Chasidut sobre Provérbios 6:20

In the process of creating life the male’s seed is chochmah, it is a small point. The mother’s womb is the arena of binah. She develops the initial spark, actualizes all its potential, and a fully developed child emerges.³⁶³“The relationship between chochmah, ‘wisdom,’ and binah, ‘under-standing,’ can be grasped in terms of the relationship between male and female. In a human relationship, the male essentially provides the sperm and the female takes it, holds it in her womb for nine months, after which she delivers a fully developed child. In the same way, chochmah, ‘wisdom,’ is a series of facts which we can put into the womb of binah, ‘understanding,’ in order to develop an entire logical structure. The paradigm of this is mathematics. If we take ten digits from zero to nine and a few axioms, put them in the womb of binah, and let them gestate, we can obtain the whole corpus of mathematics” (Aryeh Kaplan, Innerspace pg. 58-59). The Kabbalists refer to chochmah as abba, “father,” and to binah as imma, “mother.”³⁶⁴Perhaps the idea in the Talmud that women have added binah relates to this analysis. The feminine intellect is one of comprehending details, while the masculine intellect is inclined to sweeping generalizations and flashes of intuitive inspiration. See further the Vilna Gaon’s commentary to Prov. 6:20.