). The verb, “to meditate,” is represented by the word Hitboded (
).Many people are initially surprised to discover that meditation plays any role whatsoever in Biblical teachings. It is a subject not often discussed in this context, and many individuals who are otherwise knowledgeable in Biblical thought are hardly aware that numerous important classical Judaic commentators interpret certain passages as referring to meditative experiences. One important reason for this is that such practices have not been in use since the great Hasidic renaissance almost two centuries ago. Where the experience itself is not known, the meaning of words used to describe it also becomes forgotten, and the entire vocabulary is lost.
Therefore, before the concept of meditation as it occurs in Hebraic sources can adequately be discussed, a basic vocabulary must be developed. There are a few words in the Bible itself that apparently have important connotations with regard to meditative states of unconsciousness, but these expressions are not used in this context in post-Biblical literature.
There is, however, one word that is consistently used as a term for meditation, by commentators, philosophers and Kabbalists. The one word which most often denotes meditation is Hitbodedut (). The verb, “to meditate,” is represented by the word Hitboded ().
The word Hitboded is derived from the root Baded (
), meaning “to be alone.” Literally, then, Hitbodedut actually means self-isolation, and in some cases, it actually means nothing more than physical seclusion and isolation.1 In many other places, however, it is used to denote a state of consciousness involving the isolation of the self, that is, the isolation of the individual's most basic essence.
Thus, when discussed in a Kabbalistic context, the word Hitbodedut means much more than mere physical isolation. It refers to a kind of internal isolation, where the individual mentally isolates his essence from his thoughts. One of the greatest of all Kabbalists, Rabbi Chaim Vital (1543–1620), often speaks of such mental seclusion, saying that “one must seclude himself (hitboded) in his thoughts to the ultimate degree.”2 In doing so, one separates his soul from the body to such a degree that he no longer feels any relationship to his physical self. The soul is thus isolated, and as Rabbi Chaim Vital concludes, “the more one separates himself from the physical, the greater will be his perception.”
This state of mental seclusion is very important to the prophetic experience. There is considerable discussion of this, but the clearest description of this state is presented by Rabbi Levi ben Gershon (1288–1344), a major Jewish philosopher, often known as Gersonides or simply “the Ralbag.” He clearly writes that the receiving of prophetic revelation “requires the isolation (hitbodedut) of the consciousness from the imagination, or of both of these from the other perceptive mental faculties.”3
The Ralbag is speaking of the meditative state, which he describes as the isolation of the consciousness to an extent where it is no longer disturbed by the imagination. The imagination to which he refers is the normal reverie involving the stream of consciousness and visual imagery that is experienced when all the other senses are shut off. It is from this that the intellect must be isolated, until the individual enters a state of pure consciousness, disturbed by neither reverie nor visual imagery. This is a normal definition of the meditative state, and it is the end result of all successful meditation. In order to attain this, the individual must isolate both the consciousness and the imagination from the other perceptive faculties of the mind.
In order to understand this more fully, we must realize that the human brain, marvelous organ that it appears to be, is still usually very inefficient as a thinking device. Henri Berg-son has suggested that one of the main functions of the brain and nervous system may be to eliminate activity and awareness, rather than to produce it.
Aldous Huxley quotes Prof. CD. Broad's comments on this.4 He states that every person has an innate capability of remembering everything that has ever happened to him and of perceiving all events that surround him. If all this information poured into our minds at once, however, it would completely overwhelm us, so the function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us and prevent us from being overwhelmed and confused by the vast amount of information that reaches our sense organs. They shut out most of what we perceive and remember, eliminating all that would confuse us, so that only the small, special selection that is useful is allowed to remain.
If this is true of visions in the physical world, it would be even more true of the extramundane. If an ordinary person were constantly able to visualize the spiritual domain, it would be absolutely impossible for him to function on a physical plane. Although the human mind has powers of perception and concentration that we cannot even begin to imagine, our main business is to survive at all costs. To make survival possible, all of our mind's capabilities must be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain.
Some researchers are studying this effect, maintaining that this reducing-valve effect may be very similar to the jamming equipment used to block out offensive radio broadcasts. The brain constantly produces a kind of static, cutting down our perception and reducing our mental activity.
This static can actually be seen. When you close your eyes, you see all sorts of random pictures flashing through your mind. It is impossible to concentrate on any one of them for more than an instant, and each image is obscured by a host of others superimposed over it. This static can even be seen when the eyes are open, but we usually ignore these images, since they are very faint compared to our visual perception. Still, this static reduces our perception, both of the world around us and of ourselves. Even more so, it makes it impossible to perceive the spiritual domain in any manner whatsoever, at least while in a normal state of consciousness.
One of the important purposes of meditation, then, is to eliminate this and similar static. As the Ralbag explains, one does this by isolating the essence of one's consciousness from the imagination, which is the part of the mind that produces such mental static. When one accomplishes this, he can see and understand things much more clearly, and even gain a perception of the spiritual domain.