The Hebrew-Wisdom Dictionary

10. “Basar” (Part Four, final) – “From my BODY, I shall vision God”

We reach the crux of understanding basar as the Hebrew word for the “body.” The following bullets augment what we already established. You will not believe that these verses are commonly translated with the word “flesh” (the New American Standard Bible is a notable exception):/

1.       Basar is an inclusive term for the “body,” which relates to man’s entire soft-tissue husk (including the eyes, internal organs, etc). This was demonstrated in the first post. Thus, instead of “flesh,” one washes the BODY —"He shall bathe his body with water” (Leviticus 16:24)—just like one clothes it: “Linen breeches shall he wear over his body” (Leviticus 6:3); “He… wore sackcloth over his body (1-Kings 21:27). More examples:

• “And the ill-looking and lean-bodied cows did eat up the seven well-looking and stout cows” (Genesis 41:2-4. Many verses talk of fat bodies, rather than fat "flesh")
• “And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and stretched himself upon the child; and the body of the child waxed warm” (2-Kings 4:34)
• “Is my strength the strength of stones, Or is my body of iron?” (Job 6:12, bronze was the iron of the day...).

2.       Fittingly, basar is used as one side of a Mind & Body Dichotomy, as well as Soul & Body Dichotomies: “You brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in mind and uncircumcised in body” (Ezekiel 44:7); “Therefore my mind is glad, and my glory rejoices, my body also dwells in safety” (Psalms 16:9); “My nefesh thirsts for You, my body yearns for You” (Psalms 63:2, cf. Isaiah 10:18); “Their horses are body and not spirit” (Isaiah 31:3).

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3.       Things like hair, skin, bodily secretions, and even bloodstream and breath, are talked of as being “of” the basar—they belong to the BODY: Therefore it is the BODY, not the "flesh," that is shaved—"Let them use a razor over their whole body and wash their clothes” (Numbers 8:7)—or mutilated: “You shall not make any scrape-for-the-dead in your body, nor inscribe any tattoo upon you” (Leviticus 19:28); “My covenant (brit) be in your body” (Genesis 17:14).

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4.       Bodily ORGANS are all basar. As we saw, in case of angels that includes wings, which are part of the angel’s fleshless body. Another example: Just like in Ezekiel 23:20, about endowed donkeys, note how the following verse names the penis as the bodily-organ that must be circumcised, and not the skin that needs removal: “And you shall circumcise the body of your foreskin” (Genesis 17:11). Similarly, “Make for them linen breeches to cover the body of the sex; they shall reach from the loins even to the thighs” (Exodus 28:42).

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5.       Basar is one part of a consistent biblical conceptualization of the physique, with two primary elements: A skeletal bone-frame (etzem), clothed with the entity of a soft-tissue husk (basar). A whole post was dedicated to this point.

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6.       Everything organic and/or genetic about us relates strictly to basar. It is the living BODY that makes one an organism. This is why two parents become one body. “Basar eyes,” for instance, means “organic eyes” (as opposed to inorganic “stone” ones). Defining the organism, basar can also stand for the entity of a human being: “For who is any-body who has heard the voice of the living God…” (Deuteronomy 5:22).

Case Study: When God says: “I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy every-basar with a breath of life” (Genesis 6:17) the verse means “every breathing organism.” Other organisms didn't mind the water... In this story, basar truly delineates a type of body (or organism): “And of every animal, of every basar, two of all shall you bring into the ark, to keep them alive” (6:19). Translations insert “every sort”—but “sort” is not in the text. Indeed, “every basar” is a way of saying every existing body-form, or in other words—every species; the Green-Wing-Macaw have one body that defines them, giraffes have another. Since genders are versions of each such body (the Mr. and Mrs. versions of the giraffe bodytype) , the verse qualifies “they shall be male and female.” Or to summarize: “Those that entered, male and female of every species, entered as God commanded” (7:16).

7.       Indeed, Some 30 times in the Hebrew Bible, the compound term kol-basr is used to mean “every-body,” or, simply, everybody: “The glory of the LORD will be revealed, and everybody will see it together” (Isaiah 40:5).

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8.       Biological relatives are called basar-relatives, because it is the BODY that germinates progeny: “None of you shall approach any body-relative of his, to discover the sex” (Leviticus 18:6. How dare the NASB translate basar, here, as “blood”…); “Divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house… And do not evade one of your own body” (Isaiah 58:7); “Bring out with you every living thing of every-species (basar) that is with you, birds and animals… that they may breed abundantly” (Genesis 8:17).

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9.       When basar is food, the antiquated idea is eating body-parts, like for us “eating ribs.” Thus: "Be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life-force, and you shall not eat the life-force with the body” (Deuteronomy 12:23).

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10.  Like us, the ancients also craved youthful bodies: “His body returned like the body of a small youth” (2-Kings 5:14); “His body of youth shall be restored; he shall return to the days of his bloom;” (Job 33:25): “He put his hand into his bosom again… and it returned like his body” (Exodus 4:7; in all of these cases the body was first inflicted with blemishing disease).

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Why do I care so much? Why is it worth rewriting so many translations? Because reading basar as “flesh” turns organs into stuff, and the biological organism into meat. It thus degrades the deep insight of biblical wisdom regarding the nature of man, at the same time that it skews the meaning of numerous verses. In addition, "flesh" has a derogatory feel which "body" does not. For the Hebrew Bible, the physical self is as much a tool for blessing as it is of sin. Like the title from Job 19:26 implies—even our highest appreciation of the divine is made possible by the bodily apparatus of our cognition; prophecy itself uses the grey cells of our physical brain.

May you rejoice in your body,

Ethan

9. “Basar” (Part Three) – Yum, this body tastes amazing!

Scholars love to claim that the Hebrew Bible had no clear notion of “the body.” This claim, however, fails to see how in English too the word “body” might pickup different meanings. Sometimes “body” means the entire physique, but other times we use the word to exclude the head and limbs. Likewise we can find a “body” in the street and still tell the police that there was “nobody” there at the time… Nonetheless, despite a body of evidence, we are quite sure that WE have a perfectly clear notion about what a body is. There is no reason in the world to allow for less in the Ancient Israelite mind. Moreover, these same researchers have failed to identify the fundamental biblical concept of the physique as a combination of the skeletal bone-frame and the soft tissue body, etzem and basar. This notion—which we learned in the previous post—is perfectly consistent across the entire canon.

The trickiest cases, for my reading of basar, concern verses where it is food. We have no notion of eating the “bodies” of animals, only their “meat” (or “flesh”). The many verses about basar as foodstuff have, therefore, skewed our reading of the term and prevented us from reading it as “body,” across the board. In truth, however, our modern notion about hamburgers not being bodystuff is arbitrary. Read, for instance, STEP FOUR from a New York Times article (July 1986) about how to cook squid:

“Rinse the body and tentacles well. You can now cook the body and tentacles as they are or, if preferred, slice the body into rings for deep-frying or sautéing.”

Well, if you can cook the body of a squid then you can cook the body of a cow... It is only convention that makes the idea seem weird. In fact, even in some verses that concern basar as foodstuff, translating the word as “body,” rather that the accepted “flesh,” makes perfect sense. Just remember how the ancients cooked and ate their meat, without the benefit of processed packaging. The following verse should easily illustrate the point:

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Allow me to reiterate. In many verses using “meat” for basar would be more than acceptable (try it, for instance, in the pig verse above). Rarely, it’s even unavoidable. What I care about are the non foodstuff verses—which we will return to, with vigor, next week. In order to redeem them, however, from the clutches of “flesh” we must see how, for the ancients, “meat” was a superfluous notion: eating flesh was no different than eating bodies, or body parts, or bodystuff… they would hardly understand the modern distinction. Indeed, ask yourself the following: Are we ourselves perfectly at ease calling a serving of broiled cow-brain, or goose liver, or bone marrow, or tong, or ox testicles, or frog legs, “flesh”? With these, doesn’t it feel much more like eating body-parts? Even regarding muscle-tissue, we speak of “eating ribs” (a body part) and not rib-meat. Well, in antiquity “shoulder roast” felt quite the same.

It helps to understand also that the biblical word for eating is of a mauling plus devouring nature: A sword can “eat” a body, as does leprosy—just like fire “eats” wood. It is in the same sense that eating devours the body of an animal. The following basar verse refers to the Israelites devouring quail, but the picture is the same:

 

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So here are a few more verses, within the context of feeding, which, in addition to “flesh,” can also be read quite beautifully with “body” standing for basar:

·         “Within three more days Pharaoh… will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your body off you” (Genesis 40:19)

·         “[the Passover lamb] is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to take any of the body outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone in it” (Exodus 12:46)

·         “you shall not eat any prey body in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs” (Exodus 22:30)

·         “And their body shall be yours, as the wave-breast and as the right thigh…” (Numbers 18:18)

·         “And on the tables was the body of the offering” (Ezekiel 40:43)

So next time you pickup hamburgers from the supermarket—think dead bodystuff... J If nothing else, you might feel an esthetic dissonance in slapping on it a slice of cheese, made from a mother’s fountain of life.

Bon-appétit,

Ethan

8. “Basar” (Part Two) – The whole soft-tissue husk, upon a skeletal bone-frame

Look at the cover of the most popular book about the human body, on the left:

Like so many anatomy posters, in classrooms and doctor’s offices, it has two main illustrations: The bone skeleton, on one side, and the soft-tissue body that encases it, on the other. Combined, they represent the entire physique.This dual-configuration is precisely what the ancient Israelites saw. In the Hebrew Bible, the physical aspect of man is always comprised of these two complimentary parts: skeleton and body, etzem and basar:

“You have (right) dressed me with skin and body, and (left) netted me with bones and sinews” (Job 10:11)

While the etzem gives us structure and standing, the basar included all of the functioning ORGANS, viscera as well as muscle (see above right). While the etzem endures after death, the basar rots away. While the etzem defines our growth, from the short stature of a baby to the full height of a grown woman (and then the recline and shrinkage of old age), the basar suggests our physical health and fattiness…

For this reason, biblical speakers convey the idea of biological relations by combining the two parts of the biological entity. We saw a first example with the declaration of Adam about Eve. Other examples include: “Surely you are my skeleton and my body” (Genesis 29:14); "You are my brethren, my skeleton and my body” (2-Samuel 19:13); “I am your skeleton and your body” (Judges 9:2. Cf. 2-Samuel 5:1 and 19:14, 1-Chronicles 11:1, Job 2:5). Indeed, there are no such things as “blood relatives” in the Hebrew Bible, because your blood-flow (much like breath) is considered to be totally personal; an independent, animating life-force. Instead, the bible talks of “basar relatives” (Genesis 37:27; Leviticus 18:6, Leviticus 25:49, Isaiah 58:7). For the Hebrew Bible, everything that is biological about us, everything genetic or organic, is a facet of our basar, our BODY. Additional examples of the twofold physique include: “There is no soundness in my body because of Your indignation; There is no peace in my skeleton because of my sin” (Psalms 38:4); “My knees faltered of fasting, And my body wasted of fat” (Psalms 109:24); and more.

To complete the biblical picture of the physique, however, it must be said that the outer layer of skin is often considered separate: “And the body, and the skin, were burnt with fire” (Leviticus 9:11); “My body, and my skin, He wore out; He broke my bones” (Lamentations 3:4); “Eat the body of my people, Strip off their skin from them, Break their bones…” (Micah 3:3); and most famously in Ezekiel’s Dry Bones:

“Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them: O ye dry bones... I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will put sinews on you, and will grow a body on you, and cover you with skin…. And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them [reconnecting the skeleton], and body grew on, and skin covered them above…” (Ezekiel 37:4-8)

This 3-step process, by the way, was used also in the regeneration of Lilu, the Fifth Element... The complete biblical physique is summarized, then, in the following composite illustration. Next week we shall examine an array of fascinating basar verses (it’s about the body!) and then focus more on the true idea of etzem as the growing skeletal boneframe (why can't I just say "bone", ha?).

Ethan

   

7. "Tzela" - always "flank," never "rib"

See "Basar" Part One.

6. “Basar” (Part One) – “And they shall become ONE BODY”

I used Rodin’s "Thinker" to illustrate how a person looks while "talking in his lev." In his comment, my dear friend Dr. Adi Eyal implored us to: “Look also at the body - taut, strong, as much involved as the head. Indeed, inseparable…” This affirmative idea of the body goes against seeing the “flesh” as carnal. To appreciate how deeply the Hebrew Bible shares this positive sentiment (as it does the ideal of physical sex) we must first discover its concept of “body” itself, namely basar.

If you keep kosher you know that today basar only means “meat”—something you eat rather than work-out at the gym. Likewise, the accepted biblical translation of basar is “flesh” (as in “the sins of...”) which means little more than live meat. This translation, however, misses the primary idea of the Hebrew word. Rather than "flesh," the biblical basar stands for the entire soft-tissue husk of the body, as it stands or functions, dead or alive.

There is one verse where even the most conservative translations are forced to translate basar as “body” rather than “flesh”. The verse is Ezekiel 10:12, describing the seraphs of Heaven’s chariots:

“Their whole basar—their backs, their hands and their wings—and the wheels were full of eyes all around.”

Well, since angels can’t have flesh then basar can’t mean “flesh,” can it? It is their BODY that has a back, hands, wings and eyes. Not to be headstrong, however, I will grant that at the other extreme there may be verses where “meat” is an apt translation. For instance Exodus 16:3, where the Israelites reminisce about Egypt, “When we sat by the pots of basar…” So, now, having seen that both meanings are not only possible, but definite, we need only to determine where the other 267 verses fall. While Strong, for instance, renders two as “body” and the rest as “flesh,” the correct ratio, I believe, is quite the opposite.

To start the analysis, and in line with the above verse about angels, let us first see how the human basar also includes, by definition, much more of our physique than the term “flesh” suggests - for basar has everything that the human BODY has:

·         The BODY has hair: “The hair of my basar bristled up” (Job 4:15)

·         The BODY has skin: “The priest shall look at the mark, on the skin of the basar” (Leviticus 13:3)

·         The BODY has organs: “But the skin of the bull, and all its basar—including its head and including its legs and its entrails, and its refuse...” (Leviticus 4:11)

·         The BODY has openings: “When any man has a secretion from his basar…” (Leviticus 15:2)

·         The BODY has genitals: "She lusted after her lovers, whose basar was like that of donkeys, and whose ejaculation was like that of horses" (Ezekiel 23:20, cf 16:26)

·         The BODY has eyes: “Do you have eyes of basar...?” (Job 4:15)

·         The BODY has a circulatory system: “basar, together with its life, its blood, you shall not eat” (Genesis 9:4)

·         The BODY has a respiratory system: “I do bring the flood… to destroy all basar, wherein is the breath of life” (Genesis 6:17)

The case for basar as “body” is just beginning. In honor of my nephew who just got engaged, however, I will already reference the first appearance of basar in the bible: the creation of Eve and the edict to join in matrimony (Genesis 2:21-24). In reading the story correctly, not only is it essential to understand basar, but also tzela (צלע). Suffice to say that in the bible this common word ALWAYS means “side” or "flank," like a side of a square, or a flank (=side) of the tabernacle, the ark, or the altar. The biblical term is also used for the flank of a mountain, and for protecting one’s flank in war. Likewise the literal meaning of tzolea, limping, is “lopsided.” On the other hand, the term is never used for a bone in the chest, making the Genesis translation as “rib” utterly bogus. So here is the literal translation of the most important passage in human relations, describing the moment when men and women got their familiar gender-characterized bodies:

“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his flanks, and closed a body in its place. And the flank, which the LORD God had taken from the man, built He into a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said: 'This is now a skeleton of my skeleton, and a body of my body; she shall be called Woman. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and join unto his wife, and they shall become one body.”

What does it mean to "become one body"? To be a single organism? I will leave you with three illustrations of the idea—one biological (joining in the one-body of a child), one physical (the joining of bodies into one), one spiritual (illustrated by Chagall), and all equally true.

Mazal tov Idan and Ronit,

Ethan

P.S. More on the duo of “skeleton and body” next week. Rabbinic sources claim that the First Man was a dual-entity who was then split either between front and back (“The First Man had two faces…”; Eruvin 18) or midsection, at the “tail” genital area. Do not confuse my use of "flank" to mean the specific section between the ribs and hip, but rather "the side of anything, as of a building" (Dictionary.com), as in: “On its two flanks on its two sides” (Exodus 37:27).

5. “Lev” (Part Four, final) – When the mind loves

It’s time to wrap up the “lev” entry.

The ground we already covered should put your mind at rest (or, in biblical Hebrew, put you in a good mind) regarding three points:

• (a) the non-figurative "lev" never meant the anatomical heart;
• (b) the figurative use of lev is, first and foremost, as the seat of rational thought, awareness, intent and reflection; and
• (c) by correcting the mistranslation of lev (replacing the excitable “heart” with the perceptive “mind”) the bible’s fundamental teaching about the soul, prophecy and transformation emerges dazzlingly from the text.

Rather than a sentimental faith, of emotional passion and meek "hearts," we are confronted, then, with the original doctrine of mind enlightenment—directed towards self knowledge and the clear perception of the divine. What I wish to stress this week is how dangerous it is to leave the translation of lev as “heart” even in those verses where the mental activity described is emotional. Indeed, I want to show how vital it is to:

“Love the LORD your God with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

It is not a coincidence that the Bible spells-out this love in judicious terms: “You shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His ordinances, and His commandments, always” (Deuteronomy 11:1). Indeed, the idea of loving God references the same term as the joining of man and wife into a single organic unite: “To love the LORD your God, to follow all His ways, and to join unto Him” (Deuteronomy 11:22, 30:20, Joshua 22:5). Love, therefore, is not a fleeting emotion but an actualized connection. Between man and God, this “mind to mind” joining is a mind-boggling idea.

There is no such thing as translating a figurative concept, or figures of speech, in a literal way. Just imagine translating “I feel blue” into a language where the color has no associations of melancholy. Thus, there is zero “literal” merit to translating lev as “heart”, anywhere, anytime. Indeed, figuratively, many lev verses would best be translated as “head”! -- Drinking makes you “light-headed”, obtuseness is being “thick-headed”, thoughts go running “in your head,” artists have a “good head” for designing, an avenger is “hot headed,” and when you indulge in debauchery you “lose your head.” In the Hebrew Bible, all of these idioms use lev (see below); now wrap your lev around that!

Because there is no alternative seat of "rationality" anywhere in the Bible, no "thinking head” nor “brain,” mistranslating lev as “heart” strips its characters of their innate rationality. The main character so misread is the so-called “God of the Old Testament,” deemed innately temperamental, “being capable of anger, joy, and other emotions…” (Shaye J. D. Cohen, 1987). Through 800 mistranslations, the entire bible is skewed.

Inevitably, many translations are forced—in few verses—to translate lev as mind. By translating other verses as "heart," however, these corrections only worsens the situation. Indeed, they reinforce the misconception of a Mind vs. Heart dichotomy, within our self, that had no place in biblical thought. The exceptions lend an even sharper irrational connotation to those verses left as “heart.” We ourselves know that there are no actual mental faculties in the anatomical heart. Love, mercy, loyalty and courage are all, truly, in the mind. Before the emergence of the Christian idea of Christ, as a deity of pure emotional “love,” this is, undoubtedly, how the Israelite writers saw reality as well. We must not project our own neurosis, then, on the ancient Hebrew Canon.

I admit that translating all of the lev verses using the term "mind" (as we MUST) will lead to some odd formulations. We are socialized to expect emotions to be heartfelt rather than mindful. “Remove anger from your mind” (Ecclesiastes 11:10), "I will harden the mind of Pharaoh" (Exodus 7:3), and “The fear of your mind which you shall fear” (Deuteronomy 28:67), may sound awkward. But this stylistic price is negligible. While the danger of imposing the emotional “heart” on the text is enormous, there is no parallel risk in translating lev as the “mind”—for we often use the Cartesian idea of the all encompassing mental “mind” which is not cold-minded or rational per-se.

Apologetics aside, let us remember that such emotional lev verses are scarce. In 90% of the verses “mind” simply makes more sense. We end our account of lev, then, with a tour-de-force of a few dozen more verses—to see how beautifully they read with correct, mindful idioms. Though I am no expert in poetic English, still I hope that your mind may enjoy my humble effort:

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be [constantly] on your mind: Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you're at home or away, when you lie down or get up”; (Deuteronomy 6:6-7); The children are brazen-faced and tough-minded” (Ezekiel 2:4); “My mind is spinning, my strength left me” (לב סחרחר Psalms 38:11); “And the mind of the king of Aram was in turmoil over this thing” (לב סוער Two-Kings 6:11); “Say to the frantic-minded: 'Be strong, fear not'” (נמהרי לב Isaiah 35:4); “The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with mind-bafflement” (תמהון לבב Deuteronomy 28:28); “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"” (ויהפך לב Exodus 14:5); “Rehoboam was young and weak-minded, and could not be strong before them.” (רך לבב Two-Chronicles 13:7); “What man is there that is fearful and weak-minded? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's mind melt as his mind” (Deuteronomy 20:8); “There shall be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD shall give you there a troubled mind, forlorn eyes, and……” (לב רגז Deuteronomy 28:65); “My mind was searing in me—when I think a fire burns” (Psalms 39:3); “Lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his mind is searing, and overtake him” (Deuteronomy 19:6); “Make me of a single-mind to fear Your name” (Psalms 86:11); “I have walked before You truly and with an unqualified mind, and have done what is good in Your eyes" (Isaiah 38:3); “Man sees to the eyes, but the LORD sees to the mind” (1-Samuel 16:7); “Harlotry, liquor, and wine swipe the mind” (יקח לב –take away mindfulness—Hosea 4:11); “For You, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to Your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house'; therefore Your servant was put in mind of praying this prayer unto You” (2-Samuel 7:27); “David's mind assailed him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt” (1-Samuel 24:6); “It was on the mind of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD” (1-Kings 8:17); “You alone know the minds of all the sons of men” (1-Kings 8:39); “He sent me to mend those whose minds crippled, to proclaim liberty to the captives” (נשברי לב as in "you won't break me"--having nothing to do with "a broken heart"... Isaiah 61:1); "And the LORD gripped the mind of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12); “[Even] the mind of the rash will discern knowledge, And [even] the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly” (Isaiah 32:4); “I stated a reply, as was on my mind” (Joshua 14:7); “Out of the innocence of your mind you have done this” (Genesis 20:6); “Know in your mind that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son” (Deuteronomy 8:5); “I am asleep, but my mind is awake” (Song of Songs 5:2); “He who trusts his own mind is a fool, But he who follows wisdom will escape” (Proverbs 28:26).

With love, from deep in my core, and with thanks to Keith Haring, below, for describing my feelings so well...

Ethan

4. "Lev" (Part Three) - The PURE MIND of revelation

Like many, I finished reading the final Harry Potter in which Rowling was ambitiously philosophical. I was rather impressed with the following little exchange between Dumbledore and Snape:

• "Lord Voldemort’s soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry’s..." 
• "Souls? We were talking of minds!" 
• "In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other."

This idea of a Mind-Soul identity follows a long intellectual heritage, reaching back in time to Kant, Augustine, Aristotle, and all the way to the early Gnostics. My essay on the soul deals with this fundamentally Israelite idea; with our biblical wisdom dictionary, however, we can easily trace it to an earlier millennium, in words attributed to King David:

“May your mind live forever” (Psalms 22:27)

This verse exemplifies how crucial it is to get the Hebrew lev right. Indeed, to get a right lev. By correctly translating the term as “mind” (NOT the mistaken "heart") we open ourselves to fundamental biblical teachings about something within us that has the potential to exist forever. Its eternal standing is directly correlated with its ability to be ready, set, direct, and pure, leading it to transform, and to reach the total clarity of revelation. So here are few more things that the biblical lev knows how to do:

1. TO REFLECT: “Like the face of water to a face, so is the mind of man to man” (Proverbs 27:19). This exquisite verse may concern a “meeting of minds” between people, but more likely the function of the Mind as the inner screen upon which man’s perceptions play.                                                                                                                                              .
2. TO BE SET: “If you return to the LORD fully minded… set your minds to the LORD and serve Him alone” (1-Samuel 7:3); “And he did evil, because he did not set his mind to seek the LORD” (2-Chronicles 12:14); “Ezra had set his mind to study the law of the LORD” (Ezra 7:10); “every one that set his mind to find-out God, the LORD” (2-Chronicles 30:19). The Hebrew root n-ḵ-n is used for a mind set on an intention, a house set on pillars, an argument set in words, and for being ready and set to go: “My mind is set, O God, my mind is set; I will sing and chant” (Psalms 57:8)
3. TO BE TRANSFORMED: The ability to connect to the divine results from mind-transformation. This was the case of Saul: “When he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another mind… and the spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied”; “And there went with him a band of men, whose minds God had touched” (1-Samuel 10:9-10, 26). This transformation is what Ezekiel calls having “a new mind” (18:31; 36:26), and what the psalmist prays for: “Examine me, O LORD, and try me; purify my conscience and my mind” (Psalms 26:2).

The purpose of life is to transform your mind, through meritorious and mindful living. According to the Hebrew Bible the preliminary Mind, which one is born with, is innately ignoble: “And the LORD said in His mind: 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the nature of man's mind is bad from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). At the other extreme is the prophetic Mind of clear, unhindered perception. According to the Talmud, this is why the Hebrew word for Mind appears in the double form, levav — a coexistence of the ignoble mind and the pure. While in its original state the mind is controlled by the senses, their illusions and temptations (e.g. Mara), wisdom can transform it to the exalted state of bliss:

“Create in me a PURE MIND, O God; and renew a set spirit within me” (Psalms 51:12); “A prophet is a mind of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12).

Thus it may be said of learned and earned enlightenment: “The statutes of the LORD are direct, delighting the mind: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalms 19:8. "direct" can also be "right"); and finally:

“Light is sown for the righteous, And for those of a DIRECT MIND – bliss” (Psalms 97:11)

I pray this delight may touch your soul.

Ethan.

***

P.S. (a) Rereading the post I realize that the most important verses are all from Psalms. (b) “If one speaks or acts with Pure Mind, happiness follows one, even as one's shadow that never leaves”; Dhammapada 1:2. (c) The artwork, titled “Prophet,” is by John Gregory Burke; I liked it - despite the cross - for the "core" + Light aspects it associates with revelation, and for the mind reflected in the face.

ונביא לבב חכמה