Daas (דעת) — Knowledge

Core definition

Daas is the third of the three intellectual faculties (ChaBa"D — chochmah, binah, daas), and in the Chassidic treatment of the corpus it means something sharper than "knowledge" as mere information: daas is the faculty by which what is intellectually apprehended becomes felt and implanted in the soul. "Daas does not mean apprehension — for that is binah: understanding and apprehension"; rather, "daas is the language of feeling: that what is apprehended by him shall be felt and implanted in his soul" [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 174]. Dovid's charge to Shlomo, "Know Hashem, your Elokim, and serve Him" (Divrei HaYamim I 28:9), is read accordingly: he did not tell his son what to know — daas names the felt internalization of apprehension, and from this the emotional attributes (midos) are born [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 175]. The Zoharic image recurs throughout the corpus: daas is "the key that includes six," the binding faculty that holds and animates all six emotional sefiros [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 184].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Two complementary expositions dominate the corpus. In one maamar, daas is treated as the faculty of decision and separation. The order of prayer in Shemoneh Esrei — "Grant us from You wisdom, understanding, and knowledge" — shows daas coming last, yet the main birth of the midos is specifically through daas [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 553–556]. Mere contemplation (hisbonenus) without daas produces only "vain imaginings," not true love and fear; daas is "the very endurance of the midos and their vitality" [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 183]. Without feeling the preciousness of Divinity in the contemplation, "turn from evil and do good" (Tehillim 34:15) cannot come to actual deed [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 198].

A second, extended treatment presents daas as the faculty above the lines of chesed and gevurah. The "four mochin of Ze'ir Anpin" divide daas into chesed and gevurah (the five chasadim and five gevuros included in daas), yet because daas divides itself equally into both, "daas is above the division of chesed and gevurah" in essence, including both equally [15966/maamar_012 :: §202]. This is what makes daas the faculty of hachra'ah (decision) and bechirah (choice). In chochmah and binah, each intellect has its fixed leaning — "Beis Shammai's seichel always leans to din and Beis Hillel's to chesed"; but daas "leans sometimes to merit, sometimes to guilt" precisely because it stands above both lines and "can so and can so, and decides as it wills" [15966/maamar_012 :: §202, §162]. Bechirah belongs in daas specifically: true choice requires the two ways to be equal before the chooser, with no deciding reason that would compel him — otherwise it is not bechirah — and only daas, standing above the lines, can so decide [15966/maamar_012 :: §327]. Hence the teaching of the Sages: "v'havdalah b'chonen hadaas" (separation is in "Who grants daas"), and "im ein de'ah, havdalah minayin" (if there is no daas, whence separation?) [15966/maamar_012 :: §205–208]. All separation between good and evil, and all weighing (shikul hadaas), is through daas.

Key distinctions

Daas elyon vs. daas tachton (higher and lower daas). "Daas elyon joins chochmah to binah, while daas tachton joins the mochin to the midos" [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 541]. Souls of "seed of man" have daas elyon; souls of "seed of beast" — souls rooted in the lower worlds BY"A — have only daas tachton; the kelipos, by contrast, have no brain of daas at all [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 525–528]. The beast parable: the ox "knows its owner" (Yeshayahu 1:3) only by habituation — an "acquired daas" — whereas the infant knows his father "by recognition and feeling," and even longs for him at a distance [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 480–486]. Human daas is recognition and feeling, not habituation.

Daas vs. binah. Binah is understanding and apprehension; daas is the feeling by which the apprehension takes hold and endures, "the key that includes six" that gives the midos their vitality [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 559, עב׳ 174, עב׳ 184].

Daas and steadfastness. Daas is "the force of decision, never to change" — "daas chazak" (strong daas): all strength is in daas, "resolving to be in such a manner and not another"; the flip-flopper "has no daas" [15966/maamar_012 :: §336]. Daas can decide in either direction, yet once decided it does not waver.

Related concepts

Chochmah, Binah (the other two mochin); Midos (the emotions born through daas); Bechirah (choice, located in daas); Hisbonenus (contemplation, which needs daas to bear fruit); Bitul (nullification); Kelipah (the husks, which lack the brain of daas).

Sources