As I continued to contemplate the two paradigms of awareness of God's involvement with His Creation, I began to understand some things that had always left me wanting deeper comprehension.
The dichotomy we wrote about yesterday can be referred to be different names. In Kabbalistic thought it can be viewed as the distinction between Chesed and Gevurah (Din), or the transition from Chochmah to Binah. Others would refer to it as the distinction between right and left brain thinking. Let's explore this a little.
The realm of Chochmah in Kabbalistic thought represents an all encompassing thought and sense of purpose, but one that has not yet taken a form and shape to put it into actual this-world practice. Chochmah is infinite in its possibility, Binah gives it form and function, but at the same time places limits on the Chochmah.
The Chochmah of God permeates all of Creation, but, in order for Creation to be a useful creation, it is all presented to us in its neatly packaged and user-friendly Binah wrapping. The world of Binah, with its form, function, and limitations is what gives us (in the words of the Kabbalists) concepts such as Right and Wrong, Valid and Invalid, Pure and Impure. These concepts are all a direct result of the delineations imposed by the application of Binah to the hitherto unformed Chochmah.
In the realm of Chochmah, by contrast, these delineations do not exist. One who can rise to that level of consciousness can move beyond these categories entirely and view the world as completely infused by God.
To be continued...
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