wisdom

Distinctions

chochmah (חכמה)

Root ח-כ-ם. Rashi (to Shemos 31:3, Devarim 1:13, Mishlei 1:5, from Sifrei to Devarim 1:13; likewise Radak to Melachim I 3:12): chochmah is what a person hears, that is, learns, from others. Chazal's chacham casts a wide net: he learns from every person (Avos 4:1), foresees what is not yet born (Tamid 32a), makes his teachers wiser (Chagigah 14a). Rabbi Avraham Bedersi HaPenini: chacham is the opposite of a simpleton, anyone who has mastered a body of knowledge, carpentry (Yeshayahu 3:3), snake-charming (Tehillim 59:6), even cunning (Shmuel II 13:3; Yirmiyahu 4:22); but when Tanach, Koheles above all, says chacham plainly, it means a Torah sage. Pappenheim: ח-כ is waiting (mechakeh; chakah, the net one sets and waits by), so the chacham is the unhurried learner who deliberates. Malbim: chochmah is practical, the intelligence that picks the smart way of acting where a foolish way was possible; in its full sense it comes only by revelation.

binah (בינה) and tevunah (תבונה)

Root ב-י-ן. The navon is meivin davar mitoch davar, he understands one matter from within another (Chagigah 14a). Bedersi: from bein, "between"; the navon tells the relevant datum from the irrelevant and so reaches new conclusions. Pappenheim: from ב-נ, building; binah builds on an idea by extending it. Malbim: the abstract counterpart of chochmah, the faculty that reads an allegory, solves a riddle, and works everything perceived into a sound conclusion. Zohar and the Gaon: the Oral Torah that processes the Written; hence Maoz Tzur's "bnei binah" against the Greeks, who had the Septuagint but scorned the Oral Torah (Rabbi Eliyahu Tzion Sofer). Binah against tevunah: most treat them as one word. Pappenheim (his own proposal): binah grasps the whole, tevunah resolves it into parts. Vilna Gaon (to Mishlei 2:2-3, 2:6): tevunah is the reflection that qualifies chochmah or binah; in Chemdah Genuzah (to Mishlei 1:1, with Zohar Vayakhel 201a): binah is understanding for oneself, tevunah understanding thorough enough to teach to others.

daat (דעת)

Root י-ד-ע. Rashi and Bartenura (to Avos 3:17, with Rashbatz): daat grasps the reasoning behind a lesson, where binah extrapolates from it; hence the Mishnah's mutual dependence. Rashi gives two faces elsewhere: to Shemos 31:3 daat is ruach hakodesh; to Chagigah 12a it is reconciliation. Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Burnstein unites them: daat is connection (as "knowing" is intimacy, Bereishis 4:1, and kinship, Rus 2:1), joining all the pieces into one resolved whole; ruach hakodesh is a man connecting himself to Hashem and so seeing the whole (so Nefesh HaChaim 1:6 on the Eitz HaDaat, the Gaon to Mishlei 2:5, and Yerushalmi Berachos 5:2). Rabbi Chaim Friedlander: the connection is of intellect with emotion, knowledge internalised (Bedersi likewise ties daat to feeling). Rabbeinu Yonah (to Avos 3:17): originating new ideas oneself. Malbim: the certainty of conclusions reached through binah. Rank is disputed: Maharsha (to Kesubos 5a) puts daat above binah; Maharal (Chiddushei Aggados to Kiddushin 30a, Avodah Zarah 19b; Tiferes Yisrael ch. 56) puts binah above. The kabbalistic scheme (Eitz Chaim, Shaar HaAmidah ch. 11) sets ChaBaD against chesed, gevurah, tiferes: received, intuited, balanced; Ramchal (introduction to Klach Pischei Chochmah) calls daat the offspring of the two.

Rendering guidance

• The triad חכמה תבונה ודעת (Shemos 31:3): "wisdom, understanding, and knowledge," in that order.
• The pair חכמה ובינה (Devarim 4:6): "wisdom and understanding." The absence of daat is load-bearing (Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer: the nations reach chochmah and binah but not daat; Rabbi Eliyahu Tzion Sofer from Eichah Rabbah 2:48: not even binah), so do not pad the pair with "knowledge."
• נבון וחכם (Bereishis 41:33, 41:39): "discerning and wise," Hebrew order; the same silence about daat is the point (Pharaoh could not see that Yosef was also a yodea).
• Binah and tevunah alone: both "understanding." Separate them only when the passage contrasts them, and then follow the Gaon: tevunah is the understanding one can teach.
• Daat alone: "knowledge"; if the passage turns on connection, reconciliation, or certainty, keep daat transliterated with a gloss. Chacham in Koheles and Chazal: "sage," not "scholar" (Bedersi).
• Trap: loose English "wisdom" absorbs binah and daat, and loose "knowledge" absorbs chochmah and daat. Where a derashah orders or ranks them, one English word per Hebrew word; and "intellect" is sechel, not any of these.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach: "To Be a Wise Guy (Part 1 of 2)," 26 Kislev 5781 (2020-12-12), raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8959-to-be-a-wise-guy-part-1-of-2.md; "Miketz: To Be a Wise Guy (Part 2 of 2)," 4 Teves 5781 (2020-12-19), raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8969-miketz-to-be-a-wise-guy-part-2-of-2.md. Primary loci the articles cite: Avos 3:17 and 4:1 with Rashi, Bartenura, Rabbeinu Yonah; Chagigah 12a and 14a with Rashi; Tamid 32a; Shemos Rabbah 41:3; Sifrei to Devarim 1:13; Rashi to Shemos 31:3 and Devarim 1:13; Vilna Gaon to Mishlei 1:1, 1:8, 2:2-6; Maharsha to Kesubos 5a; Maharal, Tiferes Yisrael ch. 56; Eitz Chaim, Shaar HaAmidah ch. 11; Eichah Rabbah 2:48; Devarim 4:6; Bereishis 41:33, 41:39.