Part 1 · Chapter 2

Recap and transition to emotions and action 0:02

Lights, camera, action. פרק ב׳. In פרק א׳, we explained what התבוננות is, how how it works, we explained that התבוננות is עיון, and we explained how it works, we explained how it relates to עומק הדעת, we explained what מעמיק is. And that was basically explaining חב״ד and the חב״ד of חב״ד. Now, we're going to explain how your התבוננות not only brings you up to the חכמה and the כתר, but it will also bring you down to the emotions, to the מידות of the שכל.

And that will lead to actual, actual emotions and actual מעשה. והנה ידוע שיש בבינה עצמה ב׳ מדרגות: בינה ותבונה. It's known that בינה itself has two levels: בינה and תבונה.

It mentions תבונה in תניא, in different places like that, but most people don't realize what it is unless they learn a מאמר that explains the difference between בינה and תבונה. So, we explained what בינה is in the last פרק. בינה means to understand something, to make distinctions, to see the difference between each part of a something and see all of its details.

And now we're going to explain that what תבונה is, תבונה is the power of applied understanding as opposed to abstract understanding, and we'll explain this now. וענין התבונה הוא בחינת התפשטות אור הבינה.

Defining תבונה as spreading the light of בינה 1:29

The idea of תבונה is the spreading out of the light of בינה. כמו שכתוב בזהר, like it says in the זהר, דאבא ואימא תתאין הם ישראל סבא ותבונה.

It says in the זהר that the lower father and mother, meaning the lower חכמה and בינה, are called ישראל סבא, grandfather Israel, and תבונה. ישראל סבא is the התפשטות of חכמה, and תבונה is the התפשטות of בינה. These are both the מידות of These are the מידות of חכמה and בינה, the way that they go out of חכמה and בינה.

Now, what causes this התפשטות אור הבינה? מצד קליטתו היטב בכלי המקבל ההשגה דבינה. This is because the idea is very well received or very well absorbed into the vessel that receives the understanding of בינה. על כן נתפשט בה להביא בכמה ענינים נבדלים מעצם ההשגה. Therefore, the idea spreads out in it to come into many, many different things that are separate from the abstract understanding.

So, in other words, when you really understand the idea well and it really sinks into your brain, then you're able to apply the idea outside of the textbooks, because you really you really get it and it really becomes one with you and you really you really see the idea and now it's yours and now you can use it in all different ways.

The man of תבונה and drawing deep waters 3:09

והוא הנקרא איש תבונה. And this is what is called a man of תבונה. כמו, like it says in the פסוק, מים עמוקים, deep waters, וכולי, איש תבונה ידלנה. A man of תבונה can draw it out. What does this mean? מים עמוקים, the deep waters, הם בחינת עומק בינה, that is the depth of בינה, שנשאר בהעלם העצמיות.

The depth of בינה remains hidden in yourself. Like the עומק המושג, the depth can't really be explained directly, it's only explained through the length and the width.

So the עומק, the depth of it, the the מים עמוקים, the deep waters, remains hidden. ואיש תבונה, and a man of תבונה, דווקא, only such a person that has this type of understanding, ידלנה, can draw it out, וישאבנה, and can draw it מן ההעלם, from its hiddenness, להביאו להתפשטות, to bring it out into application בכמה אופנים שונים, many different ways, לרוות את המקבלים, to quench the thirst of the מקבלים, it's like a כמו הדולה מים עמוקים להשקות הצאן וכולי, like somebody that draws deep waters to water sheep.

So the sheep are thirsty and they need water, and the shepherd goes and gets them water from a well. The water in the well is very deep, but he's able to lower a bucket down and bring the water up. So now they're able to get the exact same water, but now it's not deep at all.

ידלנה means to draw it like with a bucket, and then ישאבנה means to pour it out into a trough. והוא כמו שאנו רואים, and this is like what we see, בחוש, tangibly, שביותר השכל והסברא עמוקה ביותר מהכר והשגת אדם That when an idea or a סברא is very deep, and it's too deep for a person to grasp, הנקרא מים עמוקים וכולי, שהוא בחינת עומק המושג כנ״ל, that's the depth of understanding that we discussed in the last פרק, שהאורך והרוחב ממנו בא וכולי, which the length and the width of the idea come out from that point, ואיש בעל תבונה דוקא ידלנה, and specifically a person that has this power of תבונה can draw out this depth.

פירוש, שיוציא לאור בחינת העלם העומק המושג, he's able to bring out to light in order to reveal this hidden depth of the idea, עד שיכילנו השגת האדם, until a person's mind can grasp it, can understand it, כאילו לא היה עמוק כלל, as if it wasn't deep at all. Now it becomes like is a simple idea. כמו הדולה מים עמוקים שמקרב את העומק וכולי, like the person, the shepherd that draws the water from the well that now brings it close to the sheep and is it as if it wasn't deep at all.

Now it's not deep, now it's right in front of them. ולפי זה, and based on this, מוכרח לומר, we must say, שכוח התבונה הוא כוח המתפשט מכוח הבינה להביא עומקה לגילוי למטה למקבל וכולי, that the power of תבונה is the ability to bring out the understanding of בינה, to bring its depth so that it should be understood to other people, to מקבל. So the power to teach an idea to somebody else that's not able to do this by and doesn't grasp it on their own, but you can bring it out to make it simpler for them comes from the power of תבונה.

When one lacks תבונה: understanding without teaching 6:53

מה שאין כן כשאינו איש תבונות, on the other hand, when somebody is not a man of תבונות, they don't have this type of an understanding where they really absorb the idea and now can bring it out simply.

גם שהוא בעל השגה במוח דבינה, even if he does understand personally, he's able to understand the idea with his faculty of בינה, שנקרא תפסן בלשון העולם, which the world calls somebody that that's a תפסן, meaning that they're good at grasping things, they have a quick, sharp mind, they can grasp things well, but doesn't mean that they're able to teach it. יוכל להיות שהשגתו נשארת רק כמו שהיא בעצם בעצם במוח הבינה שלו.

It can be that his understanding will remain the way it is just in his faculty of בינה, will remain in his own understanding, and he won't be able to explain it to somebody else or apply it in anything, just remain in that theory, in abstract theory, שנקרא רוח בינתו לבד, that's called just the his spirit of understanding, ולא יבוא ממנה שום התפשטות למטה, and no application will come out from it, בעניין נבדל שחוץ מן עצם ההשגה כלל, in any matter that's separate from the abstract understanding at all, won't come to any sort of application.

וגם שיש בהשגה אורך ורוחב ועומק כנ״ל, and even though the understanding of the theory itself has a length and a width and a depth, הכל הוא רק בעצם ההשגה, even all of this, even the length and the width are just part of the abstract understanding, כמו שהיא, as it is in its in its natural state, meaning this is like all in the text books, that in order to explain it, so he has to have משלים and examples, and then he has all these different parts of the idea, but it's all in the theory.

אבל לא שיתגלה למטה בעניין נבדל, but it doesn't mean that it will be expressed in something separate, or won't be applied in anything else.

ומכל שכן עומק המושג הרי נשאר בעומקו בהעלם לעצמו, and for sure the depth of his understanding remains hidden to himself, that he can't explain the depth, וכן אורך ורוחב, and even the length and the width, הכל בעצם ההשגה, are all within the idea itself, כמו שהיא במקומה לבד, the way it is in its place alone, meaning it's all just in theory.

ודוגמה לכל זה, and an example for all of this, הנה אנו רואים בעומק הפלפול בתלמוד בעתים בסברות רבות כך וכך, that when a person's learning גמרא, and they learn a whole פלפול with many different reasons and סברות, one this way and one that way, from they learn it גמרא with all the ראשונים and אחרונים, and that's a whole פלפול, גם שבאים בהשגה דבינה, even when they understand it very well, אבל לא יוכלו עדיין ל...

להוציא לאור מעצם השכל איזה פסק דין חייב וזכאי כלל. So even though a person can learn גמרא, learn it בעיון, and understand very well the גמרא with all the סברות, it's very possible, and this is usually the case, that they're not going to know the הלכה from it at all. Learning גמרא and then learning הלכה are almost two opposite ways of learning, because when you learn גמרא בעיון, you're going into the depth, you're going up, away from the practical, and then when you learn הלכה, you're going down.

The gap between גמרא study and הלכה application 10:18

So unless you, like, specially learn the גמרא להלכה, you're usually not going to see, you have to, like, switch the whole direction of your thinking to bring it out, to learn it להלכה. And so, like, for a lot of people, if they, when they start learning סמיכה, you know, if they if they learn סמיכה, it's a big change in their whole way of learning, because they're used to learning גמרא בעיון without learning it להלכה, and all of a sudden, now they're learning it להלכה.