Three great questions: What? How? Why? What's out there (or in here), how did it get there, and why was it put there?
Science is good at what. Not so good at how. But why is totally beyond it.
In Kabbalah, what is wisdom, how is understanding, and why is knowledge.
Sometimes understanding is identified with the question who? After seeing what's there then one asks who put it there, and why.
Indeed, in Kabbalah understanding has two levels or "persona," the higher asks who did it and the lower asks how did he do it.
The question how relates to process, to change, to evolution. Understanding is the mother in whose womb the embryo grows.
When we said that science is good at answering the question what, we meant the material what. It has no clue as to the inner spiritual what.
The two levels of what, material and spiritual, correspond to two levels of wisdom, "Israel the elder" and "the higher father" in Kabbalah.
In a rectified faith system the question why assumes that everything that God does is for the good of all, for He is absolute good.
So the question why, like why is there suffering in the world, asks what is the ultimate good purpose behind it that makes it worthwhile.
The dependence of knowledge on faith (as in asking why) is a great pillar of the Torah. On the Tree of Life knowledge is under faith.
Faith, 102, and knowledge, 474 = 576 = 24^2. 24 = 4! (the number of permutations of a 4 letter word). 4 = 2^2. Beautiful inter-inclusion.
Faith, the highest power of the soul, reflects itself in kingdom, the lowest. Knowledge reflects in foundation, just above kingdom.
We saw that faith, 102, and knowledge, 474 = 576 = 24^2. So do foundation, 80, and kingdom, 496.
The inner experience of foundation is "truth" in the sense of self-fulfillment. It comes with the answer to the question why?
The inner experience of kingdom is "lowliness" in the sense of no matter how far away I am from God He is always close to me. This is faith.
