New, improved Kabbalah Series			BS''D
Chapter 1 - Part 2	Previous	Close Window	Next

The Bold Print is the original translation, plain print is explanation and annotation

Synopsis of previous section:

Hisbonenus is essentially the idea of looking intensely into the depths of a topic and going over it a lot until one understands it clearly with all its parts in particular detail. And this is the innerness of Binah (understanding) which is called in the language of the Talmud Iyun as it says in Tractate Succah "there's a type of study called Girsah (fast superficial study) and a type called Iyun (deep intensive study).

The explanation of Girsah is to just understand the topic at first glance which passes and flows rapidly (from point to point) without any stopping to go over the subject matter.

And Now Chapter 1.02

The Mitler Rebbe will now proceed to explain the mechanics of the mind in Kabbalistic terms:

For every concept possess three dimensions: depth, length and width.

The width of a concept is the explanation of a concept to every side, with many details, like the width of a river; and not merely saying it like it is without explanation, like a narrow river. The same is true in modern terminology. For example, when we speak of a broad subject, we mean that it extends or finds application in many fields, encompasses many diverse ideas, or has many different explanation. Similarly when we describe someone as possessing a broad knowledge, we mean that his knowledge extends to many different areas and is not limited to just a few subjects. This does not however indicate that he has a great proficiency in these subjects, nor that he can explain them, only that his knowledge encompasses many different facts. So too, when we speak of the width of a concept we are discussing the number of different kinds of details or examples it contains, or in how many ways it can be explained. This is like a wide river that covers a lot of area at each point along its length, and can be divided into many individual streams of water. For example, a subject like mathematics is very wide for it encompasses many specific subjects like addition, subtraction, whole numbers, fractions, algebra, calculus, etc. and each of these in turn includes an infinite number of specific problems. Therefore its explanation is very wide with a lot of details and takes years to learn. The rules of football, on the other hand, is a much narrower subject and doesn't take so long to learn, for it has fewer details.

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