Spirituality Studies 61 Arik Segev Consider, for example, the two possibilities for opening a door: pushing or pulling. The “right” action is determined by how the laws revealed in our spatiotemporal world (material and immaterial) apply to that specific door and that specific context. The same principle holds for much more complicated spatiotemporal situations in ethics and politics. Let us examine a more complex example. When putting someone on trial for murder, it is right to apply, among others, the following two metaphysical-ethical possibilities: (1) “Moral values are objective,” and (2) “A person is innocent until proven guilty.” [6] Applying the opposite principles, say, “Moral values are relative,” would undermine justice or increase harm. Conversely, the relativist idea, “Good is whatever one wants or believes,” may be right when applied to ice cream flavor or a football club’s preferences, but not when dealing with a judgment of guilt/innocence in a murder case. Applying value hierarchies to flavors is false and unjust. Therefore, true awareness of the movement from Da’at to Chesed reveals not only possibilities but also the worth of actualizing them in specific contexts. In summary, this spiritual stage connects consciousness with formalized and symbolized possibilities or meanings, developing the capacity to judge when, why, and to what extent an idea is true, good, just, or beautiful, and when, where, and how to actualize it in the spatiotemporal world. 5.8 Stage 8. Da’at to Binah Stage eight in the spiritual development toward wisdom is an open awareness and attention to the movement of Being’s emanation between Binah (Heb. “understanding”) and Da’at (Heb. “knowledge”). This awareness reveals the syntax underlying all possibilities, ideas, and meanings. It contains the atomic building blocks and principles of all possible relationships needed to combine possible meanings – it is “where” all the syntactical and relational entities originate. Binah is the Sefirah from which we draw and develop logic, syntax, symbolic relations, and the very possibility of symbolization: letters, numbers, sounds, words, logical and mathematical operators, and other syntactic tools. More specifically, relational entities such as “and”, “if-then”, “like”, “same”, “near”, “include”, “belong”, “cause and effect”, “predicate”, “trait”, “plus”, and “minus.” It most likely includes many more relational entities that have not yet been discovered or formalized. All these examples are, of course, formalized possibilities and, therefore, part of Da’at. No one can refer to a Binah entity unless it is already formalized and becomes, in addition to Binah, a part of Da’at. Even as formalized possibilities, they remain rooted in the realm of Binah. Da’at is fully included in an ever-changing combination – hopefully for the good regarding our consciousness – of Binah and Chochmah (which preserves the entities’ quality as an indirect manifestation of Being). Nevertheless, since each of Da’at’s formulated entities of meaning has its own identity and is phenomenologically unique, with a special combination of Chochma and Binah, Da’at has its own phenomenological sphere and is a special Sefirah. However, awareness of the movement between Binah and Da’at opens the way to a direct encounter with a syntactical or relational entity and a full understanding of its essence. Additionally, it opens the way to encounter new, yet unformed, syntactical and relational building blocks, and perhaps to formalize them. Again, from this suggested interpretation of Binah and the realm of possibilities, it is clear why the Sefirah Da’at is not a standard full Sefirah in terms of creation. Everything included in it is already part of the combination of Binah and Chochmah. On the other hand, it is a necessary and essential spiritual foundation for the possibility of an aware and conscious life, as well as any real process of education, law and justice. All our books, theories, narratives, verbal knowledge, art, symbols, science, religious and spiritual ways of life, political order, constitutions, games, spiritual practices, etc., gathered from all human history and civilizations, are included if they have the minimum standard amount of good, truth, justice, and beauty. 5.9 Stage 9. Binah to Chochmah Stage nine in spiritual development is marked by an open awareness and attention to the movement between Chochmah (Heb. “wisdom”) and Binah (Heb. “understanding”). This awareness may lead to encountering, experiencing, and conceiving the atomic building blocks of all possible meanings, ideas, or contents. Such a building block of meaning can be demonstrated as an awareness of the very characteristic of existence in itself. More specifically, it is an awareness of the non-spatiotemporal existence of the very possibility of existence. It is the property of “being”, or “existence” (or the possibility or form of it), that can be seen as the first foundation of all
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