Utilizing Your Da'as - Chapter 11 Seeing Only One Side of Something

Light Da’as: Seeing Only One Side

Chazal state, “Women have light da’as” (Kiddushin 80a). For this reason, women can be convinced more easily to sin.

This is really rooted in the power of ta’anug (pleasure) in the soul. When a person has oneg as well as its opposite – nega, which is faulty pleasure – his Daas becomes “lightened.” Although this was said about women, it can apply to men as well, because there is a problem that people have in which their Daas has become lightened.

There are times in which a person’s mind isn’t working properly and can’t think so much. This is when a person is in a time of pain. This is called katnus hadaas, when the daas becomes small. But there is another kind of problem, kalus hadaas, which is when the daas becomes lightened. This goes on when a person is in a very happy mood. Both katnus hadaas and kalus hadaas are kinds of lightened Da’as, although they are brought about by opposite situations.

There are situations in which a person falls from his daas, and there are situations in which a person goes above his daas. These are both kinds of kalus hadaas – below Da’as, and above Da’as.

When a person is in pain, he falls from his Da’as. When a person is happy, he goes above his Da’as. This is the root of the matters here we will discuss.

Pain can bring a person to have Da’as ra’ah – evil Da’as. Happiness can bring da’as tov – good Da’as. Thus, kalus hada’as is when a person sees only one side of the Da’as – either he is seeing the one side of evil Da’as, or he is seeing the one side of good Da’as.

Now, let us examine again the statement of our Sages that women have light Da’as. Their light Da’as comes from evil Da’as, because the problem here is that they only see one side of the Da’as. They are seeing only what is below the Da’as, which is evil Da’as.

Women have light Da’as, and that is why they can be coaxed easily into sin. This is not because they chose so. It is because they have a disadvantage: women are easily convinced. Why are women easily convinced? It is because they only see one side of their Da’as.

Complete Da’as – Knowing Something And Its Opposite

A person only has real Da’as when he thinks about the entire situation. This is the meaning of “bar Da’as” – being capable of Da’as.

A person might know a lot of Torah, but he isn’t yet a bar Da’as. He hasn’t necessarily revealed yet the ability to think about the whole situation. In order to think into the entire situation of something, you need to think about something and its opposite. This is because in order to really know a concept, you need to understand its opposite as well. A person has to always be able to see both sides of the coin in order to understand anything.

The Yetzer Hora: The Power of Persuasion

This is why people get convinced to do something wrong, and by women especially we find this. The person only sees “one side of the coin” in the situation, and he doesn’t take into account the whole situation. By women this is a total kalus hadaas, but men can also have this problem for the most part (although it is not as much as by women).  Where can we find kalus hadaas even by men? By the yetzer hora (evil inclination) that people have.

The problem of kalus hadaas, having “light” Da’as -- seeing one part of a situation – is essentially the yetzer hora, who uses the power of persuasion to get a person to sin. The yetzer hora convinces a person to sin by showing him one particular side of the situation that is appealing. When a person only sees one part of the situation, it’s almost like he has no free will, because he sees nothing to choose between! He only sees the evil, and it looks so pleasing, because he doesn’t see anything else going on.

It is even more than that: the yetzer hora convinces a person that he has no free will, and that is how it gets people to sin.

We can find how this concept is used for good, like how “Hashem is One and His Name is One.” But when it comes to evil, this power is used for the wrong purposes: to convince a person to only see the side of evil, which makes him think that he doesn’t have a choice in the matter. He only sees the side which the yetzer hora has shown him. This is kalus hadaas.

Chazal say that when the evil inclination is present, there is no mention of the good inclination. The evil inclination’s power is that at a time of difficulty, it convinces a person that he has no free will to choose. Evil convinces a person that there is no other option except to do the sin.

Many people have spiritual failures because of this reason. They only see one side of the situation. Afterwards they say, “What could I have done…?”

Using This Power For Good

But a person is able to take this power and use it for good. When a person is in a happy mood, he also only sees on side to his situation: the truth. He sees that truth is the only option, and that there is no option of sin.

This is also called the ability known as “higher free will” – a person is able to choose that there is no such thing as “choosing”, because there is no option to choose evil. He only sees one option – the will of Hashem. This is not the regular kind of free will, in which a person simply chooses between good and evil because he knows that this is what Hashem wants. It is for a person to feel like there’s really no choice, because the only choice is to do what Hashem wants!

Marriage -- The Complete Daas

What is the source of kalus hadaas, and what is the source of completed daas?

Simply, it appears that women have light da’as, while men have the completed da’as. It is deeper than that. A woman was created from a man’s rib, and that is why her da’as is only partial – she is only a “part” of the man’s da’as, which is complete.

But on an even deeper note, the reason is because there are two kinds of da’as: daas which is complete, and da’as which is partial. That is the way creation is designed; both of these kinds of daas need each other to come together in order for the daas to be perfect.

We know that Moshe arrived at the most perfect kind of da’as which a person can achieve. Moshe is personified as Da’as. If so, can we say that Moshe has the same da’as as Hashem? No, of course not. What is the difference? The Da’as of Hashem is total and complete, while the Da’as of Moshe is only partial.

When a man and woman are connected through marriage, this is called Daas. “And Adam knew Chavah.” This is not simply that Daas connects them. It is a combination of two kinds of Daas – the man’s Daas, which is complete, and the woman’s Daas, which is partial. Together, they arrive at the perfect Daas. This is when they are not just two de’os (opinions), but one unit of Da’as.

Examples of Complete Da’as and Partial Da’as

Bilaam was called one who had “heavenly knowledge” (daas  elyon). Chazal say that he knew how to calculate the exact time that Hashem gets angry. But the daas which he had was not the same kind of daas as Moshe. What was the difference between the daas of Bilaam and the daas of Moshe? The daas of Moshe is complete; it includes all daas. The daas of Bilaam only knows parts and details; he knew the moment when Hashem has anger, and that was all his daas: one detail alone.

This was the depth of the mistake of Korach and his group. Korach argued on Moshe – he has partial daas, which is the evil power of machlokes. He could only come to argue on Moshe because he had partial daas, not the complete daas.

This is also the depth behind the difference between Torah and mitzvos. Torah is the complete daas, while mitzvos are only the partial daas; mitzvos are knowledge about details, while Torah is knowledge about everything.

Chazal state that “Torah is great, for it leads one to action.” When a person realizes that Torah brings him to act, then his Torah is “great.” This is the complete daas.

There is simple daas which anyone who learns Torah has, and then there is Daas Torah, which is complete daas.

It is written, “And I will surely conceal My face.” The Baal Shem Tov noted that from this we see two different attitudes one can have: partial daas, which is when one doesn’t see any concealment at all, and complete daas, which is when is aware that Hashem conceals Himself, but that it is only hester panim – concealment of Hashem’s “face” alone, but not a total concealment.

In the future, the complete daas will be revealed to all; “And the earth will be filled with knowledge.” This will be what the redemption will reveal – it will reveal that all de’os (opinions) are really all one da’as.

Now we can understand the ruination of someone who denies the Jewish faith. Denying the faith can only come from partial da’as – when one sees only pieces of information and he doesn’t get the whole picture. But in the future, there will be no possibility of denying the faith, because it will be revealed that all de’os are really all parts of one unit of daas.