(1) Some time later, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said, “Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” (2) But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!” (3) Abram said further, “Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.” (4) The word of the LORD came to him in reply, “That one shall not be your heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir.” (5) He took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be.” (6) And because he put his trust in the LORD, He reckoned it to his merit.
(22) But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of the LORD,
(4) Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come forward to me.” And when they came forward, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. (5) Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. (6) It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. (7) God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. (8) So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.
(12) And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the LORD your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, (13) keeping the LORD’s commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good. (14) Mark, the heavens to their uttermost reaches belong to the LORD your God, the earth and all that is on it!
What are the elements of spiritual intelligence as defined by Deuteronomy 10? Do emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence overlap or do we use the same words to describe different perspectives on the nature of existence?
Is Berakhot 8a a prescription for acquiring spiritual intelligence? If so, is it exclusive or inclusive?
How does one gain spiritual intelligence?
If you desire, human being, look at the light of God’s Presence in everything.
Look at the Eden of spiritual life,
at how it blazes into each corner and crevice of life, spiritual and of this world,
right before your eyes of flesh and your eyes of soul....
Gaze at the wonders of creation, at their divine life—
not like some dim phenomenon that is placed before your eyes from afar.
But know the reality in which you live.
Know yourself and your world.
Know the thoughts of your heart, and of all who speak and think.
Find the source of life inside you, higher than you, around you.
Find the beautiful ones alive in this generation in whose midst you are immersed.
The love within you: lift it up to its mighty root, to its beauty of Eden.
Send it spreading out to the entire flood of the soul of the Life of worlds,
Whose light is reduced only by incapable human expression.
Gaze at the lights, at what they contain.
Do not let the Names, phrases and letters swallow up your soul.
They have been given over to you.
You have not been given over to them.
Rise up. Rise up, for you have the power.
You have wings of the spirit, wings of powerful eagles.
Do not deny them, or they will deny you.
Seek them, and you will find them instantly.
Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, First Chief Rabbi of Israel.
The wise gather within themselves insight by finding coherence for the beauty and form of their thoughts. Spiritual perspectives imbue our soul with fullness. The more these insights are contemplated in their lucidity, the more profoundly our level of understanding grows. The more real we become with our perception of truth the more our character becomes ennobled by this process. (R Kook, Shemona Katzavim 12:1)
There are three starting points of contemplation about God; three trails that lead to Him: The first is the way of sensing the presence of God in the world, in things, The second is the way of sensing His presence in the Bible. The third is the way of sensing His presence in sacred deeds. These three ways correspond in our tradition to the main aspects of religious existence: worship, learning, and action.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)