Second Reading: Two Types of Wisdom
“Laban had two daughters: the name of the older one was Leah and the name of the younger one was Rachel.”
Fleeing or Ascending?
We normally think that Jacob fled to Haran despite it being a very low place, morally. However, there is a midrash that states that when Yakov left Be’er Sheva, he was not only fleeing from Esau and fulfilling his parents command to get married in Haran. He was also fleeing from the possibility that if he remained in the Land of Canaan, he too would have to make a vow to Avimelech, just as his father had done after Abraham. Because of this vow, the return of his descendants to the land by 7 extra generations. This already presents us with a slightly more positive view of Haran—a place where Jacob would not be forced into damaging treaties.
From another perspective, Jacob undertook to descend to Haran (whenever someone leaves the Land of Israel, considered the most elevated place in the world, they are descending) was expressly for the purpose of transforming its darkness into light by engaging in the toil of clarification (עֲבוֹדַת הַבֵּרוּרִים), by elevating that which is low and bringing it to a higher spiritual state.
There is a third perspective espoused in Chasidic thought. Jacob was not descending but ascending to Haran. There is something in Haran that makes it higher than Be’er Sheva. The way the word “to Haran” (חָרָנָה) is written in Hebrew indicates that there is hidden hei which would then render it as “song” (נִרָה). In other words, Jacob was ascending to a place of song. The meaning of this linguistic allusion can be understood in the context of the verse, “wisdoms will sing outside” (בָּחוּץ תָּרֹנָּה חָכְמוֹת), a verse that is the focus of many Chasidic essays and discourses.
Two Types of Wisdom
The two forms of wisdom referred to in the verse are the higher wisdom and the lower wisdom corresponding to Divine wisdom and mundane wisdom. The two wisdoms need to be sung together in a sense as King Solomon who had 3000 parables did. These were not 3000 separate parables, but rather Solomon “sang” or elucidated every point of Divine wisdom with 3000 parables aimed at 3000 different individuals and their different levels of comprehension and worldviews. He was able to use these 3000 parables to bring supernal wisdom to everyone’s understanding. Thus, the early Kabbalists denoted natural wisdom, as Solomon’s wisdom.
Examples of using Solomon’s wisdom—the wisdom of nature—to explain Divine wisdom can be found in Maimonides’ who writes that by meditating on nature, one can come to love and fear God. The Rebbe Rashab (the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe) writes that for every idea in Torah, i.e., in Divine wisdom, we should have two parables to explain it: one parable from psychology and one parable from the natural sciences.
Divine Wisdom as Justice
We have defined Solomon’s wisdom as the ability to use nature to appreciate Godliness. What was the Divine wisdom that was revealed in Solomon’s time? It was the wisdom required to judge wisely. Solomon had been granted the gift of Divine wisdom, allowing him to judge wisely; with this gift, he won over the hearts of the people.
An example can be found in Solomon’s trial of the two women who came with a single baby whom they both claimed was their exclusively. Instead of trying to trace the child back to one or the other with witnesses or the like, he forced one of the women to reveal that she did not have the child’s best interest in mind as its true mother would. Solomon’s method and conduct in this case did not follow the accepted norms of a court of law. Yet, it was a demonstration of the Divine judicial wisdom Solomon had been gifted. There is no easy way to teach this type of wisdom, but anyone who wants to become a dayan, a Jewish judge, must find this wisdom somehow; perhaps it can be read in between the lines of Choshen Mishpat.
These two types of wisdom are both needed. They need to join together to make one melody. It is this combined melody that can reach out and reach even Haran (as the lowest of places). Someone who is only sitting in the world of holiness, in Be’er Sheva, maybe he can make do with just the Divine wisdom. But when he goes out like Jacob to Haran, to spread holiness, to spread Judaism and Torah, he needs the wisdom of nature. When combined, the wisdom of nature together as a vessel for the wisdom of Torah are a method with which to transform darkness into light. This transformation is indicated by another verse with the same word, “song”: “When the wicked perish, there is song” (בְּאָבֹד רְשָׁעִים רִנָּה).
All this ties into the purpose of Jacob’s journey to Haran—to find himself a match. Jacob ends up marrying both of Laban’s daughters: Leah and Rachel. The two daughters of Laban—who symbolically signifies the supernal unity Above—represent these two types of wisdom that together are like one. The supernal, Divine wisdom corresponds to Leah and the natural wisdom of Solomon to Rachel. They further correspond to the two letters hei in God’s essential Name, Havayah. Leah corresponds to the first hei, symbolizing the supernal, Divine wisdom, and Rachel the second hei, symbolizing the mundane, natural wisdom.
(from a shiur given on 9 Kislev 5773)
