Kabbalah and Medicine
Three Physiological-Psychological Syndromes The three syndromes of wolf, lion, and snake correspond to the three general levels of the soul. The "wolf syndrome" corresponds to the innate or instinctive level of the soul (the three sefirot of netzach, hod, and yesod). The "lion syndrome" corresponds to the emotive level of the soul (the three sefirot of chesed, gevurah, and tiferet). The "snake syndrome" corresponds to the intellectual level of the soul (the three sefirot of chochmah, binah, and da'at). Each triplet comprises a sefirah to the right, a sefirah to the left, and one in the middle. "Right" implies attraction (love); "left" implies repulsion (fear); "middle" implies a sense or consciousness of "self" that may tend either to the right or to the left, a "self" that experiences either affinity towards an other (welcoming it with its right hand) or hostility (rejecting it with its left hand). In our case, each of the three syndromes of fear described above reflect an exaggerated tendency of the middle (the self) of each respective triplet to the left (fear). The act of rape itself relates to the sefirah of yesod (the middle sefirah of the lower, innate powers of the soul), the procreative organ in the body. The fear of rape preys, as a wolf, upon the sefirah of hod (the left sefirah of the innate powers), the defense mechanism of the body against foreign invasion. This syndrome may thereby be understood as yesod inclined towards hod. The lion syndrome, the fear of murder, relates to the middle part of the body (the torso, tiferet, the middle sefirah of the emotive triplet), the location of the heart. In particular, however, the physical heart is situated on--inclines to--the left side of the body (gevurah, the left sefirah of the emotive triplet). As stated earlier, the heart belongs to two of the physiological systems, that of the blood vessels on the left as gevurah and in the middle as the body's major muscle, tiferet. A further indication of the relation of the lion to gevurah is that in Hebrew the two words "lion" and gevurah possess the same numerical value (gevurah = aryeh, 216). Thus, the fear of the lion consuming one's heart may be understood as tiferet inclined towards gevurah. Finally, the snake syndrome, the fear of insanity, attacks the intellectual properties of the mind. The snake (and the soul's sensitivity to the snake, the soul's archenemy) corresponds to the sefirah of da'at (the middle sefirah of the intellectual triplet) as in the episode of the tree of knowledge (da'at) of good and evil, where the snake (the personification of evil da'at) tempts Eve (who personifies binah, the left sefirah of the intellectual triplet). Thus, the fear of insanity is da'at inclined towards binah, the left side. To summarize:
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The Healing of Body and Soul 
