Saturday, December 31, 2022
הרבנית שולמית אזרחי זצ"ל
Madreigos
Some people are concerned only with their own physical well being. Money, physical health, comfort, luxuries, vacations, cars etc. etc. Such individuals are, if I may wax Maimonedian for a moment, on the level of בעלי חיים.
Others are concerned with their spiritual development as well. They learn Mussar and/or Chassidus and really care about the state of their Neshamos.
A higher level is those who are concerned with the material and spiritual well being of their communities.
A higher level is of those who are concerned with the material and spiritual well being of Klal Yisrael.
A yet higher level is when a person is concerned with the well being of all of humanity.
Even higher - all of the cosmos. Such a person knows that Hashem's presence is everywhere and the elevation of the cosmos is the elevation of the שכינה.
If we are not there - at least we can strive to get there.
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Points To Ponder
"10-year dreams. 5-minute actions.
Where do I want to be in 10 years?
What can I do in the next 5 minutes to contribute to that outcome?"
------
"Anyone can listen. All you have to do is stop talking.
But to be a good listener, you have to stop talking and be interested.
Genuine curiosity is the precursor to understanding, and a good listener helps the other person feel understood."
------
"You can graduate with the finest degrees. You can read the most useful books. You can enjoy the loving support of family and friends.
But your degrees can't take action for you. Your books can't make the decision for you. Your family can't live your life for you.
There is no substitute for courage. At some point, you have to make the choice."
-------
"At the end of each year, I ask myself two questions:
1) What do I want to create in this New Year?
And, perhaps even more importantly,
2) What do I want to let go of?"
------
"I know now, after fifty years, that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning, never stops. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance."
-------
It's one year from now. December 2023. The habit you were hoping to build during the year didn't stick. What is the most likely reason it failed?
-------
"You just need to have the courage to eliminate everything that doesn't directly feed what you really want."
-------
"It is nearly impossible to have your best idea the first time you think about something.
The most likely way to uncover important insights is to frequently revisit a problem. The longer you're in the game, the more ideas bubble up to the surface.
Time unlocks insights."
[In Torah it means chazara chazara chazara and new insights usually come].
--------
"Happiness is simply the absence of desire... Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state."
איזהו עשיר? ....
-------
"Risk is an essential need of the soul. The absence of risk produces a kind of boredom which paralyses in a different way from fear, but almost as much."
-------
-----
“Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision. If you "fall in love'" you can just as easily "fall out of love".”
מלכות ישראל
כתבתי - הרמב"ם כותב [הל' חנוכה ג' א'] בסתמא ש"חזרה המלכות לישראל יתר על מאתיים שנה" בלי לציין שהיה כאן חטא כלשהו. כלומר, לשיטתו לא היה כאן כל פגם אלא אדרבה הרמב"ם לכאורה ראה מלכות החשמונאים באור חיובי.
שמעתי מהרב דרוקמן שאחרי החשמונאים מלכו הצדוקים ובכל זאת הרמב"ם מציין זאת לשבח כי עדיף שלטון של יהודים לא טובים מאשר לא יהודים.
הריני חוזר בי.
How To Stay Calm Under Pressure
We’d all like to know how to stay calm under pressure. Sure, I could pull a bunch of research studies on it and just summarize those for you. But that always leaves the lingering question: “But does this stuff work in the real world?”
So who really knows about being cool as a cucumber under the most intense pressure imaginable? I’d read that when top bomb disposal experts approach a device designed to kill them, their heart rate actually goes down. Folks, I think we have a winner…
So I called a Navy EOD Team Leader.
Navy EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) isn’t like your average police department’s bomb disposal unit. These guys defuse torpedoes — while underwater. They disable biological weapons, chemical weapons… even nuclear weapons.
For security purposes our friend requested to remain anonymous. He’s been deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan and faced some things that are — quite literally — the stuff of nightmares. Repeatedly.
So what can you and I learn from him? How do you stay chill, keep your focus and make tough decisions when facing the most intense pressure imaginable?
Let’s get to it…
Avoid “The Rabbit Hole” And Do A Threat Assessment
Something’s going wrong. You’re worried and your mind starts to race. Your old friend Panic is nuzzling up to you and wants to snuggle. Your brain starts asking, “What if X happens? What if Y happens? What if? What if? What if?”
Navy EOD techs refer to this as “the rabbit hole.” And if you go down it, things are going to get very bad very fast. Here’s our EOD Team Leader:
With any device that’s improvised we talk about “rabbit holes.” You can go down the rabbit hole of “What if they put in this? What if they included this bit of circuitry or this kind of switch or this crazy new device or circuit board or whatever?” The opportunities for people to construct new and ingenious and totally insidious IEDs is just infinite. It’s possible when you’re looking at the device to go down a rabbit hole of “It could be this, it could be this, it could be these 10,000 different things…”
You need to avoid going down the “rabbit hole” and do what Navy EOD techs call a “threat assessment.” That means looking objectively at the situation and asking, “What kind of problem is this?”
Think about a similar situation you’ve been in before that looked like this one. How did you resolve it? What worked? Maybe you’ve never been in a situation exactly like the current one, but that’s okay. Generalize. You’ve probably dealt with something that was kinda similar or you’ve seen someone else do it.
Leveraging experience is what makes the top Navy EODs able to stay calm and size up a terrifying situation before they’ve even approached the explosive device. Here’s our EOD Team Leader:
They develop this sixth sense about what’s going on. Some of the guys had seen and prosecuted 300 or 400 devices. It was amazing what they could tell you before they ever saw the device. “This device is probably just a pressure plate, maybe with an S and A switch. There’s a possible secondary back-up waiting for us if we were to go at it from this angle.” They would just be able to tell that from merely looking at the situation.
Leveraging your prior experience (or the experiences of others) is what allows you to wrap your brain around a very frightening scenario and see it as just another version of a problem you’ve solved before. And that allows you to keep moving forward when you’re scared.
Alright, you dodged the rabbit hole and you’ve done a threat assessment. But what mindset do you need to stay calm and focused before you act on this problem — or before you cut that red wire?
Our EOD’s superior officer once told him a story about trying to defuse a mine while underwater — and realizing that he had become trapped, unable to move his hands or feet. What was the next thought that went through the chief’s head?
“I’m still breathing, so that’s good. Now what else do I have that’s going for me?”
That’s what you call “looking on the bright side.” Steven Southwick and Dennis Charney studied resilient people for over 20 years. They interviewed Vietnam prisoners of war, Special Forces instructors and civilians who dealt with terrible experiences like medical problems, abuse and trauma. And what was one of the things that kept all of these survivors going? Optimism.
By starting with the good, but staying realistic about the facts of the situation, our EOD’s superior was able to stay calm and focus on what he was able to control and start taking steps toward resolving the situation. Our EOD friend explains:
He’s like, “If you can wiggle your fingers, the line that’s wrapped around you or whatever situation you’re in, if you can do one little thing to make it a little bit better, then do that. If you can do another thing and then another thing, and then you can have cascading positivity as opposed to spiraling negativity.” You get to know the technical parameters of whatever job you’re doing and then you go, “Is this really an emergency? Yeah, but it’s really only an emergency if I can’t find a solution. What is my next step to make this situation just slightly better?”
Again: He was underwater, unable to move his hands or feet, and was next to an explosive device. But he didn’t see it as an emergency.
It was only an emergency if he couldn’t find a solution. Sound crazy?
You’re moving at 65 miles an hour toward a concrete wall. Scary? If that concrete wall is a natural bend in the highway and you can just turn the steering wheel of your car gently to the left, you wouldn’t be frightened. In fact, you probably do it all the time without thinking about it. Not an emergency.
Life and death stakes don’t faze you if you’re optimistic and feel you have some control.
So now it’s time to act. You need to get in there and solve the problem at hand. How do you keep your cool and stay focused when you’re in the thick of it?
We’re all scared of the unknown. Because then your brain turns to speculating. To worrying. And that takes you down the rabbit hole. The secret to calm and focus is simply deciding what you need to do next. That prevents the gap from opening up where the speculation and worrying grows. Here’s our EOD Team Leader:
When you have something to concentrate on, your mind can remain focused no matter what’s happening. If there is some kind of device and you need to do something and you’re clearly in a hazardous situation, you knew what the next step was. If you were sitting there and had no idea what to do, that would be really terrifying. When you have the next step in your mind, then that’s what you focus on.
Maybe what’s next is just a baby step. That’ll do. Maybe you are so out of your depth that the next step is “ask for help.” That’s actually a good one. You don’t need to fix everything in one fell swoop. You just need to know your next step and you can keep it together.
Now when you consider your next step, you want to think technically and specifically to resist panic. And be grateful you don’t have to face situations like our friend did — when you’re 130 feet underwater and your breathing equipment fails:
My dive rig was having a primary electronics assembly failure, meaning it was no longer actually providing me the oxygen that I needed to live. By definition this is an emergency, but when you know the way that system works, when you know that there’s the manual override, that you can provide yourself oxygen and you can actually manually drive the rig, then I know what I need to do to get myself out of this situation. When you think about it in those terms, which is to get away from the label of what this situation is and then get into what is technically going on here, then it’s a lot easier. Then you don’t get focused on the fear. You get focused on “What’s my next step?”
The ancient Stoics avoided negative emotions by focusing on process, not outcomes. And that’s what you want to do. Focus on your next step, and then the next step, and then the next…
I know what some people are thinking: “But what if I don’t know my next step? How do I get my calm back if I lose it?”
Our EOD friend has been there. And he’s been there with a bomb in front of him:
The only time I ever really felt crippling fear was the moment that I lost sight of what my next step was. We were in a situation where there was a device and it was way more dangerous than what we expected. I had not done a good job because I had not prepared myself for the worst case scenario. For the first time as an officer, I was like, “I don’t know what to do.” I was scared for my team. I was scared for myself.
What should you do when you’re lost for a next step and your brain is filled with anxious thoughts? There’s an answer — one that Buddhist monks and PhD neuroscientists would agree on:
Just consider those racing thoughts in your head and ask yourself, “Are they helpful?” And then make a decision.
When I spoke to leading mindfulness expert Joseph Goldstein about how to deal with troublesome thoughts he said:
This thought which has arisen, is it helpful? Is it serving me or others in some way or is it not? Is it just playing out perhaps old conditions of fear or judgment or things that are not very helpful for ourselves or others?
And guess what our bomb disposal buddy did to resolve the situation? He’s no mindfulness expert — but he knows what works when panic sets in. See if what our EOD Team Leader told me sounds familiar:
Then I thought, “This is not helpful. None of this is helpful. What do I do now?” Then I thought, “This is what needs to happen. We need to make this radio call. The guys down range need to be conducting this action. We need to push this group here. We need to move this group.” Then all of a sudden, you’re back into your rational thought and away from any kind of selfish fear.
He asked if the thoughts were helpful. They weren’t. And so, to the best of his ability, he just made a decision on what his next step would be. And neuroscience research shows that making decisions reduces worry and anxiety — as well as helping you solve problems.
Via The Upward Spiral:
Making decisions includes creating intentions and setting goals — all three are part of the same neural circuitry and engage the prefrontal cortex in a positive way, reducing worry and anxiety. Making decisions also helps overcome striatum activity, which usually pulls you toward negative impulses and routines. Finally, making decisions changes your perception of the world — finding solutions to your problems and calming the limbic system.
Your problems have been defused. We’ve learned a lot. Let’s round it up and learn one last secret from our EOD friend that can help you be ready for challenges before they ever occur…
Here’s what you need to know about how to be calm under pressure, from a Navy bomb disposal expert: Avoid “The Rabbit Hole” And Do A Threat Assessment: Ignore the “What if?” questions. What’s a similar problem you’ve dealt with? Leverage prior experience to calmly size up challenges.
There’s a saying about bomb disposal:
EOD is the science of vague assumptions based on debatable data taken from inconclusive experiments with instruments of problematic accuracy by persons of questionable mentality.
Cute, huh? It’s an uncertain job with the highest of stakes. But it must be done. And so the people that do it can’t sleepwalk through their job. A mentor of our EOD Team leader once told him:
If you show up to work, you might as well bring yourself along.
EOD techs don’t walk around paranoid — that’s the rabbit hole. But they are engaged.
Want to avoid problems? Want to be calm under pressure when problems occur? Stay engaged.
NEW!!!
What Gave The Shifcha Her Spiritual Capacity At Kriyas Yam Suf?
Why Did The Yam Suf Split Into 12 Different Parts?
The Prohibition To Take Back One's Grusha After She Married Someone Else
Our "Ponim El Ponim" Relationship With Hashem
The Relationship Between "Yashrus" And "Ormah" [Cunning] In Avodas Hashem
Rambam Hilchos Melachim 5/1 - Part 2
"חלום"
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Does A Person Really Only Use 10 Percent Of His Brain?
No, it’s not true. But don’t feel bad about believing it:
Via 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior:
In one study, when asked “About what percentage of their potential brain power do you think most people use?,” a third of psychology majors answered 10% (Higbee & Clay, 1998, p. 471). Fifty-nine percent of a sample of college-educated people in Brazil similarly believe that people use only 10% of their brains (Herculano-Houzel, 2002). Remarkably, that same survey revealed that even 6% of neuroscientists agreed with this claim!
Despite how common the belief is, it’s false:
Neurologist Barry Gordon describes the myth as laughably false, adding, “we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time”.[1] Neuroscientist Barry Beyerstein sets out seven kinds of evidence refuting the ten percent myth:[10]Studies of brain damage: If 90% of the brain is normally unused, then damage to these areas should not impair performance. Instead, there is almost no area of the brain that can be damaged without loss of abilities. Even slight damage to small areas of the brain can have profound effects.
Brain imaging: Technologies such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow the activity of the living brain to be monitored. They reveal that even during sleep, all parts of the brain show some level of activity. Only in the case of serious damage does a brain have “silent” areas.
Microstructural analysis: In the single-unit recording technique, researchers insert a tiny electrode into the brain to monitor the activity of a single cell. If 90% of cells were unused, then this technique would have revealed that.
And:
In the October 27, 2010 episode of MythBusters, the hosts used magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brain of someone attempting a complicated mental task. Finding that well over 10% was active at once, they declared the myth “busted”.
So how did the belief come about?
Via 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior:
So, if the 10% myth is so poorly supported, how did it get started? Attempts to track down this myth’s origins haven’t uncovered any smoking guns, but a few tantalizing clues have materialized (Beyerstein, 1999c; Chudler, 2006; Geake, 2008). One stream leads back to pioneering American psychologist William James in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In one of his writings for the general public, James said he doubted that average persons achieve more than about 10% of their intellectual potential. James always talked in terms of underdeveloped potential, never relating it to a specific amount of the brain engaged. A slew of “positive thinking” gurus who followed weren’t as careful, though, and “10% of our capacity” gradually morphed into “10% of our brain” (Beyerstein, 1999c). Undoubtedly, the biggest boost for the self-help entrepreneurs came when journalist Lowell Thomas attributed the 10% brain claim to William James.
How To Get Smarter
John von Neumann could multiply two eight-digit numbers together in his head – when he was six-years old.
At 22 he was helping to develop what would become quantum mechanics. His off-the-charts mathematical ability made the Manhattan Project a success. He all but invented game theory. (Ever hear the term “zero-sum”? He coined the phrase.) And building on work by Alan Turing and Kurt Godel he laid the groundwork for the computer you’re using.
Students could barely keep up with his brilliant lectures but they loved him because he’d crack jokes during class (in three languages.) He’d throw wild parties at his house, occasionally pausing to prove a theorem on a cocktail napkin. And he loved annoying one of his co-workers. A guy named Albert Einstein.
Edward Teller, another genius physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project once said: “Von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my three-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us.”
Smarts matter. But most of what we hear about intelligence is a heartwarming tale of utter nonsense. (For one thing, no, you don’t only use 10% of your brain. That’s one of those 20th century myths trapped in amber.)
IQ isn’t just “book smarts” or academic skill. It’s general problem-solving ability. Sure, other things matter, like motivation, curiosity, personality, etc. IQ isn’t everything -- but it influences nearly everything.
Unsurprisingly, smarter employees are, on average, better employees. But it’s not just that smarter people can do more complex jobs. IQ also impacts performance of less complex jobs. Higher IQ janitors are, on average, better janitors. There doesn’t seem to be a threshold. More IQ generally means more better. (And, no, on average, Emotional Intelligence is not more important than IQ when it comes to job performance.) And its benefits are not limited to job performance. In fact, some studies find intelligence is as predictive of a long life as not smoking.
So what’s our problem here? IQ is largely genetic. It has a heritability of .5 and that pretty much sets the range you’ll stay in. It generally stabilizes between ages 7-10. Small changes are possible; large changes are very unlikely. Big increases are usually only due to addressing deprivations, like lack of childhood education, iodine deficiency, getting lead out of the water, etc. Most interventions have little effect and those that do generally fade out after the intervention ends:Listening to Mozart? Doesn’t work.
Brain training games? Don’t work.
Giving kids preschool? Fades out.
Having a “growth mindset”? Greatly exaggerated, at best.Yeah, this is the kind of info that leaves welts. And now that I have seemingly painted myself into a corner, let’s get practical. No, you and I are not going to be John von Neumann. But then again, the vast majority of us don’t have the genes to be professional athletes either.
We can’t improve our genetics but a lot of our mediocrity is self-imposed. There are a number of prescription-strength things we can do to make sure we’re firing on all cylinders and making the best of what we have. We can’t do much to become dramatically smarter but we can do a lot to be less dumb.
Alright, it’s time to lift the zoning restrictions on your brain. Let’s get to it...
Get Your Sleep
Getting enough sleep is a cognitive cheat code. Meanwhile, sleep deprivation knocks the intellectual right out of you. Educational studies show missing an hour of sleep turns a sixth grader’s brain into that of a fourth grader. There’s actually a clear correlation between sleep and grades: “Teens who received A’s averaged about fifteen more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged fifteen more minutes than the C’s, and so on.”
And the old maxim “sleep on it” is true. You do make better decisions after a good night’s rest.
Well, I don’t get enough sleep, but I feel fine...
That is the slumber equivalent of a drunk saying, ‘Gimme the keys. I’m okay to drive.” In studies, sleep-deprived people consistently underestimate how impaired they are: “after just a few days, the four- and six-hour group reported that, yes, they were slightly sleepy. But they insisted they had adjusted to their new state. Even 14 days into the study, they said sleepiness was not affecting them. In fact, their performance had tanked.”
But isn’t there an easy magic pill?
Well, kinda: coffee and cigarettes. Caffeine and nicotine both boost brainpower, temporarily. (This must be how Cinderella felt.) But they’re a double-edged sword. Cigarettes, obviously, are mucho bad for your health. And while moderate amounts of caffeine are healthy, it can seriously monkey with your ability to sleep. (I am not a caffeine addict. I prefer the word “enthusiast.”) We think that college students who like to party get worse grades because of drinking, but studies show the majority of negative impact comes from daytime drowsiness due to caffeine and poor sleep.
So what else can we do to be less dumb?
Get Your Exercise
When you exercise it boosts BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which helps you learn faster. How much faster? As much as 20%. In fact, cognitive control is measurably better after just a single exercise session.
And if you want to hold on to those precious IQ points as you age, there’s this: “An analysis of sixteen prospective studies including more than 160,000 individuals found that moderate levels of physical activity lowered the risk of Alzheimer’s by 45 percent.”
“Dumb jocks” aren’t looking so dumb anymore. So taking care of your body with sleep and exercise is important, but we can also stay smart by improving what we do with that gray matter…
Stay Calm
Your car can have the most powerful engine in the world, but if someone else grabs the wheel, you’re not going to get where you wanna go. Impulsive feelings can lasso you and hogtie your judgment. Even if you have a high IQ, if you’re caught in a Pigpen cloud of emotion, you’re going to make bad decisions.
Staying calm is the séance that precedes the exorcism. Scientists refer to it as “arousal control.” How do we stay chill? When you start to get stressed, relax yourself with deep breaths. Teaching recruits to monitor their breathing helped increase Navy SEAL passing rates from 25 to 33 percent. They didn’t freak out, mess up or quit.
Whenever you know you have something challenging coming up, take the time to prepare. A feeling of control reduces stress and keeps our thinking clear. Sounds simple but it’s powerful. When I interviewed someone who defuses bombs for a living, what did he say was vital for staying calm and making the right decision? Always knowing what you need to do next and focusing on that.
Like I said, IQ isn’t everything. It’s great for simple straightforward decisions, but with complex decisions rational IQ-style thinking can backfire. With complex decisions the research shows going with your gut can often be the better choice. And if you’re an expert at something, definitely go with your gut.
Emotions can be useful. To make smart decisions we need to listen to them – but not be controlled by them.
Still with me or are you checking text messages? That raises another issue...
Focus
The internet is half enlightenment engine, half dehydrated concentrate of stupidity. Spend too much time on social media (the epicenter of modern tantrum culture) and you will end up theatrically troubled. It feels like your brain is having trash shoveled into it. What else has such a capacity to make us both simultaneously exhausted and overstimulated?
Neuroscience conclusively shows your brain can’t multitask. Yes, you may think you’re good at it but just like sleep, this is an area where you shouldn’t trust your perceptions. Shifting between tasks is not seamless for your brain. Your focus and attention take a hit every time you switch. Constantly bouncing around between tasks produces the equivalent of a 10-point IQ drop.
Meanwhile, what does research show the most productive computer programmers have in common? An environment free from distraction. So when you want to be at your best, silence your phone and distance yourself from all those attention burglars. “Batch” all email checking, texting, and social media into pre-designated times. Then turn off notifications. This allows your brain to hum at full capacity and increases the secretion of elbow grease to get good work done.
But what’s the most powerful and easiest way to get smarter? Well, it’s not even about you...
Ask For That Thing Called “Help”
Handling every challenge in life by yourself builds character (mostly through nightmares). Your education isn’t complete until you’ve learned to take a hint. When you’re unsure, get help.
You’re not in middle school anymore where getting someone else’s answers is called cheating. You can’t learn the smartest way to handle everything on your own. Ask for advice.
People are busy. They don’t wanna help me.
Wrong-amundo. The research says: “people underestimated by as much as 50% the likelihood that others would agree to a direct request for help...”
Fine, but they’ll be irritated and think I’m stupid.
No, that perspective is stupid. Wharton professor Adam Grant finds: “research shows that people who regularly seek advice and help from knowledgeable colleagues are actually rated more favorably by supervisors than those who never seek advice and help.”
Know what’s even better than just occasionally asking for help? Find a mentor. But does needing someone to guide you mean you’re not a genius? Quite likely the opposite...
For his book Creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi interviewed over 91 of the most brilliant people in the world (including 14 Nobel prize winners). What did they have in common? By the time they were college age, almost every one of those earthshakers had an important mentor.”
Okay, time to round it all up and learn the good news about the bad news regarding what happens to your smarts as you age...
Sum Up
Here’s how to get smarter:
Get Your Exercise: What helps your body helps your brain. (If you’re the one person reading this who has friends insisting “You really need to exercise less to improve your health!” then feel free to ignore this.)
Stay Calm: We’re grown-ups – but often only theoretically. Impulsivity is considered a negative in research studies and on witness stands. Increase calm to increase smart judgment.
Focus: Things are rarely so bad that distractions can’t make them worse. You do not need the latest cultural software update from social media. I know singletasking sounds like something only elderly people do, like pinochle or saving money, but give it a try.
Get Help: Pre-masticated knowledge is often the best kind. That’s why you’re reading this. Ask for advice. Become the chimeric blend of the smartest people around you.Do we become less intelligent as we age? The scientific answer is: yes and no.
The research shows there are two kinds of intelligence: fluid and crystallized. Fluid intelligence is raw processing power. Figuring things out with no knowledge. Crystallized intelligence is closer to expertise, based more on prior learning and information.
Fluid intelligence declines rapidly as we get older. In fact, it begins dropping at around age 25. Yeesh. But crystallized intelligence doesn’t even peak until age 60. It’s well known that top mathematicians and physicists do their best work in the first half of life. Meanwhile, great authors usually create their masterworks in the second half.
So as you age, focus on building skills and knowledge. Your processor may not be as fast but you can make up for it with a bigger hard drive. Become an expert at something deep and rich that you’re passionate about -- and keep learning. You may not be as sharp as the young whippersnappers but if you focus on gaining more information about your field they won’t be able to keep up with you.
IQ isn’t everything. It’s just a measure of potential. It’s what you do with what you have that really matters. And, as P.J. O’ Rourke noted, maybe it’s a good thing we’re not John von Neumann:
“Smart people don't start many bar fights. But stupid people don't build many hydrogen bombs.”
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
דברי הספד לרב חיים מאיר דרוקמן ז"ל מפי הרב שאול דוד בוצ'קו
Chabad Vs. Aish
Continuing the thought:
I once overheard one young Chabadnik saying to another "I HATE Aish HaTorah". 😲😳
Why would he say that and and feel that way? I think that the answer is that they are in competition. Chabad is trying to be mekarev people to the G-d of Chabad while Aish is trying to be mekarev people to a very different G-d according to their conception. The G-d of Aish. [If their website in any way reflects their conception of G-d then it is really really really far from any authentic Jewish conception - IMHO!!]. This G-d is of course different than the G-d of, say, Brisk. This is not a merely a question of abstract theology but has very real "nafka minos" li-myseh.
Takeaway: Purify your conception of Hashem and what He wants. Don't remain with the explanation you received in nursery school - as many people do.
Monday, December 26, 2022
A Bold Decision
At the end of his first semester at Penn, a student whom I’ll call Daniel was disappointed to learn that his GPA was a lackluster 2.95. Following the Study Hacks orthodoxy that study habits should be based on evidence — not random decisions or peer pressure — Daniel asked himself a crucial question: What are the better students doing that I’m not?
When he surveyed his classmates, he noted something interesting: “the high-scoring kids weren’t on Facebook.”
Emboldened by this observation, Daniel decided to do the unthinkable: he deactivated his Facebook account.
His GPA jumped to an exceptional 3.95.
In this post, I want to share the details of Daniel’s story — revealing what actually happens when you quit one of the most ubiquitous technologies of your generation. I’ll then make the argument that although most students don’t need to leave Facebook, every student should at least give the idea serious consideration.
The Reality of a Post-Facebook Existence
Daniel’s decision to leave Facebook wasn’t easy.
“I was worried that I would be out of the loop,” he admits. “That I would miss event invitations, not know what was going on with my friends, or be able to effectively lead the organizations I run.”
What really happened?
“Well, as expected, I did miss some invitations to events,” Daniel recalls. “But my friends would forward me invites, and I never missed anything crucial.”
“I also didn’t lose any friends, or even really lose touch with anyone. I still had e-mail and a phone, and I see these people every day.”
Daniel’s mom, not surprisingly, was “ecstatic” about the decision, while many of his friends were shocked. “After my deactivation,” he recalls, “I started getting texts that demanded: WHY DID YOU DEFRIEND ME!? WHERE IS YOUR FACEBOOK!?”
But pretty soon people stopped caring. They had their own lives to lead.
The Monastic Pleasure of Post-Facebook Studying
In contrast to the mild negative effects to his social life, the benefits to Daniel’s academic life were significant.
He was initially worried about “symptom substitution” — the idea that with Facebook gone he would simply find another online distraction to fuel his procrastination.
But this didn’t happen.
“After clicking around the web for a bit, I would become incredibly bored,” Daniel recalls. There’s something about the “endless trickle of messages” served up by Facebook that proves especially addictive. Without that steady supply of attention crack, it became easy for Daniel to “swear off the Internet.”
Consider, for example, a calculus final he faced during his first Facebook-free semester.
“With the time and concentration I regained, I was able to hunt down and complete problems from 20 different practice final exams, and then get tutoring on any issues that remained.”
The average grade on the exam was a 34. Daniel scored an 80.
He has since persuaded several friends to follow his lead in deactivating their accounts, and they’re enjoying similar boosts to their performance.
A Different Way to Think About the Technology in Your Life
I recently received an e-mail from a high school student who estimated that her Internet-obsession was slowing down her work by “a factor of 5.” When I suggested that she ask her parents to unplug the modem until her homework was done, she balked.
“I can’t do that,” she exclaimed. “I have to hand in assignments for one of my classes online, and there are really good web-based dictionaries I use for my Spanish homework.”
Take a moment to ponder this reaction.
This student was experiencing extreme suffering and poor performance because of the Internet. Yet, she judged the trivial inconvenience of plugging in a modem before submitting a completed assignment, or using a slightly less effective paper dictionary for her Spanish homework, as outweighing the exceptional benefits that would be yielded by going offline.
Before adopting a technology that can make a regular claim on your attention, insist that its benefits unambiguously outweigh its negatives.
My bottom line here is simple: Technologies are great, but if you want to keep control of your time and attention have the self-confidence to insist that they earn their keep before you make them a regular part of your life.
HaRav Chaim Drukman z"l
I attended Rav Drukman's funeral [virtually]. There were no "Charedim" there [or none that were visible] among the many thousands that braved the rain and cold for hours. Why not? He was a massive Marbitz Torah!!!?? תנו כבוד לתורה!!!
Here is my take.
There is One G-d. But who is this G-d? Christians believe that he came to earth in a body and was crucified [עפ"ל]. Muslims believe [at least many of them] that He wants His followers to terrorize anyone who doesn't have the Muslim conception of Him [עפ"ל].
We Jews believe that both the Christian and Muslim conceptions of G-d are completely false and to believe what they believe is [at least for us] idolatry.
Rav Drukman's G-d believes that not only is the Israeli government holy BY DEFINITION [regardless of who is in this government - Arabs, Jewish enemies of Torah etc.] but that the State is CENTRAL to Judaism. So is service in the army and settling the Land. I once spent a Shabbos at his Yeshiva [close to 30 years ago] and his Sicha was about the Medina, which was actually the main theme of thousands of Sichos [as my host who was a talmid, confirmed]. He believed [and by extension does the G-d he believed in] in relaxing the standards of conversion for the greater value of making as many people as possible Jewish, in order to strengthen the State - and acted accordingly [which created tremendous friction]. He believed that membership in Bnei Akiva is ideal for our youth despite it being coed [and for teenagers, the coed thing is "liable" to arouse various yetzarim]. [Back in the day, there were communities where if one wasn't a member of Bnei Akiva, that spelled complete assimilation. That is no longer the case].
Maybe he was right. I don't have a monopoly on theological truth. Like everyone else, I have my understanding of what is important to Hashem and how we are to understand Him and make no claim on having received any special Divine revelation. But it is clear that the Charedi conception of Hashem is very different than his. Of course, Charedim themselves differ on many issues and many people don't really give these matters too much thought. What is clear, however, is that their understanding of numerous fundamental issues is diametrically opposed to his. For example - for Charedim, Medinat Yisrael is not only not a Kiddush Hashem but a mammoth Chilul Hashem. For Charedim, the army is a secular entity, run by secularists and a danger to any sincere religious person. So they try to avoid it as much as possible. Anything coed, for them, is treif. So Hashem revealed Himself/His will in the Torah and the Charedi conception of Torah is very different from Rav Drukman's [and his many followers]. So I don't think that is is inaccurate to say that the two groups are serving different conceptions of Hashem. As one person remarked about a certain group of Jews - They have Yiras Shomayim, but it is just a different Shomayim.
The same applies to Chabad. They are good, well meaning people but their conception of Hashem is significantly different than Hashem as understood by non-Chabad people.
Ditto big time Breslev.
So nobody is doubting that Rav Drukman had good intentions but as the king is told at the beginning of the sefer Kuzari - Your intentions are desirable but your deeds are not. That would be the Charedi explanation as to why they had no presence at today's funeral.
As for me - I hope that he has a lichtige Gan Eden and only pleasure and Kirvas Hashem for eternity. If he was mistaken in his Hashkafos, may Hashem forgive him. At the end of the day, he was following his Rebbi, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda Kook.
As for us, we must work hard on purifying our Hashkaofos of their dross. A good place to start is by learning the Maamar of the Rav "Yissurim Memarkim" which I copy below [we have a shiur on line for those who might struggle to understand the Maamar].
תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-------------------
הרב חיים דרוקמן אצל הרבי מליובאוויטש
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Who Is That "Man"?
ויאבק איש עמו - Rashi says in the name of Chazal that who was this "man" that wrestled with Yaakov? The שר of Esav.
How do they know that? Earlier we read "וימצאהו איש" - A man found him. Asks Rashi: Who was this man? The angel Gavriel. So maybe the "man" of ויאבק איש עמו was also Gavriel?
Maran Rosh HaYeshiva ztz"l: Afterwards it says "ויאמר שלחני כי עלה השחר" - Send me away because it is dawn. Rashi - "And I have to say Shirah by day". He is with Yaakov, why does he have to leave in order to say Shirah?? It must be the שר of Esav...
שיטה מסודרת?
חוקרים כמו דב שוורץ, למשל, טוענים בפירוש את ההיפך. לדעתם, עצם העובדה שכתבי הרב מורכבים מפסקאות נפרדות, כשבדרך כלל אין רצף בין פיסקה לפיסקה, מלמדת שמחשבתו הייתה ככתיבתו - מעין שירה, מעניינת אבל חסרת שיטתיות. הסתירות שאנחנו מוצאים (לפחות לכאורה) בין הפסקאות השונות, רק מחזקות את העמדה הזו. ובלשונו של שוורץ: "הראי"ה...לא הותיר משנה הגותית-שיטתית, והתלמידים היו אלה שיצרו תדמית של שיטה מתוך כתביו הפזורים של הרב. הרצי"ה ו"הרב הנזיר" נטלו מאות פסקאות בודדות, שנכתבו בתקופות שונות, וסדרו אותן לכדי פסיפס רעיוני היוצר תדמית של שיטה. בחלקה נעשתה עריכה זו תוך דו שיח עם הראי"ה ובחלקה - בהתעלמותו הגמורה"
אני מודה, שמעולם לא חשתי נוח עם הטיעון הזה. הוא מזכיר לי את קביעתו של וולטר קאופמן, כשענה לטענות דומות שהועלו לגבי הגותו של ניטשה. קאופמן טען, שאין בכלל הוגים עקביים לחלוטין - בכל הגות עמוקה יימצאו סתירות ו"סדקים" - אפילו אצל הוגה קפדני ומדויק כמו קנט. ובלשונו: "לא היה אפילו עולה על הדעת לגשת כך אל כתבי קנט. למעשה, ביקורת התבונה הטהורה היא קרקע פורייה לכל מי שירצה להוכיח את חריפות שכלו, עד ידי האשמת קנט בהעדר עקביות... אם מישהו יפרוש את כל יריעת הכתבים של קנט - הקדם ביקורתיים, הביקורתיים ואת הכתבים מן העיזבון - יגדל המון הסתירות עד למימד האבסורד המוחלט, עוד בטרם ננקוט באמצעי הנוסף של קיטוע משפטים". מה עוד שהרב קוק עצמו - לפי עדות תלמידו הרב הנזיר - האמין שיש לו שיטה מסודרת: "ויהי היום" כותב הרב הנזיר בלשונו הפיוטית, "ואעל אליו בשאלה: רבנו, קדושה יש כאן אצלו, השפעה סגולית. האם יש גם תורת הרב, תכן למודי מסוים, מה, שטה, והתשובה, כן, ודאי" ( אורות הקודש מבוא א, מערכת חכמת הקודש ג).
אפשר, כמובן, לטעון שזו אינה באמת הוכחה. הוגה דעות עשוי לטעות לגבי השיטתיות בכתביו. אבל למה להניח מראש שכתביו של הוגה אינם מכילים שיטה מסודרת, אם הוא עצמו טוען שיש לו שיטה כזו? למה לא להניח, לכל הפחות, שבמקרה כזה חובת ההוכחה היא על הרוצה להפריך את טענתו? כמו שכותב קאופמן, אין לך הוגה נטול סתירות, ואם רק נחמיר מספיק נוכל לבטל כל שיטה פילוסופית. אם נלך בעקביות עם הלוגיקה של דב שוורץ, לא יישאר אף הוגה עקבי בעולם.
אני מציע לצאת מההנחה ההפוכה, הטוענת שכל פיסקה שכתב הרב היא חלק משיטה מסודרת, גם במקומות שבמבט ראשון היא אינה נראית כך. אני מניח שהפסיפס המגוון של עמדות המופיעות בכתבי הרב, מבטא צדדים שונים של הגות אחת מורכבת. יש אצלו פסקאות הנראות כסותרות - אבל כמעט תמיד, לאחר עיון, הסתירה נעלמת, כשחושבים עליהן לאור המכלול השלם של כתביו. (כתבתי "כמעט", משום שסביר, לדעתי, שגם לסתירות שלא נעלמו יש פתרון שעדיין לא הצלחתי לעמוד על פשרו). בכל מקרה, הכלל המתודי שלאורו אלך הוא לחפש הסבר לכל סתירה, ולהניח שהוא יימצא בהבנה יותר עמוקה של השיטה השלימה. [אורות האדם והנפש]
Saturday, December 24, 2022
A Focused Life
Living the focused life is not about trying to feel happy all the time…rather, it’s about treating your mind as you would a private garden and being as careful as possible about what you introduce and allow to grow there.
This quote, tucked innocuously at the end of the third chapter of Rapt, Winifred Gallagher’s 2009 ode to focus, is life-changing.
Gallagher’s book begins with a cancer diagnosis (“not just cancer, but a particularly nasty, fairly advanced kind”). She realizes that this disease wants to claim her attention, and that this was no way to live what may be the last moments of her life. So she launches an experiment to reclaim her attention, relentlessly redirecting it towards the things that matter most: “big ones like family and friends, spiritual life and work, and smaller ones like movies, walks, and a 6:30 pm martini.”
Gallagher comes away from the experiment with a good prognosis for her disease and a visceral appreciation of a surprising fact: “life is the sum total of what you focus on,” yet most people expend little effort cultivating this focus.
This lack of cultivation comes through clearly in the student e-mails I receive. A recent request for advice, for example, noted:
“I feel overwhelmed and worried about these exams…as I see all this work [accumulate] I have doubts whether I can do it and get the grades or if it’s already too late.”
The student goes on to detail a doomsday scenario ending in his expulsion from college. A similar e-mail I received earlier this week begins:
“I am a rising senior and EXTREMELY stressed out and anxious about graduation, because I don’t have a set plan.”
In addition, I receive, on average, three or four e-mails per week from students obsessing over their qualifications for graduate, medical, or law school. Earning a “B” on a single test in a single class can spark an epic rumination on the student’s imminent failure in life.
These examples underscore an important reality: no amount of planning, productivity, or accomplishment will provide you an interesting and happy life if you allow your mind to run amok — ruminating on what has or could go wrong; fixating on slights and fantasy dialogues with invented nemeses; leaping perpetually to day dreams of some quixotic future where everything finally works out.
This is why Gallagher’s quote proves arresting. She both diagnoses the problem and describes the remedy: Training your mind is crucial in building a good life.
For some reason, however, us in the advice-dispensing business tend to sidestep this reality. It’s uncomfortable, I suppose, to transgress the boundary into the private space of our mental lives. Sure, we’ll occasionally stick a toe over the line, and tell our readers to overcome their fear of failure or to shake off society’s pressure to conform, but the messier mental gunk that coats so much of our inner world remains out of scope.
I want to put an end to this taboo…
I’ll start with an admission: I spend time, every day, tending to my mind. For example, I practice walking meditation each morning, and I use a shutdown routine, backed by extensive organization systems, to free my thoughts from work-related rumination during the evenings. These are just two examples from a large and aggressive collection of strategies I dedicate to cultivating my focus — a collection I review and polish once a week.
This is hard work and the results take time to manifest. But it’s work that I think all but the most naturally optimistic must include in their strategies for self-improvement, and this is why I want to start talking openly about the subject.
If you find yourself in a state of constant, draining, distracting thought, don’t confine your efforts to the outward causes. It’s important, of course, to fix the inefficient study habits that keep your grades erratic, or to reassess your understanding of passion when grappling with job satisfaction, but you should also dedicate effort inward, to weeding your mental garden, preventing the next batch of concerns — and there will always be a next batch — from leeching so many nutrients from your soul matter.
Perhaps the best motivation for this effort can be found in the words of Gallagher, who concludes: “I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.”
Torah Umadda And Our Present Educational System
Two things are very clear [to me]. One is that the Rambam was a proponent of what we would call today "Torah Umadda". The other is that most of the "Olam HaTorah" is not. Secular subjects are studied minimally and the ideal is to completely immerse oneself in Torah. If a big Rov or Rosh Yeshiva would be seen in public studying math or physics, it would raise some eyebrows and frankly has not yet happened - ever [as far as we know. Rav Abba Bronshpigal (Shlita) said that he never once saw Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik open a secular book in the decades he was his talmid. I think it was Rav Abba. If not - a different Talmid]. Below I present the Moreh Nevuchim [3-51] which is one of the places where the Rambam emphasizes the importance of secular wisdom.
How many true Talmidei Chachomim-Yirei Shomyaim are there alive who are experts in Math and Physics etc. as the Rambam REQUIRES? Of those very few - how many studied secular disciplines to get closer to Hashem and how many for a profession or at least to obtain a degree [so that they would be able to have a profession]. I would be surprised if there are a minyan [half a minyan?] of such people in the world. Even such a towering scholar such as Rav Aharon Lichtenstein was an expert at English literature but was not a math-science person [as far as his writings and biography indicate].
Then there is philosophy. According to Rambam if one doesn't know philosophy, he is basically serving another god. A god of his imagination. If I may borrow a phrase from Richard Dawkins ימ"ש "A god of delusion". To know the True Hashem mandates that one study Philosophy [and pnimiyus HaTorah]. Which Yeshivos teach philosophy? How many buchrim know Moreh Nevuchim, Kuzari, Maharal etc. How many Roshei Yeshiva know these sfarim? It is just not on the curriculum. [And those who do study philosophy seriously usually can't learn Gemara nearly as well as those who don't].
So what is the answer? Well, there are Jewish schools that have strong secular studies programs. Ramaz, SAR, Yeshiva of Flatbush etc. What is the level of Torah literacy and halachic commitment of the average student in these schools? I want to be kind so I won't state my assessment.
So what is the solution? You can't have both. If one wants a child on fire with Torah and Yiras Shomayim, he has to send to a Yeshiva where secular studies aren't taken seriously and end his secular education prematurely so that he can learn full time. If he wants secular studies then "good-bye Torah". [Maybe there are exceptions such as "Ma'arava" of Rabbi Chait. I don't know the level of the school and the students].
So how does the Olam HaTorah deal with the Rambam?
1] They can answer that in this area we simply don't pasken like him. At the end of perek I quoted, the Rambam says that one should avoid social engagement as much as possible in order to focus on contemplating Hashem. I think it is fair to say that we don't pasken like that Rambam.
2] They can answer that in the present circumstances we can't follow the Rambam, although ideally we should.
YU is a great idea in theory. Rabbi Lamm's "Torah U'madda" is a masterpiece proving from a completely Torah perspective how important such an institution is. But practically speaking, I think it is not being to extreme or radical to say that the level of the Torah knowledge and Yiras Shomayim of the average YU graduate is not on par with that of let us say an average student in Brisk, Ponovitch, Mir or Lakewood [I say "average". There are both apikorsim and Tzadikim Gmurim all over the place]. Rav Goldvicht ztz"l used to say that KBY is Volozhin with a Kippa Sruga. I am not sure that it turned out that way.
So the bottom line is that no educational institution is perfect and wherever one goes he will have to forego very important component of what constitutes a complete Torah personality. A highly motivated student can try and fill in the gaps.
ואני פותח הדברים בזה הפרק במשל שאשאהו לך. ואומר: כי המלך הוא בהיכלו ואנשיו כולם – קצתם אנשי המדינה וקצתם חוץ למדינה, ואלו אשר במדינה – מהם מי שאחוריו אל בית המלך ומגמת פניו בדרך אחרת, ומהם מי שרוצה ללכת אל בית המלך ומגמתו אליו, ומבקש לבקר בהיכלו ולעמוד לפניו, אלא שעד היום לא ראה פני חומת הבית כלל; ומן הרוצים לבוא אל הבית – מהם שהגיע אליו והוא מתהלך סביבו מבקש למצוא השער, ומהם מי שנכנס בשער והוא הולך בפרוזדור, ומהם מי שהגיע עד שנכנס אל תוך הבית והוא עם המלך במקום אחד שהוא בית המלך; ולא בהגיעו אל תוך הבית יראה המלך או ידבר עמו, אבל אחר הגיעו אל תוך הבית אי אפשר לו מבלתי שישתדל השתדלות אחרת, ואז יעמוד לפני המלך ויראהו מרחוק או מקרוב, או ישמע דבר המלך או ידבר עמו.
I will begin the subject of this chapter with a simile. A king is in his palace, and all his subjects are partly in the country, and partly abroad. Of the former, some have their backs turned towards the king’s palace, and their faces in another direction; and some are desirous and zealous to go to the palace, seeking “to inquire in his temple,” and to minister before him, but have not yet seen even the face of the wall of the house. Of those that desire to go to the palace, some reach it, and go round about in search of the entrance gate; others have passed through the gate, and walk about in the ante-chamber; and others have succeeded in entering into the inner part of the palace, and being in the same room with the king in the royal palace. But even the latter do not immediately on entering the palace see the king, or speak to him; for, after having entered the inner part of the palace, another effort is required before they can stand before the king—at a distance, or close by—hear his words, or speak to him.
והנני מפרש לך זה המשל אשר חדשתי לך, ואומר: אמנם אשר הם חוץ למדינה, הם כל איש מבני אדם שאין לו אמונת דת, לא מדרך עיון ולא מדרך קבלה, כקצות התורך המשוטטים בצפון, והכושיים המשוטטים בדרום, והדומים להם מאשר אתנו באקלימים האלה. ודין אלו כדין בעלי חיים שאינם מדברים ואינם אצלי במדרגת בני אדם, ומדרגתם בנמצאות – למטה ממדרגת האדם ולמעלה ממדרגת הקוף, אחר שהגיע להם תמונת האדם ותארו והכרה יותר מהכרת הקוף.
I will now explain the simile which I have made. The people who are abroad are all those that have no religion, neither one based on speculation nor one received by tradition. Such are the extreme Turks that wander about in the north, the Kushites who live in the south, and those in our country who are like these. I consider these as irrational beings, and not as human beings; they are below mankind, but above monkeys, since they have the form and shape of man, and a mental faculty above that of the monkey.
ואשר הם במדינה אלא שאחוריהם אל בית המלך – הם בעלי אמונה ועיון, אלא שעלו בידם דעות בלתי אמיתיות, אם מטעות גדולה שנפל בידם בעת עיונם, או שקבלו ממי שהטעם, והם לעולם מפני הדעות ההם כל אשר ילכו – יוסיפו רוחק מבית המלך. ואלו יותר רעים מן הראשונים הרבה, ואלו הם אשר יביא הצורך בקצת העיתים להרגם ולמחות זכר דעותם – שלא יתעו זולתם.
Those who are in the country, but have their backs turned towards the king’s palace, are those who possess religion, belief, and thought, but happen to hold false doctrines, which they either adopted in consequence of great mistakes made in their own speculations, or received from others who misled them. Because of these doctrines they recede more and more from the royal palace the more they seem to proceed. These are worse than the first class, and under certain circumstances it may become necessary to slay them, and to extirpate their doctrines, in order that others should not be misled.
והרוצים לבוא אל בית המלך ולהכנס אצלו אלא שלא ראו בית המלך כלל – הם המון אנשי התורה – רצוני לומר: ׳עמי הארץ העוסקים במצוות׳.
Those who desire to arrive at the palace, and to enter it, but have never yet seen it, are the mass of religious people; the multitude that observe the divine commandments, but are ignorant.
והמגיעים אל הבית ההולכים סביבו – הם התלמודיים אשר הם מאמינים דעות אמיתיות מצד הקבלה, ולומדים מעשי העבודות, ולא הרגילו בעיון שרשי התורה ולא חקרו כלל לאמת אמונה.
Those who arrive at the palace, but go round about it, are those who devote themselves exclusively to the study of the practical law; they believe traditionally in true principles of faith, and learn the practical worship of God, but are not trained in philosophical treatment of the principles of the Law, and do not endeavor to establish the truth of their faith by proof.
ואשר הכניסו עצמם לעיין בעקרי הדת כבר נכנסו לפרוזדור; ובני אדם שם חלוקי המדרגות בלא ספק.
Those who undertake to investigate the principles of religion, have come into the ante-chamber; and there is no doubt that these can also be divided into different grades.
אבל מי שהגיע לדעת מופת כל מה שנמצא עליו מופת, וידע מן הענינים האלהיים אמיתת כל מה שאפשר שתודע אמיתתו, ויקרב לאמיתת מה שאי אפשר בו רק להתקרב אל אמיתתו, כבר הגיע עם המלך בתוך הבית.
But those who have succeeded in finding a proof for everything that can be proved, who have a true knowledge of God, so far as a true knowledge can be attained, and are near the truth, wherever an approach to the truth is possible, they have reached the goal, and are in the palace in which the king lives.
ודע בני, שאתה כל עוד שתתעסק בחכמות הלימודים ובמלאכת ההגיון, אתה מכת המתהלכים סביב הבית לבקש השער – כמו שאמרו ׳ז״ל׳ על צד המשל, ״עדיין בן זומא מבחוץ״. וכשתבין הענינים הטבעיים, כבר נכנסת בפרוזדור הבית, וכשתשלים הטבעיות ותבין האלהיות, כבר נכנסת עם המלך ׳אל החצר הפנימית׳ ואתה עמו בבית אחד – וזאת היא מדרגת החכמים והם חלוקי השלמות. אבל מי שישים כל מחשבתו אחר שלמותו באלהיות והוא נוטה כולו אל האלוה ית׳ והוא מפנה מחשבתו מזולתו, וישים פעולות שכלו כולם בבחינת הנמצאות ללמוד מהם ראיה על האלוה ית׳ לדעת הנהגתו אותם על אי זה צד אפשר שתהיה – הם אשר באו אל בית המלך – וזאת היא מדרגת הנביאים. יש מהם מי שהגיע מרוב השגתו ופנותו מחשבתו מכל דבר זולתי האלוה ית׳ עד שנאמר בו ״ויהי שם עם יי״ – וישאל ויענה וידבר וידובר עמו במעמד ההוא המקודש; ומרוב שמחתו במה שהשיג ״לחם לא אכל ומים לא שתה״ – כי התחזק השכל עד שנתבטל כל כח עב שבגוף – רצוני לומר: מיני חוש המישוש. ויש מן הנביאים מי שיראה לבד, ויש מהם מי שיראה מקרוב, ומהם מי שיראה מרחוק – כאמרו: ״מרחוק יי נראה לי״. וכבר הקדמנו לדבר במדרגות הנבואה.
My son, so long as you are engaged in studying the Mathematical Sciences and Logic, you belong to those who go round about the palace in search of the gate. Thus our Sages figuratively use the phrase: “Ben-zoma is still outside.” When you understand Physics, you have entered the hall; and when, after completing the study of Natural Philosophy, you master Metaphysics, you have entered the innermost court, and are with the king in the same palace. You have attained the degree of the wise men, who include men of different grades of perfection. There are some who direct all their mind toward the attainment of perfection in Metaphysics, devote themselves entirely to God, exclude from their thought every other thing, and employ all their intellectual faculties in the study of the Universe, in order to derive therefrom a proof for the existence of God, and to learn in every possible way how God rules all things; they form the class of those who have entered the palace, namely, the class of prophets. One of these has attained so much knowledge, and has concentrated his thoughts to such an extent in the idea of God, that it could be said of him, “And he was with Hashem for forty days,” etc. (Exod. 34:28); during that holy communion he could ask Him, answer Him, speak to Him, and be addressed by Him, enjoying that which he had obtained to such a degree that “he did neither eat bread nor drink water” (ibid.); his intellectual energy was so predominant that all coarser functions of the body, especially those connected with the sense of touch, were in abeyance. Some prophets are only able to see, and of these some approach near and see, while others see from a distance: comp. “The Hashem has appeared from far unto me” (Jer. 31:3). We have already spoken of the various degrees of prophets;
ונשוב אל כענין הפרק, והוא – להזהיר שישים האדם מחשבתו באלוה לבדו אחר שהגיע על ידיעתו (כמו שבארנו) וזאת היא העבודה המיוחדת במשיגי האמיתות, וכל אשר יוסיפו לחשוב בו ולעמוד אצלו – תוסיף עבודתם. אבל מי שיחשוב באלוה וירבה לזכרו מבלי חכמה, אבל הוא נמשך אחר קצת דמיון לבד או נמשך אחר אמונה שמסרה לו זולתו, הוא אצלי עם היותו חוץ לבית ורחוק ממנו, בלתי זוכר האלוה באמת ולא חושב בו – כי הדבר ההוא אשר בדמיונו ואשר יזכור בפיו, אינו נאוה לנמצא כלל, אבל הוא דבר בדוי שבדהו דמיונו – כמו שבארנו בדברינו על התארים. ואמנם ראוי להתחיל בזה המין מן העבודה – אחר הציור השכלי; והיה כאשר תשיג האלוה ומעשיו כפי מה שישכלהו השכל, אחר כן תתחיל להמסר אליו ותשתדל להתקרב לו ותחזק הדיבוק אשר ביניך ובינו, והוא – השכל – אמר ״אתה הראת לדעת כי יי וגו׳״ ואמר: ״וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך וגו׳״ ואמר: ״דעו כי יי הוא אלהים״. והנה בארה ה׳תורה׳ כי זאת העבודה האחרונה אשר העירונו עליה בזה הפרק לא תהיה אלא אחר ההשגה – אמר ״לאהבה את יי אלהיכם ולעבדו בכל לבבכם ובכל נפשכם״ – והנה בארנו פעמים רבות כי האהבה היא כפי ההשגה, ואחר ה׳אהבה׳ תהיה העבודה ההיא, אשר כבר העירו ׳ז״ל׳ עליה, ואמרו: ״זו עבודה שבלב״ והיא אצלי – שישים האדם כל מחשבתו במושכל הראשון, ולהתבודד בזה כפי היכולת. ולזה תמצא דוד ע״ה שצוה שלמה בנו והזהירו מאד בשני הענינים האלה – רצוני לומר: להסתכל בהשגתו, ולהשתדל בעבודתו אחר ההשגה – אמר ״ואתה שלמה בני דע את אלהי אביך ועבדהו וגו׳ אם תדרשנו – ימצא לך וגו׳״ – והאזהרה לעולם היא על ההשגות השכליות לא על הדמיונות – כי המחשבה בדמיונות לא תיקרא ׳דעה׳ ואמנם תקרא ׳העולה על רוחכם׳. הנה התבאר כי הכונה אחר ההשגה היא – להמסר אליו, ולהשים המחשבה השכלית בחישקו תמיד – וזה ישלם על הרוב בבדידות ובהתפרדות. ומפני זה ירבה כל חסיד להפרד ולהתבודד ולא יתחבר עם אדם רק לצורך הכרחי.
We will therefore return to the subject of this chapter, and exhort those who have attained a knowledge of God, to concentrate all their thoughts in God. This is the worship peculiar to those who have acquired a knowledge of the highest truths; and the more they reflect on Him, and think of Him, the more are they engaged in His worship. Those, however, who think of God, and frequently mention His name, without any correct notion of Him, but merely following some imagination, or some theory received from another person, are, in my opinion, like those who remain outside the palace and distant from it. They do not mention the name of God in truth, nor do they reflect on it. That which they imagine and mention does not correspond to any being in existence: it is a thing invented by their imagination, as has been shown by us in our discussion on the Divine Attributes (Part I. chap. 1.). The true worship of God is only possible when correct notions of Him have previously been conceived. When you have arrived by way of intellectual research at a knowledge of God and His works, then commence to devote yourselves to Him, try to approach Him and strengthen the intellect, which is the link that joins you to Him. Thus the pasuk says, “Unto you it was showed, that you might know that the Lord He is God” (Deut. 4:35); “Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord He is God” (ibid. 36); “Know that the Lord is God” (Ps. 100:3). Thus the Law distinctly states that the highest kind of worship to which we refer in this chapter, is only possible after the acquisition of the knowledge of God. For it is said, “To love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 11:13), and, as we have shown several times, man’s love of God is identical with His knowledge of Him. The Divine service enjoined in these words must, accordingly, be preceded by the love of God. Our Sages have pointed out to us that it is a service in the heart, which explanation I understand to mean this: man concentrates all his thoughts on the First Intellect, and is absorbed in these thoughts as much as possible. David therefore commands his son Solomon these two things, and exhorts him earnestly to do them: to acquire a true knowledge of God, and to be earnest in His service after that knowledge has been acquired. For he says, “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart . . . if you seek him, he will be found with you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever” (1 Divrei Hayomim 28:9). The exhortation refers to, the intellectual conceptions, not to the imaginations: for the latter are not called “knowledge,” but “that which comes into your mind” (Ezek. 20:32). It has thus been shown that it must be man’s aim, after having acquired the knowledge of God, to deliver himself up to Him, and to have his heart constantly filled with longing after Him. He accomplishes this generally by seclusion and retirement. Every pious man should therefore seek retirement and seclusion, and should only in case of necessity associate with others.
