Binah (Kabbalah)
Encyclopedia
Binah, in the Kabbalah
of Judaism
, is the second intellectual Sephirah on the tree of life
. It sits on the level below Keter
(in the formulations that include that Sephirah), across from Chokmah
and directly above Gevurah
. It is usually given four paths: to Keter, Chockmah, Gevurah, and Tiphereth
(some Kabbalists place a path from Binah to Chesed as well.) In an anthropomorphic
visualization, it may be alternatively related to the "left eye
", "left hemisphere of the brain
" or the "heart
."
: "The third (utterance): quarry of the Torah, treasury of wisdom, quarry of God's spirit, hewn out by the spirit of God. This teaches that God hewed out all the letters of the Torah, engraving them with the Spirit, casting His forms within it" .
Binah is 'understanding' or 'contemplation'. It is likened to a 'palace of mirrors' that reflects the pure point of light of Chokhmah
, wisdom, increasing and multiplying it in an infinite variety of ways. In this sense, it is the 'quarry', which is carved out by the light of wisdom. It is the womb, which gives shape to the Spirit of God.
On a psychological level, Binah is "processed wisdom," also known as deductive reasoning. It is davar mitoch davar -- understanding one idea from another idea. While Chockmah is intellect that does not emanate from the rational process (it is either inspired or taught), Binah is the rational process that is innate in the person which works to develop an idea fully.
Binah is associated with the feminine
. The Bahir
states: “For you shall call Understanding a Mother.” Classical Jewish texts state Binah yeterah natun l'nashim ("an extra measure of Binah was given to women").
In its fully articulated form, Binah possesses two partzufim: the higher of these is referred to as Imma Ila'ah ("the higher mother"), whereas the lower is referred to as Tevunah ("comprehension"). These two partzufim are referred to jointly as Imma ("the mother").
elucidated the ethical qualities associated with each Sefira, which one must attempt to imitate. The attribute associated with Binah is complete repentance, for 'just as Binah sweetens all severities and neutralizes their bitterness, one should repent and rectify all flaws'.
In its role as the ultimate Object, as opposed to Chokmah as the Subject, its role is similar to the role of Shakti
in Indian mysticism. It is feminine
, because it literally gives birth to the whole of creation, providing the supernal womb, with Chokmah providing the raw energy.
The name of God associated with Binah is Jehovah Elohim
, the archangel that presides over it is Tzaphkiel
, the order of angels that resides in it are the Aralim ( the Thrones ) and the planet associated with it is Saturn.
The aspect or attribute of being associated with the feminine, is why Binah is often associated with various occult things that reflect the females. It is related to the Yoni, and to the womb. It is related to the priestess card in the occult tarot
(according to Arthur Edward Waite
's "Pictorial Key to the Tarot") and Liber 777 associating it with Isis
, Cybele
, Demeter
, Rhea
, Woman
, The Virgin Mary, Juno
, Hecate
, Yoni
, The Three Threes of the Tarot, etc. etc. etc.
Occultists have tried to compare the sephirah with the Chakras of Indian mysticism, and one such comparison is in comparing both Binah and Chokmah with the Ajna
chakra, which is where both Shiva and Shakti are united.
For its negative
opposite on the Tree of Death
, it has Sathariel
.
In the correlation of Binah with Shakti and Chokmah with Shiva, Shakti is the animating life force whereas Shiva is dead, a corpse, without her energy.
's game Tales of the Abyss
, there is a town called St. Binah with a big tree in its centre. Legend says that this tree grew up when every plant in the town was dead, returning them to life. In addition, several names inside the Sephiroth are used in the game. Hod, Chesedonia, Daath, Grand Chokmah, Keterburg, and Malkuth are locations that the player can travel to, while the Sephiroth itself becomes a key part to the game's tale.
Binah is the name of a monster in Sailor Moon
.
In Malcolm Lowry
's Under the Volcano
, the main character Geoffrey Firmin, often referred to as the Consul, asks in a letter never sent to his estranged wife Yvonne whether she finds him "between Mercy and Understanding, between Chesed
and Binah
."
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, is the second intellectual Sephirah on the tree of life
Tree of life (Kabbalah)
The Tree of Life, or Etz haChayim in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path to God and the manner in which he created the world ex nihilo...
. It sits on the level below Keter
Keter (Kabbalah)
Keter also known as Kether, is the topmost of the Sephirot of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. Since its meaning is "crown", it is interpreted as both the "topmost" of the Sephirot and the "regal crown" of the Sephirot. It is between Chokmah and Binah and it sits above Tiphereth...
(in the formulations that include that Sephirah), across from Chokmah
Chokhmah (Kabbalah)
Chokhmah in the Kabbalah of Judaism, is the uppermost of the Sephirot of the right line . It is derived from the Hebrew word chokhmah which means "wisdom". It is to the bottom right of Keter, and with Binah across it. Under it are the sephirot of Chesed and Netzach...
and directly above Gevurah
Gevurah (Kabbalah)
The Hebrew feminine noun gevurah or geburah The Hebrew feminine noun gevurah or geburah The Hebrew feminine noun gevurah or geburah (גבורה in the Kabbalah of Judaism is the fifth of the Sephirot of the tree of life, and it is the second of the emotive attributes of the Sephirot. It sits below...
. It is usually given four paths: to Keter, Chockmah, Gevurah, and Tiphereth
Tiphereth (Kabbalah)
Tiferet or Tifaret, Tifereth, Tyfereth, Tiphereth is the sixth sefira in the Tree of Life in Kabbalah, which is the spirituality of Rabbinic Judaism...
(some Kabbalists place a path from Binah to Chesed as well.) In an anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
visualization, it may be alternatively related to the "left eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
", "left hemisphere of the brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
" or the "heart
Human heart
The human heart is a muscular organ that provides a continuous blood circulation through the cardiac cycle and is one of the most vital organs in the human body...
."
Description
According to the BahirBahir
Bahir or Sefer Ha-Bahir סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben ha-Kanah because it begins with the words, "R. Nehunya Ben Ha-Kanah said"...
: "The third (utterance): quarry of the Torah, treasury of wisdom, quarry of God's spirit, hewn out by the spirit of God. This teaches that God hewed out all the letters of the Torah, engraving them with the Spirit, casting His forms within it" .
Binah is 'understanding' or 'contemplation'. It is likened to a 'palace of mirrors' that reflects the pure point of light of Chokhmah
Chokhmah
Chokhmah, also sometimes transliterated chochma or hokhmah is the Hebrew word for "wisdom". It is cognate with the Arabic word Hikmah, which also means 'wisdom'. The word "chokhmah" and others derived from it may connote one of several things.-People:A "wise man" is a chakham...
, wisdom, increasing and multiplying it in an infinite variety of ways. In this sense, it is the 'quarry', which is carved out by the light of wisdom. It is the womb, which gives shape to the Spirit of God.
On a psychological level, Binah is "processed wisdom," also known as deductive reasoning. It is davar mitoch davar -- understanding one idea from another idea. While Chockmah is intellect that does not emanate from the rational process (it is either inspired or taught), Binah is the rational process that is innate in the person which works to develop an idea fully.
Binah is associated with the feminine
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
. The Bahir
Bahir
Bahir or Sefer Ha-Bahir סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben ha-Kanah because it begins with the words, "R. Nehunya Ben Ha-Kanah said"...
states: “For you shall call Understanding a Mother.” Classical Jewish texts state Binah yeterah natun l'nashim ("an extra measure of Binah was given to women").
In its fully articulated form, Binah possesses two partzufim: the higher of these is referred to as Imma Ila'ah ("the higher mother"), whereas the lower is referred to as Tevunah ("comprehension"). These two partzufim are referred to jointly as Imma ("the mother").
Ethical qualities
In the medieval text the Palm Tree of Devorah, Rabbi Moses CordoveroMoses ben Jacob Cordovero
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, , was a central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah, leader of a mystical school in 16th-century Safed, Israel. He is known by the acronym the Ramak....
elucidated the ethical qualities associated with each Sefira, which one must attempt to imitate. The attribute associated with Binah is complete repentance, for 'just as Binah sweetens all severities and neutralizes their bitterness, one should repent and rectify all flaws'.
Non-Jewish associations
In Western occultism, Binah is seen to take the raw force of Chokhmah, and to channel it into the various forms of creation. For example, in a car, you have the fuel and an engine. While Chokmah is the fuel, pure energy, Binah is the engine, pure receptivity. Either one without the other is useless.In its role as the ultimate Object, as opposed to Chokmah as the Subject, its role is similar to the role of Shakti
Shakti
Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...
in Indian mysticism. It is feminine
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
, because it literally gives birth to the whole of creation, providing the supernal womb, with Chokmah providing the raw energy.
The name of God associated with Binah is Jehovah Elohim
Elohim
Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
, the archangel that presides over it is Tzaphkiel
Tzaphqiel
Tzaphqiel is the Archangel of Binah on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, ruled by the name IHVH Elohim and ruling the angelic choir Aralim. Binah is the supreme feminine aspect in Kabbalah and Tzaphqiel is its representative in the world of Briah...
, the order of angels that resides in it are the Aralim ( the Thrones ) and the planet associated with it is Saturn.
The aspect or attribute of being associated with the feminine, is why Binah is often associated with various occult things that reflect the females. It is related to the Yoni, and to the womb. It is related to the priestess card in the occult tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
(according to Arthur Edward Waite
Arthur Edward Waite
Arthur Edward Waite was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A...
's "Pictorial Key to the Tarot") and Liber 777 associating it with Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
, Cybele
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
, Demeter
Demeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
, Rhea
Rhea (mythology)
Rhea was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in Greek mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods". In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess, and was later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian...
, Woman
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
, The Virgin Mary, Juno
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
, Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
, Yoni
Yoni
Yoni is the Sanskrit word for the vagina. Its counterpart is the lingam as interpreted by some, the phallus.It is also the divine passage, womb or sacred temple...
, The Three Threes of the Tarot, etc. etc. etc.
Occultists have tried to compare the sephirah with the Chakras of Indian mysticism, and one such comparison is in comparing both Binah and Chokmah with the Ajna
Ajna
Ajna is the sixth primary chakra according to Hindu tradition.-Location:The Ajna chakra is positioned in the brain, directly behind the eyebrow centre, while its ksehtram or superficial activation site is at the eyebrow region, in the position of the 'third eye'.-Appearance:Ajna is white in...
chakra, which is where both Shiva and Shakti are united.
For its negative
Negative
- Science and mathematics :* Negative number* Negative mass* Negative energy * Electrical polarity* Negative result * Negative lenses, uses to describe diverging optics, see lens - Photography :...
opposite on the Tree of Death
Qlippoth
Qlippoth may refer to:* Qliphoth, the representations of evil forces in the mystical teachings of Judaism, such as in the Kabbalah* One of the character types in Dead Inside* Primordial demons of the abyss in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game...
, it has Sathariel
Sathariel
Sathariel is one of the Qliphoth, corresponding to the Sephirot Binah on the kabbalistic tree of life. It represents the Concealment of God, which hides the face of Mercy...
.
In the correlation of Binah with Shakti and Chokmah with Shiva, Shakti is the animating life force whereas Shiva is dead, a corpse, without her energy.
Appearances in Popular Culture and Literature
In NamcoNamco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
's game Tales of the Abyss
Tales of the Abyss
is a console role-playing game developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco in Japan and Namco Bandai Games in North America. Tales of the Abyss's characteristic genre name is The Meaning Of Birth RPG . It is the eighth mothership title in the Tales series, and was released for the...
, there is a town called St. Binah with a big tree in its centre. Legend says that this tree grew up when every plant in the town was dead, returning them to life. In addition, several names inside the Sephiroth are used in the game. Hod, Chesedonia, Daath, Grand Chokmah, Keterburg, and Malkuth are locations that the player can travel to, while the Sephiroth itself becomes a key part to the game's tale.
Binah is the name of a monster in Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...
.
In Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry
Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel Under the Volcano, which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.-Biography:...
's Under the Volcano
Under the Volcano
Under the Volcano is a 1947 semi-autobiographical novel by English writer Malcolm Lowry . The novel tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac , on the Day of the Dead.Surrounded by the helpless presences of his ex-wife, his...
, the main character Geoffrey Firmin, often referred to as the Consul, asks in a letter never sent to his estranged wife Yvonne whether she finds him "between Mercy and Understanding, between Chesed
Chesed
The Hebrew noun khesed or chesed is the Hebrew word for "kindness." It is also commonly translated as "loving-kindness," or "love." Love is a central Jewish value, and leads to many particular commandments. Chesed is central to Jewish ethics and Jewish theology...
and Binah
Binah
Binah may refer to:* Binah, Togo, a prefecture of Togo* Binah , the second intellectual Sephirah on the tree of life in the Kabbalah of Judaism* Binah , a Jewish women's weekly magazine published in the United States...
."
Jewish
- Bahir, translated by Aryeh KaplanAryeh KaplanAryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan was a noted American Orthodox rabbi and author known for his "intimate knowledge of both physics and kabbalah." He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer, from studies of the Torah, Talmud and mysticism to introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and...
(1995). Aronson. (ISBN 1-56821-383-2) - Lessons in Tanya
- Kabbalah 101: Binah
Non-Jewish
- 777, Aleister CrowleyAleister CrowleyAleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
(1955). Red Wheel/Weiser. (ISBN 0-87728-670-1) - The Mystical Kabbalah, Dion FortuneDion FortuneViolet Mary Firth Evans , better known as Dion Fortune, was a British occultist and author. Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna" , originally the ancient motto of the Barons & Earls Digby.-Early life:She was born in Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, and grew up in a...
(1935). Weiser Books. (ISBN 1-57863-150-5)
External links
- Basics in Kabbalah, The Ten Sefirot: Binah (inner.org)