Kabbalah

Binah — Understanding, the Womb That Shapes

The third sefirah, the capacity to take a raw flash of insight and work it into a fully formed, articulated understanding.

Binah means 'understanding,' and kabbalists picture it as a womb — the place where Chokhmah's undifferentiated point is 'shaped' into something with distinguishable parts, much as an embryo develops from a single cell into organs and limbs. It is called the 'supernal mother' because the seven lower sefirot, from Chesed through Malkhut, are traditionally described as being 'born' from the union of Chokhmah and Binah. Binah is also linked to analysis and consequence-tracing — not the spark of an idea but the discipline of following it out to see what it implies. Because it can also represent severity's origin in various texts, it occupies a more ambivalent position than a simple 'nurturing mother' image suggests.

Tree of Life