View source for Da'at

[[File:Tree of life hebrew.svg|thumb|The 10 sefirot and the 22 paths of the [[Kabbalistic Tree of Life]] that connect them together form the 32 paths of wisdom. The yellow [[Path of the Flaming Sword]] indicates the order of the creation of the sefirot from 1 - 10.]]

'''Da'at''' ({{HeS|דעת}} "knowledge") is considered in Jewish [[Kabbalah]] to be the invisible or [[mystical]] [[Sefira]] on the [[Tree of Life of Kabbalah]].

The term first appears in the [[w:Bible|Bible]] in connection with the [[tree of the knowledge of good and evil]] ({{Hebrew|עץ הדעת טוב ורע|°ez had-da°ath tôb wâ-râ}}), which, according to the [[Genesis]] account, stands together with the [[tree of life]] in the middle of the [[Garden of Eden]]. [[Evil]] is also mentioned here for the first time. The tree of knowledge is, in the language of the [[Elohim]], which they had already developed on the [[Old Sun]], the [[physical body]] of man. The tree of life, on the other hand, means the [[etheric body]] {{GZ||253|58ff}}. 

In the 16th century, [[Isaac Luria]] drew up a slightly different scheme of the 10 sefirot, removing [[Keter]] and replacing it with the sefira Da'ath in the third place as the conscious manifestation of the still unconscious, unformed Keter, which thus moved up into the realm of unlimited light ([[Ain Soph Aur]]) and was no longer conceived of as a sefira poured into a shaped vessel<ref>Jacob Immanuel Schochet: ''Mystical Concepts in Chassidism'', Kehot Publications. Chapter on Sephirot. Available separately or printed at back of bilinguel Hebrew-English [[w:Tanya|Tanya]]</ref>. In Da'at, the powers of wisdom ([[Chokmah]]) and intellect ([[Binah]]) unite into conscious knowledge in the form of moulded thought. Da'at is thus the highest and finest manifestation of the world of forms on the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah. This results in the following scheme of the Lurianic Kabbalah:

#[[Chokmah]] (wisdom, prudence, skill)
#[[Binah]] (insight,understanding; analytical intelligence)
#[[Da'at]] (knowledge, science)
#[[Chesed]] (love, grace, favour); also called [[Gedulla]] (greatness) called
#[[Gevurah]] (strength, power, victory, justice); also called [[Din]] (the punishing and judging power of God)
#[[Tiferet]] (glorification, glory, splendour, beauty); also referred to as [[Rachamim]] (the balancing mercy of God) or [[shalom]] (peace).
#[[Netzach]] (duration, permanence, victory; glory, splendour, blood, sap).
#[[Hod]] (splendour, splendour, majesty)
#[[Yesod]] (foundation, ground, cornerstone, basis, foundation)
#[[Malkuth]] (realm, kingdom, dominion, royal dignity, government)

Occasionally Da'at is also mistakenly understood as the 11th sefirah, but this contradicts the Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest surviving work of Kabbalah, where it is emphatically said:

{{Quote|Ten numbers out of nothing, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven, comprehend this wisdom, understand this knowledge, search for it and ponder it, grasp it in clarity and follow the Creator back to His throne.|Sefer Yetzirah 1:4}}

Often, however, Da'at is not considered an independent sefira, but rather the mystical state in which all 10 sefirot unite in a [[holistic]] experience in the sense of [[unio mystica]]. Daath is also considered the bridge that leads across the [[Abyssus]] ({{Hebrew|תהום|[[Tehom]]}}), the depth of the sea spoken of in [[Genesis]] on the first day of creation) from the archetypal spiritual world ([[Atziluth]]) into the phenomenal world. Da'ath is a higher analogue of [[Paroketh]] ({{Hebrew|פָּרֹ֫כֶת}} "curtain, veil"), the veil of illusion that separates the [[soul world]] from the [[physical-etheric world]] respectively from the world of the [[four elements]] below the sefira tiferet (beauty).

== Literature ==

* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Probleme des Zusammenlebens in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft. Zur Dornacher Krise vom Jahre 1915'', [[GA 253]] (1989), ISBN 3-7274-2530-X {{Lectures|253}}

{{GA}}

== Weblinks ==

* [https://qbl.thelemistas.org/en/Paroketh Paroketh]

== References ==
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[[Category:Kabbalah]]
[[Category:Sefirot]]
[[de:Daat]]