{"id":47686,"date":"2019-01-17T16:33:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T14:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47686"},"modified":"2022-08-11T16:50:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T13:50:47","slug":"laws-that-bypass-the-prefrontal-cortex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/laws-that-bypass-the-prefrontal-cortex\/","title":{"rendered":"Laws That Bypass The Prefrontal Cortex"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[655,354,752],"acf":{"old_id":"47686","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"136","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Just as a statute is carved into stone, so a behavioral habit is carved into our unconscious mind and alters our instinctual responses","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is less reason than emotion that lies behind our choices, and it takes emotional intelligence to make good choices. The problem is that much of our emotional life lies beneath the surface of the conscious mind.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is the logic of the \u201cchukim,\u201d the \u201cstatutes\u201d of Judaism, the laws that seem to make no sense in terms of rationality. These are laws like the prohibition of sowing mixed seeds together (kelayim); of wearing cloth of mixed wool and linen (shaatnez); and of eating milk and meat together. The law of the Red Heifer with which our parsha begins, is described as the chok par excellence: \u201cThis is the statute of the Torah\u201d (Num. 19:2).<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There have been many interpretations of the chukim throughout the ages. But in the light of recent neuroscience we can suggest that they are laws designed to bypass the prefrontal cortex, the rational brain, and create instinctive patterns of behaviour to counteract some of the darker emotional drives at work in the human mind\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prohibitions against sowing mixed seeds, mixing meat and milk or wool and linen, and so on, create an instinctual respect for the integrity of nature. They establish boundaries. They set limits. They inculcate the feeling that we may not do to our animal and plant environment everything we wish. Some things are forbidden \u2013 like the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. The whole Eden story, set at the dawn of human history, is a parable whose message we can understand today better than any previous generation: Without a sense of limits, we will destroy our ecology and discover that we have lost paradise\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hebrew term \u201cchok\u201d comes from the verb meaning, \u201cto engrave\u201d. Just as a statute is carved into stone, so a behavioural habit is carved in depth into our unconscious mind and alters our instinctual responses. The result is a personality trained to see death and holiness as two utterly opposed states \u2013 just as meat (death) and milk (life) are.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chukim are Judaism\u2019s way of training us in emotional intelligence, above all a conditioning in associating holiness with life, and defilement with death. It is fascinating to see how this has been vindicated by modern neuroscience. Rationality, vitally important in its own right, is only half the story of why we are as we are. We will need to shape and control the other half if we are successfully to conquer the instinct to aggression, violence and death that lurks not far beneath the surface of the conscious mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From:<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Descartes\u2019 Error (Covenant &amp; Conversation, Chukat 5777)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image:Polygon data are from BodyParts3D[1], CC BY-SA 2.1 jp, 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