Bilvavi Part 5 - 293 Getting Higher

בלבבי חלק ה. "מילי דעבודה. פתיחה. ידע ולא ידע"  עמ' רצג – שג

Chapter Fourteen   

Two Kinds of Perception – “Knowing” and “Not Knowing”

There are five levels of understanding. First, we will say what they are briefly, and then we will try to explain them. This is the order: lo yeda (to not know), yeda (to know), yeda (to know in a deeper way), lo yeda (to once again not know), and yeda (to completely know).

1. First, a person lacks the knowledge about something. This is called lo yeda (to not know).

2. Then, he knows about something on a basic level. This is called yeda (to know).

3. After this, a person reaches a higher kind of understanding, and this is a higher kind of yeda.

4. After this, a person is able to reach an even higher kind of understanding, in which he feels that he doesn’t know anything, because he realizes that there is so much he doesn’t know. This is called the higher kind of lo yeda.

5. Finally, a person comes to the ultimate level of knowledge, which is the uppermost level of yeda.

1.

At first, a person starts out in life not knowing anything. This is simply lo yeda – he doesn’t know a thing. A person’s perception  at this level resembles a drunk person, who has temporarily lost his mind; or a retarded person, who does not have an able thinking mind. Or, he might also resemble a child, who has an immature level of understanding.

2.

A person then develops and gains daas, understanding. This is the first, basic kind of “yeda.” It is a person’s simple daas, and the Sages say (Sukkah 42b) that even a child can reach this kind of daas. A child can reach this daas once he is able to tell the difference between certain objects. Pharoah wanted to see if Moshe was a smart child, by placing a plate of gold and a plate of fire in front of him, to see which one he would choose. That is also an example of the basic daas which even a child can get.

This basic level of daas is what accompanies a person throughout his life. This basic kind of daas is needed for any human being to survive, Jew and non-Jew alike. A person has to be a bar daas.

3.

A person is able to reach a higher kind of understanding, a higher daas. This is also called daas d’kedushah – holy understanding. Such daas is used when a person differentiates between what is materialistic, and what is spiritual. There are two stages in this kind of daas.

The first part is called havdalah, differentiating information. The second stage is called chibbur, connecting information together. In the initial stage, a person can use his daas to differentiate simply between materialism and spirituality, as we said above. After that comes a second stage: connecting to the spirituality that one finds.

A person can discover that not all spirituality is the same, and there are differing spiritual concepts. We need to know and recognize the different spiritual concepts that exist, and then, we need to know which concepts to connect to, because there is a time and place for everything.

Such daas is exercised by those who serve Hashem, who have a very structured daily schedule. Those who truly serve Hashem realize that there are three main pillars in serving Hashem – Torah, Tefillah, and Chessed – and that there is a time of the day for Torah, a time of the day for Tefillah, and a time for Chessed. They know how to use their daas and see how much time is necessary to spend on learning Torah, for davening, and for bestowing good upon others; as well as to discern what to learn in Torah, what to daven about, and what kind of chessed to do.

4.

Higher than this kind of daas is lo yeda, which means to “not know” – in other words, a kind of knowledge that is above the regular kind of knowledge. This level, lo yeda, is revealed especially on Purim. Chazal[1] state that on Purim, one has to get intoxicated until he reaches “lo yeda” – until he cannot tell the difference between “Cursed is Haman” and “Blessed is Mordechai.”  This does not mean that one should simply become like a drunk person who has lost his daas; that would just be returning to the immature level of understanding, which is the first stage of lo yeda. Rather, on Purim, Chazal revealed that we have to elevate ourselves to a higher kind of lo yeda – a kind of understanding that is above even our mature kind of daas.

What is the higher kind of lo yeda? We will explain this.

The Baal Shem Tov established a great fundamental: everything, in essence, is G-dliness. It only appears to us superficially that there isn’t G-dliness in something; but in essence, the inner layer of anything is G-dliness. Therefore, everything contains G-dliness – whether it is good, or whether it is evil.

If there is G-dliness contained somehow in everything, even evil, if so, what is “good” and “evil”, if nothing is really evil?!

The answer to this is that what we call “good” is anything in which the good in it has become revealed out in the open, and that you can tell clearly that it’s good, even just by examining its superficial layer. (And the more that the good is revealed in something, the more it gains holiness; this is a separate discussion, and let this brief explanation suffice for now, as it is a vast topic). By contrast, we call something “evil” when its external aspect is concealing the G-dliness within it.

Thus, we only see “evil” when we look at the external layer of something. When we look at the inner layer of something, its essence, then all we will see is good – total and complete G-dliness.

5.

This is the secret behind our avodah on Purim. The avodah of the day of Purim is to realize that we shouldn’t look at the superficial, external layer of something, and that instead we should see the inner layer of something and connect to it. The inner layer of everything is totally G-dly, and that is what we need to see.

Let’s take, for example, Haman and Amalek – what we would consider classic evil. The root of Haman is good, and the root of Amalek is good!

On Purim, our inner mission is to arrive at our innermost depths. If a person merits on Purim to uncover this very deep perspective – which is the awesome spiritual light that is available to acquire on this holy day – then even after Purim ends, the inner perspective has been imprinted onto his soul. It is a perspective which goes straight to the root of all roots in Creation. Throughout the rest of the year, a person will then be able to see how everything is good at its root, and he will not just see “evil” in something he thinks is evil. He will be able to tell that something evil only appears to be evil on its outside, but on the inside, it too is good.

This was essentially the level that Rabbi Akiva reached, when he saw the site of the destruction.[2] He laughed, because even though he saw the destruction, he was aware that in essence, even the destruction contained good.

6.

If a person merits well to absorb this perspective in his soul, there will be a total overhaul in his whole life. He will transform into a person who lives inwardly, in G-dliness – and not someone who just lives superficially. This internal shift in his soul will change his whole view on life – as well as in the way he learns Torah.

Although a person even at this understanding will still feel that there are things that are evil, he will be able to realize that evil only appears on the outer layer of something, because the inner essence of something is always good, and that it is complete G-dliness.

On Purim, the Jews accepted the Torah again, willingly.[3] The depth behind this is that the generation reached the innermost understanding of Torah. When the nation stood at Har Sinai, we were forced to accept the Torah. We were afraid of being buried under the mountain, so our acceptance of the Torah did not show that deep down we loved the Torah. But on Purim, we accepted the Torah out of love this time, because the nation came to love Hashem out of the miracles He performed for us.[4] It was revealed then a new acceptance of Torah – an acceptance of love; to unify with the Torah. Since they accepted the Torah now in this way, they reached an inner understanding of Torah – and they then perceived the total G-dliness that is found in everything.

7.

On Purim, everything got turned upside down – “V’nahafoch hu”. Our enemy was plotting to destroy us, and the day that we would have been massacred ending up becoming a day of salvation, in which we all rejoiced.

What is the depth behind the matter of “V’nahafoch hu”?

Everything in Creation consists of two layers to it: an outer layer, and an inner layer. The outer layer in Creation are the nations of the world, while the Jewish nation is at the inner layer of Creation. “Hashem, the Torah, and the Jewish people are one.” In other words: it is exclusively the Jewish nation which is capable of revealing G-dliness in everything. By contrast, the other nations of the world cannot reveal the inner, G-dly essence of things. Although they are good too at their root – because everything is rooted in good – they do not even reveal the goodness.

At the time of Purim, the enemies of the Jewish people were seeking to massacre us. What was their real intention? They didn’t just want to kill our physical existence. They wanted to destroy the Jewish people because the Jewish people represent the inner layer of Creation, which is G-dliness. They wanted to destroy G-dliness, and instead leave everything at its external shell, in which there is no revelation of G-dliness. Trying to destroy the Jewish people was thus their way of trying to destroy the inner layer of Creation: the G-dliness inherent in everything.

And what did Hashem do? He turned everything around. The Jews ended up defeating their enemies – in other words, not only do the Jewish people serve to reveal the inner layer of everything, but even their enemies can reveal the inner layer, because when the enemies of the Jews are defeated, their very failure served to reveal how even evil can be good, because it brought the Jewish people’s inner power of revealing G-dliness to the fore.

8.

After the higher kind of lo yeda comes the highest kind of understanding: yeda.

This final level of knowledge is that after a person reaches the perspective of lo yeda, in which he has seen how there is G-dliness at the root of everything, he connects totally to Hashem. Upon meriting this utter connection of ultimate d’veykus, the person receives a whole new daas. It is a daas that comes from the Creator. It is a daas of total G-dliness, which cannot be understood though human comprehension.

9.

This highest level was found by Betzalel, who was able to figure out how to make the Mishkan without having been told to make it. He was called Betzalel, which comes from the words “B’tzail keil hayisa” – “You are in the shadow of G-d.”[5] In other words, because he was so close to Hashem, he merited to receive daas from the Creator, and therefore he knew what to do in making the Mishkan.

Of Betzalel, it is written that he possessed chochmah, binah and daas. The understandings of chochmah and binah is the third level of daas we described, which is called daas d’kedushah. This is within the bounds of human comprehension. Betzalel reached a higher kind of comprehension, the higher kind of yeda/daas, the daas that comes directly from the Creator, out of his great closeness to Hashem.

10.

The Ramchal, in sefer Derech Hashem (III:3) describes this as ruach hakodesh.

11.

If we wish to have any inkling of understanding about this kind of daas, we will quote a letter written by the Sfas Emes[6](which is really describing a lower kind of daas, but it still a higher kind of daas than the regular kind of daas we are used to):

“There is a higher kind of understanding that exists, which is not the external kind of understanding that we identify with simply. It is a kind of knowledge that is connected to the person, and it is no less powerful of an awareness to a person than the awareness of protecting one’s life – which, although a person doesn’t think about this all the time, it is also something that one never forgets, because it is a subconscious knowledge that has become attached to his very essence.”

There is an even higher level than what the Sfas Emes is describing, and that is when the awareness is coming from one’s very essence (which is deeper than when the awareness becomes connected and absorbed internally in the person). Meaning, it’s not just that this awareness has become internalized into my being – it is even more than that: just like the awareness that I exist is not some other knowledge, but a whole different kind of knowledge – an awareness that comes from my very existence – so can I be aware of certain truths, with the same conviction.

Understand this point well.

A Jew has to aspire throughout his life to reach this kind of understanding, and he must strive to reach it especially on Purim. At first a person should strive to reach lo yeda[7], and then he should strive to reach the higher yeda.

12.

What we have been describing here is the path towards fixing the primal sin of Creation – the sin of Adam. At first, Adam was in Gan Eden, and he had the highest kind of attachment with Hashem – the highest kind of yeda/daas. After the sin, man fell from this exalted kind of daas, to the level of intermediate kind of daas, which is daas d’kedushah. Chazal describe this demotion to our daas as “Yesterday (before sin), there was my daas (the daas of Hashem), and today (after the sin), I have the daas of the Serpent.”

Now that we are after the sin, our natural daas is the daas we gained from the evil eitz hadaas. In addition to what we lost after Adam’s sin, the generations have fallen to an even lower kind of daas, which is a mundane kind of understanding; and after that, the generations feel into the lowest level, which is the first kind of lo yeda, in which there is basically no daas at all.

If we want to return to the way things were supposed to be – to the daas we had from the eitz hachaim, which was actually the true daas of the Creator – then we need to come out of the eitz hadaas. In order to exit the eitz hadaas, which is the initial level that we all start out with, we need to enter lo yeda. After reaching lo yeda, we can then advance to the highest daas, which is to gain the daas of the Creator.

13.

Let us explain this matter more.

The Eitz HaChaim contained the true daas of the Creator, and it is the daas of our holy neshamah (soul). Man is currently at the level of the Eitz HaDaas, the lower kind of understanding – even since Adam ate from it. If a person attempts to gain the daas of the Creator while he is still at the level of Eitz HaDaas, this is impossible, because he will not be able to contain such spiritual illumination. He only has human understanding, which cannot comprehend the higher daas. Therefore, it is impossible for a person to use his regular kind of comprehension to try to understand what higher daas is.

This is the meaning of the “fiery, churning sword” that Hashem placed at the entrance of Gan Eden, after He drove out Adam and Chavah. It was to show that we cannot receive the higher daas using our human comprehension, which is really the lower daas – the knowledge that entered us after the sin with the Eitz HaDaas. The “fiery, churning sword” alludes to how we will only get confused if we attempt to gain higher daas while we are still at the lower understanding, just like something that churns takes things and turns them over and over, mixing everything up.

It’s actually a very good thing that Hashem placed the “fiery, churning sword” to guard the higher daas. If not for this, people would think that they understand perspectives from the higher daas by using their regular comprehension, and in reality, they wouldn’t be understanding anything. They would only be fooling themselves. It would be a degrading to the great spiritual light as a person attempts to lower it to his human understanding.

However, at the same time, it shows us how our lower understanding of the Eitz HaDaas can become fixed. How? When a person tries to understand things, he realizes that he doesn’t really understand, and that he’s very mixed up. The “fiery, churning sword” which guards the Eitz HaDaas in Gan Eden is stopping him from knowing what the knowledge of the Eitz HaDaas is, and it confuses the person as the person attempts to understand it. This itself makes a person realize that his daas is not the true daas – and through that, he is able to actually come to “lo yeda”. He realizes that he does not know anything; “lo yeda.”

Thus, one of the ways how we can fix our impaired daas which we received from the Eitz HaDaas is by learning about things that are way above our comprehension, and by realizing that we do not understand these things, our soul will realize that it does not have true daas. What will then happen? Our soul will lose value for the current daas we have, because it has now become aware that our current comprehension is not yet the true comprehension.

(A person must be very careful with this, however, that he should not make the mistake of thinking that he indeed understands the perspective of lo yeda; he must be aware always that he does not understand anything. If he doesn’t have this mindset, he will only fall lower, chas v’shalom.)

This is actually the secret behind why on Purim, “one is obligated to become intoxicated until he does not know (“ad d’lo yoda”) the difference between “Cursed Is Haman” and “Blessed Is Haman”. The halachah is that one has to become drunk on Purim specifically with wine, because wine reveals the secrets – the secrets of Torah. Through learning the secrets of Torah – matters that are really above our human comprehension – we can realize that we indeed do not understand it, and then we will be able to humble ourselves before the Creator and nullify our understanding. That is precisely what will bring a person to “lo yeda.”

14.

The climax of lo yeda is reached when a person comes to the level of that “no man knows of his burial (Moshe’s) until today.” Let us explain this.

There are two perspectives of understanding that a person has: the understanding from our neshamah/soul, and the understanding of our seichel/intellect, which is our physical human comprehension, present in our body.

Our neshamah’s understanding has the higher perspective of lo yeda. Our neshamah’s understanding is not regular human comprehension, so it cannot be comprehended with our intellect. Therefore, it is only our neshamah which can gain the daas of the Creator.

Our avodah is to nullify our regular intellectual understanding (by realizing that we indeed do not comprehend anything). When we do this, our intellect itself will then be able to gain the perspective of lo yeda, and our neshamah will shine its understanding upon our seichel/intellect.

(This is the secret behind ruach hakodesh. There is an even deeper understanding than this, and that is the ultimate kind of lo yeda: when our neshamah reaches an even higher understanding, in which it becomes aware that even a neshamah does not truly comprehend the Creator, because Hashem is really endless. It will suffice just to mention this briefly, and we will not delve into this subject).

If a person merits to reach lo yeda, there is still a higher level to reach, and that is to get even his very physical body to sense the understanding of lo yeda. It is written (Tehillim 35:10), “All my bones will speak of this.” The possuk is hinting to us that there is a level in which even our very body is aware of Hashem.

The only person to ever reach this was Moshe Rabbeinu, as he was leaving his body; his body became so sanctified that it reached the level of lo yeda. Since his physical body had reached lo yeda, for this reason, “no man knows of his burial” – in other words, no human being, who is only at the level of yeda, can know of Moshe’s burial place, where his body lies; because Moshe’s body reached lo yeda, and our perspective of yeda cannot comprehend the perspective of lo yeda.

15.

The Gemara (Bava Basra 12b) states that ever since the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, prophecy has been removed from the prophets, and it has instead been given to the mentally ill and to children. What is the meaning behind this?

It is because both a mentally ill person and a child do not have daas. Since they are each simple-minded kind of people, they do not possess daas of their own – and therefore, they are actually in the state of lo yeda. They are therefore able to reach the daas of the Creator. Although their level of lo yeda is not due to having worked upon themselves to nullify their daas, still, they have a certain simplicity in them. This is written by the Maharal in many places, in all different kinds of phrases.

One of the Sages also said (Berachos 57a) that if a person wakes up and a possuk suddenly comes out of his mouth, it is a small prophecy. This is because right when a person wakes up, he has no daas, because his daas hasn’t started working yet properly. A person who has just woken up resembles in some way the state of lo yeda, and therefore it is possible that a possuk will fall into his mouth – something rooted in the daas of the Creator; it resembles ruach hakodesh and prophecy.

16.

Even after a person merits to nullify his daas and thereby come to enter the understanding of lo yeda, it doesn’t end there. The Ramchal writes in Derech Hashem that no matter how much a person merits to comprehend even through ruach hakodesh, he can keep understanding more, the more he realizes that he still does not understand things.

No matter what level a person is on, he has to always keep davening to Hashem that he be drawn closer to a truer understanding. As long as a person lives on this world, davening for this should not stop. (To bring out the concept, we mentioned before that “lo yeda” implies that we never truly understanding, and even if we reach lo yeda, the understanding of our neshamah, we can still realize that we do not understand things.)

17.

This is the meaning behind the famous statement, “The purpose of knowledge is for us to know that we do not know.”[8]  Simply, it means that the purpose of our human comprehension is to come to understand lo yeda, and after reaching lo yeda, a person receives daas from the Creator as a gift. But there is a deeper meaning behind this statement. The deeper explanation of it is that the purpose of knowledge – even the higher knowledge, which is a daas poured down from the Creator – is not yet the goal, because even our higher daas has to become nullified.

When we keep nullifying our daas more and more – even our higher daas – we reach higher understandings, and it’s endless to how much we can do this.

Understand this.

The Following Is Meant For Those Who Desire (Or Have Already Entered) To Learn Inner Torah

18.

In more recent generations, and especially in our own generation, many people are desiring to learn Chochmas HaEmes (Inner Torah), to taste the true daas, the daas of the Eitz HaChaim. After Adam sinned, he was sent out of Gan Eden, away from the Eitz HaChaim. Hashem placed a “fiery, churning sword” to guard it ever since, as the possuk in Beraishis states clearly.

What is the lesson of this? It is to show us that even when we desire to taste the true daas, which is Inner Torah/Chochmas HaEmes/the daas of the Eitz HaChaim, we cannot remain connected to the lower knowledge we got from the Eitz HaDaas. It has to be this way; why should a lowly human being, who often sins and rebels against the Creator, be allowed to cross into Gan Eden and taste of the true daas? Only after a person purifies himself – by separating himself from the knowledge of the Eitz HaDaas – can he be permitted to return to man’s original source, Gan Eden, and taste of the Eitz HaChaim.

19.

How, indeed, can a person remove himself from his current level of eitz hadaas?

Hashem has really revealed it to us in the Torah: the Eitz HaChaim is guarded by the “fiery, churning sword.” In addition, He placed there keruvim (angels) that hold the sword. This shows us that there are two aspects to the fiery, churning sword: the sword itself, as well as the angels who wield it.

We explained how we “guard” the Eitz HaChaim through the “fiery, churning sword”, before: by returning ourselves to lo yeda, which can enable us to receive daas of the Creator. In addition, we also need the “keruvim” who guard it – let us explain what this is.

Between the Aron, there were two Keruvim placed; when the Jewish people does the will of Hashem, they face each other, and when the Jewish people does not do the will of Hashem, the keruvim turn away.

The keruvim that Hashem placed to guard Gan Eden are similar to the state of the keruvim when they turn away from each other. The keruvim placed at the entrance to Gan Eden are serving to turn away, which resembles the keruvim when they are turned away from each other. The keruvim turn away whenever there is a lack of a relationship between the Jewish people and Hashem. So if someone wants to enter Gan Eden and taste of the Eitz HaChaim, he first needs to turn them around to face each other. In other words, he has to truly love Hashem – the state of the keruvim when they faced each other.

Therefore, besides for reaching lo yeda, a person also needs to have a tremendous love for Hashem, if he wants to taste true daas. The love of Hashem has to be burning within his heart. Without a great love for Hashem, a person will never properly understand Inner Torah, and any attempts to do have only proven to be a failure.

20.

Therefore, those who seek to learn Inner Torah, the true daas, must make sure that they have these two prerequisites: 1) to have a very strong, burning love for Hashem. 2) To nullify one’s daas, which enables one to reach lo yeda; from thereon, Hashem can merit the person to taste of the Eitz HaChaim – the daas of our neshamah, the daas of the Creator.

We can reach both of these prerequisite to the Eitz HaChaim, on Purim. On Purim, the Jewish people reached a great love for Hashem, by accepting the Torah again. We also can reach lo yeda on Purim – through the wine of Purim, in which a person has to reach the point of “ad d’lo yoda”, the point where he cannot tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai.[9]

For this reason, the Sage say that “in the future, all of the festivals will disappear – except for Purim”. It is because Purim enables a person to reach the understanding of the Eitz HaChaim, which is eternal.