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All the powers and depth of Kabbalah come from Hisbonenus, Kabbalistic contemplation. Hisbonenus is often mistaken to mean meditation or concentration but that is not so. In Hebrew, Concentration or Meditation is Haamokas HaDaas. Hisbobenus comes from the root Binah - Understanding and means deep, intensive study.
And now we shall explain the actual workings of Hisbonenus - what it is, and what is the subject matter of this Hisbonenus.
Hisbonenus is essentially the idea of looking intensely into the depths of a topic and going over it a lot and examining it from different perspectives 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 without stopping to go over the subject matter at all.
For instance someone who looks with his eye at some object but only in a superficial manner, so that after some time he will certainly forget about it completely and will not be able to tell someone else about it other than vague generalities.
Analogous to this is the passing of the mind's eye over some logical theory at first glance and without any stopping or waiting to look into it properly. Thus he will not he will not have knowledge into the limits of the theory at all and certainly not be able to explain it to someone else.
And Iyun is a deep looking into the concept. That is, that he goes over the conceived thing and looks into it a lot. He studies it over and over and looks at all the different available explanations which shed light on various aspects of the subject matter. This is a process of slowing down, the opposite of going over a subject fast, in order to come to the depths of the concept as it is in its essential self innerness.
As one who looks at something with his physical eye and not just glancing over it but with an open eye and deep looking for a long time till he knows this (physical object) well with all its inner parts and inner innerness (like inside workings).
And this is what's called Hisbonenus with a double Nun specifically. (two N's -hisboNeNus the same root as Binah) that is , that he thinks into the thing and looks at it a lot. And like Rash"i explains on the meaning of the word "Iyun" : -to go over the thing until it is understood clearly etc.-
So, Hisbonenus, which is synonymous with Iyun, is repetitive intensive analytical study, as is explained above, which is to analyze the subject matter into all of its parts with detailed identification of each. And this is called Binah of Binah, another reason for the two Nun's in Hisbonenus.
To summarize: Iyun which is synonymous with Hisbonenus and is called Binah of Binah is to go over the matter and analyze it clearly into all its parts. That is, to analytically examine the subject matter totally into all its various separations and definitions of both the internal and external aspects of the topic.
To understand why the Kabbalah approaches the mystical experience with Analysis rather than Meditation, we first have to understand the three powers of the mind, Chochmah, Binah, and Daas and how they interact.
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