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Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah

Daas

דעת

Daas (knowledge)

Knowledge as felt recognition: the intellect bound into the soul until it is felt as if seen. Daas unites Chochmah with Binah and spreads into the middos as their inner life; the middos follow it.

The word דעת also has its ordinary senses: a person’s mind, opinion or intent (דעתו, שלא מדעת, “bnei de’ah” in law) and plain knowing. It means the Sefirah or faculty when the text writes בחי׳ דעת, חב״ד, מוח הדעת, דעת עליון / דעת תחתון, or speaks of Daas joining Chochmah and Binah or spreading into the middos.

Where it’s explained

  1. Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1, ¶2Daas is not mere knowing but feeling: an understanding of G‑dliness bound and fixed in the soul until it is felt as if seen; the word means connection (“and Adam knew”). It joins Chochmah with Binah, bringing Chochmah’s “sight” into Binah’s contemplation; understanding without it is only “hearing.”שהדעת היא בחי׳ הרגשה כשההשכלה נקשרת ונקבעה בנפשו כאלו מרגיש
  2. Likkutei Torah, Emor 6, ¶24When Keser is counted Daas is not, since Daas is not a Sefirah in its own right but the intermediary that unites Chochmah and Binah; likewise the Daas that spreads into the middos joins the intellect to them and is their inner life.כי הדעת אינו נחשב לספי׳ בפ״ע רק הוא בחי׳ ממוצע ליחד ולחבר חו״ב
  3. Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 5, ¶9A child’s desires are small because his Daas is small; as his Daas grows his desires change, until a strong Daas turns the middos to G‑dliness. Daas is the endurance and life of the middos, and is called truth, the thing itself, whereas Malchus is called faith.שלפי ערך הדעת כך הם המדות
  4. Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 23, ¶4Chochmah and Binah, which are above the middos, are drawn and clothed in them through Daas; this lower Daas, memalei kol almin, branches into many levels (“with Daas the rooms are filled”).כי הדעת הוא המתפשט ומתלבש במדות והיינו בחי׳ דעת תחתון
  5. Torah Ohr, Vayeira 2, ¶8The higher Daas knows all as an encompassing light without spreading into the middos to be affected, so it is the source of forgiveness; blemish, reward and punishment come through the lower Daas, which spreads into the middos and the vessels of the ten Sefiros.רק הפגם והשכר והעונש הוא נמשך ע״י הדעת המתפשט ונמשך במדות ונק׳ דעת תחתון

Stated differently

What “Daas Elyon” (the higher Daas) is

Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1, ¶2אך הנה בחי׳ דעת המחבר החכמה בבינה נק׳ דעת עליון

The Daas that joins Chochmah with Binah is called the higher Daas; the lower Daas joins the mochin to the middos and is their inner aspect.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 23, ¶4בחי׳ דעת עליון הוא מבחינת א״ס ממש ונק׳ סוכ״ע

The higher Daas is from Ein Sof itself and is sovev kol almin, “higher” than all worlds and unable to be clothed in them; the lower Daas, memalei kol almin, spreads into the middos.

Torah Ohr, Vayeira 2, ¶8ד״ע הוא בחי׳ מקיף וסוכ״ע

The higher Daas is encompassing (makif, sovev): it knows and sees all without spreading into the middos to be affected by what it knows.

Whether Daas, counted in Keser’s place, belongs to Keser’s outer or inner aspect

Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1, ¶6כי הדעת הוא חיצוניות הכתר. ולכן כשהכתר נמנה אין הדעת נמנה

Daas is the outer aspect of Keser; therefore when Keser is counted Daas is not, and drawing down Daas must begin from Keser.

Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17, ¶2ואז הדעת משלים המנין והיינו לפי שהדעת הוא בחינת פנימית

Daas completes the ten in the count by inner aspects, where the inner Keser is not counted (in the count by outer aspects Keser itself is counted), because Daas is an inner aspect, rooted in Radla, the inner Keser.

Main sources

Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1, ¶2Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Emor 6, ¶24Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 5, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 5, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 23, ¶4Torah Ohr, Vayeira 2, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17, ¶2

Where it appears

In 573 paragraphs of 227 maamarim.

Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.

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