Part 3 · Chapter 2

Bina's Own Measures: The Seven Lower Sefirot 0:00

אך לכאורה אנו רואים, however, seemingly we see, שיש בבינה עצמה בחינת מדות, that seemingly בינה itself has מדות, הנקרא

הנקראים ז׳ תחתונות דבינה, which are called the seven lower ספירות of בינה. So why it seems like we don't need תבונה to be the application of בינה, בינה itself has מדות and those are the application of בינה. ונקראים מדות שבשכל, and these are called the emotions of the intellect, המטה כלפי זכות או שכל המטה כלפי חוב, which this is an intellect that leans towards merit or an intellect that leans towards guilt.

That's the idea of the emotions of the intellect, that the intellect tells you either that it's חייב, that it's liable, or it's פטור, it's exempt, כידוע. היינו כמו שהמדות שבשכל הן בעצם ההשגה עדיין בהעלם, so the emotions of בינה itself are the way that the these are the the emotions of the intellect, the way they are in the the central theory, the abstract theory, and they're still hidden.

אבל להביא בחינת התגלותן בדבר נבדל, but to be able to bring to be able to reveal them in something separate, כמו להורות בענין מקרה דבר מה על פי השכל והסברא הזאת, but to say the ruling in a particular case based on this intellect and this logic, להטות איזה משפט של זה הענין לחסד וגבורה שבו דווקא, to influence the judgment of this case to either the חסד or גבורה, הרי הרי איש תבונה דווקא יוציא לאור מן המדות שבבינה וכולי.

A Person of Tevunah Applies Bina's Emotions 1:52

Specifically, a person of תבונה is able to bring out the ruling from the emotions of בינה. And this is like the difference, like we said, when you're learning the פלפול of the גמרא, so it's true that there is hidden that there's like a thing that this one says חייב and this one says פטור, and even if you know an actual פסק there, but it's all still in the theory.

You don't know how the פסק applies, because that's an abstract case. You don't know how that would apply to particular situation to know the הלכה. It's like the difference when you're learning גמרא and you're learning סמיכה. Even though in גמרא you have different it sometimes it will say like a הלכה, but it's very far for most people to see the פסק from that. And to be able to bring it out and apply it is a thing of an איש תבונה, to be able to see how this theory would apply in a particular case.

ואיש תבונות, a man of תבונות, היינו כח הקולט בכי טוב בעצם ההשגה. This is the means the ability to really absorb the theory, to really internalize it, that is to really become like one with the way you think and feel and everything, view the world. על כן מתפשט ההשגה בו לעשות להורות בה כמה ענינים נבדלים לגמרי.

Therefore, since it becomes this idea becomes one with him, therefore it's able to spread out that he's able to use it for things, that he's able to make a judgment based on it in כמה ענינים נבדלים לגמרי, in many things that are totally separate from the theory. וגם ביכלתו להביא את עומק בינה לידי גילוי כנ״ל,

and he can also bring out the depth of בינה and explain it in a way that's understandable like we said before. This is the difference between the depth of בינה is just תפיסה, that you just grasp that concept, but it's something separate from you that you're holding. So like you understand it, but it's not really part of the way you think. It's something that you can you can appreciate.

Depth of Bina vs Internalized Tevunah 3:46

That's the idea of of just בינה, it's just abstract understanding separate from you. תבונה requires that you not not just that you should have תפיסה, but you should have קליטה, that you should really absorb it, means that it totally sinks into your brain. And now you this you actually think that way, and you really see it, and so now automatically you start to see it in all different cases, and you start to look, "How would I view use this way of reasoning in this case, in this case?"

And you start to see it in everything, and so then you're able to give examples and משלים for it, even in regular day-to-day life, to make it the depth of בינה understandable to a regular person, and also you can apply it and use it in different cases, because you really internalized it. That's the thing of תבונה. והיינו בחינת אבא ואם תתאין ישראל סבא ותבונה, and this is the idea that the lower father and mother, the אבא and אם תתאין, are ישראל סבא ותבונה.

Israel Saba and Tevunah as Lower Parents 4:54

סבא ותבונה. ישראל סבא מידות דחכמה, ותבונה מידות דבינה. That ישראל סבא is the מידות, the emotions of חכמה, and תבונה is the emotions of בינה. So ישראל סבא is when somebody has an application in an intuitive way. Like let's say, you know, somebody just has like a gut feeling of that this is the right way to do something, that this is the right thing to do, this is the wrong thing to do.

They can't explain you why, but they just have a feeling. That's like ישראל סבא. That's like the case where it says שתיק רב, that it says in the גמרא in ביצה about there is a מחלוקת, and they're discussing the difference between an egg, I think it's the מחלוקת, the difference between a ביצה שנולדה ביום טוב, an egg that was born on יום טוב, which is מוקצה because it's נולד, and a cow that was born on יום טוב, which is not נולד, it's not מוקצה.

So they're discussing that difference, and רב פסק'נט that there's a difference that it's that a that a cow is not נולד, and they asked him why and he couldn't answer. But he didn't retract his פסק. So שתיק רב, he was quiet.

Because even though he couldn't explain the difference, but he saw that there was a difference, intuitively. And that's like the thing of ישראל סבא. Then somebody else came along and they explained the difference and that's the thing of תבונה, that he's able to explain why the פסק should be this way. אך באים בבחינת הגילוי לחוץ. But these are the emotions of חכמה and בינה the way they come outside to be revealed outside of the עצם idea.

So it's not the way that the מידות are included in the theory, but the way that it's brought out into application. So that's the idea of the ישראל סבא and תבונה in general. ובבחינת מלכות דתבונה, and what's the idea of מלכות of תבונה? מלכות of תבונה is the application into thought, speech, and action. הוא השכל הבא במחשבה.

Malchut of Tevunah: Thought, Speech, Action 6:40

This is the intellect that comes into thought. הנקרא אותיות מחשבת שכל. This is called the letters of intellectual thought, שהשכל מתלבש בה, which the intellect is enclothed in this type of thought. So in other words, what is this? This is the the external thing of תבונה, מלכות of תבונה is that it takes the concept, the theory, and it attaches it, it applies it to words, to like a language.

So that when you want to think about this idea, you think about it in terms of this word. Like kind of like if you have like a little kid that has rubber stamps. You know that like so so on the one side, let's say it has a picture of a cow and on the other side it says the word cow. So if he wants to write the word cow, he takes the stamp that says cow, and he stamps it, and then it writes C-O-W.

So on the one side, it's like the thing itself, and on the other side, it's the the word. That's like מלכות דתבונה does. It connects the the concept to the words. והוא בחינת כלי חיצוני למחשבה עיונית.

This is the external vessel for analytical thought. Because this helps you to to to analyze something, to think in depth about something, because you think you talk to yourself about the idea and that helps your mind work over it. But really, your mind works over it even if you're not thinking about it. Talking to yourself is not the actual thought process of בינה that makes you understand.

That's just a כלי to help you hold focus your mind on the right ideas. You You can see an example of your power of בינה at work to understand something even without you like consciously thinking words. Like if you stare at tiles, if you have like a bunch of like little tiles that are arranged in like a very simple pattern, just let's say like straight boxes or like black and white checkers or something, and you stare at it, your mind tries to make all kinds of patterns at it, out of it.

So first you you kind of you see it like diagonals, then you see it as like straight, then you see it as boxes, then you keep trying to make different patterns out of it because the pattern's too simple and your mind of בינה keeps trying to look for different, more complicated patterns to to make out of it. So that's an example of like your power of בינה trying to analyze it.

It tries to cut it up this way and tries to cut it up that way, keeps trying to find different ways that it can analyze it.

But then if you'll think to yourself, then it's like that's like a כלי to help your mind do that. שהוא גילוי השגת הבינה עצמה מצד עצם השכל והסברא וכולי, which this intellectual thought is revealing the actual understanding of בינה itself, relating to the intellect and the logic. So in other words, מלכות דתבונה brings out the actual understanding of בינה into thought. That's another thing that תבונה does.

ומבחינת מלכות דתבונה נמשך שורש אותיות המחשבה עצמה שנקרים לאה וכולי.

From Malchut to L'ah: The Final Step 9:49

And then, once you have this thing of מלכות דתבונה to associate ideas to words in order to think, then you just have the idea of the words themselves without the thought. And so now you can just have thought itself, which is called לאה, like we'll explain later about thought. והוא דלת רבתי דאחד, and this, and this the the large דלת of the word אחד is לאה, the way it comes from מלכות דתבונה.