FEELING
The Heart of the Wise Man Knows
Feeling is swifter than intellect. In feeling, the word "God" is filled with fecundity and reality even before the smallest fraction of all the multitude of enigmas concealed with it is deciphered.
But this is not the case with intellect. Intellect requires toil. Without study and inquiry, one will find nothing.
If feeling is exchanged for intellect, if one will desire to engage one's intellect without spiritual labor, in order to enjoy the benefit of what is already prepared-as it is possible to do in feeling-one's world will swiftly grow dark. Tangled thorns will flourish in one's spiritual portion, one will constantly be entangled, and one's spiritual path will be filled with stumbling blocks.
"There is a time and judgment that the heart of the wise man knows." And that is: to enter the palace of feeling in its fullness, to take pleasure in its sweet things, and to allow the portion of the intellect to engage in its toil. Then the knowledge of God will enter one's heart in its most desirable form.
Orot Hakodesh I, p. 251
Woman's Moral Strength
All of a woman's moral strength is contained within the emotion of her natural heart. Even if she is also wise and intelligent, her prevailing power is not that of intellect but that of feeling.
And like any physical attribute, the ability of emotion is subject to change under the pressure of powerful events.
This is unlike the force of abstract intellect. Such intellect is difficult to acquire to the degree that it becomes a permanent part of one's spirit. But if a person has in fact acquired it, as a result of which a morality that stems from the essence of pure knowledge is fixed firmly in the depth of his spirit, then not even the most piercing and mighty powers can move it from its place.
And so when R. Shimon ben Yochai was hiding in his home from the Romans and their search for him grew more relentless, he told his son, "Women are light-headed. If the Romans torture your mother, she might give us away." And so they fled to a cave.
This was all in God's plan. This development was necessary so that the coming generations could be perfected in the light of a hidden, pure and supernal wisdom (the Zohar), a light that would not contain the slightest trace of physical darkness.
Thus, to attain this end, even that shadow formed when a powerful emotional nature joins with the intellect had to be removed from R. Shimon and his son.
This is why they had to totally isolate themselves from all social and family life and gain an appreciation of the weakness within the full development of emotion in and of itself. Emotion is a very good quality and the most precious acquisition of the most superior women. Nevertheless, that influence brings about a state where one's intellect is not well-grounded-but light-headed-and emotion carries the primary weight.
That must cease entirely when the overarching mind has to rise to the highest peak of its purity, where it may be an eternal light, bringing to fullness the flame of the mind in place of the torch of emotion.
And so R. Shimon and his son grew aware of the weakness that exists perforce even amongst the finest of women.
Ein Ayeh, Shabbat 33
