[Avodah] daat

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 08:09:46AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> What is daat? When we say a cheresh, shoteh or katan doesn't have it,
> it seems like intellectual acuity...

If that were so, it wouldn't include a cheireish. A cheiresh's problem
is educability. Getting the facts, rather than the ability to use them.
Which is why today's deaf mute is not considered having the din of
a cheireish.

So it would seem that a lack of daas could mean a free-will issue, like a
shoteh who has compulsions, or is ordered about by internal voices. But
it doesn't have to be. It could be someone whose bechirah is intact but
simply can't make an informed decision.

A qatan could theoretically be both -- lacking the emotional maturity to
overcome desire in as many cases as a gadol could. But ALSO lacking the
knowledge and experience to make informed choices, even if they could.


Similarly, you mention the eitz hadaas tov vara. Adam had the power
of bechirah, he "simply" had no internal pull toward tov or ra. He
therefore naturally sought tov, because that's the cold logical choice,
and ra had to be presented by a nachash, an external yeitzer hara.

See the Moreh 1:2, who emphasizes that before the cheit, Adam's choices
were between emes vasheqer. And Nefesh haChaim (1:6, fn) which says that
what the cheit did was internalize the yeitzer hara. This combination
of the two into a single picture is REED's (vol II, pg 138)

So, the eitz hadaas didn't so much cause bechirah but give it something
new to work on.

--

I am not sure if this definition of daas is the same as Daas in the 10
Sephiros sense.

Also, Daas in the 10 Sephiros sense probably has multiple meanings,
depending on how the particular school of Qabbalah relates to Keser and
how the source of Chokhmah and Binah (Keser) is sometimes interchanged
with their synthesis, their product (Daas).

And then there is Daas as in De'iah Binah uHaskeil.

So I am not sure these explorations will help produce the halachic meaning.


But I will share my thoughts anyway.

If Da'as is both the product of insight and reason and their cause,
it would seem to have to do something with learning how to think.

Which would mean that someone who lacks knowledge or someoen who lacks
clear reason couldn't reach daas.

It also would explain daatan qalos vs binah yeseirah -- if you do not get
as engrained with a particular way to think, you'll be a more creative
and wide-ranging thinker. But it will be harder to pick up the skills for
pesaq, since that's about locking in to a particular style of reasoning.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Problems are not stop signs,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   they are guidelines.
Author: Widen Your Tent              - Robert H. Schuller
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF