READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN WEDNESDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 184. The Difference between Faith and Intellect

LESSON MATERIAL

184. The Difference between Faith and Intellect

I heard on Shevat 15, February 14, 1949, Tiberias

The difference between faith and intellect. There is an advantage to faith because it affects the body more than the intellect because it is closer to the body. Faith is considered Malchut, and the body is related to Malchut; hence, it influences it.

The intellect, however, is attributed to the first nine, and hence cannot effectively influence the body. Yet, there is an advantage to the intellect, that it is considered spiritual compared to faith, which is attributed to the body.

There is a rule in spirituality: “There is no absence in spirituality,” and “each penny is accumulated to a great amount.” But faith is considered corporeality, which is considered separation. There is no adding in corporeality, and what is gone, is gone. What happened in the past does not join the present and the future.

Hence, although faith in something affects him during the act one hundred percent more than the effect of the mind, it only works for a time. The mind, however, although it is effective by only one percent, still, that percent remains constant and existing. Hence, after one hundred times, it is added to the amount that faith could affect in a single time. When he works with faith one hundred times, he will remain in the same state. But with the mind, it will remain perpetually existing in him.

It is as we learn something with the intellect. Although we forget, the recollections remain in the brain. This means that the more one learns knowledge, accordingly is one’s evolution of the brain. With corporeal things, however, extended over time and place, a place in the east will never come to the west, or the past hour into the present hour. But in spirituality, everything can be simultaneous.