Chavanah
I was commenting on a friends blog and this was so nice I figured I'd share it. The original post was something about learning, and understanding, and there was some development in terms of the comments on the post. This was my bit:
In Hebrew we call this Chavanah, intent, purpose, understanding.
Rabbi Eleazar spoke of a child at his Bar Mitzvah who reads the Torah scroll as a confirment of his commitment to Torah. The boy (ahem, technicaly man) reads, not truly understanding what he is reading, not really caring. He just needs to get through this part so he can ge tto the party. The youth reads without chavanah.
Rabbi Yehoshua speaks of a poor man, ill educated in Ivrit (Hebrew) who prays, understanding that the sages say it is better to pray in Hebrew, reciting the Hebrew alphabet, trusting that The holy one (blessed be He) will arrange the letters. Here we see more chavanah than at the Bar Mitzvah, we see intent, we see purpose, but no understanding.
Yet what is the true chavvanah? It is like the man who stands before the Holy One in Judgement for his life of sin. The Holy One asks "Why did you steal food from your neighbor?" The man answered "I stole food for facing starvation I remembered the sages state that all sins may be forgiven to preserve life but idolatry and adultery". The Holy One then proceeded to ask, "why did you therefore commit Adultery?" The man asnwered, "I commited adultery for even your Messiah prayed, 'I pray that they be one, even as you and I are one', and did not your Torah claim that when Adam was joined to Eve that they became one flesh?" The Holy One shook his head and declared, "If only my sages would study my words with the Chavanah of this sinner who seeks to escape his own judgement."
Learning, memorizing, these are only the beginning steps of one's path to Chavanah. Yet the masses have only recently learned the importance of this beginning. Niot until we as a people thirst for insight, for understanding, will we achieve it.
How'd you like the parable... sounds like it would be in Talmud doesn't it? Yep... I'm that good.