Q&A: The "Internalization" of Knowledge
The "Internalization" of Knowledge
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi,
In one of your YouTube classes on faith, in the context of “accepting Him as God,” regarding accepting the yoke of the Holy One, blessed be He, as King, you speak about Rosh Hashanah as a day of accepting the Holy One, blessed be He, as God מחדש every year, after in most cases people somewhat “forget” this over the course of the year.
In response to a question from one of the participants in the class, you explain that “repentance” exists specifically among those who observe Torah and commandments, because even though they know that the Holy One, blessed be He, is King and God, the internalization of this knowledge is lacking, and therefore the task on Rosh Hashanah is to “internalize” it again.
I wanted to ask:
Even though everyone understands from within themselves and from life what internalization is, as opposed to someone who does not internalize things (like a doctor who smokes, etc.), still, apparently not everyone knows how to explain what the act of internalization actually is.
So I wanted to ask what your explanation of this “internalization” is.
Are you talking about an effect of knowledge on emotion, or some particular stage in intellectual understanding?
Are you perhaps referring to the faculty of “da'at” spoken about in Chabad teaching, an intellectual aspect that connects the intellect and the emotions, which is awakened through contemplation?
After all, we are talking about a person who knows that the Holy One, blessed be He, is “God” and can even explain it to others. And yet he still lacks “internalization.” What is it?
Answer
You explained quite well yourself what internalization is. I don’t know what you expect from me. There are quite a few things we know and nevertheless do not act in accordance with. Internalization is supposed to bring about acting in a way that is coherent with our own beliefs. It is a combination of intellectual sharpening and assimilation into emotion, and perhaps also an attempt to overcome impulses that contradict those values.
Discussion on Answer
In fact, that is what is explained in the Chabad approach.
It can certainly be interpreted that way. That is exactly my interpretation. But even according to this interpretation, the emotional result is a result and not the essence of the matter. What is in our hands is the intellectual work that generates that emotion. If, for example, there is someone with no emotional dimension, he can still do the same work; only the result will not occur in his case.
I have written more than once in the past that emotion can be an expression of intellectual work that itself has value.
My question comes against the background that in one of your classes you explained the commandments of love of God and fear of God as commandments concerning knowledge alone, and you also explained Maimonides’ famous passage in Laws of Repentance 10:3 about love of God being like the love of a woman, as referring only to intellectual knowledge, without emotion.
Therefore I understood that in your view there is no value at all to any emotion (I think you even said that).
Now, if in your view too there is some value to the effect of intellectual understanding on emotion, do you think it is possible to interpret the “commandment of fear of God” as a commandment of intellectual contemplation that brings about the internalization of knowledge and a strong inner feeling of fear of violating God’s commandments, since He is God?
Likewise, do you think it would be correct to interpret Maimonides there as encouragement (“the proper love”), or as a commandment to internalize God’s greatness by means of intellectual influence on our feeling of love (= internalization through the emotion of love)?