Ata Chonein - Etz Yosef

אַתָּה חוֹנֵן ...

This beracha is a continuation of the previous one about Hashem's holiness. We bridge the two by saying to Hashem that despite being that Your holiness is infinite, way beyond even that of the highest angels, You nevertheless "lower" Yourself to endow man with the ability to attain Ruach HaKodesh (see below "daas"), an elevated consciousness through the holiness of spirit.

לְאָדָם

The term "Adam" contains the roshei teivos of "afar" (ash) "dam" (blood) "marah" (bile). This alludes to the fact that not only does Hashem lower himself to grant lower beings with holy wisdom, but He even endows this elevated wisdom to lowly conglomerates of ash, blood, and bile so that they too can become close to Him which is the greatest pleasure in existence.

דַּֽעַת

This term for knowledge refers to Ruach Hakodesh, as Rashi writes in Shemos:

In contrast to the previous clause, in this clause we are discussing those who are on a level beneath the "Adam" who are eligible for a lower level of wisdom.

וּמְלַמֵּד

Whereas Daas is imparted to a person by Hashem without the direct efforts of the recipient, Bina is acquired through mans efforts of attaining that wisdom. Therefore, the term used for bina is "melamed" "to teach", and just as a when a student is taught something they need to put forth effort to understand it, so too binah is only acquired by trying to understand it.

לֶאֱנוֹשׁ

Although we explained that the name Adam has a connotation of a lowly conglamorate of terrestrial elements, it connotes a higher form of a level of personage a person can attain, whereas Enosh is a lower level of human attainment.

The idea that bina can be attained by a person with less advanced spiritual levels is clearly in the passuk:

בִּינָה

The nature of Binah is described in Rashi in Parshas Shemos (see above "Daas") as being the ability to apply knowledge in one area to another area.

Since Daas is a Heavenly gift, it isn't actively acquired by a person, rather it is bestowed upon him when Hashem sees that he has become worthy for it.

Bina, on the other hand, is an intellectual achievement which requires a person to be actively in pursuit of it in order to attain it.

Two pesukim in Mishlei highlight this fundamental difference between these two types of wisdom in respect to how they are acquired.

About Bina it is written:

About Daas it is written:

Introduction:

Etz Yosef now brings another two explanations between Daas and Bina from the Meforshim on Avos. These two latter explanations play a big role into how to understand the sequence of the latter half of the beracha in distinction to how Etz Yosef himself understands it.

Rav Menachem L'Beis Meir ("the Meiri") (brought in Medrash Shmuel on Avos 3:17) says the difference is as follows:

Daas refers to the knowledge that is ingrained in a person from when he is born, and therefore the term "chonein" is used because the person doesn't do anything on their part to attain it.

Bina refers to knowledge which a person learns and acquires through effort, and therefore the term "melamed" is used because it connotes learning from a teacher, which, as we mentioned in the first explanation, requires effort from the student as well.

Midrash Shmuel himself offers a different explanation of the difference between Daas and Bina.

Daas refers to proficiency in the Oral Torah. For this reason, the beracha uses the term "chonein", "to graciously grant" because the Gemara says in Megilla that one needs Divine Assistance to help him retain Torah She'Baal Peh.

Bina, on the other hand, refers to understanding one thing from another and to grasp an idea in a deeper sense.

As we mentioned in the introduction, these two explanations read into the ending of the in different tonalities.

According to Medrash Shmuel and Meiri, we are asking Hashem for the types of wisdom in ascending order; please Hashem give us baseline knowledge of the Torah (Daas), understanding of how to apply them and understand other areas of Torah (Bina) and finally the ability to put all of that information into practice (Sechel).

But according to the Etz Yosef who learns that Daas is of the most highest level of knowledge, the final supplication is going in descending order; Hashem, even if we aren't worthy of Daas, please grant us with Bina and Sechel.

The ending praise of this blessing is "Blessed are You Hashem the Granter of Wisdom."

When saying these concluding words, one should give a short thought to some examples in history when Hashem granted tremendous wisdom to a person.

By recalling these times, one strengthens his belief that Hashem is the "correct address" from Whom to ask for wisdom. And, just as He bestowed wisdom upon those people, may He also bestow wisdom upon us.

Although there were many occasions when people were given breakthrough pieces of knowledge that revolutionized the world, three times in Jewish history stand out most prominently.

1. When the angel Gavriel taught Yosef the 70 languages in preparation to meeting Pharaoh.

2. When Hashem gave the Shem HaMeforash to Moshe Rabbeinu, the angels exclaimed this ending blessing, "Blessed are You Hashem the Granter of Wisdom!"

3. When Hashem fulfilled Shlomo HaMelech's request and endowed him with an enormous amount of knowledge.

You, Hashem, have endowed us with the intelligence to learn Your Torah.

And although we rely on our logical minds in the pursuit of understanding the Torah, we gladly repress our logical mode of thought when we are commanded in chukim, statutes, whose reasons are beyond our capacity to understand (or are contradictory in nature).

The message we send to Hashem by keeping His statutes, accentuates the fact that our subservience to Him isn't a conditional relationship, where our observance only goes as far as we understand its purpose and find it intellectually satisfying.

Rather, our subservience is greater and more deeply rooted fitting into the capacity of an indentured servant of Hashem.

And just as an ordinary indentured servant must fulfill his master's request under all circumstances, whether he understands its purpose or not, so too we are beholden to Hashem's word, whether we understand its purpose or not, because He is our Master and we are His servants.

This phrase alludes to the passuk in Vayikra which commands the Kohanim not to serve in the Mishkan while they are intoxicated in order to keep a safe boundary between holy (clear minded) service and profaned (intoxicated) service. The passuk reads:

This phrase parallels the passuk in Bereishis discussing the first day of Creation when Hashem separated light from darkness, as the passuk says:

The separation between the Jewish people and the other nations being focused on here is specifically in respect to the dietary differences which separate them.

In Parshas Shemini the Torah gives a lengthy enumeration of animals which are deemed impure and are thus forbidden for Klal Yisrael to eat.

At the end of the Parsha, the Torah says the reason Klal Yisrael was put onto this restrictive diet disallowing them to eat impure animals is due to their unique holiness over the other nations:

We refer to Hashem by these two titles which parallel the attributes He shows towards us which were mentioned in the beginning of this extra beracha of Ata Chonantanu.

We call Hashem our Father in His capacity of teaching us Torah.

And we call Hashem our King in His capacity of ordering us to follow His statutes.

In the upcoming days of this week, please, Hashem, let us not encounter a situation where we will commit a sin inadvertently.

Whereas in the last supplication we asked Hashem to help us steer clear of inadvertent sins, here we ask Hashem to let this week begin with a "clean slate" in regards to the willful sins we committed in the past.

The concept of this tefilla is based on a Mishna in Avos which says:

Different reasons are offered as to why one transgressing sin leads into the progression of another sin, but all agree that the momentum of one sin causes one to do another sin.

Therefore, we ask Hashem that if we sinned last week, please halt the negative spiritual momentum which will drag us down in the coming week, and instead grant us a clean slate where we can perform mitzvos unfettered by the vibrations of previously committed aveiros which pull us in the opposite direction.