Now, the way the influence comes from the comprehension of Binah to the heart, to arouse heartfelt emotions is through the “Thirty two pathways of Binah” (Lamed Beit Shvilin D’Binah). There are four main chambers in the brain: Chochmah, Binah, Chesed of Da’at and Gevurah of Da’at. (The reason Da’at is divided into two chambers is because it is specifically Da’at thatcauses the intellect to lean either towards kindness or severity.) These four chambers each have eight chambers within them: Chochmah, Binah, Chesed and Gevurah going up into the self, and Chochmah, Binah, Chesed and Gevurah going down toward the outside. All in all, there are thirty two main chambers in the brain. These are called the “Thirty two pathways of Binah”. These thirty two pathways are the source of the emotions of the heart. It is for this reason that the Hebrew word for heart is “Lev” (לב) which has the numerical value of 32. It must be noted that these thirty two chambers contain smaller and smaller chambers ad infinitum.
The explanation of the above is as follows. When one is given a piece of information, his brain immediately processes it and places it in one of the four main chambers. It processes by asking such questions as, “Do I need to analyze this information?” “Should I become excited and happy about it?” “Should I be angry and upset about it?” Etc. His brain registers the information and places it in one of the four main chambers. Each of these four chambers is made up of eight smaller chambers. As soon as the information is categorized in one of the four chambers, it immediately undergoes further processing and is channeled to one of the eight sub-chambers of that main chamber. This is done by asking such questions as, “Does this information relate upward, into the self or does it relate downward toward the emotions?” “Does it relate to me or does it relate to others?” Etc.
Now, in order for the emotions to come down from the comprehension and understanding of Binah and give rise to the actual heartfelt emotions of Zeir Anpin, there must be a tzimtzum (Restraint) and withdrawal of the intellect. This brings about a qualitative change of existence from the emotions of intellect (which are still intellect and not actual emotions at all) to actual revealed heartfelt emotions. Nonetheless, the heartfelt emotions are exactly patterned after the emotions of the intellect. The only difference is that they are now actual heartfelt emotions rather than intellectual leanings. Nonetheless, the heartfelt emotion is the same as the emotion of the intellect. This is to say that when the brain leans a certain way, the heart will also lean that way.
