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First in Thought, Last in Deed : Reflections on Terumah

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muman613:
Here I discuss three of the Sefirot involved with creative thought, the ability to see the final product of our endeavors:


http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/192,2108424/Powers-of-the-Soul.html

Chochmah

Chochmah is the creative and generally unpredictable power of the soul which is manifested in spontaneous insights or inspiration -- an intuitive flash of intellectual illumination which has not yet been processed or developed by the understanding power of binah.

The creative power which illuminates chochmah derives from the concealed level of keter -- "and chochmah emerges from nothingness",1 that is, from the hidden keter. The reason that chochmah is able to act as a receptacle for the flash of divine revelation is that in its inner essence is also "nothingness". That is, the inner essence of chochmah is self-nullification (bitul).

This is why the Zohar characterizes the nature of chochmah by one of the permutations of the word chochmah itself -- koach mah -- the "potential to be 'what' (i.e. undefined and therefore boundless)". In this state of bitul, a person will not experience his own being as an independent creation. Rather, his consciousness is focused on G-d's omnipresence.

Binah

Binah, usually translated as "understanding", is the cognitive faculty that develops and articulates the seminal energy of chochmah so that the latter becomes known, in a detailed conceptual way, through binah. Binah is also the inductive and deductive faculty of understanding (or deducing) one thing from another, thus expanding the point of chochmah into a multi-dimensional conceptual system. The Zohar therefore symbolizes chochmah and binah and their relationship as "the supernal point (chochmah) within its palace (binah)".2 However, binah is not merely an adjunct to chochmah, it involves as well the ability to intuit a more inclusive reality that than encoded within chochmah itself.

Binah is also the ability to explain the concept to another person, thus "reproducing" it. In this sense binah is referred to as "the mother of children".3

Daat

Daat (knowledge) is the third faculty of the intellect. It is the ability to integrate and harmonize diametrically opposed views or states of being. As mentioned above, when keter is counted, daat is not, and vice versa. In terms of the soul powers, daat in fact plays a dual role: On the one hand, daat is the power which binds together the powers of chochmah and binah. In this capacity it is called daat elyon (higher daat), which generally remains in a state of concealment. As such it is identified with keter. On the other hand, daat serves as the bridge between the opposing domains of the intellect and the emotional attributes of the soul. In this capacity it is called daat tachton (lower daat). Daat is not merely another stage of intellect; it enables one to convert understanding into the vitality and inspiration of the emotions and actions. In this sense, the Zohar, refers to daat as "the key to the six [emotions]".4

A person who possesses daat will therefore exhibit rational, mature behavior, whereas one who lacks daat is emotionally immature and will probably be plagued by inner emotional conflict.

muman613:
Here is the idea in the Lecha Dodi, with english translation:

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