Harmony

This is the advantage we human beings have over the other mammals: Their brain and heart are on a single plane, but we stand erect, living in two planes at once.

We have a mind above, looking up to the stars, and from there all things begin. We have a heart below, pumping life into the mind’s vision and drawing it into the real world.

When their roles are lost, mind and heart become a marriage from hell. When they work in harmony, nothing can stand in their way.

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6 Comments

Anonymous December 25, 2017

Other mammals have brains higher than their hearts. Giraffes, for an extreme example, have their heads higher than their heart by more than the head of a human is higher than the ground.

This is the advantage other mammals have over we human beings: They don't get confused and tricked by those who make up stuff like "their brain and heart are on a single plane". Reply

Tzvi Freeman December 25, 2017

in response to Anonymous:

Dear Anonymous Person,
Another advantage we humans have is the capacity to grasp metaphor and abstraction.
The human being is capable of conceiving an idea, being inspired by that idea, and then taking it into action. We create art, literature, philosophy and science, not out of utilitarian purpose, but simply as an expression of our own inner vision.

So the plane of the mind and heart here is meant in abstractly. The mind is not enslaved to the heart, rather, it is capable of dominating it and taking the lead. Reply

farah sajid pakistan December 23, 2015

Gift Thank you Rabbi Tzvi Freeman IT's a great honor for us to learn spiritual explaining letter with beautiful talk. Marriage is a gift of Great G_D to us .Thank you for give us that learning lesson . Reply

biirdie Gold Coast, Qld Australia August 20, 2008

Comment on 'Harmony' there are tall animals (living & extinct) whose brain & heart plane are separate as human beings, eg. living animals: giraffe, apes, horse, tall birds - ostrich, heron, brolga, stork, etc., & extinct animals: many dinosaurs; to name a few that instantly spring to mind.

you may have to come up with a different analogy. Reply

Anonymous September 7, 2017

in response to biirdie:

I think Rabbi Tzvi is correct. While we can think of many animals where the heart and brain are located far from each other in the body organism,and probably for the same reason they are located far apart in the human body, (to allow time before the brain impulses sent as blood-circulated chemical messages to the extremities for action via pumping heart), the animals, as far as we know, gaze at the stars and think: Oh! That Magnificent Creator of everything - who made the planets and delicious smelling air that matches the flavor of pure clean water, how worthy He is of our praise, worship, obedience and service - How I adore Him so let me go show Him how much I appreciate Him by helping here, doing that or the other, following His commandments, studying Torah, telling others about what He has done for me. Those are thoughts of our human minds and they take place on one plane while our hearts beat on this other worldly plane where animal brains and hearts live. I think so. Reply

Anonymous e falmouth, ma via chabadcapecod.com March 21, 2006

harmony That was a great passage to read and take in Reply

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