Introduction: A lesson inspired by the shiurim of Rabbi Boaz Shalom - Mishlei Chapter 3
Chapter 3 of Mishlei opens with King Solomon's call to his son: to remember the Torah, fulfill the mitzvot, and engrave wisdom upon the heart until it becomes an integral part of the person himself. In this lesson, we will follow the Malbim's commentary on the first four pesukim, seeing how every single word is exact - from the distinction between "Torah" and "mitzvot," between "length of days" and "years of life," to "chesed" and "emet."
בְּנִי תּוֹרָתִי אַל־תִּשְׁכָּח וּמִצְוֺתַי יִצֹּר לִבֶּךָ׃ - My son, do not forget my Torah, and let your heart guard my mitzvot.
"My Torah" encompasses all the teachings of the Torah: the rulings, the halachot, and even halachot that have no practical application in our time - such as the mitzvot of the Kohanim and the sacrificial rites, seeing as we do not have a Beit HaMikdash today. Even so, when one speaks of "Torah," it includes everything.
The Torah also contains narratives. Why are these stories there? The Zohar declares: Perish the thought of anyone who imagines that the Torah merely came to tell stories! For if that were the Torah's purpose, we could find far more engaging, beautiful, and dramatic tales; one could easily compose far more intriguing stories. Rather, what is the narrative portion meant to teach? It teaches character traits and upright conduct. It tells us: Come and see Esav, what wicked traits he possessed; and in contrast, come and see Yaakov, a wholesome man, what conduct, what holiness, what exalted stature! The Torah's stories come to teach us faith in Hashem, Divine providence, reward and punishment, and noble character traits.
Regarding all of this, he cautions: "Do not forget my Torah" - meditate upon it day and night so that you remember everything: the teachings, the rulings, the halachot, the proper conduct, and the faith, everything derived from the Torah. Then follows: "and let your heart guard my mitzvot" - this refers to actual fulfillment. After studying the theoretical, intellectual side, one must bring it down into the realm of action. A person may know precisely how to put on tefillin - but what good does that do if he never actually puts them on? There is a commandment here, and one must fulfill it.
Why is "let your heart guard" said specifically regarding mitzvot? Because most mitzvot run counter to the heart's natural inclination: they are difficult to perform, because the yetzer pulls in the opposite direction. "Do not steal," "do not rob" - a person naturally sees money and is drawn toward it, and "a person's soul covets robbery and illicit relations." The mitzvah essentially comes to uproot this attraction of the heart and fight against the pull toward corrupted, flawed, and loathsome things.
The heart is the governing power within the soul; it rules over man's faculties, and all actions are carried out under its sway. Therefore, "and let your heart guard my mitzvot" - fulfilling the mitzvot will guard the heart, preventing it from acting independently according to its own desires and lusts. As we have explained several times: the heart represents "what I feel like doing," whereas "what ought to be done" is the intellect, the mind. A person might feel like sleeping until noon rather than waking up for prayer, but Hashem's mitzvah arrives and says: Now you get up, for the time of Kriat Shema. This runs counter to natural inclination, which is why one must guard this very firmly in the heart - because the heart naturally resists the mitzvot.
כִּי אֹרֶךְ יָמִים וּשְׁנוֹת חַיִּים וְשָׁלוֹם יוֹסִיפוּ לָךְ׃ - For length of days, years of life, and peace they will add to you.
The Malbim explains: When "days" and "years" appear as parallel terms in a single verse, "length of days" indicates days of goodness, while "years of life" denotes an abundance of years. In essence: "length of days" is quality - that one's days are filled with good; "years of life" is quantity - that one is granted many years. It is possible to have one without the other: a person may live many years, yet without quality of life - years of suffering, sorrow, grief, poverty, and deprivation. He was granted years of life, but not length of days. The opposite can also occur: one's days are good and wonderful yet brief, and at age forty he passes away, Heaven forbid. Therefore, the verse assures: in the merit of "do not forget my Torah, and let your heart guard my mitzvot," you will receive both - days filled with good, and long years as well.
The Malbim adds further: the word shanim (years) typically denotes change (shinui), and most changes that a person experiences are for the worse. Therefore it says "and years of life and peace" - meaning that all the changes that occur in your life will be only for the good. There is a saying: no news is good news. When there is a news bulletin every twenty minutes, it is a sign that something bad has happened; but when they keep rehashing the exact same news for two weeks, you say: "Baruch Hashem, nothing has changed." Thus, the verse's promise is that your changes will bring only success, blessing, and peace.
From this, a statement of Chazal becomes beautifully clear. The verse states: "the days of the elders who prolonged their days after Yehoshua," and Chazal expound: "They prolonged their days, but they did not prolong their years." Seemingly, these are the same thing, but Chazal were precise with their words: "prolonged their days" refers to quality - days filled with goodness and years of tranquility; whereas quantity, living one hundred or one hundred and fifty years, falls under the category of "years" - and in this, they were not prolonged. They possessed quality, but not quantity.
We can add another allusion indicating that "length of days" expresses quality: What is the meaning of the Gemara's phrase arich le-man de-amar arich? It does not mean long versus short; rather, arich means fitting, proper, good to do so. To be sure, one is Aramaic and the other is Lashon HaKodesh, so this is merely by way of allusion, but "length of days" (orech yamim) alludes to good days. Incidentally, one frequently finds the idiom "long days" (yamim arukim), and the commentators explain that this refers to good days - arukim being related to arich, meaning good.
Thus, it promises him both things: both length of days - days of goodness in quality, and years of life - many years in quantity. Furthermore, "and peace" (veshalom) - sound (shalem) in body, sound in wealth, sound in his home, and sound in everything he has. All of this will be added to him through the power of the holy Torah.
And here is a very interesting point: Where is life expectancy the highest in Israel? In Bnei Brak. Yet in Bnei Brak, people do not do sports - at most, they sway back and forth next to a shtender; gyms are hardly a priority there, and there is not even a park to run in. Where would one run? Nevertheless, there is longevity there. Why? Because the Torah states, and there is a promise: "Length of days and years of life and peace will they add to you." And how? "Do not forget My Torah, and let your heart keep My mitzvos." Likewise: "And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house" - and what is stated afterward? "In order that your days may increase." The Torah promises that by keeping the mitzvos one's days will increase, and similarly regarding honoring parents. Granted, Chazal expound "that your days may increase" as referring to the life of the World to Come - "in a world that is entirely long" - and once again you see that this relates to the quality of life, for true, complete goodness belongs to the World to Come; but the principle stands: when a person fulfills Hashem's mitzvos, his days and years are lengthened.
חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת אַל־יַעַזְבֻךָ קָשְׁרֵם עַל־גַּרְגְּרוֹתֶיךָ כָּתְבֵם עַל־לוּחַ לִבֶּךָ׃ - Let kindness and truth not forsake you; bind them upon your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart.
The Malbim explains: Most matter of the Torah is encompassed within "chesed and emes." The mitzvos between man and fellow man fall under the category of chesed (kindness), while beliefs and theological outlooks fall under the category of emes (truth). One who does good for his fellow has performed chesed with him: "you shall surely help him" to unload, "if you lend money to My people," "you shall surely return them to your brother" - returning a lost object to him, as well as refraining from harming one's fellow. All mitzvos between man and fellow man are subsumed under the heading of chesed. In contrast, the cornerstones and foundations of faith are under the heading of emes: if you believe in false nonsense, you are living a lie and believing in vanity; but if you believe in Hashem, may He be blessed, Who is the source of truth, you believe in the truth.
"Let not chesed and emes forsake you" - grasp the truth in beliefs and hashkafah, and do not let your mind become corrupted to believe in vanities. Nor does this refer strictly to idolatry; a person might engage in Torah study, but, in the words of Chazal, "did not engage in it properly," and consequently his faith is also flawed and deficient. But if you engage in it properly, you will merit both: the chesed of interpersonal relationships, and the truth of sound beliefs and outlooks.
There is another distinction: Toras emes (a Torah of truth) and Toras chesed (a Torah of lovingkindness). Toras emes is what I am obligated to do; Toras chesed is what the chasid and tzaddik do beyond the strict requirement of the law - "and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue," acting piously toward his Creator. When I give you a loan, that is wonderful; when I repay the loan you gave me, that is emes - you lent to me, and I am obligated to repay. But when I give you a gift, that is chesed, for I am under no obligation to give gifts.
And here caution is required: "An uncultured person cannot be sin-fearing, nor can an ignoramus (am ha-aretz) be a chasid." An am ha-aretz cannot be a chasid, but he can be a tzaddik. What is a tzaddik? From the root tzedek (justice), one who does everything according to the letter of the law. A chasid is someone who is stringent and goes beyond what he is obligated to do - and if you are an am ha-aretz, how can you go beyond? It may be that precisely in this "going beyond," you are violating a prohibition. When a person performs a mitzvah without knowing precisely, without being a Torah scholar, there is no room for pious stringencies (chassidus), lest the very thing you consider an act of piety turns out to be a ruinous misstep.
Here is an example from the days of Chanukah, the season we are currently in: the halachic time for lighting the menorah is at sunset or at nightfall, depending on the differing halachic opinions. Suppose someone comes along and says: "I want people to see burning candles as early as twelve noon, when many people pass by here; I will pour in plenty of oil so that it remains burning until nightfall." He recites the blessing in a booming voice, the entire street responds "Amen," and he lights - regarding himself as a "chassid" (a person of exceptional piety): you lit at five o'clock and he already lit at noon, and his candles burned until midnight! In truth, however, he recited a blessing in vain (berachah le-vatalah) and accomplished nothing, for the act of kindling constitutes the mitzvah (hadlakah osah mitzvah), and this kindling took place outside its proper time. Do not try to be a chassid when you do not know the halachah. A tzaddik, on the other hand, does not try to outsmart the system: What time did they instruct us to light? At five - I light at five. Even an unlearned person (am ha'aretz) can fulfill this; but to attain true piety (chassidut), one must be a Torah scholar.
This is what the verse means when it says, "Let not kindness and truth forsake you" - not only truth, which is the fulfillment of the mitzvah according to the baseline requirement of the law, but also kindness (chesed): performing matters in the manner of Torat chesed, in accordance with what you attain through piety or through the divine inspiration (ruach hakodesh) resting upon you. The Malbim adds: just as a person conducts himself with kindness and truth, so the Holy One, blessed be He, conducts Himself with him measure for measure, bestowing upon him kindness from His kindness and truth from His truth.
"Bind them around your throat" - speech emerges from the throat. The Malbim explains: the throat (garon) is the internal part of the neck, the place from which the voice issues forth, whereas an ornament - such as "the gold chain on his neck" - rests upon the external, upper part. Gargerotecha ("your throat") refers to the inner, lower passage from which speech emanates. In other words: speak of them, occupy yourself with words of Torah constantly until they are fluent on your tongue, and through this, Torah study and wisdom will become engraved within you.
"Write them upon the tablet of your heart" - the heart is the governing force in man, and a person acts according to his will and the desires of his heart. This heart is constantly drawn toward desires, toward ambitions for success, wealth, fame, and renown; it is surrounded by snares and nets, and pulled in many negative directions that oppose the paths of wisdom. Therefore, in order to acquire wisdom, one must "write them upon the tablet of your heart." And what does it mean to write? To engrave. It must be engraved upon the heart, for otherwise it will quickly be erased. Just as it says, "and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets" - writing here means engraving. Engrave these matters upon your heart, and through this the heart will distance itself from those harmful pursuits.
And as the Rambam states: thoughts of immorality (arayot) are found only in a heart devoid of wisdom. A person whose mind and thoughts are constantly immersed in words of Torah, in holiness, and in spiritual matters - the evil inclination for immorality has no entry point into him. When does it have an entrance? When the heart is devoid of wisdom: when he is not engaged in words of Torah, not occupied with wisdom, not thoroughly absorbed with all his 248 limbs and 365 sinews in the 613 mitzvot and in fulfilling the will of Hashem - that is when the evil inclination has snares and nets to trap him. Therefore: engrave these matters upon your heart, because otherwise the heart will naturally lean toward whatever pulls at it.
It is related in the name of the Gerrer Rebbe, who asked: Why does the Torah say, "And these words that I command you today shall be upon your heart (al levavecha)"? What is the meaning of "upon"? It should have said "within your heart" (betoch levavecha)! "Upon" implies on the outside - is that sufficient? He explained: sometimes you say to someone, "Come to a shiur, there is a lecture, a mussar discourse, let us go and listen." He replies, "Look, I am not in the right state; spiritually, I am not there yet." A person sometimes goes through difficult days, times of crisis, or is on a low spiritual level, and he says, "What is the point of listening if I am not going to fulfill it?" Tell him: that is a mistake! Listen, and listen again, pay attention once more, and hear it yet again. Even if it remains only on the outside and does not penetrate the heart right away - it does not matter: "And these words shall be upon your heart." One day the heart will open, and everything will drop inside.
This is a tangible reality. People who have never heard anything - even when they wish to repent (teshuvah), they do not know where to begin. They know nothing, and even when they want to do a good deed, they sometimes do something foolish thinking it is a mitzvah: going out on Shabbat and giving money to charity! But someone who has heard and learned - when the spark ignites in him two years from now, and he feels the yearning and desire to fulfill the will of Hashem, everything he heard and learned, even though he did not practice it back then - and it is unfortunate that he did not practice it - now sinks inside. He immediately knows what to do: he picks up a Siddur and begins to pray, puts on tefillin; he is familiar with it all. Everything was resting "upon" the heart, and now it all enters inside.
In this light, it has often been observed: when people say of someone, "This rabbi brought him back in teshuvah" - that is not entirely accurate. Often, the rabbi was merely delivering the final hammer-blow (makeh be-patish). That person - over here an aunt dropped a word, over there his parents said something, and here his brother-in-law commented whenever they met. After all, he did not encounter the Torah out of nowhere; he has been hearing it for fifty years! The moment of decision may indeed have followed the rabbi's talk, but what came to fruition at that point? Everything that had been said to him up to that day. A person might think: "I am talking to a brick wall; it has no effect; he stays exactly the same." That may seem true, but when the moment arrives - everything you said will do its work, and everything you spoke will move from potential to actualization. People chiseled away at the stone all around it, chiseling and chiseling, until only the final attachment to the bedrock remained; the one who delivered the final hammer-blow was the rabbi. Yet without all those who chiseled before him, how could that single blow have brought the work to completion?
There are indeed extreme cases where someone is brought back in teshuvah even though they never had any connection to Judaism, were never spoken to, and never heard a thing - but these are isolated incidents. Usually, years of softening and preparation came first: here he heard about an incident of divine providence, here he saw with his own eyes how someone who did evil received evil, here someone emailed him an allusion to something that happened from the haftarah, and here he witnessed another matter. None of these on their own brought him back in teshuvah, but it worked and worked and worked, and at the right moment all these influences found expression.
וּמְצָא־חֵן וְשֵׂכֶל־טוֹב בְּעֵינֵי אֱלֹהִים וְאָדָם׃ - And find favor and good understanding in the eyes of God and man.
The Malbim explains: Through human wisdom and understanding as well - not divine wisdom, not Torah - a person can find favor and intellect. First, people of discernment say of him that he has found intellect, meaning there is wisdom in the studies he pursues. Second, he finds favor in the eyes of people, for men of wisdom and understanding generally possess charm and appeal: they always have a clever and insightful saying, and people are drawn to them, eager to hear their view.
Yet know this: through the Torah, through divine wisdom, you will find favor and good understanding in the eyes of God. There, you found favor only in the eyes of man - you are wise in natural sciences and philosophy, and people are drawn to you to hear your wisdom; here, you have achieved far more - favor in the eyes of Hashem, blessed is He.
Furthermore, in human wisdom you attained "understanding" (sechel) - a certain form of wisdom; but "good understanding" (sechel tov) means that you reach true spiritual perception, divine inspiration (Ruach HaKodesh). A person can be the wisest and most learned in the natural sciences, even reaching the level of Aristotle, about whom the Rambam says reached the level just below prophecy - but does he possess Ruach HaKodesh? Does he receive messages from God? His wisdom is earthly and material; that is intellect, but not "good understanding."
The virtue of "good understanding" is that all the insights derived from it are absolute truth. When you gain wisdom in natural sciences, you may be mistaken, or you may arrive at an inaccurate conclusion; but "good understanding," which stems from His goodness, blessed is He, provides knowledge that is entirely precise, because it comes directly from the Source. And how does one merit this? By finding favor in the eyes of God - by fulfilling the Torah, the divine wisdom; then you will find favor in His eyes and possess good understanding, and consequently also "in the eyes of man": you will earn the esteem of others, and people will come to learn wisdom from your mouth.
Shlomo HaMelech teaches his son a complete progression: "Do not forget My Torah" - constant study and meditation upon all parts of the Torah, laws, halachot, and narratives that teach faith, divine providence, and character traits; "and let your heart keep My commandments" - practical observance that rules over the heart inclined toward desire. As a reward for this, "length of days" in quality is promised, "years of life" in quantity, and peace in body, wealth, and home, with every turn of events for the good. "Let kindness and truth not forsake you" - perfection in interpersonal relationships and in beliefs and outlooks, as well as the Torah of truth according to strict law and the Torah of kindness that goes beyond the letter of the law, provided that one is a true scholar. "Bind them upon your neck" - to speak of them constantly; "write them upon the tablet of your heart" - to engrave them upon the heart, lest they be erased, as in the words of the Rambam that immoral thoughts dwell only in a heart devoid of wisdom. And even things that currently rest only "upon" the heart from the outside - the day will come when they enter within. Ultimately, the Torah promises those who cling to divine wisdom what human wisdom can never grant: favor in the eyes of God, good understanding that is absolute truth, and consequently, favor and understanding in the eyes of man as well.