With the Yamim Nora’im over (and my not having much to say on Sukkos prayers), let’s go back to the Amidah. In the previous two posts on the subject (1, 2), we looked at the 12+1 requests as a big picture. The next posts will be about specific berakhos.

The first thing we ask for is Da’as, and in the body of the berakhah we ask for cognitive skills using a variety of terms, which depend on your nusach.

Sepharadim and Chassidim refer to the first three sefiros — Chokhmah, Binah and Daas. Chabad Chassidus, whose name comes from the acronym of these three words, roughly defines their roles in the human soul as:

• Chokhmah: initial insight
• Binah: its further development
• Da’as: the holding of the resulting fully formed ideas.

But I noticed that Da’as is only a sefirah when Keser isn’t. When we are looking at how Hashem relates to us from a place too low to see how everything comes from Divine Compassion. (As in Tomer Devorah ch. 1, where R Moshe Cordevero identifies emulation of Keser with emulating the Thirteen Middos haRachamim.) Keser is the source of Chokhmah and Binah, Daas — their synthesis.

So I think of them as two perspectives on the same thing… Daas isn’t just abstract knowledge, like Zikaron (memory). It is knowing procedurally how to think and form the next conclusion. The result of one iteration as the source of the next. But what do I know? I’m no Mequbbal. However, when being a Chazan in a Nusach Sfard Minyam, that’s how the words usually strike me.

The Rambam has four categories of thought: Chokhmah uVinah, Dei’ah veHaskeil. Judging from his use of vav- prefixes, he sees this as two pairs: Chokhmah and Binah, Dei’ah and Haskeil. He has much to say about Da’as in the Moreh Nevuchim, being knowledge of Reality, the ultimate knowledge — that about how G-d relates to and sets examples for us, the knowledge that can shape one’s soul and thereby one’s Middos as well. As I never actually used this nusach, I must confess haven’t thought about as much as the other nusachos.

But the pairing gives us some insight into Haskeil. If, and this is a big if, the Rambam agrees with Qabbalah that Binah is a successor to Chokhmah, than Haskeil would be a successor to Da’as. And since Da’as is not just knowledge, but the knowledge that shapes who one is, Haskeil would be the transition from idea to personhood.

Nusach Ashkenaz (and Bal’adi Teimanim as well, despite their usual loyalty to the Rambam’s rulings), has Dei’ah Binah veHashkeil. To understand the triad, I rely more on a comment by the Gra on Mishlei 25:16:

דְּבַ֣שׁ מָ֭צָאתָ אֱכֹ֣ל דַּיֶּ֑ךָּ
פֶּן־תִּ֝שְׂבָּעֶ֗נּוּ וַהֲקֵאתֽוֹ׃

If you find honey, eat only what you need,
Lest, [over-]filling yourself, you throw it up.

To the Gra, “eat honey” here is a metaphor for trying to understand G-d (theology / metaphysics / Qabbalah). Do not try to understand things that no human can fathom, nor skip over prerequisite knowledge needed to correctly understand the point you’re studying. The association between mashal and nimshal is two-fold: first, Tehillim 19:11 describes Hashem’s judgements as “more desirable than gold, and sweeter than honey, than the drippings of honeycombs.”

And second, relevant to us, because devash can be taken as an acronym of Dei’ah, Binah and Seikhel, where seikhel is the mental “organ” that one uses for “haskeil” (same root, conjugated). And as we already said, haskeil could be taken to be the internalization of abstract knowledge to change who I am. The bridge between the brain and the heart. To make abstract knowledge life-changing wisdom.

So, all in all, when I say this berakhah I ask Hashem to grace me with the “honey” to let me take what I know — and especially the intellectual skills I learned (Da’as), and further develop them (Binah) so that I can better embody the Torah’s truths, and emotionally react, make proper decisions and live those ideals (Haskeil).

Again, I am not claiming any of the thoughts in this series are the authors of the various tefillos’ original intent, or in this case, even that my identification of mental faculties being referred to is necessarily one of the valid ways these words are used. I am just recording what I think while praying. You needn’t agree. I just want to raise topics, to help people think about just what it is they’re saying.