Tanya: Chapter 3

In this chapter the Alter Rebbe introduces the three intellectual faculties, and the mochin (brains) / middot (attributes) duality.

The main point to focus on here is that since the 'brains' give birth to the 'attributes,' any work on the attributes has to start from the brains and work its way down.

In this view Da'ath, Knowledge really seems like the odd man out. If Hochmah is the father, and Binah is the mother, where does that leave Da'ath? Da'ath we're told is the connection between the two.

What's not immediately evident here is that Hochmah and/or Binah on their own can be abused as intellectual pursuits. Hochmah can be channeled into an obsession with new ideas, new flashes of insight. Binah can be lost in developing and designing increasingly complex systems.

The modern world, and especially the art world are rife with examples of these types of self-delusions. Something hinted at in the very end of this chapter.

This is where Da'ath as Connection, comes in. If you aren't able, willing, and constantly involved in tying all of your thoughts and ideas back to HaShem, you run the risk, or rather flirt with the certainty that you will get lost in your own imagination.

Once you have learned to return to HaShem through every flexing of those intellectual muscles, you must work on combining both Hochmah,novel insight, and Binah, planning and composing. When you succeed in combining these two different innate mental states, your efforts will bear fruit. That is why they are referred to as Father and Mother.

Either one on their own can have tremendously harmful side effects -- too many ideas without bringing any of them down to the level of expression can lead to anger, too much structure without inspiration can lead to depression.

This leads to the natural balance of the Jew: knowing when to speak and when to be silent. When to let a thought grow and develop inside, when to let it fly free in the world, spoken aloud for all to hear.

This is why Da'ath is so crucial, only through binding yourself constantly to Godliness, can you gain insight into when and how to combine these two innate abilities.

Once combined with divine insight, our attributes are already well on their way to accomplishing their purpose.