Levels of Metaphor

Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh

This is the 4th segment of issue 3 of our weekly video blog.
Torah and science: Levels of Metaphor.
Is it possible to experience today some of the future grasp we will have of God? Indeed, in a seminal paragraph in the Chassidic work known as Ayin Beis (written by the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe), he explains, quite surprisingly, that achieving such an experience depends on our ability to properly understand how God is revealed in our mundane, physical experience.
To reveal God in the mundane requires us to ascend through 4 levels of consciousness. At first correctly understanding the nature of the mundane phenomenon at hand (scientific understanding). Second, understanding what spiritual phenomenon the mundane phenomenon reflects. Then explaining the spiritual phenomenon in Torah-psychological terms, turning the physical phenomenon and its psychological metaphor into a single entity. Finally, the Divine force is revealed through this unification of the mundane and the Torah-psychological explanation.

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