Part 3 · Chapter 1

Starting the discussion on עמקות הדעת vs depth 0:00

Go ahead. You ready? Yeah. Okay, so where were we exactly? We were talking about Oh yeah, we were getting to דעה לבינה. Right. So that was talking about חכמה and בינה and all this stuff. Now he's going to be talking about דעת.

Right. ולפי זה, so according to what we said before, מה שקורים העלם עמקות הדעת, אין זה גופה של העמקה. That's not the actual essence of the depth. It's not the actual body of the depth.

It's just the עמקות הדעת is the deepening, but not the actual depth.

Dive metaphor for עמקות הדעת 1:00

Like for instance, in a in a you know, when you go to you take a deep dive off a board. The עמקות הדעת is like the dive. The actual depth is the depth of the actual pool. Right. You know, that's where you're going to. So like for instance, let's say there's, you know, those people, you know, when you go to Hawaii, the the the you know, they throw money off the boat and then those guys jump off their little boats and they go down to get it, you know?

Right. So the depth is the floor of the ocean.

The עמקות הדעת is the dive that gets them there. So basically עמקות הדעת is not the actual depth, it's the thing that gets you to the depth. כמו עומק המושג דבינה, like for instance the עומק המושג דבינה, which means the actual depth of the actual concept, שלזה לא יהיה שייכות לדעת. This has nothing to do with concentration. Like for instance, to understand the depth of the thing of how computers work, the the when you go to school and learn, you have to concentrate in order to to get that.

But really that has nothing to do with concentration. The actual the actual concept of the עומק המושג, that has nothing to do with concentration.

Defining דעת as connection and feeling 2:21

אך הדעת, what is דעת, הוא בחינת התקשרות והרגשה במושג ביותר. Concentration in other words. To to connect your feeling into the מושג very much.

והוא שמביא לידי בחינת העמקה במושג אחר בחינת העיון הנ״ל. And this is what brings a man to the to going deeply into the מושג after the analysis. Means once you know all the פרטים, that's still not enough. You know, if the בינה should be a בינה without דעת, if you don't concentrate on it, you you know, like there's two kids sitting in a classroom and one is getting A's and one is getting D's.

They both hear exactly the same explanation. The teacher gave the same explanation to both of them. But since in one there was דעת and in the other one there was no דעת, so one of them got to the עומק המושג and one of them didn't get to the עומק המושג. But nonetheless, it's only after the עיון. Meaning that if one kid will concentrate real hard, will just say, "Well, you know, since I concentrate so hard, so I'll just stay home and concentrate."

Right. That's that's not going to work, because he didn't get the explanation. שהוא רק כמו בחינת כלי לעומק ההשגה כנ״ל. In other words, the the the דעת is only a כלי to get deeply into the השגה, but you have to have the השגה.

וגם בדעת יש אורך ורוחב ועומק, כמו יש מי שדעתו קצרה, like there's somebody who has a very short דעת, means like the attention span. So one of the things in terms of learning חסידות is the attention span, a long דעת and a short דעת. And in ע״ב, for instance, like like in in you know, both of these books are an המשך, you know? They call it an המשך.

Length and breadth of דעת – holding a whole book 4:01

What does it mean an המשך? That really in order to do the proper התבוננות of the דעת after you have the the עומק המושג in your brain, you have to be able to hold the entire book in your head. Exactly. At one shot. Or even like for instance, now let's say not the entire book, but at least like right now, you have to hold a certain amount of it, like chapter one, or like right now, the ענין, this little paragraph that we're learning about דעת, in order to think about it, you have to be able to hold it, this whole thing in your head at one shot.

Right. That's that's one thing of of the of the the length of דעת. And and and the other thing of it is like how long can you concentrate?

In other words, like If if you have a an attention span of three seconds, I won't be able to learn with you. It's not going to help.

After three seconds, you're going to lose the attention span and be somewhere else. So like for instance, over here in in in in terms of our classes, you have to have an attention span of like somewhere between a half an hour to an hour for us to have these classes, right? Right. You have to like have a דעת to leave everything and put your whole דעת into just the class and and and take everything else away for about a half an hour to an hour.

Research on modern attention spans 5:45

Now, they they did they did researches, the maximum attention span of a an American is about 10 to 15 minutes.

They did it for the TVs, you know, that's why they put the commercials, you know, they after about 10 minutes, even if it's a very interesting program, people tend to lose their attention span. Right. And also in movies, if if you keep a certain scene going for too long, you have to switch to another scene,

otherwise you're going to lose your audience. Right. You know, like those Indian movies? The Indian movies are very long. Those long, long, drawn You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Those long, long, drawn Indian movies, an American won't be able to sit through it. Or like some of these artsy Scandinavian movies and stuff like that, you know?

Right. So that a דעת קצרה means, first of all, that it's a short attention span and also the power of holding on to a certain idea in your mind, how long you can hold on to, so that for instance I don't know if you've noticed, when you go through עין בית, you go through, I mean, the a a certain particular idea can be like 50, 60, 70, 80, 100 chapters.

Right. And you're going through it, and you're learning something, and and and after a while, you you don't even know what he's talking about anymore,

because you can only hold about maybe Okay, you're already holding 10 chapters in your mind, your mind is already blowing up. You know? Right, you have to have an an an incredible דעת. An incredible length of דעת. A length of דעת. A length of דעת. You have to be able to keep your concentration on a fantastically long idea.

Right. Which sometimes over there, I mean, you know, I've noticed that some of the ideas are like 30 to 100 chapters long, but really it's even longer. It's really the whole thing is one idea. Right. And and and we see that most of us I I mean, I know I have a longer דעת than than most of these people because of because I have the דעת from here.

Right. And and I can you know, sometimes I I I can't even hold on to like his part of an idea, which is like 30 chapters long. I go through the thing and I after a while I have no idea what he's talking. I forget what he was talking about before. Right. I can't hold a whole thing in my mind because my דעת is not that long.

Right. ויש שדעתו ארוכה, so there's some people that have a much longer attention span, they can sit with one thing for a much longer time. And in general, kids, you notice kids have a very short attention span. Right. ויש שדעתו רחבה ולא ארוכה, like we were talking before, that he knows a little bit of everything, but he can't stay with one thing for a long time.

ודעת חזק, or else a very strong דעת, which means like a strong he's very opinionated. ודעת קל, meaning that it's very easy to change his opinion.

דעת קל – easy to change opinion 9:03

כנשים שדעתן קלות, in in women, it doesn't mean that there's some women who have a stronger דעת than certain men. But in general, in general, like like in general what you'll find out is that like, for instance, like like let's say a פרום woman like your wife, I would say when you say what do you mean that I have a דעת קלה, I can show you most men don't have as as as heavy of a דעת as she does.

Right. But we're talking in terms of people who are on the same level. That's because she's a פרום lady who's into learning and stuff like that. You know? Right. Right. But so she has a a not not such a a דעת קלה like let's say some guy who's into like rock and roll and stuff stuff like that. Right. But if you look at that guy's girlfriend, you'll see that her דעת is even lighter than his, you know.

Right. Or like if you'll see like some רביצין, the wife of some big, one of the גדולים or something like that, you say, "What do you mean? Look at her. She has a bigger דעת than you did." He says, "Yeah, but if you look at her in comparison to her husband, it might not be like that. It's according to the level."

So, what does it mean דעת קל, שדעתן קלה, it means ובלי עומק הדעת. So, since she doesn't have the עומק הדעת very deeply into the thing, ממילא דעתם קצרה, like a little kid. Right. And since he's not very deeply into the thing, so therefore, his דעת is also short.

And and it's the same thing like we said about בינה, that the depth, it brings about the the width and the length. That you you notice if somebody is really deep into a certain thing, like like I I knew this kid that had he looked like he had no דעת at all. Right. He had no attention span for nothing, in school he had no attention span for nothing, but he loved hockey.

Right. So, he had these books on hockey with whole pages of statistics. It looked like a whole mathematical book. And you see in mathematics, he was doing lousy.

But when it was hockey, like the statistics of what this guy shot and how many points he scored, and he like he he had he could sit with it for hours.

And you see all of a sudden, so you see that according to the עומק of the דעת that you have into something, that's the length will be become longer. He'll be able to have a much longer attention span.

Right. והפרש זה בין קלי הדעת ועומקי הדעת, when people have a light דעת, and people who have a deep דעת, בין גדול לקטן, it's the same thing like a a older person and a younger person, ידוע שהתינוק שדעתו קלה, that say a תינוק has a light דעת, היינו שאין בו כח המרגיש והתקשרות כלל לדבר זה שמבין או רוצה בו, רק בחיצוניות מעט, that he doesn't have such a strong, real feeling or התקשרות to this thing, only in a very external way, עד שיתבטל ויופח.

על כן, no, על כן יתבטל ויופח. That's that's why like a kid, he wants, he wants, he wants this toy,

and you get him the toy, two seconds later he's already forgot about it. Right. Why? He wanted it so much. Why? Because the התקשרות was only in a very חיצוניות way. It was not really touching him in a inner level. Right. מה שאין כן הגדול שדעתו עמוקה בעסק דבר שמבין או רוצה בו, like a communist or something like that. Right. Right? I mean, he's מקושר in it in a much more inner way.

הנקרא עומק הדעת, which that's called עומק הדעת, the the connection to the thing, שממילא נמשך אורך הדעת ורוחב הדעת. Somebody is really into the thing deeply, so automatically he'll have the long attention span and he'll be able to hold long ideas in his head and also be able to have the רוחב of seeing it in many different ways.

כנ״ל בבינה, like it said in בינה, that the that the אורך and the רוחב come from the length. The depth. וסימן לעומק הדעת, the external סימן that somebody is concentrating, הוא אשר נראה

כענין צמצום וקיבוץ כלי המוח לעצם עומק התקשרותו במושכל. It looks like he's קוועטשינג up his brain as far as how deeply he is connected to the מושכל. Right. Like Like Rabbi Raichik, עליו השלום, you know, when he דאוונט, you know that Rabbi Raichik had a long, sharp nose, right? You know, I saw sometimes when he דאוונט, he would concentrate so hard that his nose would come out through the back of his טלית.

You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. That's That's this סימן that you קוועטש up your face, you know?

The סימן, as he קוועטשעס up his face, it almost looks like he's trying to קוועטש up his brain. That's the external סימן on it.

בלשון אידיש, ער איז דערינען פארנומען, פארקוועטשט שטארק, he's really all taken up and all and all strongly פארקוועטשט, זייער, ביז עס איז זייער מצומצם, because he's very מצומצם, רק מיט תנועה אחת וסקירה אחת בלבד, in one movement and one one look. He's totally focused on one thing. He's totally focused on one thing, and the external thing of it is it looks like he's פארקוועטשינג his brain. Right.

His whole face gets פארקוועטשט. שמזה דוקא בא עצם עומק ההשגה, that דוקא from this thing of getting totally פארקוועטשט into the one ענין, in other words, like for instance right now, even though we're we're like we said that the whole book is really one המשך, and you have to hold to really do the עיון finally you have to hold the whole book in your head, Right. but right now we're totally פארקוועטשט only into the ענין of דעת.

Right. You know, this here also, the book is always It's a funny thing. This book is always a משל on itself. You can always use the whatever whatever you're talking about, you can use it as a משל of what you're talking about. Right. So so like right now, we're totally פארקוועטשט about דעת. Like we're not talking about We're not thinking about מלכות of תבונה, or how the אותיות come out, לאה comes out, or what's the difference between חכמה and בינה, or how the כתרים are.

Not only that, if we would think about it, it would detract from our העמקה into this. Right. If we would now start discussing all kinds of other things, like, you know, sometimes that's the whole thing of, you know, it says, "A good student asks according to the ענין." Right. If now all of a sudden you start asking, "Oh yeah, but what about מלכות of תבונה?" say, "What What are you talking about מלכות of תבונה?

We're talking about דעת." Say, "Yeah, yeah, okay, but what about מלכות of תבונה, and what about the יו״ד of the ס״ג, and what about this and what about that?" it would actually detract and then you would learn nothing. Right. You know, and the whole thing that brings about the העמקה

into the מושכל, means not the העמקה of the דעת, to to understand the real עומק המושג that we're trying to learn over here, is because we're פארקוועטשינג ourselves דוקא into this ענין and we're leaving aside all the other ענינים.

Right. And דוקא through this בא עצם עומק ההשגה על ידי העיון דבינה, that the עיון of בינה means to cut it up into little pieces.

But now we are only going into the one piece. Right. Okay, but the עיון הבינה שהוא היפך הצמצום והקיבוץ, what does it mean? שהרי עיון דבינה, גם שעומד ומעמיק בצמצום וקיבוץ בתחילתו, in the beginning he talks about one point, אבל מיד מתפשט לרחב הרבה בכל פרטי חלוקיו, the מלכות of תבונה, and the אותיות, and the and חיצון ופנימה, and, you know, Right. the מלאכים and the That's the whole thing.

The whole thing of התבוננות means to cut it up into all its sections and all its parts, and this is exactly the opposite, that we're not going to go into everything. We're only going to go into דעת, nothing else.

And if like let's say this was a class with students and I was a teacher, if somebody would bring up a question about מלכות of תבונה now, I would tell him, "Hey, what are you talking?

Why are you interrupting the class?" Right? Right. בהבחנת פרטים הרבה, the whole thing is the the the to examine all the different different particulars כידוע as is known. מה שאין כן הצמצום והקיבוץ של המשכת הדעת, the דעת is exactly the opposite, אדרבה just the just the opposite. הוא רק הצמצום is is not to go into all the things, but rather the opposite, to to be מצמצם away all the other things, שהוא הקיבוץ והאסיפה מכל כח שכלו, to to to to focus and and gather together the whole power of your brain, להתקשר רק במושכל זה, only in דעת, like what we're doing now, that we're taking our whole power of our brain, say, "Why are we focusing our whole brain?

I mean, there's so many things to think about, and we're thinking only about דעת." It's exactly the opposite of of of בינה. שזה היפך בחינת התפשטות העיון בהרחבת ענין המושכל, it's exactly the opposite of of of analyzing all the different parts.

The לשון אידיש, דערקלעבט מיט דעם, אריינלייגן זיך גאר, he only busies himself with only this thing, and nothing else. Right. Like over here that we are we are only busying ourselves just with the ענין of דעת and nothing else, and we're totally focusing our brain and and and gathering the whole power of our brain and putting it only on this to the exclusion of everything else.

ואמנם, however, על ידי העמקת הדעת בא לידי עומק המושכל עד שרשו בעמקי החכמה ובינה, דווקא from this thing of concentrating on it, that when we're learning this point, in other words, it's not that we're not going to learn the other points, and we're just going to stay with this and stay with this forever, and we'll go over and over and over and over again, you know, we'll sit in a in a cave in the Himalayas and we'll go דעת is העמקה, דעת is the concentration of all the powers of your brain, דעת is the concentration of all the powers of your brain, דעת, you know, that's what they do basically.

Right, right? So, it's it's not that we're we're not going to get to the other points. We're going to get to the other points, and when we get to the next point, like the next chapter is going to be about תבונה, so then we're going to forget about דעת. Right. And then what, we're going to talk about תבונה and concentrate the whole thing דווקא on that.

So, when you're doing a particular point, you're totally concentrated on that point, and that what that is what will bring you to the actual עומק of the מושכל all the way to how it is in in the עומק of חכמה ובינה, and the in like it said, in the in the תעלומות חכמה.

עד בחינת דעת עליון, this is all the way till the upper דעת, המזווג חכמה לבינה, that is like the כתר, which is above חכמה ובינה and puts them both together.

In other words, when you have the inner connection that it means that you know the thing, that's what they say that you know the thing already, you learned it, and now you know it. Right. Know it means the knowledge, not the not the דעת תחתון. The דעת תחתון is a דעת that's only the כלי. The דעת עליון means that the thing is now part of your brain, is connected to you, it's one thing with you, like אדם ידע את חוה, they became one thing.

Right. So, the דעת עליון means that you learned it, and now the whole חכמה ובינה is all connected together in the כתר, which connects the חכמה ובינה together, וכמו שנאמר למעלה, like it said before, בענין עומק המושג דבינה.

והיינו דדעת גניז בפומא דאימא, that's the thing that דעת is hidden inside the the the mouth of בינה, meaning basically that that דווקא from the the mouth of בינה is, as it says, like in the thing, what do you call it, that the mouth is like מלכות, right, but it's like the upper מלכות,

you know, so that דווקא from when you

want to say out the בינה, like what we're doing now, you have to you you have to bring the דעת into it. That's where the דעת is hidden. In other words, before we weren't concentrating on this, דווקא now that we want to bring it out, we want to talk it out,

that's when we you see that the concentration automatically comes into it. We're really not trying to concentrate, right, we're not doing like the yogis that we we sat down, and now we're going to concentrate.

We're not trying to concentrate, we're trying to understand, right, and not only we're trying to understand, we're trying to have a lesson actually, we're talk- we're talking, so in order to do that, automatically you see that the דעת becomes revealed, right, because that's where it was hidden in the first place.

וכמו שאמרו שמשה שהוא הדעת זכה לבינה שהוא שער הנון, כי הא בהא תליא, that משה is the דעת, which doesn't mean a דעת like the דעת of the גוים, this is a Jewish דעת, because a Jewish דעת means it's דווקא into the בינה, right, whereas the the גויישע דעת means it's דעת of תהו, that the whole thing of תהו is that each ספירה is on its own, it's not connected to the other ספירות, so the the the גויישע דעת is not connected to בינה, it's just דעת, it's just concentration on what?

Well, what what do you mean on what? Concentration is just all by itself, right, תהו. Right. So דוקא משה, which is the דעת, because he was connected to the ענין, that's why he was זוכה to the בינה, which is the שער הנון. הא בהא תליא, because it ממש, one depends on the other. Like it says, what is it, if there's no דעת, there's no בינה, if there's no בינה, there's no דעת.

The link between concentration, understanding, and higher insight 25:25

Right. So what does it mean? If there's I think that I think that's the order, right? If there's no דעת, there's no בינה, if there's no בינה, there's no דעת, right? אם אין בינה אין דעת, yeah. Right. That's the way it says it, right? Right. What does it mean? If you don't concentrate on your lesson,

you won't understand nothing. And if there's nothing to understand, you're going to lose interest. Right. And also, if there's no דעת תחתון of concentrating on the lesson, then there's not going to be no understanding. If there's no understanding, then there won't be the דעת עליון, and you won't know nothing. Right. It means if there's if if there's just a concentration with no explanation, it won't go from דעת תחתון to דעת עליון, and you won't know nothing.

You'll just sit there and concentrate, and you won't know nothing. And if if you do end up knowing something, it'll just be a vain imagination.

Right. What time is it now? Okay, we can you want to start on the next chapter a little bit? Yeah. Okay. Let me flip the tape.