Let's Meditate on Chamad

In a recent brief facebook encounter with Rabbi Daniel Lapin, he addressed the issue of IQ.

Rabbi: Fortunately, ancient Jewish wisdom rates Wisdom as far more important than IQ, as our IQ is fixed but our wisdom can be increased. No word for "intelligence" in Torah. Wisdom is "chochmah". Increase wisdom? Sure, see tomorrow's Thought Tool.

I then asked about skill, since some people equate skill or talent with IQ:

Me: What about the word for skill? I know artisans were called by their skill to build the Ark. And I noticed more than one hebrew word for skill. What's the difference between "biyn" or "yada"?

He then kindly addressed, not the issue of skill, but of meditation!

Rabbi: There are three terms in descending order chochmah, bina, and da'at (the etymological root of data). Bezalel is spoken of as having chochmah for building the tabernacle. There's much more I'll treat in future Thought Tools which I hope you receive. Otherwise go to www.RabbiDanielLapin.com

The Rabbi is careful not to say anything without much forethought. He had to have a purpose in his answer, and I think it's starting to gel together. Skill is not based on experience as much as it's based on wisdom and meditation.

Wikipedia isn't the best source to get ancient Jewish wisdom, but I wanted some answers and needed to start somewhere.

Wikipedia: Chochma (lit. wisdom) is the mind's ability to come up with a new insight into a concept that one did not know before. Binah (lit. understanding) is the mind's ability to take a new insight (from Chochma), analyze all of its implications and simplify the concept so it is understood well. Daat (lit.knowledge), the third stage, is the mind's ability to focus and hold its attention on the Chochma and the Binah.

Oy! My brain pretty much stops mid Binah. No wonder I hardly ever gain focus and meander from one thought to another! Perhaps this is also the key to a good memory since my Binah is so short term.

So let's see what the actual Hebrew words are:

• Chochma - חכמה


• Binah - בינה


• Daat - דעת

It will be interesting to read what Rabbi Lapin has to say about these words and how they identify the potential of man.