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Binah: The Modern Quest for Torah Understanding
Excerpted from the Introduction:
Give ear to my words, 0 Lord, understand my meditation.
Psalms 5:2
The mind, the mysterious seat of intellect, is a store of learned facts and information, an instrument capable of forging new ideas and penetrating the unfathomable, and when thoughtfully employed, brings us closer to God. Wisdom and thought form the creative mind, "a part of God above."
This definition of mind is drawn from Rashi's commentary. The Almighty informs Moses that He has called upon Bezalel to design the Tent of the Meeting Place and its objects. And he will be filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all workmanship (Exod. 31:3). Rashi defines wisdom as "things that a man hears from others and learns." He defines understanding as, "things in his mind from what he has learned." The knowledge acquired is then considered to be "the sacred spirit." Ultimate knowledge is the result of learning and thought. Storing information is, by itself, inadequate. Independent thought is imperative.
In our prayers each morning, we pray for knowledge of Torah, asking that God inspire us "to understand and discern, to perceive, learn, and teach, to observe, do, and fulfill gladly all the instructions of Your Torah." L'havin, "to understand, comprehend, think," precedes all matters related to Torah, for Torah is not an academic exercise but a creative and subjective discipline based upon a prior commitment to thinking.
Our sages teach, "If you are told there is wisdom among the peoples, believe them; but if they tell you there is Torah, do not believe them" (Lamentations Rabba 4). Wisdom is the accumulation of knowledge, an impersonal gathering of facts. It is an abstraction, and its student is a textual receptacle not unlike a book. Torah, when properly studied, becomes the subjective possession of the student, whose analytic commitment metamorphoses his existence. The authentic Torah scholar commits all his thinking to each syllable and word of Torah as the means by which to acquire the ultimate truth—knowledge of God.
In Kabbala, binah (understanding) is described in the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) as the mortal sphere closest to the source of Divine Emanation. Thought is a process by which man emulates God. Nowadays Torah scholarship has more often been reduced to learning without discerning, and to observing without understanding. Some of the most pious individuals, though they commit themselves to Torah study, attain only limited understanding. The thinking man's Torah is exciting and challenging. It has its inherent risks, but every Jew is obliged to cross the precipice in order to make his own discovery in Torah.
Torah is not a catechism of faith. As a psychotherapist, I have occasionally counseled talmidei chachamim (Torah scholars) who were unable to define their beliefs or articulate their reasons for observing the mitzvot. In times of emotional stress, they were incapable of a personal faith. This is by no means a new phenomenon. The sages of the past denounced those who would reduce Torah to empirical forms of knowledge bereft of subjective thought or personal application. The early masters of Chasidism and the founders of the Musar movement sought to provoke thought in order to stimulate faith. Though the processes of Chasidism and Musar differ, both offer vitally needed modicums of thought leading to faith.
The realities facing today's Jew demand qualitative thinking. The Jew is exposed to many forms of higher learning and various disciplines of thought. Even those raised in a self-contained Torah world will have subconscious doubts if denied tools of thought. Torah is truth, and will tolerate the scrutiny of any thinking person. It will triumph over every doubt.
The potential for nuclear devastation and the contemporary disillusionment with technology make Torah understanding, binah, one of the imperatives of our time. With this in mind, I began to write down some of my own thoughts. I make no claim to have answers for the quandaries of today's Jew. In these essays, I only seek to share years of personal thought based upon my own commitment to Ben Bag Bag's dictum about the Torah: "Again and again, turn it, for everything is contained in it; constantly examine it; grow old and gray over it, and do not deviate from it, as there is nothing better" (Ethics of the Fathers 5:25). Having explored the writings of many classical and contemporary thinkers in various schools of religious and secular thought, I remain convinced that Torah represents immutable truth and offers understanding for all of life's perplexities . . .
Excerpted from the Introduction to Binah: the Modern Quest for Torah Understanding, published by Ktav.
Copyright 1993, 2004 Rafael Grossman.
The full text of Binah: The Modern Quest for Torah Understanding is available from the author as an autographed book. The cost, including postage and handling, is $20.
Please make your check payable to "Rabbi Rafael Grossman" and mail to:
Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman
424 West End Avenue #8C
New York, NY 10024-5782
Excerpted from the Introduction:
Give ear to my words, 0 Lord, understand my meditation.
Psalms 5:2
The mind, the mysterious seat of intellect, is a store of learned facts and information, an instrument capable of forging new ideas and penetrating the unfathomable, and when thoughtfully employed, brings us closer to God. Wisdom and thought form the creative mind, "a part of God above."
This definition of mind is drawn from Rashi's commentary. The Almighty informs Moses that He has called upon Bezalel to design the Tent of the Meeting Place and its objects. And he will be filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all workmanship (Exod. 31:3). Rashi defines wisdom as "things that a man hears from others and learns." He defines understanding as, "things in his mind from what he has learned." The knowledge acquired is then considered to be "the sacred spirit." Ultimate knowledge is the result of learning and thought. Storing information is, by itself, inadequate. Independent thought is imperative.
In our prayers each morning, we pray for knowledge of Torah, asking that God inspire us "to understand and discern, to perceive, learn, and teach, to observe, do, and fulfill gladly all the instructions of Your Torah." L'havin, "to understand, comprehend, think," precedes all matters related to Torah, for Torah is not an academic exercise but a creative and subjective discipline based upon a prior commitment to thinking.
Our sages teach, "If you are told there is wisdom among the peoples, believe them; but if they tell you there is Torah, do not believe them" (Lamentations Rabba 4). Wisdom is the accumulation of knowledge, an impersonal gathering of facts. It is an abstraction, and its student is a textual receptacle not unlike a book. Torah, when properly studied, becomes the subjective possession of the student, whose analytic commitment metamorphoses his existence. The authentic Torah scholar commits all his thinking to each syllable and word of Torah as the means by which to acquire the ultimate truth—knowledge of God.
In Kabbala, binah (understanding) is described in the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) as the mortal sphere closest to the source of Divine Emanation. Thought is a process by which man emulates God. Nowadays Torah scholarship has more often been reduced to learning without discerning, and to observing without understanding. Some of the most pious individuals, though they commit themselves to Torah study, attain only limited understanding. The thinking man's Torah is exciting and challenging. It has its inherent risks, but every Jew is obliged to cross the precipice in order to make his own discovery in Torah.
Torah is not a catechism of faith. As a psychotherapist, I have occasionally counseled talmidei chachamim (Torah scholars) who were unable to define their beliefs or articulate their reasons for observing the mitzvot. In times of emotional stress, they were incapable of a personal faith. This is by no means a new phenomenon. The sages of the past denounced those who would reduce Torah to empirical forms of knowledge bereft of subjective thought or personal application. The early masters of Chasidism and the founders of the Musar movement sought to provoke thought in order to stimulate faith. Though the processes of Chasidism and Musar differ, both offer vitally needed modicums of thought leading to faith.
The realities facing today's Jew demand qualitative thinking. The Jew is exposed to many forms of higher learning and various disciplines of thought. Even those raised in a self-contained Torah world will have subconscious doubts if denied tools of thought. Torah is truth, and will tolerate the scrutiny of any thinking person. It will triumph over every doubt.
The potential for nuclear devastation and the contemporary disillusionment with technology make Torah understanding, binah, one of the imperatives of our time. With this in mind, I began to write down some of my own thoughts. I make no claim to have answers for the quandaries of today's Jew. In these essays, I only seek to share years of personal thought based upon my own commitment to Ben Bag Bag's dictum about the Torah: "Again and again, turn it, for everything is contained in it; constantly examine it; grow old and gray over it, and do not deviate from it, as there is nothing better" (Ethics of the Fathers 5:25). Having explored the writings of many classical and contemporary thinkers in various schools of religious and secular thought, I remain convinced that Torah represents immutable truth and offers understanding for all of life's perplexities . . .
Excerpted from the Introduction to Binah: the Modern Quest for Torah Understanding, published by Ktav.
Copyright 1993, 2004 Rafael Grossman.
The full text of Binah: The Modern Quest for Torah Understanding is available from the author as an autographed book. The cost, including postage and handling, is $20.
Please make your check payable to "Rabbi Rafael Grossman" and mail to:
Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman
424 West End Avenue #8C
New York, NY 10024-5782