The soul has ten faculties, and they mirror the structure of God.
Chapter three of the Tanya lays out the architecture. Every Jewish soul—whether at the level of nefesh (נפש), ruach (רוח), or neshamah (נשמה)—contains ten inner powers that correspond to the ten sefirot (ספירות), the ten divine emanations through which God creates and sustains the universe.
These ten faculties divide into two groups: three intellectual and seven emotional. Rabbi Schneur Zalman calls the intellectual faculties the "mothers" and the emotional faculties the "offspring"—because emotions are born from thought. What you understand determines what you feel.
The three intellectual faculties are chochmah (חכמה), wisdom—the initial flash of insight, the raw "aha" before it has been processed; binah (בינה), understanding—the act of taking that flash and developing it, analyzing it, turning it over until you truly grasp it; and da'at (דעת), knowledge—the deep internalization that connects intellect to emotion, the bridge between knowing something and feeling it.
The seven emotional attributes—chesed (kindness), gevurah (severity), tiferet (beauty), and so on—are born from this intellectual process. When the mind contemplates God's greatness deeply enough, the Tanya says, awe is born spontaneously. When the mind meditates on God's love, love arises in the heart. Emotion without intellect is unstable. Intellect without emotion is sterile. The soul needs both.
This is why Chabad—the movement founded on the Tanya—takes its very name from these three intellectual faculties: Chochmah, Binah, Da'at. The entire Chabad philosophy rests on the principle that the mind can reshape the heart. You do not have to wait for inspiration. You can think your way to love of God. And the architecture for doing so is already built into your soul.
Now, each distinction and grade of the three—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah—consists of1 Elsewhere (e.g., Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 1a; 51b; Shir Hashirim 16d) the author makes it clear that the soul does not “consist” of the ten faculties, but rather manifests itself through them, since the soul itself is essentially unknowable. ten faculties, corresponding to the supernal ten sefirot (Divine manifestations),2 The ten sefirot are more fully discussed by the author in the fourth part of the book, Iggeret Hakodesh, sect. 15 and elsewhere. from which they have descended, which are subdivided into two, namely, the three “mothers” and the seven “multiples,” namely, chochmah (wisdom), binah (understanding), and daat (knowledge); and the “seven days of Creation”: chesed (kindness), gevurah (power), tiferet (beauty), and so on.3 Ibid. Similarly is it with the human soul, which is divided in two—sechel (intellect) and middot (emotional attributes). The intellect includes chochmah, binah, and daat (chabad), while the middot are love of G–d, dread and awe of Him, glorification of Him, and so forth. Chabad [the intellectual faculties] are called “mothers” and source of the middot, for the latter are “offspring” of the former. The explanation of the matter is as follows: The intellect of the rational soul, which is the faculty that conceives any thing, is given the appellation of chochmah—כ“ח מ“ה—the “potentiality” of “what is.”4 Zohar III:28a; 34a. A play on the Hebrew word חכמה—כ“ח מ“ה. It is also to be understood as “pure” or creative reason in potentia. When one brings forth this power from the potential into the actual, that is, when [a person] cogitates with his intellect in order to understand a thing truly and profoundly as it evolves from the concept which he has conceived in his intellect, this is called binah. These [chochmah and binah] are the very “father” and “mother” which give birth to love of G–d, and awe and dread of Him. For when the intellect in the rational soul deeply contemplates and immerses itself exceedingly in the greatness of G–d, how He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds,5 I.e., both immanently and transcendency. Zohar III:225a. and in the presence of Whom everything is considered as nothing6 Zohar I:11b.—there will be born and aroused in his mind and thought the emotion of awe for the Divine majesty, to fear and be humble before His greatness, blessed be He, which is without end or limit, and to have the dread of G–d in his heart. Next, his heart will glow with an intense love, like burning coals, with a passion, desire and longing, and a yearning soul, toward the greatness of the En Sof, blessed is He. This constitutes the culminating passion of the soul, of which Scripture speaks, as “My soul yearns, indeed it pines…,”7 Psalms 84:3. and “My soul thirsts for G–d…,”8 Psalms 42:3. and “My soul thirsts for You….”9 Psalms 63:2. This thirst is derived from the element of Fire, which is found in the divine soul. As students of natural science affirm, and so it is in Etz Chaim, the element of Fire is in the heart, while the source of [the element of] Water and moisture is in the brain, which is explained in Etz Chaim, Portal 50, to refer to the faculty of chochmah,10 Water descends from high places. It is symbolically identified with chochmah, the highest of the ten sefirot, and also with chesed, the first of the middot. called “the water of the divine soul.” The rest of the middot are all offshoots of fear and love and their derivations, as is explained elsewhere. Daat, the etymology of which is to be found in the verse, “And Adam knew (yada) Eve,”11 Genesis 4:1. implies attachment and union. That is, one binds his mind with a very firm and strong bond to, and firmly fixes his thought on, the greatness of the En Sof, blessed is He, without diverting his mind [from Him]. For even one who is wise and understanding of the greatness of the En Sof, blessed is He, will not—unless he binds his knowledge and fixes his thought with firmness and perseverance—produce in his soul true love and fear, but only vain fancies. Therefore daat is the basis of the middot and the source of their vitality; it contains chesed and gevurah, that is to say, love with its offshoots and fear with its offshoots.12 Love and fear (awe) are two basic emotions latent in the soul, which are produced by contemplation. The faculty of daat stimulates these higher emotions to seek an outlet through the three “garments” of the soul, discussed in the following chapter.
