Da'at, knowledge, holds a place apart. For the Ari, it is not counted among the ten when Keter is; it takes the place of Keter when the latter is considered too high to enter the count. It stands on the central column, between Chokhmah and Binah, and facing Tiferet further down. Cordovero, who counts Keter, devotes to it a whole chapter of the third gate of the Pardes Rimonim and concludes that it is not a separate Sefirah: Da'at, he writes, is Tiferet "according to its higher reality," a reality "chosen and beautiful." He cites the Zohar on Pinchas: Da'at is "the secret of the six extremities hanging from thought," that is, the hidden root, within the intellect, of the six Sefirot of the heart and of action. And it is Da'at, he adds, citing the Tikkunim, that unites Chokhmah and Binah.
The meaning of the word illuminates everything. In Hebrew, "to know" also denotes the union of man and woman: "Adam knew Eve." Da'at is therefore a knowledge that unites, not information one possesses. The Pardes says so, citing the Tikkunim: the soul comes from Binah, the spirit from Tiferet "which is Da'at," and Da'at "includes both"; it is of Da'at that the verse of Proverbs is read: "by knowledge the chambers are filled." That verse gives the whole triad: "by wisdom a house is built, by understanding it is established, and by knowledge the chambers are filled with every precious and pleasant good." Wisdom builds, understanding establishes, knowledge fills.
Da'at does not appear in the verse of Chronicles. Nor does the Tomer Devorah have a chapter for it, since Cordovero follows the ten Sefirot with Keter. The figure associated with it, in Cordovero, is Moses: in the gate of names of the Pardes, he writes that Moses is a "chariot" for Tiferet "in the secret of the hidden Da'at," and that the difference between him and Jacob is that of soul and body, "Jacob in the body which is Tiferet, Moses in the soul which is Da'at." The Torah says of Bezalel, the craftsman of the sanctuary, that G-d filled him "with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge": the three together, down to the work of the hands.
The trait to cultivate is therefore not to learn more, but to bind what you know to what you do. A wisdom that does not descend into a decision remains lightning without rain; an understanding that does not unite with wisdom runs idle. Da'at is the bond: the Pardes explains that the "chambers" of the verse are the six extremities hidden in Binah, of which Da'at is the root and the soul.
Keep this: to know, in the Torah, is to unite with what one knows. Measure your knowledge of G-d not by what you can say about it, but by what it changes in the way you live.
