Chapter 1 - Part 2 Hokhma & Binah

The three intellectual faculties are as follows: Intuition (in Hebrew Hokhma literally meaning "wisdom"), Comprehension (in Hebrew Binah literally meaning "understanding") & Concentration (in Hebrew Daas literally meaning "knowledge"). Hokhma (intuition) is by definition "the intellect’s grasp of the essence of an intellectual concept, before it has come down into letters (i.e. explanations). Binah (comprehension) is by definition "the grasp of the subject matter as it is enclothed in letters (explanations).

To better understand these two faculties, let us look at the following allegory: When one looks at a wondrous structure (the Taj Mahal, the Empire State Building, the Kremlin, or...), he gets a feeling of awe. At first though, this awe is only felt by his mind in a general way. He knows right off the bat "this building is awesome!" If you ask him why, he won’t be able to tell you. Not until he thinks about it a second, does he notice the shapes, the shades, the architectural style, etc. All he knows, in a word, is "WOW!!!" At first all he sees is the whole picture, not the details. He sees the essence of the beauty, but does not yet comprehend it fully for he sees it only with his intuitive faculty (Hokhma) and the faculty of intuition sees only essence, it sees only "the point". However, once he has looked for a moment and has allowed the information that his eyes feed him (his mind) to "sink in", the faculty of Binah (comprehension) kicks in. Now the Binah, unlike Hokhma (intuition), doesn’t see the point, but rather the Binah sees only the details that surround & define the point. In other words, your intuitive faculty, your Hokhma tells you that this building is beautiful. Then along comes your comprehensive faculty, Binah, & tells you why it’s beautiful (size, shape, color, architecture, etc.). Did you ever hear someone say, "That was gorgeous! I can’t explain it, I only saw it for a split second, but this much I know…it was stunningly beautiful!" He didn’t see the object long enough for his comprehensive faculty to kick in & take down details, but it was long enough for him to catch the essence. Long enough for him to have an intuitive perception.

Now remember, the perception of the Binah does not affect the essence of the subject matter, but rather only clarifies it to the perceiver. One allegory that could be used to clarify this point is that of a Police officer who wears pajamas at night. Even though a stranger might not know that he is a policeman, even though he is different to an outsider, this does not change the essence. He is still the same person, uniform or no. To his wife, however, he’s just jack, no matter how many stripes he wears on his sleeve. The essence remains the same!

So now we can understand the strength of Hillel Paritcher’s question, for we see that the intuition is the main thing. When one sees a building for a split second, he gets the basic idea, the intuitive grasp, even if he can’t explain it, even if the comprehensive faculty has not yet had a chance to go into play. The comprehensive faculty, however, is worthless (it would seem) without the intuition, for without the original concept of the intuition, there is no need for the explanations of the comprehensive faculty. So now we can better understand the original question. Should not the scripture say "See O’ Israel" i.e. understand G-D with your intuitive faculty, the higher and more important faculty? Why then does the scripture use the term "Hear…" with the lower level of the comprehensive faculty?

The above-mentioned levels (Hokhma & Binah) are also present in the emotions. [Although we will speak of the emotions at greater length later, we will quickly introduce them, so as to understand the intellect within them, i.e. the intellect within emotion.] The emotions are the faculties where decisions are made. Like or dislike, innocent or guilty, will or will not, etc. For example, a jury is deciding the fate of a defendant who held up a convenience store. The emotion of Gevurah (gevoorah) or strength recommends, "Let’s hang him! He stole a hundred bucks!" The emotion of Hessed (kindness) counters, "Let him off! He only stole a hundred bucks! Besides, he was hungry!" The emotion of Tiferet (mediation) says, "We need a compromise. Like Gevurah suggests, he must be punished, for he did steal. As the Hessed argued, however, it was only a small sum. Let’s go somewhere in between and give him six months in jail."

We must understand, however, that the intellect is also present in this level. As we said before, it all works in tens - three intellectual faculties and seven emotional faculties that are always working together at any given time. So even when we are speaking of the levels of emotions, the intellect is still present and vice versa. The reason we refer to a particular level as one or the other (intellect or emotions) is because in a particular state of mind (making decisions, analyzing, meditating, etc.) one or the other happens to be predominant. The same holds true of the particular levels (the 3 of intellect & the 7 of emotions), even when we speak of one of them (it being the dominant), the others are still present (even if in a recessive way).

It is easily understood why in decision-making, a level of thought predominated by the emotions, the intellect is needed. Without the intellect, there would be no communication or order. What happens when emotions are present without intellect? Well in the courtroom situation, pandemonium breaks loose. People screaming, shouting and getting worked up. "Kill the thieving bastard!"…"I’m innocent I tell ya…Innocent as a dove!"

What does the judge do then? Slams his hammer, of course, and bellows, "Order in the court!" Get a grip on yourselves! Calm down! Start using your intellects again, because with emotions alone and no intellect, you can’t run a courtroom! Even though the emotions must be involved (if not, when a man would be brought before a judge for serial murder, the judge would say "So What?" Being devoid of emotion, death and even murder has no serious impact), they must be regulated by intellect to ensure that

1) all of the pieces of the puzzle in fact fit together logically (intellectually), and

2) to ensure that the anger, punishment, etc. are in logical relevance & relativity to the crime committed.

This is why jurors are cross-examined to ensure that they have no relation, interest or bias toward either party. If a juror is the victim’s (or defendant’s) father, as much as he might think he’s being objective, being that his emotions are to involved, there is no way that he can look at the arguments and evidence in a totally objective way. The same holds true for a juror who has a dislike toward either party, whether a personal dislike or otherwise.

So now that we understand a little bit about the emotions, we can look at the intellect, which as we just said must come into play on the emotional level. This is knows as the intellect of emotion (or intellect within emotion). Just as there are Hokhma and Binah in the levels of intellect (which we explained before with the allegory of one who looks at a structure for the 1st time), so too are these 2 levels present in the intellect of emotions (the 3rd intellectual faculty, Daas or concentration will be explained later). We can better understand these 2 levels (Hokhma and Binah of emotions) through looking at the following story from the Talmud*:

"Rabbi Kahana and Rabbi Ashi questioned a ruling in Jewish Law that Rav (at that time the chief spiritual leader and high authority on Jewish Law) had made. Furthermore, they brought proof that would suggest that Rav’s ruling was incorrect. Rav, however, held his ground & stuck to his original ruling, even though he could not refute their argument. In addition, his ruling was accepted by the public (and even by Rabbis Kahana and Ashi who had brought up the argument and proved their case) as the correct ruling."

At first, this may seem unfair, but to those who understand the principles of the mind’s faculties, it is all quite simple. Rav understood that his ruling was correct on the essential level of hockhma. But as the concept in his mind had not yet come down to the level of explanation, the faculty of binah, he was as of yet unable to explain it to the other sages. Knowing this (that Rav knew that he was correct, regardless of the arguments, but only could not yet explain it), the other sages, including Rabbis Kahana & Ashi, accepted his ruling. It should be noted that only because it was Rav they were dealing with did the sages accept the ruling without question. If the holy Rav stuck with his decision, regardless of proof to the contrary, it was certainly warranted. Incidentally, the sage Raba Bar Nahmeni later analyzed the above case, i.e. he applied his faculty of binah and he was able to refute the proof against Rav and he explained why in fact Rav had been right. He brought down into binah what Rav had originally understood in his Hokhma.

To give a more materialistic allegory, we see sometimes in a big business situation, with millions of dollars at stake, where partners, accountants, advisors, lawyers, etc. analyze a potential investment. They go over all the numbers, possibilities, percentages, etc. to figure out if it is worth it to invest in this particular investment. Now, let’s say, after doing all their homework, they determine that it all makes sense and this is a great investment opportunity. Before they go ahead with the investment, though, they decide to go ask an older gentleman, who’s been in the business for decades and has "seen it all", so to speak. After reviewing the numbers, prospectus, etc., he says "looks good on paper, but I wouldn’t go with this investment…I have a bad feeling about it." Based on his "gut feeling", the company drops the whole deal. Seems pretty stupid, no? They have done weeks of research and came to the conclusion that it all looks good. The gentleman even said himself that it looks good! So why drop the whole deal because of his "gut feeling"? The answer lies in the fact that contrary to its name, "gut feelings" are not just feelings of the emotions, but are rather "feelings" of the intellect. They are feelings of the intuitive faculty, the Hokhma which make themselves known in the lower emotions or "gut feelings". This, then, is why they listen to the gentleman, even though he can’t give them a logical explanation for not going with the conclusions of their lengthy analyzation. They know to trust the intuition of someone who has had many successes and failures in the field and thus has much experience, to be able to tell a bad apple at a glance.