Shamati, Article 86: There is a great rule we must know. Our work, which was given to us so as to be a basis for faith above reason, is not because we are unworthy of a high degree. Hence, this was given to us so as to take it all in a vessel of faith.

We exist in the world that we perceive through our senses and evaluate in our brain (“heart and brain”). This type of perception is called “reason.” “Reason” means that we recognize and feel something that “enters” our senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch) and constitutes “our world.” We perceive the whole through our five sensors.

Anything we feel is called “within our reason” (Be Toch Da’at) and corresponds to our sensations and observations. The spiritual world is something “above reason” since we are unable to sense it and thus cannot perceive it (neither in the heart and brain nor in our organs of perception). In order to start perceiving spirituality, we have to obtain new properties (desires) that correspond to its level: a “spiritual heart” and “spiritual brain.”

According to the type of perception, reality is split into two parts: the inner sphere (“I”) and the outer sphere (the world outside of me). Driven by the desire to receive pleasure, we perceive inner and outer influences selectively. This selective perception builds a picture that is called “my world.”

The division of reality into two parts stems from the separation of the soul into two parts: Keter, Hochma (GE) and Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut (AHP). Before the separation occurred, all of them constituted five desires of the soul, five Sefirot. As a result of the separation, our perception of the world was divided into two parts: GE (Galgalta Eynaim – skull, eyes) formed our inner desires through which we sense our world and ourselves, whereas we feel AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh – ears, nose, mouth) as something “outside of us.”

Things are arranged this way on purpose. It is in order to give us a chance to work in GE “within reason.” However if we choose to work with AHP, treating it as our own desires, we reach the state called “above reason.” Our “reason” is something that exists within us, whereas “above reason” means something outside of us.

If we want to attain spirituality, we have to connect the AHP desires to us; when we do so, it is called “work above reason.”  In fact, these terms are simply the words that we use to describe our attitude towards our desires, inner or outer.

From the lesson on 4/1/10, Shamati 86

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