Getting to Know Your Inner World - 005 Intellect & Heart

(Summary: We have so far explained that a person has to try to be above the confusing maze of life. Even at the start, we have to be aware of the end goal, which is to reach our essence. We need to uncover our essence somewhat even in the beginning of our Avodas Hashem, based on the rule of “sof maaseh b’machsavah techilah”. The “end of the actions” has to “first be in the thoughts” – we need to start to actualize our end goal already in the beginning, and already begin to uncover our essence somewhat. We have gone through the roots of the soul faculties and their branches. Let us continue to the next step with this.)

The Sun/Intellect and The Moon/Heart

There are two functions in a person which are called the two “kings” in a person: the mind and the heart. These are also called the “sun” and the “moon” – the mind is called the “sun”, and the heart is like the moon.

The sun and the moon were originally the “two great luminaries” of the heavens, and they represent the “two great luminaries” that one uses in his Avodas Hashem – the mind, and the heart. This was the ideal state of Creation. The moon was later downsized, and the sun and moon were given different roles: the sun would rule by day, while the moon would rule by night.

In terms of how this affected our soul, our “moon”, which represents our heart, has become smaller and only secondary to our “sun”, which is our mind. But the ideal situation which we want to return to is that the sun and moon should become equal again – that they should both become “two great luminaries.” This is essentially when we internalize the knowledge of our mind into our heart – “And you shall know today, and you shall return the matter to your heart.”

The Situation of Most People

There is an even sharper way to describe the change that happened to our situation (after the moon got punished): when a person understands something, his understanding of it is initially based on intellect alone. Even when a person understands something on an emotional level (unless he has worked on himself in the way we will describe), this isn’t coming from his heart, but from his mere emotions.

True feelings stem from the heart, but not every emotion that a person feels toward something is coming from his heart. It can just be a “feeling” for something and nothing more; it lacks the understanding of the intellect that is supposed to accompany it.

Most people are only using their intellect, and they lack emotion. Others are only using their feelings.  Either kind of life is a person who has never changed one bit his entire life, and he just takes life as it comes, either looking at everything through his natural intellect alone or through his natural emotions. With this superficial way of living, the intellect of a person and the emotions of a person are separated.

Fusing Intellect and Heart Together

But the real, inner way to live is to see something through the intellect, and to awaken the heart’s feelings when the time calls for it. In the ideal way to live, a person is supposed to analyze every matter by probing it with his intellect, and to use his heart by viewing a matter as if he’s outside the matter. When someone gains the “view from above” we described earlier – to be on top of the confusing garden-maze – he has essentially reached a level in which both his mind and heart have become equal; they have both become “two great luminaries.”

Two Kinds of Extremes

The sun represents the intellect. This is the ability in a person to comprehend a matter as much as he possibly can – on an intellectual level. This is not just to understand Torah, but to see the wisdom in all of Creation. The moon represents the heart; this is an ability in a person to see from above a matter – to be outside of a matter, which gives a person a better view than when he is stuck inside a matter.

If someone only uses the second view, which is the heart’s view, this is not the way of the Torah. It resembles the non-Jewish lifestyle. But the Torah lifestyle of a Jew is to use both our intellect and heart to understand something. We have to use our intellect to try to understand something as much as we possibly can, to analyze the very depths of everything; and we must also use our heart, which is the ability to see above a matter.

The Heart Is “Surrounding Light”, and the Mind is “Inner Light”

In more inner language, the mind is called the ohr penimi (“inner light”), while the heart is called the ohr makif (“surrounding light”). The ohr penimi is an ability in a person to see inside a matter, while the ohr makif is an ability in a person to see above a matter.

The ohr penimi is essentially our intellect, which analyzes a matter and goes “into” a matter. The ohr makif is essentially our heart, which can see what surrounds a matter – what’s above it.

Why We Need Both

The perfected kind of existence one can have is to live with both abilities.

Let us repeat this again so it should be clear: any one of these abilities alone is not enough. The Jewish people have a natural inclination toward the intellect, which is the power of analytical  thought, while the non-Jewish nations have more of a pull toward the heart, which is to attempt to see beyond a matter (without understanding it properly). We need to integrate both views: intellect and heart.

Thus, in anything we encounter - whether it’s a totally physical matter, or a completely spiritual one – we must deal with it using both our intellect and heart. We must be aware that there are two ways how to connect to something – either through the intellect, or through the heart; and then we have to make sure that we are connecting to something using both intellect and heart.

Our intellect connects to something using exertion and deep thought about it, while our heart connects to something using the ability to view from above a matter (we will later explain what this is).

If we haven’t begun to work on our souls, then in whatever we encounter, either we are using our intellect alone, or our heart alone. But when we have developed our soul more, we will be able to use anything we encounter as a way to put both our intellect and heart to use.

Which should come first – using our intellect, or using our heart? That is a separate issue. But the point is that we need to fuse them both together in whatever we encounter in life.

Why must we use both intellect and heart in everything? How does this affect us? If a person just uses intellect, then he can think very deeply into a matter, but he has to enter the matter in order to understand it. But if a person just uses his heart’s understanding, then the matter itself speaks to him, and he doesn’t have to enter it to understand it.

The Differing Natures of The Mind/Intellect and the Heart

These are opposite abilities in a person. Thinking about something makes you question something; you’re in the matter, and the matter is not speaking to you. By contrast, your heart can see how the matter is talking to you; it’s hearing the voice behind something.

We can compare this to finding a marriage partner. Most men have to go searching for a wife to find her, because it is a man’s nature to go out, while it is a woman’s nature not to go out. (There are some men who merited to have their wife come and meet them.) A man (generally speaking) represents the intellect, who has to “go after” a matter to understand it. A woman represents the heart, who instead receives an understanding of the matter without even going after it; man is called a giver, while a woman is called the receiver. The man gives the ring to betroth the woman, while the woman receives it.

The heart doesn’t do anything active to understand something; its main function is to listen to what’s going on. It just stays where it is and listens.

This point has to be understood very well, because we have to understand well that the way our mind understands something is not the way our heart understands something. You cannot attempt to use our heart in the same way how you understand using you intellect.

Listening With The Heart

The inner layer of our Avodah is to use our heart – to be able to “listen” to what’s going on in a matter. (If a person has bad middos, this can hamper his heart’s ability to listen, and he will instead hear something evil). The role of our heart is to listen to everything that’s going on around us, while the role of our intellect is to actively think about everything and analyze matters on an intellectual level, as deep as we can.

Without first developing our intellect’s ability to think deeply into a matter, we will not be able to use our heart’s ability to listen. But if we have worked hard with our minds to try to understand matters, we will be able to disconnect from the physicality of this world, and we will then be able to reach a place of silence in the soul – which will enable us to use our heart’s ability to listen.

When we exert our minds more, our mind matures, and this enables our heart to listen better to a matter.

Chazal say that there is a time to learn and a separate time to daven. In terms of our soul, this means that there are two different abilities in us – the ability to be active, and the ability to have quiet. In other words, there is a kind of understanding that comes from when we actively think into something and try to understand it as much as we can, and there is another kind of understanding which comes from having a deep silence.

The heart’s understanding is called “avanta d’liba”.[1] It is not an intellectual understanding – it is something else entirely. It is a concept which needs to be absorbed well. You can’t really explain what it is – it has to be experienced. It is a very subtle matter, and it is a whole different kind of life.

A person can go his whole life and even be a gifted thinker, but if he has never accessed his heart’s understanding, he has gone his whole life completely unaware that there is an inner kind of life which he could have lived.

Thus, this concept we are describing – the heart’s understanding – is a point which needs to be absorbed very well. You can’t just know about it intellectually; you need to become aware of it and absorb the concept very well. The way you can absorb it is through exerting your mind to understand it, as well as by davening to Hashem that you understand it.

When you finally absorb the concept, now comes the following: realize that there are two completely different ways how to view reality. The way your intellect sees reality is not all the way your heart views reality. A person can use his intellect very well in his life yet still never arrive at inner matters, even if he is using his intellect all the time to exert his thinking in the words of Torah. The heart’s understanding adds a whole different facet of understanding to how you view reality.

Intellect alone cannot help us in Avodas Hashem. It can help someone become a psychologist, but it doesn’t help you understand matters in Avodas Hashem. Only a fusion of intellect and heart together can help a person understand matters of Avodas Hashem; it brings a person to a place in himself of deep listening.

It is simple to understand how our intellect takes information and arranges it, but the way our heart arranges information is totally different. Your heart arranges information the better you have deepened your ability of inner listening. In fact, the more you learn how to use your heart’s listening, your understanding of a matter will just come to you almost automatically, like a sense of intuition. The matter will speak for itself and tell you what’s behind it!

We can compare this to walking into a neat house. When everything is neat and is in place, you can see everything in the house. The heart is able to arrange everything in a neat way, which gives you a clear understanding of matters.

The heart’s ability to listen is essentially to listen to what’s really going on in reality. The more you have deepened your inner silence, the better you absorb reality.

No one can totally perfect his inner silence, but at least by working hard on it, a person can improve his inner listening a lot better and have much greater clarity in a matter. We can compare this to someone who is trying to become a good listener. Even if he never becomes the greatest listener, by working on his listening, he can still at least improve his listening and hear much more things than he used to.

If someone isn’t aware about the concept of the heart’s understanding – the ability of inner listening to matters – then he will not be able to continue to the next step. A person has to work on his ability of inner silence, more and more, until he begins to feel himself getting clarity in a matter even before he begins to think about it intellectually.

This will bring a person to see himself in a way that he has never seen himself before.

Of course, there are levels of clarity. The more a person deepens his inner listening of the heart, the more clarity he will have. What we have described until now is a kind of inner listening that even the lowest part of our soul (nefesh habehamis/animal soul) can understand. The end goal can shine upon our understanding even as we begin, in a way that even our nefesh habehamis can comprehend.

Two Parts To Your Learning

To give an example, when a person learns a sugya of Gemara, he thinks into it and analyzes it as much as he possibly can. This gives him one kind of understanding. But there is a whole different kind of understanding he can have. After he has learned the sugya, he can review it quietly, and then, he can “listen” to what’s going on. If he has reached his inner silence, he will notice things he has never paid attention to until now! Matters which used to seem so simple will suddenly appear to be very deep.

Obviously, the main thing is always to exert oneself in learning Torah, and not to immediately jump to the “listening” stage. Exertion of the mind must come first. We can compare this to someone looking for a shidduch. First, you have to think about all the information pertaining to the shidduch, and then you can sit calmly and “listen” to offers.

Only someone who knows how to detach from his surroundings a little will be able to use this “listening.” The heart’s understanding will show a person what reality is.

Don’t Interrupt Your Inner Silence

The difficulty starts when a person finally finds for himself a quiet place to think, and suddenly he realizes that there is a problem which he can’t solve.

For example, he goes to a dark room at night and everything is silent, and he begins to listen with his heart to what’s going on in his heart. He figures out that he has a problem – and he attempts to solve it by thinking into it very deeply and trying to come up with the solution. But this doesn’t work.

The real solution is that when you discover a problem, don’t think at all about it. Instead, continue to your inner silence, and don’t let your silence become interrupted. Don’t attempt to solve the problem by thinking what you can do about it – instead, remain calm with your inner quiet, and if you hold onto your inner quiet, you will see how the answer to the problem will come to you on its own!

In Conclusion

We can give many more examples that explain the concept, but the point is that we need both to think about something deeply as well as to be able to detach from deep thinking and instead just listen quietly to what’s going on.

The matters here are very subtle and it takes a while to absorb, but everyone has these two abilities – the intellect and the heart – and when used together, these abilities give a person a whole new understanding of everything in life.