The Torah uses a form of the word daat to also describe sexual intimacy—Adam “knew” Eve, his wife. He achieved the most intimate connection with her. In the context of the process of thinking, daat means that we connect intimately with an idea. The idea becomes so real that it literally moves us. Thus daat is the point of transition, transforming the flow of intellectual energy into emotions, which then put us in motion and gets us to act. In this fourth blessing, we ask for daat, because daat is the goal of all intellectual pursuit. If we can’t take our ideas and process them until they become real and have impact, then our ideas are just pie in the sky. The Kabbalistic classic Sefer Yetzirah states that “there are ten sefirot (Divine “qualities”); not nine and not eleven.” Why would it clarify “not nine and not eleven” if it already specified that there are ten? Because we could easily think that there are eleven or nine if we mistakenly counted or discounted both the sefirot of keter and daat. Keter which literally translates as “crown” corresponds to “will.” Daat is also will but a refined will. It comes after we have intellectually processed the raw will of keter until it hits us deeply, and we finally intimately know what we want. Daat is actually keter after it has been fully comprehended, formulated, contemplated and realized. Therefore, the two should not be counted as independent sefirot. Let me give a few examples. Keter is: “I want something, but I don’t know what I want. I just want.” Chochmah is: “I have a general idea about what I want. I want security, but I do not know what I mean specifically when I say that I want security. I need a more detailed understanding of what security means to me.” Once we reach chochmah, we can then seek binah. We can probe and try to elaborate: “Maybe I need a new job. No, that is not the kind of security I’m looking for. Maybe it’s a house. Nope, that’s not it either. Maybe I want to be married. Perhaps I want a life partner.” When we arrive at “Yes, that’s it!” we have reached daat. When we’ve found that detailed image (binah) of our general interest (chochmah), then we are deeply affected by the realization (daat) that this is what we want. We suddenly experience a surge of motivation. We no longer have to think about what we want. We realize it, feel it in a deep, emotional way, and we are driven to do something about it. “Yes, yes! That is what I want!” At this point, we have achieved daat. The word daat which is loosely translated as “knowledge,” really means realization—an intimate connection to what we know so that it impacts us emotionally, and we are moved to do something about it. The goal of all intelligence is to get to daat—the point where our thoughts and insights become real and impact our feelings and behavior.