these models, we explained that the power to give birth to the first three emotions (loving-kindness, might, and beauty) comes from the right side of knowledge and the power to give birth to the three lower emotions (victory, acknowledgment, and foundation), which are the active or pragmatic emotions, comes from the left side of knowledge. In both models, the left side of knowledge corresponds to instinctive intelligence, which shines specifically to the liver while the right side shines its light primarily into the kidneys.
A straightforward and simple observation is that a person is born with one liver but with two kidneys. This reflects what we have found that the left side of knowledge can only be instinctive intelligence, but the right side can be either intuitive or emotional intelligence. The brain has three different lobes to it. And the heart also has two sides, each with an independent function.
So, once more, what does that mean to intuit emotion? It is like falling in love. Love is, of course, an emotion. But when I say love at first sight, I am referring to an intuition that manifests as emotion. Marriage is related primarily to the sefirah of knowledge, and as we said, they both correspond to the Writings of the Bible. In marriage, there are stories, most important stories in the Bible, of falling in love at first sight. The basic story, of course, is that of Jacob and Rachel, which demonstrates that marriage is an intuitive emotion that manifests, that reveals itself. Obviously, in marriage, instinct is very important. The Torah refers to this when, upon the creation of Adam and Eve, it says, “He [man] shall cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” The Torah is not referring here to emotion. It is also not talking about intuition, but about instinct. Human beings, as well as animals, obviously have an innate instinct to cling to their wife. That is what the Torah is saying. That God has given man an instinct necessary for survival and growth, to cling to his wife and to become one flesh.
What is the meaning of becoming “one flesh?” There are two main interpretations: either “one flesh” refers to the baby that is born from the two parents—two become one, or “one flesh” refers to the physical union between man and woman; in that moment of union, they become one. In either case, to become one is an instinct. It is the most positive instinct, and it is so great that, in a certain sense, the instinctive intelligence to unite is probably higher than all other forms of intelligence, even above the intuitive intelligence. Once more, the instinct of union corresponds to the left side of knowledge, and the right side of knowledge is intuitive-emotional intelligence.
How can we say this in another, simple way? A person may rely on the spontaneous emotion that he feels. He intuits. This means that the way he feels about a certain situation is right, it is true. One must be very pure in one's soul to be able to intuit and to rely upon one's emotions.
What about intellectual intelligence? In choosing a spouse, does the intellect per se not play a part? Obviously, when one chooses a soulmate, one must also use their mind to evaluate the situation: whether he or she is the right partner for them. But relative to the other three types of intelligence—the intuitive, emotional, and the instinctive—intellectual intelligence plays an overview role, which in Kabbalistic terminology is called a makif. Makif literally means to encompass or surround and in the context of intelligence, makif means that the intelligence overviews and directs from above my emotions, intuitions, and instincts. Indeed, the intellect can definitely play the determining factor in the making the decision about marriage.
The opposite of makif is pnimi, which means internal. So, when deciding on a spouse, what one feels inside are the intelligences associated with knowledge (da'at), particularly there is the intuition that is followed immediately by emotion, which as we have said appear together as an intuitive-emotional intelligence of the right side of knowledge. Following that, the innate drive of the couple to unite on the physical plane derives from the instinctive intelligence, which corresponds to the left side of knowledge.
THE PROPHETS AND INTELLECTUAL-EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
So now we have added depth to our understanding of the faculties of the mind, as well as the way that they correspond to the three parts of the Bible. The Five Books of Moses are the intuitive-intellectual, and the Prophets are the intellectual emotions.
The Prophets relate to the intellectual emotions because they received prophecy. What comes from God is a part of the intellect, per se, because what is being received is in the form of words; the prophet is like a student sitting before his master, his mentor, and receiving what is being told. To receive a message that is being conveyed to you, especially if you are meant to convey it further, is an intellectual act. Prophecy is not based on subjective emotions. The prophet could be told to prophesy good or prophesy bad, because he is nullified to the word of God, that which God teaches him. The prophets do at times argue with God based on their own emotions, especially when God tells them to prophesy bad for Israel. In these cases, God must coerce them to prophesy bad. This is especially apparent in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel regarding the impending destruction of the First Temple. Still, prophecy comes from above and when receiving it, the prophet is not in control of his physical being.
This is not the case regarding the Writings. The Writings come from within the human soul itself. They rise from below above, from bottom up. The Writings take a human experience and thought and elevate it to the level of the Divine. The books of the Prophets originate from above and are then stated below, in human language.
With this we have concluded another important journey into our seeking to understand the mental faculties especially regarding the three parts of the Bible.
