I just learned something interesting in my last class so I decided to run up here to post it before dinner. "Chabad" comes from the words "chochma, binah and daas" which roughly translate to "inspiration (often 'wisdom'), understanding, and knowledge." Men are compared to chochma while women are compared to binah. How is this so?
Chochma is a flash of inspiration while binah is the development of that idea. (Note: the following contains generalities that will offend individuals too "nuanced" to appreciate natural truths and general social mores. Get over yourselves.) Men make the money, women do the shopping and provide for the family and home. Men would kill the animal, the women would turn it into a meal. Men provide the seed, women carry and birth the child. Both are necessary: an undeveloped idea or flash of inspiration is wasted but without it, there is nothing to be developed or understood.
We also learned in a Sicho (discourse on the Torah) from the Lubavitcher Rebbe that the Jews were freed from Egypt in the merit of Shifra and Puah, the two Jewish midwives who refused to obey Pharoh's orders to kill male Jewish babies because "they feared G-d." I don't remember all the details of the lesson (and I'm hungry so I'm going to go to dinner now) but we also discussed how women are spiritually superior to men, therefore men require more mitzvot (commandments). This is compared to a bull which requires more restraints than a cow. And, finally, when Moshiach comes (may it be today!), women will teach men the secrets of Chasidus.
I'm wondering if I'm in yeshiva or Wellesley College!
Chochma is a flash of inspiration while binah is the development of that idea. (Note: the following contains generalities that will offend individuals too "nuanced" to appreciate natural truths and general social mores. Get over yourselves.) Men make the money, women do the shopping and provide for the family and home. Men would kill the animal, the women would turn it into a meal. Men provide the seed, women carry and birth the child. Both are necessary: an undeveloped idea or flash of inspiration is wasted but without it, there is nothing to be developed or understood.
We also learned in a Sicho (discourse on the Torah) from the Lubavitcher Rebbe that the Jews were freed from Egypt in the merit of Shifra and Puah, the two Jewish midwives who refused to obey Pharoh's orders to kill male Jewish babies because "they feared G-d." I don't remember all the details of the lesson (and I'm hungry so I'm going to go to dinner now) but we also discussed how women are spiritually superior to men, therefore men require more mitzvot (commandments). This is compared to a bull which requires more restraints than a cow. And, finally, when Moshiach comes (may it be today!), women will teach men the secrets of Chasidus.
I'm wondering if I'm in yeshiva or Wellesley College!
No comments:
Post a Comment