Daas (דעת) — Connection / Knowing
Core definition
Daas — the third power of the intellect after Chochmah and Binah — is, in Chassidus, the faculty of connection: binding the mind to what it has comprehended so that it becomes felt, and binding the comprehended to the heart so that it births emotion. Its matter is "hakarah and feeling — as if seeing" [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 573–578] — not mere knowledge (Chochmah) or comprehension (Binah), but the soul's cleaving to the matter until it is felt in the self.
How the Rebbeim develop it
Binding the daas. The Tanya's classic rule: "even one who is wise and understanding in the greatness of Havayah, the Ein Sof, blessed be He — if he does not bind his daas (יקשר דעתו), he will not birth in his soul true yirah and ahavah — only false imaginings, which are intellectualizations without their truth" [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 111]. That the haskalah and hasagos be true is according to daas specifically [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 112].
The mediator. Daas's action is in both the mochin and the middos: "in the mochin, completing them that the haskalah and hasagah be in good, that from this be the middos' birth; in the middos, that they be according to the manner of the seichel obligating them" [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 113–114]. Daas is the bridge over which comprehension crosses into emotion.
Two modes. In the first mode, daas stands below Chochmah and Binah — a mediator between the mochin and the middos, drawing from the mochin to the middos (the middos according to the seichel). In the second, higher mode, daas stands between Chochmah and Binah, under the Kesser — "receiving from the Kesser and bestowing to Chochmah and Binah," and drawing the Kesser's light to the middos too, "so that the middos receive from the Kesser as Chochmah and Binah receive from the Kesser" [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 107–117]. Then mochin and middos are equal — both receiving through daas [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 117].
Hachra'ah — the decider. Within daas lies the hachra'ah (decision): daas includes chesed and gevurah equally (the five chasadim and five gevuros), and leans sometimes to chesed, sometimes to gevurah — yet this leaning is not from one line's overcoming, but from daas's own deciding power: "hachra'ah is that it is not compelled in either of the lines of chesed/gevurah; therefore in its power and ability to weigh and decide between them"; "the two lines of chesed/gevurah are weighed and equal in it, and daas, from the hachra'ah matter in it, decides toward one line" [15966/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 40–42]. Daas must be above the division to decide within it [15966/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 109].
Daas as feeling the Divine. "The daas's matter is the hakarah and feeling of how the Divine powers bring the yesh into being" [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 795]. Tefillah is the daas level — the nefesh's hiskashrus and deveikus through daas specifically [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 520, 559].
Key distinctions
- Chochmah vs. Binah vs. Daas: Chochmah = knowledge (re'iyah), Binah = comprehension (shemi'ah), Daas = hakarah and feeling — "as if seeing" — the binding [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 573–578].
- Two modes of daas: below ChaBa"D (mediating mochin → middos) vs. between Chochmah and Binah under Kesser (drawing Kesser's light to both) [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 107–117].
- Decision vs. leaning: daas's hachra'ah is free decision from above the lines, not the victory of one included line over the other [15966/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 40–42].
- True vs. false middos: without bound daas, comprehension births only "false imaginings" — middos without truth [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 111–112].
Related concepts
- Hiskashrus / Deveikus — binding and cleaving; daas's function.
- Mochin — the intellects; daas completes them and mediates them to the middos.
- Middos — born from daas; "everywhere the middos' birth is according to daas's mode specifically" [15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 110].
- Tefillah — the daas level; the heart's binding.
Sources
- 15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 573–578 — daas = hakarah and feeling, "as if seeing"
- 15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 795 — daas = the hakarah and feeling of how the Divine powers bring the yesh into being
- 15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 107–117 — two modes: daas below Chochmah/Binah (mediating to the middos); daas under the Kesser (drawing Kesser's light to mochin and middos)
- 15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 111–112 — Tanya: without binding his daas, no true yirah and ahavah — only false imaginings
- 15966/maamar_013 :: עב׳ 113–114 — daas's action in mochin (completing comprehension) and middos (making them per the seichel)
- 15966/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 40–42 — hachra'ah: not compelled in either line; the two lines weighed and equal; daas decides
- 15966/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 109 — daas above the chesed/gevurah division, including both equally