Introduction
In Chapter 16, King Solomon continues to contrast the path of the wise with the path of the foolish. The two verses before us deal with the three stages of acquiring wisdom - chochmah, tevunah, and da'at - and with the question of how one transforms intellectual knowledge into an actual second nature in his life. Conversely, they also teach the opposite process: how a person warps his natural intellect through the force of habit, until he identifies with the distortion itself.
Chochmah, Tevunah, and Da'at - Three Stages
לַחֲכַם־לֵב יִקָּרֵא נָבוֹן, וּמֶתֶק שְׂפָתַיִם יֹסִיף לֶקַח. - The wise in heart is called discerning, and sweetness of lips increases learning.
We have discussed this several times, and it is worth repeating: chochmah (wisdom) is what one receives by tradition from Hashem - the knowledge of what is good and what is bad, what is moral and what is immoral, the pathways of wisdom and delving into it. Tevunah (understanding or discernment) is the contemplation of the teachings of wisdom and drawing conclusions from them, which is no longer received passively, but rather what a person brings forth from within himself. Afterward comes the aspect of da'at (deep knowledge): whereas initially wisdom was received from others, accepted like the Torah from Sinai, after contemplating matters one understands them in depth and knows why it must be so. What was initially accepted merely on tradition becomes something one deeply identifies with after thorough contemplation, seeing its righteousness, its integrity, its logic, and its beauty. To comprehend wisdom thoroughly - that is tevunah, and one who comprehends wisdom thoroughly is called a navon (discerning person).
The Difference Between a Chacham and a Chacham-Lev
Let us begin with the chacham (the wise person). A chacham is someone who knows what ought to be done, what is good and what is bad, what is moral and what is not. But does mere knowledge guarantee that one will easily overcome temptation? There is no necessary connection between the two. A person may know that dishonest money is flawed, negative, and a severe transgression - he understands it all intellectually, he is wise; yet in terms of desires and impulses, he still feels drawn to take that money. He knows that matters of immodesty and forbidden relations are profoundly destructive, yet in terms of cravings and impulses, there is an attraction to those very things. The mere wisdom and knowledge of what is proper and what is not, what is upright and what is not, does not guarantee that it will be easy to act accordingly. That is what is called a chacham.
The Malbim explains: a chacham-lev (wise in heart) is someone whose ruling power - the heart - is governed by wisdom, leaving him with no internal struggle. Wisdom has gained mastery over the heart, that is, over the desires, the inclinations, and the governing faculties within man, and consequently, it has become second nature to him.
Consider the example of a ba'al teshuvah, which illustrates this vividly. Suppose that he used to attend a ballgame every Shabbat. During the first few weeks of keeping Shabbat, he experiences an intense internal struggle: intellectually, he understands perfectly well that this is vanity and nonsense, that this is the holy Shabbat, how sublime and sacred it is, and why it should not be squandered on trivialities - but the inner war raging inside him is massive. After he grows and elevates himself, after changing his appearance, his habits, and his way of life - "There is a game on Shabbat?" What are you even talking about? Even if you paid him, he would not go, nor would he go on a weekday. Wisdom has become so deeply integrated within him that the heart, the ruling power, now steers him along the path of wisdom. What was initially fraught with conflicts and battles has become his very identity: he identifies completely with wisdom, it is part of who he is, and he no longer feels any temptation at all.
The Navon - Deriving One Thing from Another
The Malbim explains that a navon is one who understands one thing from another (meivin davar mitoch davar), and through deep contemplation, he attains the level of da'at - possessing clear, absolute knowledge, not merely as an estimation or simple belief. This is also the secret to overcoming desire with ease. When someone is told, "Do not do that," and asks why, only to be answered, "Just because" - he is hardly convinced, and remains locked in a constant internal struggle: "Why shouldn't I do it? What will happen if I do?" "Do not touch!" - "Why do you care if I touch it? Nothing will happen." But if one is shown how touching the object ruins it, the yetzer hara telling him to touch it is uprooted at the source: it has been demonstrated that touching it ruins it completely, damages it beyond repair, and makes it fit only for the trash. Now, overcoming the temptation is vastly easier.
There used to be halogen bulbs - today they are less common - where touching the glass with bare hands left skin oils that caused the bulb to burn out upon being turned on. If you tell a child, "Do not touch," why wouldn't he touch it? He is curious to touch, explore, and see. But an adult who understands why has no reason to touch it, and beyond that, he no longer feels any temptation or urge saying, "Let us test it." Similarly, when someone is told, "Do not touch," regarding an item worth thousands of dollars, and it is explained that touching it contaminates and ruins it - does any struggle remain? It is quite simple: if one does not want to suffer a loss, one does not touch.
This is a simple example, from which we can understand: when I understand something, it is easier for me to overcome and cope; when I do not understand, it is difficult. "Why not? What is the problem?" - "The tree was desirable to look at, a delight to the eyes." Why not eat from the fruit of the tree in the garden? Was there an explanation? "You shall surely die" - woe to you, you will die. But what will happen? Why is it not good? And through this, the temptation was born. For consider: if one can eat from every tree in the garden and only from one tree not, what will happen? Nothing will happen. But the moment you told me, "No, know that you are forbidden to eat," you immediately aroused in me an urge to understand why, why, why did you forbid this to me - and then precisely because of that I want to eat. If someone had said to me: Listen, the moment this tree touches your mouth, it is poison, it is a poisonous fruit, that is why I am telling you not to take it - on the spot, you would have uprooted from me the evil inclination to eat from it.
And this is what the verse is saying: The wise person, by having reached the level of tevunah - contemplation of wisdom and deeds - has reached the level of da'at, which is complete identification with the matter. Not just "it is forbidden," not merely the acceptance through wisdom that this is forbidden and that is permitted, but deep contemplation of it until reaching da'at. Then it is much easier for him to be "wise of heart," for wisdom to rule over him, and for the internal struggle against any sin to be uprooted from within him. Therefore, "The wise of heart is called understanding": how did he make wisdom rule over him, how did he uproot and nullify the internal struggles? By becoming understanding - by contemplating deeply and seeing that this is how things must be, and then he has no desire at all to do the opposite, and the entire struggle falls away from him.
Mouth and Lips - Wisdom and Knowledge
We have already seen numerous times that the mouth represents wisdom (chochmah) and the lips represent knowledge (da'at). Why? The mouth is more internal, and that corresponds to wisdom, which is internal; the lips are more external, corresponding to the dimension of da'at. For wisdom is acquired by tradition; one cannot arrive at it on one's own: Hashem said that this is permitted and Hashem said that this is forbidden, and even if I think otherwise - that is how things are, accept them. But after I delve deeply and contemplate, I reach the level of da'at, where I identify with and understand the logic behind the matter as well - and that is already the dimension of externality, the revealed, like the lips. The mouth is concealed and internal, while the lips are revealed.
Therefore the verse continues: "And sweetness of lips increases learning." Even though the wise of heart has reached the level of an understanding person, by virtue of nature, habit, and identification - if he transfers that wisdom to his lips, if he accustoms it to speech and brings it to the realm of da'at symbolized by the lips, he will increase learning. He will discover new realms, arriving at fresh understandings and deeper insights. What was initially an axiom - "accept it this way, this is the wisdom" - will, after you delve into it, yield new fruits and insights you did not have before.
A Fountain of Life is the Intellect of its Possessor
מְקוֹר חַיִּים שֵׂכֶל בְּעָלָיו, וּמוּסַר אֱוִלִים אִוֶּלֶת. - A fountain of life is the intellect of its possessor, but the chastisement of fools is foolishness.
Rashi explains: A person's intellect is the fountain of life for him - through the intellect you have life, and whoever acts without intellect destroys his own life. "And the chastisement of fools is foolishness" - fools receive chastisement, meaning suffering, and by virtue of what? By virtue of their own foolishness. He does foolish things and he gets slapped down, as it says, "The foolishness of a man perverts his way." A person went and gambled on a failing business, did all kinds of things against the advice of all counselors and experts, and then fell into debt, went bankrupt, and is hounded - "Master of the Universe, why are You doing such things to me?" And look at the continuation of the verse: "The foolishness of a man perverts his way, and his heart frets against Hashem" - afterward he harbors anger toward the Creator of the world. Why did Hashem do this to him? He does not understand that he caused it himself. The suffering of the fool comes because of his foolishness: They told you no - why did you force your way? They told you this is not the way - why did you insist? Your foolishness is what caused you damage, and whom will you blame? Only yourself.
Who is the Ksil?
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: The intellect in a person, as Rashi noted, is the fountain of life to its possessor, because through the intellect he investigates, examines, and strives to arrive at the proper paths for the service of Hashem and doing what is right. Thus, through the intellect, one reaches the fountain of life.
We have already explained several times that in Shlomo HaMelech's terminology, the ksil is not someone with a low IQ. A ksil is someone who does not act according to the ways of wisdom. A person can be a professor, he can be a scientist - yet if he does not live his life correctly, he is called a ksil, for he harms himself, and that is absolute foolishness. A diabetic who now eats a huge portion of ice cream, packed with calories and sugar, and says "after me, the deluge" - he is not merely someone driven by desire; he is a ksil. If you know that in a few minutes you will suffer a sugar spike, you are destroying yourself and killing yourself. "How dare you speak to me like that, I am a scientist!" - with all due respect to your science, in your human life you are a ksil, and your behavior is the behavior of a ksil. Who, then, walks in the path of life? "The intellect of its possessor" - one who acts according to intellect to choose the right path; that is a person of intellect, a truly enlightened person, a person of understanding.
How a Person Distorts His Natural Intellect
"And the chastisement of fools is folly" - Rabbeinu Yonah explains: even though man possesses intellect, he can distort his natural intellect by accustoming himself to choose evil. Rabbeinu Yonah presents a terrifying concept here, one that the Baalei Mussar discuss frequently: if a person trains himself to follow his heart's desires and engage in negative behavior, at a certain point he will develop an entire ideology around it, fully identifying with what he does. Note this well: even if it initially stemmed from mere lust or other physical impulses, once he has habituated himself to it, it seems obvious to him that this is how things ought to be, and he views it as the necessary path. Through the power of habit, he has so corrupted himself that he identifies with the distortion and finds nothing wrong with it.
This is how an entire ideology develops: a racial ideology, as in Germany, may their name and memory be blotted out; or in less extreme examples, Communist ideology - that everyone must be equal - leading to the torment and murder of millions and hundreds of millions of people, all in the name of the doctrine of universal equality. And how did one arrive at such an outcome? At first, he cultivated and developed the ideas, repeating them over and over, until he became a fervent believer in the most warped concepts, identifying with them wholeheartedly.
It follows, then, says Rabbeinu Yonah, that a person can distort his natural intellect. And why use the expression "distort his natural intellect" - perhaps he was simply born warped? Because "God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." That is, no one can claim that the Creator made him crooked; you were created with an upright mind. How, then, did you arrive at such twistedness and corruption? You habituated yourself time and again, over and over, until these patterns became second nature, until you came to identify with the wicked and justify injustice, all stemming from the crookedness you yourself internalized. In his words: A person can distort his natural intellect and corrupt his uprightness through habit, desire, and choosing evil.
In summary:
The two verses before us present two opposite paths built upon the same psychological principle - the power of habit and deep contemplation. "The wise in heart will be called discerning": one who contemplates and delves deeply into wisdom until reaching mature understanding uproots the internal struggle, so that wisdom reigns over his heart and becomes second nature; and if he accustoms his lips to it, he will increase learning and uncover new insights. Conversely, "the chastisement of fools is folly": the afflictions of a fool stem from his own foolishness, and ultimately he rages against Hashem instead of recognizing that he brought them upon himself. Furthermore, the habit of choosing evil distorts the upright intellect endowed to him at birth, until a person fully identifies with the distortion and elevates it to the level of an ideology. Therefore, "understanding is a fountain of life to its possessor" - one who acts according to reason to choose the right path, he alone acquires true life.