Cognizance

1. Sometimes G-d brings things upon a person, so that through them the person will understand His mercy and G-dliness.

2. Someone whose mind is confused should frequently say the prayer of the Prophet Chabakuk.

3. Also, learning “Sifsay Cohen” (lit. Cohen's lips, this is the name of a super-commentary on the Shulchan Aruch – Code of Jew Law) is a segulah for this (for a confused mind), and also eating wheat.

4. People's food conceive character in a person according to their (the food's) character.

5. The taste of wheat brings cognizance (da'as) to man.

6. Wine and fragrance tune up one's cognizance.

7. Dissension causes the mind to be unsettled.

8. A person suffers more from what he sees with his eyes than the pain that he feels from information.

9. One who engages in the study of Torah and doing of kindness merits understanding.

10. Through eating bread in the morning (pas shacharis), one becomes wise.

11. The Holy One, Blessed be He, emanates temporary prophecy to a prophet sent on a mission, even if he is not a sage.

12. The sages can grasp with wisdom many concepts that natural intelligence cannot conceive.

13. One who wants to become wise should turn south (when praying - Rash”i).

14. When a person wants to know what to do in a given situation, he should open up a (holy) book, and he will understand what to do.

15. Olive oil tunes up the (cognizance of the) heart.

16. One who goes in simplicity becomes intelligent.

17. One who has faith, merits afterward to serve G-d with great cognizance.

18. Through awe, one merits to cognizance.

19. Through being acquainted with righteous people, one merits to understanding and cognizance.

20. One who conducts himself with modesty has mental clarity.

21. What is seen with the eye, that thing is easier to understand .

22. One who guards himself from food cooked by a non-Jew and wine poured by a non-Jew, merits wisdom, and understands every book he studies.

23. One who is arrogant does not merit to understand G-d's dominion over everything.

24. When you don't do kindness, through this you don't have cognizance.

25. If you do any damage, you should know that you violated your cognizance.

26. When a certain understanding is revealed to a person, it is certain that he will soon be raised some height.

27. When one repents with all his heart, G-d grants his heart to know His desire and will.

28. One who has not rectified his sins, cannot have a relationship with G-d (know G-d).

29. Through truth, you merit to know the ways of G-d.

30. Also through hosting guests.

31. When you do kindness of truth (truthful kindness) to the righteous, you merit to know that all the ways -- of prayer, of eating, and of all the other pleasures - are all the Way of G-d.

32. Through joyous singing, one will be a cognizant person.

33. One who is repaid with evil for the good he did, the Holy One, Blessed is He, has mercy on him and grants him great intelligence in the service of the Creator.

34. According to the measure a man increases doing good deeds, so the Holy One, blessed is He, deepens his intelligence, that is, he gives him a great mind.

1. Know, that every world and every creation has its own unique structure and unique construction. For example, the lion's profile is different than that of the sheep; in its strength, and in the structure of its limbs, (and its voice). Also, within the species of the lion itself, there is a distinction between each one. Further, in all the created beings, their differences are all encoded in the image of the letters and their permutations. One who merits understanding the Torah, can understand the code of all the differences between the creations, and will also know their unification, that is, their origins and purposes (beginnings and endings). For in origin and purpose (beginning and end), they are united without differentiation.

2. Know, that according to greatness of one's knowledge of the Torah and of the natural world, so the world is placed and committed in his charge. Thus, the lions were subdued under Daniel, for Daniel was a great sage, and no secret was concealed from him (Daniel 4:6), and he knew the nature of the lion. Nature acts according to the wisdom of the Torah, and it is under the power of that wisdom.

3. Through the comprehension a person reaches, that the Holy One, Blessed is He, is One, and that there is no other beside Him, through this he forces the angels of heaven to form into a golem and embark to do his bidding.

4. When thoughts of idol worship come to a person, and he nullifies them by thinking of his faith in [G-d], then his thoughts become an aspect of dew of blessing. Also, through this, his mind has fortitude and does not ever become confused; even when the mind becomes tired from pondering some deep concept, then the Holy One, Blessed be He, arranges for him thoughts which relax his mind.

5. Through the merit of those who sustain the poor, the masses are saved from plagues. Also in their merit, expanded consciousness precedes constricted consciousness.

6. Even in wantonness and foolishness there is wisdom.

7. The voice that emanates from a holy intelligent person is a segulah (conducive) to awe.

8. Through confusion of the mind, one's sense of awe is damaged. Also through confusion of the mind, one's dominion falters.

9. The sages of the generation are the wings of the generation. According to their wisdom, so are the generation’s closeness to G-d and its spiritual attainment—or the opposite, namely becoming distanced, G-d forbid, from G-d, blessed be He. In the future, it will not be necessary to attain His G-dliness through wisdoms, for the verse will be fulfilled in us: “Your Teacher will no longer be concealed,” etc. (Isaiah 30:20).

10. One who wants to have deep comprehension and contemplate some issue, needs to attach his intellect to the Holy Temple. A sign for this can be learned from the verses, "I raise my cognizance to the the distance” (Iyov 36:3), and "and he saw the place (meaning the site of the Temple) in the distance.” (Bereshit 22:4)

11. Through faith, the mind is settled.

12. Through converts, cognizance is increased in the world.

13. Even the prophets only know what the Holy One, Blessed is He, reveals to them.

14. One who is a man of great physical might does not have much cognizance.

15. Large steps confuse the mind from in-depth study.

16. Through stealing, one loses cognizance.

17. When the coarseness of one comes into the thoughts of his friend, and the coarseness of the friend come into his thoughts, from this is created the ceiling of the world.