Knowledge in Motion

To feel alive is to be curious, to be exploring and reaching and growing. A good life, an evolved and meaningful life, is lived as a series of verbs. When we’re in motion there’s a tangible pulse in the air, we feel purposeful and confident. For something to be alive, to express its value, it must be moving. 

Learning, experiencing, acquiring knowledge and wisdom are actions which excite us. Our day is uplifted and inspired when challenged, when stimulated. The knowledge itself is no different, necessitating motion to bring about its fully realized worth. The knowledge is ingested, shifted around, absorbed. We filter it through our individual experiences and perspectives. It stays as we make it our own and it becomes a part of us. And then we share. Little by little our words seep out and we begin to affect others. 

When we enter the world to come, we do so regally with our crowns fully in place. Our “crowns,” our sages say, refer to the knowledge we amassed in this world, to the intellectual connection to G-d, one of the ways enabling us to merit life in the world to come. Rambam famously holds we serve G-d through our intellect and knowledge of Him.

As we learn G-d’s ways we begin to understand the patterns of the world. We contemplate the beautiful nuances of His words and we become wise. This awareness of G-d moves us. It brings us closer to G-d and to others.

We connect to others through our shared experiences and emotions. We connect through knowledge and intellectual discourse. The back and forth of sharing ideas expands our perspectives and strengthens our understandings, adding to our wisdom.

The pursuit of this knowledge changes us from within. We live a more refined life, one of heightened spirituality, of curiosity and depth. We live a life of motion. 

 Rambam Hilchot Teshuva 8:2