Psalm 119 verse 73 reads, "Yadecha asuni vaychonenuni - Your Hands made me and prepared me - havineni v'elm'da mitzvosecha - make me understand so that I may learn your commandments."
- Based on Artscroll Psalms
The Midrash Shocher Tov says that understanding is like spreading pitch in a wine vat. If a person tries to learn but does not possess binah, understanding, the learning will evaporate and seep out like wine in a vat without a pitch liner.
Rabbi Vidal Tzorfati points out a fascinating insight alluded to in this verse. The extent of man's G-d given potential is alluded to by the way in which man was created. G-d created Adam directly, and used the earth of Mount Moriah. The Temple is built on Moriah, and so too a spiritual place fit for G-d's Holy Presence can and should dwell in man.
The words asuni and vaychonenuni in this verse seem redundant. If G-d made me, He prepared me, and if G-d prepared me, He made me. The reference, according to the commentaries (Radak, Alshich, HaYitzhari, and Malbim) is to the positive commandments (asuni) and the negative commandments (vaychonenuni). These commandments, according to the sages, have corresponding physical endowment's in the body of man. The limbs and organs correspond to the positive commandments, and the sinews correspond to the negative commandments. G-d created man in such a way that the body could be in harmony with the soul. The completion is the addition of 'havineni' - understanding. According to the Talmud, (Yoma 28b) Abraham observed carefully the functioning of his limbs and fibers and was able to discover which function each one was uniquely made for. As a reward for his diligent efforts to understand how to serve his Creator, G-d then uncovered the essence of all the commandments to Abraham, hundreds of years before the Torah was given at Mount Sinai.