All Judaic authorities with no exception highlighted the importance of the Torah study on the development of human mind and psychology. It is a factual truth which must be experienced by everybody who study Torah regularly with sincerity. It goes in line with another observation made by Bahya Yosef Ibn Paguda and also by Rambam that the purpose of the Law is to develop human mind to discover God.
In the process of the Torah study, human mind transforms in stages. This post is the first of a kind trying to provide a glimpse on this process. Phases or stages of development are surely conventional, separated only for the purpose of understanding the process, as the process of development of human psychology itself is very gradual and subtle.
The first phase is the basic perception of the events as they are described in Torah. Depending on the level of concentration of the Torah student, more or less of the separate incidents and sayings in the Torah are getting registered with the mind. Only surface description of the events can be registered at this level.
No overall picture yet created of the historical scenario to be able to merge together the separate incidents. No emotional involvement can be reached at this stage. There is no vision yet developed to see the Divine Intelligence in the amazing chain of the completeness. Most importantly the notion of God in this phase is only theoretical, kind of “to be understood later”. Torah is not influencing the mundane life of the student in this phase.
Second phase can be differentiated by opening the vision clearer and seeing more connections between the happenings. Many of the details of Torah the student starts personally relate to his/her personal life. In this phase student starts see parts of the whole picture of the Creation and ability to predict next happening in the Scripture (partially because of the involvement of memory, but partially because of intuitive vision of the whole picture). Another amazing gift start growing in this phase – the ability to predict the future in this life.
The notion of God is still blurred in the student’s mind and not much emotional involvement can develop until the vision of the whole picture is complete. There is no perception of the psychology of the people involved in the Torah story.
Third phase is felt by a student as a milestone in his/her spiritual development . It is felt as a “break through”. All of the Divine Story is clearly pictured as a Divine scenario where all the happenings merge in one. The lesson is clear on all the levels: national and individual. A student has a clear understanding/view of the upcoming world events, events related to Israel in particular. Whence, prophetic vision is partially developed. Notice though – prophetic vision of the future of the individual, the student, not developed yet. Psychology of the personalities involved are clearly perceived as if these individuals live today. Sensitivities developed to perceive the Divine story in many other ways. The student in this phase can visualize by his internal vision, hear and even smell as if he/she is present in those times in the happenings described. Divine Intelligence became striking not only as amazing sequence of the on-going events but, mostly, because of the teaching value for the world today … as it is today … as was predicted back then. As a result of this understanding, emotions break through, joy of this perception as the Ultimate Reason and Goodness. For example, student becomes very emotional when reading about the revelation at Mount Sinai. Picture becomes much more complete than it is described in writing. The vision, the sound, the smell, the emotional status of Israelites who witness the revelation, – all charge the air incredibly. The outcome of the psychological development reaches the point in this story where the presence of God becomes imminent.
This Ultimate Reason and Goodness is very dear and personal … this is God discovered. Not theoretical any more but quite personal and real. Only now, in this phase, student comes to understand and intuitive perceive the Shma prayer: ” And you will love your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your power.”
Torah is not a story from the past any more because too many connections relate to the modern day of the world and to the personal reality of the student. Many predictions, which student predicts from the newly developed Torah-created vision, come true.
The fourth phase is the Ultimate Attachment to the Divine. Very rarely reached by humans, this phase completes the development of human mind as it was Divinely intended. In fact, as a tool, Torah is not needed any more as the student is not a student but a man or woman, who perceive the Bliss of the Ruach Hakodesh and the Divine presence as a “white paper on which all the images of the world are getting created”.
Even the clear vision of the future is not that important any more as the on-going perception of the Divine is, in fact, the purpose of this creation… The Seek-and-Find game ended … While still in human body and still in this world as we know it, this individual mind, speaking metaphorically, exited the movie theater where the movie is still running showing the life on earth as we live it daily…
How can we accelerate this process of the mind development influenced by Torah? It may sound too obvious to be of any value, yet, this is the secret revealed: the sincere desire to know. The more sincerity – the faster development.
