Getting to Know Your Inner World - 009 Detaching from Chochma, Bina & Da’as, Part 3

Why Do We Want to “Remove” Our Soul’s Garments?

We will now elaborate in more detail about what we began to discuss. We are learning about how to “wear” as well as how to “remove” the garments of our soul (halbashah and hafshatah – “wearing and removing”) so that we can attain more inner serenity (menuchah) and thereby come closer to revealing our actual essence, havayah.

The non-Jewish methods of learning how to detach is simply for the sake of experiencing what it’s like to feel a detachment from the soul’s abilities, but this is not the Torah way. The Torah way is to remove our soul faculties because that it is what enables us to truly use them, and by repeating the cycle of wearing and removing our soul faculties, we keep going in and out of them, and then we are able to penetrate further and further into our soul, where we will be able to reach our actual self.

Just like the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) put on the bigdei kehunah (priestly garments) and removed them many times, so must we go through a cycle of putting on our “garments” as well as remove them.

At this point, we are not learning how to remove our soul’s garments to directly reach our essence (havayah). We are learning a more basic level, which is, how to remove one garment of our soul and instead wear a different garment of the soul.

Summary of Detaching from Emunah, Taanug and Ratzon

The first soul faculty we discussed was emunah. Emunah is generally removed through using ratzon.

The second faculty, ta’anug (pleasure) is removed through shiflus/ameilus (exertion). This also connects a person somewhat to his havayah. How? With ameilus, a person is using an ability in himself that is above pleasure, which in turn is above comprehension; it thereby draws the person closer to the point of havayah, which is above human comprehension. So when we use ameilus, it gives us somewhat of a connection to havayah.

The third faculty, ratzon, can be removed through emunah, or it can be removed through ta’anug. If a person loses his ta’anug in his ratzon (like if he loses his aspirations), he can give himself ta’anug by having ta’anug in his emunah, like by being happy with what he has so far accomplished. If he loses ta’anug in emunah, he can gain ta’anug through ratzon, which is by deriving pleasure from his aspirations.

Detaching from Chochmah using Emunah

Regarding the next faculty, chochmah, we have so far only been brief in explaining it. Now we will elaborate on it more.

There are three kinds of thoughts in us. Chochmah is simple thought. Binah is a more detailed thought. Both Chochmah and Binah need to be removed sometimes.

Chochmah is a simple thought. Sometimes we need to remove our chochmah; how can we remove it?

Emunah is the opposite of thinking, and thinking is the opposite of Emunah. Emunah says that everything is good, while the power of thought says, I need to think about it and conclude that this is true. Chochmah and emunah really contradict each other. If so, emunah can remove chochmah.

If someone just has emunah on an intellectual level, but he doesn’t have a palpable sense of emunah, then he doesn’t see how chochmah contradicts emunah. This is the situation of most people, who do not have a palpable kind of emunah that they can feel. But if someone feels emunah in a palpable sense, he understands that chochmah and emunah are total opposites.

Chochmah is thus removed through emunah. Intellectual Emunah, or even palpable emunah, isn’t enough to remove chochmah. The only thing that can remove chochmah, which are simple thoughts, is through “simple” emunah.

Detaching from Chochmah Using Ta’anug

Another way to remove chochmah is through ta’anug.

When a person is feeling certain pleasure, he can’t think straight. When a person is having great joy at a happy occasion, he finds it too difficult to think. This is how ta’anug can remove chochmah.

Detaching from Chochmah Using Ratzon

Ratzon can also remove chochmah. There are two kinds of ratzon – there is a calm ratzon and a “loud” kind of ratzon.

A calm kind of will is rooted in the element of water; water is by nature calm (mayim shekeitim). Another kind of ratzon is when a person is enthusiastic about something; such a ratzon is rooted in the element of fire. Enthusiasm is resounding; it is anything but quiet. If so, a “loud” kind of ratzon can come and get rid of the “calm waters” of the chochmah.

Ratzon opposes chochmah, and thus it can serve as a way to remove it when we need to. A person’s ratzon is actually hidden in his chochmah – in other words, our thoughts conceal from us what we truly want. When we are thinking hard, that itself hides from us what we truly want! If so, we need to “remove” the thoughts so we can reveal our ratzon hidden in it.

The more we reveal our ratzon, the less we have to think. When a person’s ratzon is strong, he can’t think straight. This shows us that by awakening our enthusiasm for something, we can stop ourselves from thinking about something.

Detaching from Binah by using Chochmah

The second kind of thought we have is Binah, which is to reflect deeply. Detaching from Binah (when we have to) is different from how we detach from Chochmah.

Chochmah is about general thought, while Binah is about details. Chochmah is a thought which takes everything and generalizes it, while Binah is a kind of thought which combines details of something.

For example, when it comes to the faculty of taanug, there are two kinds of taanug. There is a general kind of taanug, and there is a detailed kind of taanug. A person can be happy about his general situation, or he is happy about a particular detail in his life that makes him very happy.

Therefore, if a person is enjoying his chochmah too much, he can remove it through binah, and vice versa – if he is enjoying binah too much, he can remove it through chochmah. The pleasure one has from his chochmah can remove his pleasure from binah, and pleasure in binah can remove pleasure in chochmah.

Detaching from Binah using Taanug and Ratzon

Binah can also be removed through ratzon. A person either has a general ratzon or a detailed ratzon. A general ratzon is when one wants to fulfill his general purpose on this world, while a detailed ratzon is when a person seeks how to actually go about it.

The general ratzon is revealed through chochmah, and the detailed ratzon is revealed through binah.

If so, a ratzon for chochmah can be removed through a ratzon for binah, and a ratzon for binah and be removed through a ratzon for chochmah. When a person wants to think about something general, he can stop this thought by thinking about a particular detail. When a person is too engrossed in a detail, he can stop this thought by wanting to thinking about something that is more general.

Most people are satisfied in their lives with ta’anug in binah – people have acquired certain details here and there in spirituality, but they don’t yet have ta’anug in chochmah, which is to be aware of the general purpose of life.

In order to detach from the ta’anug in chochmah, one should use his ratzon and instead he should want to have ta’anug in chochmah.

An Example of Detaching from Binah using Chochmah

When you want to detach from binah using chochmah, there are a few facets to this.

One way is to return from your binah to your chochmah. For example, a person is learning Gemara, and he comes across a question that seems to have no answer. What happens? He will become very focused on that question and he won’t be able to continue. This will make him become too engrossed in the detail and he won’t get further than clarifying that detail; he is engrossed in binah, so he needs to return to chochmah.

How can he return to chochmah?  He can return to the beginning of the Gemara, which gives him the general description of the Gemara. This is how one detaches from binah, by using chochmah. We only gave one example of this, but the point is always the same: get yourself out of a detail and return to the general picture.

Chochmah Connects You To Havayah

We mentioned before that chochmah is a simple thought, while binah is a complicated thought. These are two abilities in a person – the ability to think simply, and the ability to think deeply. The fact that our thinking process is made up of these two kinds of thoughts is actually the most complicated part of the structure of our soul.

The essence of the soul, havayah, is actually simple and is not complicated; chochmah, which is simple thought, is thus a connection to your havayah; your essence is somewhat revealed through your chochmah.

Your essence is really simple, and when a person reaches the Ultimate Essence, Hashem, he can realize with utter simplicity the reality of Hashem’s existence. In fact, Hashem’s existence is so simple that it eludes people how simple His existence is; this is the meaning of what is written, “Those who grasp onto the Torah do not know Me.”

In order to reach the simplicity of our essence (and eventually we should all strive to reach the simplicity of Hashem’s existence as well), we need to remove ourselves from what’s “complicated” and instead focus on simplicity.

Chochmah is what can reveal your simplicity. The rest of the soul faculties (emunah, taanug, and ratzon) are complicated, and they are not simple. They cannot be used to reveal something “simple.” But chochmah, which is a simple thought, can bring a person very close to revealing his havayah, which is one’s simple existence.

For example, if a person calmly reviews the same words of Torah again and again, or he repeats a possuk again and again and just focuses on the simplicity of the meaning, he is able to reveal his chochmah, which gives you somewhat of a connection to your havayah.

Chochmah and binah are called “two friends that cannot leave each other.” However, as we explained, when a person is too attached to binah, he needs to remove it using chochmah, which is to reveal his ability of simplicity.

Detaching from Da’as

Besides for chochmah and binah, we also have a thinking ability called “daas.”

Daas is the power to connect to either your knowledge or to your emotions. Most people only experience connection to their emotions, and not to their knowledge. If someone hasn’t yet revealed his abilities of thought in the first place, he doesn’t know what the concept of “connecting” to your knowledge is.

Daas has an obvious gain, because a person through it can connect himself to his learning all the time. But it can actually happen that a person is so connected all the time to his learning that his emunah gets weakened! This is a very subtle point about our soul. For this reason, a person has to also learn how detach even from daas.

Daas is a constant connection to Hashem, so how can you detach from daas? How do you detach from something that is constant? If you can detach, then it’s not constant, so how is it daas in the first place? The Chazon Ish said that “the secret of holiness is consistency.” If so, how do you disconnect from something that is constant?

(To many people, this will not make a difference. People that don’t experience connection to Hashem all the time will not be bothered by this question.)

The detachment from daas should not ever be a total detachment. It is more like putting daas on hold. This is different from the other kinds of detachment we discussed until now.

For example, when a person has to get undressed to go the mikvah, he’s only removing his clothes temporarily. But the Kohen Gadol had to keep getting dressed and undressed, and this wasn’t just temporary; it was for the very purpose of removing the clothes.

Although all detachment is only temporary, there is a big difference between detaching from the other soul faculties than from daas. When one detaches from the other soul faculties, he is also planning to return to using them later, but during the actual time that he is detached from that faculty, he is totally removed from it at the moment. But when one has to detach from his daas, it is not even a temporary detachment – it is simply to put daas on hold. This is because you really can’t ever disconnect from Hashem and His Torah (and this point can only be understood by someone who is connected all the time).

An example of this is when one is using the lavatory, which is a place where one is not allowed to think Torah thoughts. This is when we have to detach from our connection to Torah. One of the Sages, though, came up with many original Torah thoughts even when he had to relieve himself. This was because he was so connected with his daas to the Torah that he couldn’t take leave of it at all.

Someone who doesn’t know what daas is will not understand why it is so difficult to disconnect from Torah when you have to (such as in the lavatory). As we said before, it depends on the soul root of each person; if someone’s soul root is rooted in daas, he can understand why this is difficult to do, because he is “there” all the time. But even though it is difficult to do, there are times which we must detach from daas, such as in the examples we gave.