Amidah: Review of Da’at Part Five: Elaboration on Bina
Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky What is Bina? What is fist allusion to Bina in the Torah?
Class: when Avraham jumped into furnace and trusted in Hashem?
Answer: No, he didn’t trust in Hashem. Not at all. We see this in the Gemorrah in Pesachim and this is such important idea by the way. Avraham went because he wouldn’t compromise on something he believed. He had never had a direct communication with Hashem. His first direct experience of Hashem was in the furnace. He was expecting to die. When he didn’t die Gavriel said he was going to save him and Hashem said “I am going to save him.” So what was his first connection with Hashem? When he threw himself in and didn’t die. Imagine what that is like. Can you imagine that experience? That is daas.
Class: And his brother? His brother believed in him
Answer: his brother didn’t believe in him… this is elaborated on the blog
Class: Chava was the first allusion to Bina?
Answer: Yes, but before Aytz hadaas Here is a hint: “woo, she’s built.”
The Medrash wants to know: Why does Hashem say “built Chava,” “vayiven,” “Bina,” “Bonei.” These are all the same shoresh. He used bina to build her and he granted her bina. We learn a lot of halachas from here.
Class: Did Hashem do this so she could have daas?
Answer: She didn’t have daas. This is how know that women have extra bina. Because Chava was built, it is incredible thing.
What was the bina? Everything is in Torah; that’s the magnificence of it. We
learn all the halachas of bonei, building on Shabbos, from this posuk. So why are you not allowed to braid hair on Shabbos? Because Gemorrah in Shabbos says that because when Hashem brought Chava to Adam He braided her hair. That is what it means when it says “Vayiven.” He used extra bina to make her attractive so He braided her hair; so Hashem used building to braid her hair. That means building means braiding hair and therefore you can’t braid on Shabbos. Do you realize how seriously we take these things? It is unbelievable: the way halacha works is magic, it is poetry. Halacha is not a list of can’t dos; that is not daas. Halacha is brilliant, it is gorgeous, it is the way it works. See “The music of halacha” on the website for more information.
So what does bina mean?
Class: Insight? (what does that mean?) Intuition? (what does that mean?)
Class: Making a connection…
Answer: What does that mean? If you are already learning you already have daas; that means it is real to me. So we ask the question: what does it mean Hashem built Chava? It means He made her beautiful. This means therefore to braid hair means building. Do you realize from this explanation how seriously Chazzal relate to a posuk? This is daas. So what is bina?
Class: is it beautifying the connection that you make through daas?
Answer: Yes… good… take it further – what was the insight you just had? What was your insight? Besides being beautiful? Where did it come from? It came from bina. What does it feel like to have that kind of insight?
Class: Is it correct?
Answer: Yes, but even if the idea is not correct, what does it feel like? Just that leap into something beyond. There is no absolute black and white connection; instead you made a leap in your mind….What does it feel like? Painful, pleasant, exciting…?
Class: It is exciting, especially because it lead somewhere.
Answer: Now you understand what bina is: it is that leap that can’t be measured in black and white but you know it will be pleasant, that it will be joyous. So your experience of it is teaching you a little bit about it –correct? This is “u’milamade l’enosh bina.” You just experienced a moment of Hashem, the Creator of the universe and Guider of history teaching you bina.
Class: So it is a step further where beautify the daas that you have achieved –
Answer: she learned something and she did something with it. By doing something with it you make it more beautiful. Do you understand: there is big debate about belief and knowledge: what is higher? is higher to belief or know? Rav Kook says to believe stam is not so high of a level. To believe and do research and know and to learn and go to Discovery and learn all the proofs – that is great. But when you understand that no matter how much you know there is a step beyond that you can take. That with everything, everything you know, there is always a sense that there is something so much greater and beyond. And you keep reaching for it like that, that is real emuna. The only way to achieve real emuna is with bina. That’s why women with bina are called “em;” the root of emuna. Because the only way to teach this type of emuna, the sense that no matter how much you know there is always more, that you begin and make connections and realize there is more and more. And it is beautiful and it is exciting and empowering. And that is emuna: when you take all you learned and connect to Hashem on that level, that is the emuna that comes from the “Em,” that is rooted in bina. That is “u’milamade lenosh bina”
Class: Is bina a higher level of daas?
Answer – No – I am so glad you asked that… it is clear – it is perfect hashgaca – leads right into the next idea…
Who is daas? The man
Who is bina? The woman
Is one higher or is it more accurate that one cannot exist without the other?
Class: Both have both but one has more
Answer – of course
Class: Not higher level, just different amounts.
Class: Which is first?
Answer – for a man daas comes first and wife will give him bina; and for a woman bina comes first but she uses the daas that the man brings home to do it.