“Then Hannah prayed; she said:
‘My heart exults in Adonai!
My dignity has been restored by Adonai!
I can gloat over my enemies,
because of my joy at your saving me.'”
1 Samuel 2:1
Let’s examine the first line of Hannah’s prayer for a second.
She says “My heart exults in the Lord”.
In Hebrew, the word for “heart” is LEV or לב.
Now here’s the thing.
Although LEV is often translated as “heart”, it should be rendered “mind”.
Here’s why.
In BOTH the “Old” and New Testament eras, the heart was understood to be the place where our intellect and our mind resided.
Back in those days, folks didn’t have a proper biological understanding of how a brain functioned.
They thought the heart functioned how we know the brain functions today.
And that goes for even the learned academic folks in those days.
But what about all those scholars who say the heart is the seat of emotions?
Well, it’s simple man.
Ignore them.
They’re all wrong…every one of them.
Don’t listen to them.
Okay, so if the heart was the seat of the intellect, which body part did the ancient Hebrews think human emotions came from?
Good question.
The answer is the kidneys and the liver.
That’s right.
You know how we use highly emotional expressions like…
“My heart is broken”…
Or…
“I cried my heart out”.
Well, an ancient Hebrew would’ve said…
“My liver and kidneys are broken”.
Or…
“I cried my liver and kidneys out”.
Well obviously I can’t say for sure they used expressions like that.
My point is if they did have expressions like that, that’s probably what they would’ve said.
Because they considered the liver and kidneys to be the seat of their emotions…
While considering the heart to be the seat of the rational intellect.
The function of the brain wasn’t even known in the Biblical era.
So when Hannah says “My heart exults in the Lord”, she was really saying her thoughts or her mind glorified the Lord.
It wasn’t just some emotional outburst.
Also consider this.
When the book of Proverbs says…
“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”
-Proverbs 28:26
Or…
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.”
-Proverbs 3:5
It’s not saying don’t trust your gut feelings or intuition…
It’s saying don’t hold your intellect or your capacity for rational thought over the Lord’s mind…
Because the Lord possesses infinite understanding of all things.
Alright homie, if that’s the case, then what’s the Hebrew word for the physical organ that pumps blood?
That would actually be LEV.
Here’s the basic rule of thumb.
If the context is speaking of the physical organ that pumps blood, then LEV should be translated as “heart”.
But in any other context, LEV should be translated as “mind”…
And this would hold true in any other Semitic language by the way.
Let me close with this one final thought.
Recent advances in neuroscience have discovered there are neurons in the heart that connect to the brain.
So it would appear that the mind of man exists inside BOTH the brain and heart…
In other words, the two organs function together as one…
Which makes sense to me because I always thought that one’s emotions and intellect should work in harmony instead of being at odds against each other.
This also means the ancient Hebrew understanding that the heart was where the intellect was housed is not far off from the true reality of the matter.
Over and out.
Sorry, you’re incorrect. Everything within the 22 ineffable light visual expression of the aleph-beit as represented illustrations of the attributes of The Most High — are concrete. Not allegorical. Further, the Most High through the fullest demonstration given to Moshe shows clearly that those whom were servant to The Most High, in fact did understand quite a bit more than we perceive today.
Perhaps using Strong’s and BDB is the source of your failures in understanding.
Is G-D one who lies? We know HaShem does not lie. We also know it is in our minds where temptation begins, and ends as the battleground for our souls — where the liver & kidneys perform the action of filtration of what we ingest physically before anything is sent to be used within our physiology.
Whether to continue the cleansing of our circulation (which is known as life blood bestowed by the breath of life granted as an example in our endeavors be transformed in our hearts), or to remove all foreign radicals before supplying nutrients to the rest of this container as the examples of the liver and kidneys which both supply that function — where the text references means to take our thoughts captive examining them all, and again when told to guard our hearts.
As the demonstrated action of the liver and kidneys.
To simplify: that which we choose to accept in our minds and our hearts determines our health both physically and spiritually, and our union or separation from the Most High.
Because the brain has no reason or purpose even remotely indicated through any textual reference which is a projection of Humanism when presented as such — demonstrated in this blog entry.
Makes sense! Harmony between emotions and intellect, you can’t have one without the other, and problems arise when you emphasize one over the other! God created us to use both our intellect and emotions, Jesus gave us that example as well!
In that day He will right His Torah on our hearts and minds.
Amen!