The Third Dimension
Day by Day - Kislev 28 (See today's Hayom Yom here. )
Holy feelings, love and fear (or awe) of G-d or G-dliness are born out of knowledge: to know Him is to love Him.
Every soul has three mind faculties: discovery, development and relevance. Chochma is the discovery of an idea, Bina is the development of the discovery and Daat is identifying with the idea making it relevant to your life.
But discovery and development are truly objective, following the light of reason, wherever it might lead. Together they give the concept its dimensions, height and width. Chochma is height, Bina is breadth. You now have a square.
Daat, on the other hand, will not add new insight or more detail to the subject, it will add depth - what is already there will be deepened. The square becomes a cube. What is the deepening of an idea? Deep here implies internalizing or ‘personalizing.’
Think of G-d's greatness and you will have two dimensions. Think of your G-d’s greatness and you have three dimensions. Application of the information to your self, personal, that is the ‘deep’ of Daat.
In the daily reading of Tanya for this day we learn that Daat contains love and fear. Naturally, when you are personally affected by something or someone you respond with love or fear or both. We also learn that Chochma and Bina are the two ‘parents’ of the emotions.
But it’s the Daat that makes them real. Emotions of the heart are children of the mind. When parents are excited the children get excited as well, but the child’s excitement is fleeting, unreal, imagined.
When chochma and bina are inspired the heart will be stirred by their excitement. The heart will experience an emotion, love, but the ‘baby’ will not be viable, for the emotion is of the mind not of the heart.
Daat makes the emotion real by giving the heart its own excitement, this is accomplished by making the information personal, relevant.
Okay, now the Hayom Yom:
Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the first Chabad Rebbe, was the ‘discoverer’ of Chabad thought – its Chochma. The second Rebbe was its Bina and the third Rebbe gave it Daat.
The Hayom Yom reading for today says that the third Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mende, "made a latkah evening for his family, including his daughters-in-law, and so did the first Rebbe and so too the second Rebbe. "
Q. In telling us this historical tidbit, why not start from the beginning? Why not say, the first Rebbe made a latkah evening for the family and so did the second and third Rebbes?
Perhaps it is because the Tanya of the day introduces the faculty of Daat - Chocham and Bina having been introduced the previous day. The third Rebbe, Daat, is the primary focus of the day. Here the children were invited, ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’.
Which leads us to the custom of giving “gelt” to the children, particularly on the fourth or fifth night of Chanukah. Daat inspires love and awe, the fourth and fifth of the ten attributes and the first two of the 'children'.
Holy feelings, love and fear (or awe) of G-d or G-dliness are born out of knowledge: to know Him is to love Him.
Every soul has three mind faculties: discovery, development and relevance. Chochma is the discovery of an idea, Bina is the development of the discovery and Daat is identifying with the idea making it relevant to your life.
But discovery and development are truly objective, following the light of reason, wherever it might lead. Together they give the concept its dimensions, height and width. Chochma is height, Bina is breadth. You now have a square.
Daat, on the other hand, will not add new insight or more detail to the subject, it will add depth - what is already there will be deepened. The square becomes a cube. What is the deepening of an idea? Deep here implies internalizing or ‘personalizing.’
Think of G-d's greatness and you will have two dimensions. Think of your G-d’s greatness and you have three dimensions. Application of the information to your self, personal, that is the ‘deep’ of Daat.
In the daily reading of Tanya for this day we learn that Daat contains love and fear. Naturally, when you are personally affected by something or someone you respond with love or fear or both. We also learn that Chochma and Bina are the two ‘parents’ of the emotions.
But it’s the Daat that makes them real. Emotions of the heart are children of the mind. When parents are excited the children get excited as well, but the child’s excitement is fleeting, unreal, imagined.
When chochma and bina are inspired the heart will be stirred by their excitement. The heart will experience an emotion, love, but the ‘baby’ will not be viable, for the emotion is of the mind not of the heart.
Daat makes the emotion real by giving the heart its own excitement, this is accomplished by making the information personal, relevant.
Okay, now the Hayom Yom:
Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the first Chabad Rebbe, was the ‘discoverer’ of Chabad thought – its Chochma. The second Rebbe was its Bina and the third Rebbe gave it Daat.
The Hayom Yom reading for today says that the third Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mende, "made a latkah evening for his family, including his daughters-in-law, and so did the first Rebbe and so too the second Rebbe. "
Q. In telling us this historical tidbit, why not start from the beginning? Why not say, the first Rebbe made a latkah evening for the family and so did the second and third Rebbes?
Perhaps it is because the Tanya of the day introduces the faculty of Daat - Chocham and Bina having been introduced the previous day. The third Rebbe, Daat, is the primary focus of the day. Here the children were invited, ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’.
Which leads us to the custom of giving “gelt” to the children, particularly on the fourth or fifth night of Chanukah. Daat inspires love and awe, the fourth and fifth of the ten attributes and the first two of the 'children'.
posted by Scruz | 12:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home