Part 6 · Chapter 1

Depth of Concept and Root Understanding 0:03

וכנראה בחוש, and like we see tangibly, שכל מעמיק רק בעומק המושג, that anybody that just studies and goes deeper into the depth of the מושג, of the explanation of whatever he's learning, הוא ממטי להמקור ושרש המושכל, he like taps into the source and the root of the concept the way it's all the way in חכמה, מושכל means the concept the way it's in חכמה, ולהמציא בחינת חדשות דאור החכמה בבינה, to bring in new חידושים, to bring in new ideas from the light of חכמה into בינה.

That means he'll get a new understanding in it. והוא הנקרא מעמיק, and this is what's called מעמיק, that it causes to deepen. לשון מפעיל, that it activates, שמפעיל לעומק החכמה ובינה, because it activates the depth of חכמה and בינה and causes them to come out and open up.

But it's done like in an indirect way. It's true that that you can't actively go like to the depth of חכמה, just that's why it took the משל of the קדש קדשים. You can't just go into the קדש קדשים, but nevertheless through working to understand the בינה better, automatically you'll bring out more and more from the חכמה all the way up to the כתר.

Learning Gemara: Focus on Clear Understanding 1:21

The רש״ב explains all this in relation to learning גמרא

in קונטרס עץ החיים, like פרק כ״ו to ל׳ of קונטרס עץ החיים. So he tells the בחורים there how to, the בחורים in תומכי תמימים how to learn, how to learn גמרא, how to learn תלמוד.

And he basically explains the same thing that that's explained here פרק א׳ and ב׳

about learning חסידות or being מתבונן in Godliness, the same process of learning. And like he says there that you shouldn't try to make חידושים when you're learning גמרא to come up with these, you know, new explanations and novel approaches and make a whole פלפול, rather you should just try to understand what the גמרא is saying very clearly, which is the בינה, the התבוננות.

He says the more clearly you understand the גמרא, automatically you'll get חידושים of to be able to explain it. And then after you understand it, you know, just the basic פשט clearly, and if you have if you understand that well, and you have very good understanding and and a good mind for it, then he says you can go deeper and you can start like making דיוקים.

And if you start to go deeper and make like דיוקים, like the exact wording of the משנה and the exact order, then you'll understand even deeper and you'll get even deeper חידושים.

Two Steps: Pshat then Deepening 2:44

So those two steps are just understanding the basic פשט very clearly, which is like בינה, and then going deeper to like make these little דיוקים and everything, which is like מעמיק. But both of them you're just trying to understand, your focus is to just understand very clearly what the גמרא is saying, and he said you have to he says there you have to be very careful that you're not trying to make a חידוש and and you're very careful to make sure that everything is true.

You can't just come up with some פשט or some דיוק, it has to be really compelling and really, you know, definitely true according to what it's saying there. And that has to be your focus, just to try to understand what it's really saying.

And if you do that, then automatically you'll you'll have a very good understanding, and automatically you'll get very the חידושים. And it's the same thing with with anything, the same thing with scientists and everything when they study, when they research something, or you know, innovations that people make, and the latest research in, I don't know, medicine, and cars, and space ships, I mean, anything, it doesn't matter, computers,

that in order for them to to be successful, they have to study what is known, study the things that we have now, and understand how they work very well. And then when they understand how they work very well, then they'll be able to tap into the חכמה behind it and see how they can make it better and make, you know, innovations. But sometimes, I think you have this especially in medicine and things like this, that people, sometimes people they they start working for grants, and so they want to come up with a with some new idea, or maybe even sometimes people they have to write a thesis for their PhD, so they have to come up with a חידוש.

You know, or if somebody's working for grant money, then sometimes they have to come up with a חידוש, they have to find some new discovery. So, you know, sometimes that can lead to dishonesty, because the person is not just trying to understand, they can sometimes just try to invent something, and if you're trying to invent something more than you're trying to make it true and to really just understand clearly what's going on, then

then there's there's definitely room So, that's that's not the way to do it. The way to do it is just to try to understand everything very clearly, and automatically all this will come.

And so the truth is that when you understand even like the simplest explanation of something, that really you have the depth there that includes all everything in that wisdom, and all the way to to its source of that wisdom where it connects to other wisdom.

Simple Math Illustrates Deep Wisdom 5:33

For example, when you learn 1 1 is 2, so even though that's just the smallest little example, or even when it's like for a little kid, one apple plus one apple is two apples, even that small little example, when a child understands that, he really gets the entire depth of the שער נון, or the 50th gate of בינה there. It's just in a very small way, but he has it there.

And that point really includes the whole חכמה of mathematics, and even the whole חכמה of many other things, that where mathematics connects to to other disciplines like music and art and things like that. For example, in this thing of like 1 1 is 2, the idea that's, you know, at the depth there is the idea that you you'll see two separate things as combining and forming like a unit, even though they're separate.

In other words, you're recognizing that there's one and there's apple and there's another apple, and they're separate and they stay separate. But you're viewing them as being together to call them like two apples instead of just saying, "I have this apple and I have that apple." You're you're now making like this unity between them, that there's something that's like outside of them that connects them even though they stay stay separate.

And this is the whole basis for the whole mathematics that we use, because really at essence mathematics is like a language. It's a way of describing the world, and you could describe it differently. In other words, you don't have to focus on this type of relationship of one apple plus one apple is two apples. You could focus on, you know, like if you take one piece of clay and another piece of clay, and you stick them together and they make one big piece of clay.

So, you could call that 1 1 is 1. Or you could look at it that, you know, when you have one apple and you have another apple, that you don't see any common denominator that connects them. There's this apple and there's that apple. So, 1 1 1 1. There's no idea of making it into two, because they're different and they're separate. So, why should I view them as one thing?

But the mathematics that we discuss is a certain is a certain level of relationship where you see the things as being separate, but nevertheless there's something that's like higher than them that connects them.

So, if we trace this all the way back up to its source, this is the level of יחיד of אחד that we spoke about in פרק י' and י"א.

Levels of Unity: יחיד, אחד, קדמון 8:00

And what's the idea of אחד? That, you know, there's יחיד, אחד, קדמון. So, יחיד is where everything is completely one. So, at that level 1 1 would be 1.

Then there's the level of אחד where you see that they're different things, and they're separate and they stay separate, but nevertheless there's something that's connecting them, that you see like everything in the world as being separate things, but they're all revealing the one one God. They're all like part of His revelation.

And then קדמון is where you see everything as just being as being separate. And so at that level you would you would see each thing as being unique and you can you're not you can't really count them at that level.

That's why you're not supposed to count people, because you're not supposed to just view them as like a number where you like you lose their individuality that way.

You lose sight of their individuality. You're supposed to recognize that, you know, there's you're supposed to have them by name, not as by number, because each person is completely different world. You can't just lump them together.

So, that idea once of אחד, that like perspective, that way of looking at things, is what allows us to also have music. The whole idea, the whole basis at the real depth of music is also that you're taking these separate notes, but even though they're they're completely separate, we like hear them as being like one flowing thing. We see like a theme and we hear a melody.

Music and Art: Unity of Separate Elements 9:12

That's something in our minds, and really why doesn't our, you know, if our mind would hear each note as a separate thing without connecting them, then we wouldn't hear music, we would hear just a bunch of separate notes. The fact that we hear it as like a melody and a song, and that's because our mind hears them as being separate and hears their differences, and at the same time, puts it together and sees like the whole theme of how they all work together.

And the same thing with art, that when we look at like a painting or a picture, that even though Though it's like a bunch of separate little brush strokes or or pixels or whatever, and our our mind sees the the contrast of all these different colors, but our mind also puts them all together to a picture. You know, now some people, I think, if they if they were born with a with certain problems with their eye with their vision, even if it's corrected later in life, they won't their mind won't have that skill putting things together properly to like see a picture like we see, or to have proper depth perception or the all these different There's like a lot of tricks that go into converting images into pictures the way that we see them, cuz you have to your mind is has to interpret them a lot to make to make them into what we see them as.

Yeah, it has to be organized and everything and you have to recognize the distinctions and, at the same time, group them into like a whole picture that that connects them.