What does the Hebrew word “da’as” mean?

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been exploring the 3 part formula Hashem delineated to Moshe Rabbeinu for connecting to fellow Jews’ pain:

“I have indeed seen the affliction of My nation that is in Mitzrayim, and I have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, and I have known of their pains. (Shemos 3:7)”

2 weeks ago, we worked on part 1 – truly seeing others and accepting them as they are. Last week, we worked on part 2 - holding back our problem solving instincts and pausing to hear their inner stories.

With those two pieces in hand, we’ve already gained powerful tools to connect deeply with others in pain. How does “knowing” their pain help us further?

Before we answer this question, let’s jump back to our original one.

Ask a Hebrew-speaker and they’ll probably translate “da’as” as knowledge. But that’s a loose translation. Da’as more accurately equates to “chibur,” the Hebrew word for connection or attachment.

Where does the Torah first use the word “da’as”? In Parshas Bereishis, when describing the union between Adam and Chava, the first married couple.

In his commentary on this posuk, Rav Yitzchak Hutner notes that man and woman are so different, so opposite, that the only way they can truly unite is through a connection “that reflects a oneness from the beginning.”

What does this teach us? That a connection of “da’as” isn’t like an ordinary connection between two separate individuals. “Da’as” indicates the connected parties were never really separate to begin with. They’ve always been fundamentally one, and when they connect with each other, they’re simply coming back to their innate oneness.

“Da’as” means becoming one with another. Entering a state where we no longer sense the separation between us.

Which is only possible between Jews. Because of all peoples on earth, we’re the only ones who stem from one united soul.

Several weeks ago, when we began learning about Ahavas Yisrael, we quoted Rav Yerucham Levovitz in defining Ahavas Yisrael as the imperative to connect with other Jews until we become one with them. Because, he adds, we’re all essentially one.

When we work on Ahavas Yisrael, we don’t create oneness. We get in touch with the oneness that already exists.

Through re’iyah and shemiyah, we’ve already connected to others’ pain. We truly feel for them. But da’as, knowing them, means literally being them. Feeling what they’re feeling. Being sad – or joyful – in our own right. Experiencing it as if we’re in it.

Of course, we’re talking here about an extremely high level of Ahavas Yisrael – one we really only encounter in stories about the greatest tzaddikim.

But even if we aren’t there, we can still learn about the concept, and derive growth that way.

When one Jew hurts another Jew, the Yerushalmi in Nedarim (9:4) states, it’s like one arm cutting off its partner arm. Not a very nice thing to do, of course. But would the owner of these arms take revenge on the offending arm by having it cut off as well? Of course not. That would mean attacking his own body.

This, explains the Yerushalmi, is why the Torah prohibits revenge. We Jews are like one unified body. Taking revenge on one another makes no sense.

Another lofty concept. How can we begin to touch these elevated spheres of Ahavas Yisrael?

Let’s look at Rashi’s explanation on Hashem’s “I have known.” We’ll see the words, “I have focused my heart to contemplate and know.”

Which means the journey to these levels begins with contemplation of the heart.

Contemplation, or hisbonenus, means taking the same idea and looking at it from many different angles. Until now, we’ve been looking at other suffering Jews as separate entities from ourselves. Now, in the spirit of hisbonenus, let’s consider a different angle. Let’s look at them with the awareness that essentially, we’re one with them. Which makes their pain really our pain as well.

Truly feeling their pain as our own is a level most of us can simply aspire to. But even if all we can do is remind ourselves theoretically about it, our interactions with others in pain will change.

We’ll have moved further along the path to real Ahavas Yisrael. And the people around us will feel it.