Da'at - As A Representative Sephirah

As A Representative Sephirah

Properly, Da'at is not a sephirah, but rather is all ten sephirot united as one. Nevertheless, Daat is sometimes counted as a sephirah instead of Keter, from the perspective of finite creation using Daat to represent the "reflection of" (the "inner dimension" of) the infinity of Keter. Thus Daat appears in the configuration of the sephirot along the middle axis, directly beneath Keter. It corresponds to the Tzelem elohim (the "image of God embedded in humanity") and to the cerebellum (i.e. the "posterior brain"). Alternate countings of the sephirot produce 10 powers ("10 and not 9, 10 and not 11" - Sefer Yetzirah) by either including Keter or Daat. In the scheme of Moshe Cordovero, Daat is omitted, while in the scheme of Isaac Luria, Keter (Will) is omitted. Cordovero describes the sephirot as one light in ten vessels. Luria follows this, but lists sephirot beginning with Chokhmah (Wisdom) to describe their outer dimensions.