Silence and Speech

Lateralization in the mind proves to be an endlessly intriguing phenomenon. The generalizations about the right and left hemisphere of the brain are both sustained and overcome in Kabbalah. One of the most commonly known of these distinctions, which has to do with the question of the location of our speech centers, is transcribed into gendered terminology. It was once thought that almost all of our language capabilities were located on the left side, while the right was responsible for visual processing which happens in silence. As neuroscience has progressed however, this picture has been somewhat revised and we now see a complex exchange of both hemispheres in the production of linguistic and visual processing.

Pre-Lurianic Kabbalah and rabbinics also appear to reinforce this generalization. To cite one example, the Talmud (Kiddushin 49b) states that “ten measures of speech descended into to the world, with nine of these being given over to women.”  The kabbalists explain this asymmetrical distribution problem in abstract terms. Sometimes the ten measures of speech are the sefirot, the channels of Divine self-expression, the dimensions of reality and the powers of the soul. A masculine mode of being acts as a transmitter while the feminine mode represents a receiver. Since the core self is essentialized as the will of the subject (the keter or crown), all of the other nine conscious sefirot or soul powers are recipients of this one transmitter. Each of the nine re/mediates the message acting as communication repeaters that simultaneously boost or decrease the signal like a series of transformers, transistors, relays and switching stations. They are ‘integrated’ circuits of self.

Therefore, nine feminine measures of speech are actually ways of measuring speech. They are nine forms of media. Without then the transmission if not carried to its intended destination. The semantic seed of the message that issues from the volition of the agent undergoes so many modifications as it courses through cognitive, emotive and behavioral weigh stations. The message runs through compression algorithms and it is unzipped and expanded upon. It even is tied to emotional artifacts that add further syntactic wrappings to it before it reaches its intended address. This is why most of the message is constructed in antechambers of before the main reception hall.

Translating this into another context, Jewish esotericism has always maintained that the relationship between the Written and Oral Torahs is one of a masculine and feminine pairing. The Written Torah is charged as the seminal insight that fertilizes the matrix of rabbinic discussion in the Oral Torah. The rabbinic womb unpacks the hitherto implicit contents of the Written Torah which had to be expressed in a highly circumscribed form. In fact, the mystics maintain that there is no higher compression ratio possible. The perfection of the Written Torah is evident in that it could not stand to lose a single letter nor gain one. The compactified meaning can only be appreciated if we consider the endless polysemia of the text.

Quantitative analysis can yield significant insights into the textuality of the Written and Oral Torahs. An expeditious comparison reveals that the Oral Torah (as it is now written and printed) fills many more pages than the Written Torah. If we consider all of the rabbinic supercommentaries that have been composed throughout the ages, then each verse has been subject to hundreds if not thousands of pages of explication. And this conversation is still ongoing. The orality never ceases even when it is written down. By in large, the overwhelming majority of the communication stems from the Oral Torah. In comparison, the Written Torah remains so terse that it is almost silent. Trying to approach it directly only gains us a ‘drop’ of signification.

Perhaps it is worth noting that nine measures of speech suggests a connection to the nine months of pregnancy. Meaning must gestate and the kernel of truth will give birth to more and more expressive offspring. Re/mediation in the nine feminine matrices proves endlessly fecund.

We should not think that this is the only arrangement of relative silence and speech. The cognitive marriage of right and left brain brings together chochmah (insight or in/sight) on the right side and binah (understanding) on the left. This pairing accords with the idea of chochmah being the father figure of the mind (mochin d’abba)–the first flash of wisdom jumping out of the unconscious mind into the arena of conscious thought–while binah acts as the corresponding mother (mochin d’imma) who integrates and expands upon that original insight by breaking it down and building it up.

Besides their right/left dynamic, another critical distinction between chochmah (insight) and binah (understanding) has to do with the nature of language. While visual thinking may be represented as kind of language in its own right (just think of film semiotics), it nonetheless works in a totally different way from its predominately left brain counterpart.   The structural definition of chochmah is an intuitive spark that we visualize in our mind’s eye but cannot enclothe those images into the ‘letters of thought’ (otiot ha’machshavah).  Chochmah both ‘touches and not touches’ our conscious mind. It hovers in a pre-linguistic zone on the threshold of consciousness.

Bioinformatics have shed light on the isomorphism that exists between language and the genesis of new life. Cognitive re/production occurs whenever the visual thinking of chochmah is copied onto the language center of binah. We must have a transcription process wherein a mimeograph of right is made in the left. Binah re/presents. It presents again what was originally in chochmah but could not be fully articulated in chochmah.  In the Talmud (Beitzah 6a) there is an example of this. The sages are arguing. One of them–Rav–does not submit an explanation for his opinion. Yet, he does not exactly yield to the view of the others. The Talmud records this bizarre exchange by simply noting that “Rav was silent.” Why did the Talmud have to inform us of his silence?

Many centuries later, the second Rebbe of the Chabad Chassidic tradition known as the Mittler Rebbe, explained this episode in his work Sha’arei Yichud. According to the Mittler Rebbe, Rav intuited the answer. He could see it in his head. But he lacked the words to express what he saw. Having caught sight of the reality at hand, he could not concede the argument for that would not be true to his vision and yet, he could not figure out how to respond. Silence is not necessarily a concession. Silence also speaks. it makes a statement. In this case, silence meant that he had drawn down from his superconscious mind the essential insight or chochmah experience but could not take it to the next level and direct it into his understanding (binah).

The structural definition of binah therefore consists of the ability to enclothe our insights within the letters of thought. I can think in images or I can think in words. Thinking in words entails having an internal conversation with myself. The left brain is more involved in linguistic processing but it’s not just about speaking with my mouth. At its root, language is conceptual language. Conception is when the left brain as the cognitive ‘mother’ is impregnated with the seed of the cognitive ‘father.’

We have now generally related the right and left hemispheres of the brain with silence and speech. At least the preponderance of speech is located on the left. At the same time, as with procreation, language requires a mother and a father–the involvement of both the left and the right. Throughout Kabbalah, Adom (Adam) as the first father can be seen as a personification of chochmah, while Chava (Eve) embodies binah. This is to say that they are a primal right/left couple. The marital problems are often right/left integration issues.

Adom (Adam) and Chava (Eva) also represent silence and speech. We learn this from two verses in Psalms. First we find the phrase (Psalms 65:2): “For You silence is praise….” The word for silence is dumiyah (דמי’ה) which is akin to Adom (Adam אדם). Compare this with (Psalms 19:3) where is states: “…and night after night expresses knowledge.” In this instance the word for expression is yichaveh (יחוה) which derives from Chavah (Eve חוה). As a result, silence can be seen to fundamentally marry speech. Expression births the content of silence into the world.

In Part Five we will explore the pain of this birth process and the nature of metaphor as it pertains to our right/left interplay.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/the-executive-system-cognitive-science-and-kabbalah-part-5/

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