Hisbonenus (התבוננות) — Contemplation

Core definition

Hisbonenus is the disciplined, meditative contemplation of Divine matters by which love and fear of Havayah are born. Its definition is "the definition of histaklus" — gazing: the soul's extension toward an object through the brain [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 70]. Yet its essential nature, equal in all its forms, is "finding a thing" (התבוננות היא מציאת דבר) [58841/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 154] — not merely learning a concept but locating the reality of it within one's own apprehension.

How the Rebbeim develop it

The classical question: how can love of Havayah be commanded, if love is a feeling? The Maggid answered: "the command is upon the hisbonenus" — one can be commanded to contemplate [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 58]. Our Rebbe pressed further: Chazal say "a person should always learn where his heart desires," so the command is really upon simas lev — placing the heart — which is what brings the hisbonenus into actuality [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 59–60].

There are two kinds of hisbonenus. The first is the hisbonenus of hasagah — apprehension: the masig (apprehender) truly grasps the musag (the apprehended thing), its depth and inwardness. The second is the hisbonenus of the musag alone — where the grasp is only in that the concept is received in the apprehender, i.e., in examples and parables, not the concept itself and certainly not its depth [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 62–66, עב׳ 112]. True hisbonenus is the first: the joining of apprehender and apprehended.

Every hisbonenus, of either kind, necessarily contains simas lev — the placing of the heart/mind — "for simas lev is the essence of hisbonenus and brings its effect" [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 76–78]. In its root, simas lev means that the matter concerns him personally, greatly — whether the good and useful or the bad and harmful. Hisbonenus without this personal stake remains theory; with it, it produces a calibrated middah: "a middah calibrated to that hasagah — it is through simas lev within the hisbonenus" [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 71–72]. The two modes of simas lev — upon the thing itself, and upon the thing as it concerns him personally — the latter producing inner, essential longing and restlessness until attainment [31668/maamar_020 :: summary].

Hisbonenus has many different levels. There is a hisbonenus that arouses love and a hisbonenus that arouses yirah; within love and fear themselves there are many levels, and each level has its particular hisbonenus according to its matter [58841/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 113–118]. The hisbonenusim of love and fear are "graspings of opposites" — like the oppositeness of kiruv (drawing near) and richuk (distancing): love draws near, fear distances [58841/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 120–121]. Even within love: ahava rabbah b'ta'anugim (love in delights, drawn like water) and ahava d'rishpei eish (love of fiery sparks) are utterly divided — water and fire, opposites [58841/maamar_021 :: chunk summary].

Yet "the many levels in the hisbonenus is only in the hisbonenus's matters alone — not in the hisbonenus's body and essential nature: the body and essential nature of the hisbonenus — its nature is equal in all" [58841/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 151–154]. What is that nature? Hisbonenus is metzias davar — finding the thing: "every reality must have its nature, what it is." The contemplation of one level differs from another in its matter, but in its essence it is the same act: locating a reality.

The soul's relation to hisbonenus is through the brain, but the manner of the soul's revelation in it is hispashtus — extension: the soul extending toward the object of contemplation [31668/maamar_020 :: עב׳ 115]. This is why hisbonenus is the engine of avodah: it draws the soul out toward Divinity, and the middah that results — love, fear — follows the measure of the contemplation.

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Simas lev (placing the heart), Hasagah (apprehension), Ahava and Yirah (love and fear), Histaklus (gazing), Daas (knowledge), Torah study as avodah.

Sources