In Chapter 17, Shlomo HaMelech continues to explore the reciprocal relationship between the soul and the body, and between justice and its perversion. In the two verses before us, we encounter two realms: the power of joy to heal the human body and the power of sadness to dry up one's bones, and on the other hand - the destructive power of bribery to pervert the ways of justice. We will proceed verse by verse, citing the explanations of Rashi, Rabbeinu Yonah, the Vilna Gaon, and the Malbim, and through them derive moral lessons for our lives.
לֵב שָׂמֵחַ יֵיטִב גֵּהָה וְרוּחַ נְכֵאָה תְּיַבֶּשׁ גָּרֶם׃ (כב) - A joyful heart brings good healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. (22)
Rashi explains: When a person is happy with his lot, his face radiates. "Yeitiv gehah" means that his face shines brightly. Rabbeinu Yonah interprets this differently: "gehah" means healing. Incidentally, this is the origin of names familiar to us: the Geha Psychiatric Hospital (after which the Geha Highway is named), and similarly "Assuta", which means healing in Aramaic. It is customary for hospitals to be named with words meaning healing. According to this, Rabbeinu Yonah explains: when a person has joy in his heart, through the power of this joy he is healed.
And see what tremendous wisdom Shlomo HaMelech possessed. What modern studies are proving today, he already wrote in a single verse. Today there are even "medical clowns" - people whose entire role is to cheer up patients, because it has been scientifically proven that a patient in high spirits recovers better. Singers and clowns are brought to terminal patients, cancer patients, and sick children to lift them even slightly out of depression. Depression destroys a person, while joy pulls him out. It turns out that when a person is happy, chemicals are released in his brain that have a positive effect on his health. Shlomo already knew this: "A joyful heart brings good healing" - joy brings healing to a person.
And there is linguistic proof for this: it is stated, "He will not heal (yigheh) your wound (mazor)" (Hoshea 5:13). What is "mazor"? Healing. And from what root does it come? From the phrase "They have not been pressed out (zoru), neither bound up" (Yeshayahu 1:6) - for they would sprinkle medicinal powders onto wounds to heal them, which is why "mazor" refers to a cure. Thus, from the fact that Scripture pairs "yigheh" with "mazor", you learn that "gehah" denotes healing.
יֹלֵד כְּסִיל לְתוּגָה לוֹ וְלֹא יִשְׂמַח אֲבִי נָבָל׃ (כא) - One who fathers a fool does so to his sorrow, and the father of a scoundrel has no joy. (21)
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that our verse is juxtaposed with the preceding verse. The father of a scoundrel has no joy; the father of a fool has only sorrow. That is all he gets from his child: the child caused damage, broke things, came home from school with a reprimand in his notebook, or was expelled. Scripture then comes and says: "A joyful heart brings good healing" - know that the lack of joy caused by the foolish son is not merely an absence of happiness, but actual damage to one's health, since joy is the primary source of healing for the bodily limbs. Do not think that this is merely a minor lack; it is a detriment to health itself.
And the severity of the affliction that befalls the father of a fool is that grief dominates him, and then "a broken spirit dries up the bones" - it withers his very bones. From here you learn how much a person is obligated to educate his children and accustom them to an upright path. Do not think that if the child acts poorly you will merely feel sadness - it can literally kill you. Sadly, how many cases do we know where children brought down the gray hair of their parents in sorrow to the grave, through the troubles they caused them and the anguish they inflicted upon them.
And what is meant by "dries up the bones" (teyabesh garem)? "Garem" is the bone. Yet before a person's bones dry up, there are many preceding stages: he has bodily fat, which gradually wastes away until "his flesh wastes away from fatness", and only in the next stage does it reach the bones. Scripture comes and says: Do not think that sadness will merely reduce your body's fat levels - it will crush you until it breaks even the bone. And this is already a very profound loss of any spirit of life within him, and all the more so that he will have no healing - "gehah".
The Vilna Gaon explains along a different path: gehah refers to the face. At first glance this is difficult to understand, but based on the Malbim's words - "a joyful heart makes for a pleasant countenance" - the direction becomes clear. Gehah is related to gevah (body or frame), as the letters aleph, hei, vav, yud interchange, and gevah refers to the external body, the outer part of man. "A joyful heart makes for good healing (gehah)" - it improves the exterior, man's face.
The Gaon explains: In the physical makeup of man there are four layers, one within the other - skin, flesh, sinews, and bones. The outermost of all is the skin, within it lies the flesh, within that are the sinews, and innermost are the bones. Corresponding to these are man's spiritual levels, his soul-aspects (Naran). Man possesses nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah - five levels, whereas here we counted four. The Gaon says: Yechidah is not counted at all, as only rare individuals have attained it - "Deliver my soul from the sword, my only one (yechidati) from the power of the dog" - Adam HaRishon, David HaMelech, rare, elite individuals. Chayah is also a very elevated level, and normally we speak of Naran (nefesh, ruach, neshamah). Nefesh, ruach, neshamah, and chayah are still within the realm of attainment, whereas yechidah, in the words of the Gaon, is attained by no one, and even in the future only extraordinary individuals will merit it - which is another reason for its name, yechidah, since only unique individuals (yechidim) attain it.
Indeed, when a person passes away, observe where the deterioration begins: the first thing that changes is the complexion of the face, meaning the skin, the outermost part. Afterward, when the body has gone hours without receiving blood, decomposition begins in the flesh - a slightly more interior part. In the third stage, the sinews begin to decay, and only in the fourth stage do the bones dry out and decay. The order of decomposition is: skin, flesh, sinews, and finally bones.
Thus says the Vilna Gaon: "A joyful heart makes for good healing (gehah)" - joy benefits even the skin, which is gehah from the root gevah, the exterior, the face. The skin is the first to be damaged, yet joy of the heart has the power to heal and improve even it. On the other hand, "a broken spirit dries the bone" - a crushed spirit does not merely dry the skin and flesh, which are the first to dry out, but manages to dry out even the bone, which is the hardest to desiccate and the last to dry up.
And why does the verse say garem rather than etzem? The Gaon explains that there is a difference between them: etzem is the outer part of the bone, while garem is its inner part - the marrow within the bone. When a bone dries out, first the outer part dries, and only gradually does moisture leave the bone marrow until it too dries out. The verse comes to teach you: a broken spirit dries out even the garem, even the marrow deep inside the bone.
Notice how visible this is to the eye. When a person is depressed, there is an expression, "shriveling and miserable." He withdraws into himself, his face looks pinched and drawn, he takes up no space, shutting himself in a corner, and everything reflects the sadness in which he is steeped. In contrast, when a person is in a state of joy, you see him open up and expand; everything broadens - his smile, his posture, as though his very bones are expanding. This is how joy expresses itself in the physical body itself.
The Malbim contrasts our verse with what we saw earlier in chapter 15: "לֵב שָׂמֵחַ יֵיטִב פָּנִים וּבְעַצְּבַת לֵב רוּחַ נְכֵאָה" - "A joyful heart makes for a pleasant countenance, but with sorrow of the heart comes a broken spirit." Here, the verse speaks of one who has a cheerful heart yet at the same time a crushed spirit. What does this mean? Look at all the celebrities and partygoers, at all the supposedly "important" figures. Does any of us envy their mental state? Perhaps their money, perhaps their fame, but not their inner state of mind. It is well known that each of them sustains several psychologists, and some psychiatrists as well. Material success does not guarantee emotional well-being. More money does not make a person happier; often, on the contrary, one who has more money is more preoccupied with it, worries about it more, and is more stressed because of it, while one who has less is less stressed.
Consider the story of the king whose son fell ill. The doctors told him that the only thing that could cure him was to wear the shirt of a happy man. The king sent his ministers and servants to search throughout the entire country for a happy man. They went from place to place: "Are you happy?" One replied, "Perhaps when I finish paying off the mortgage." "And you?" "Perhaps when I stop getting calls from the children's teachers." "And you?" "Perhaps when my bank overdraft is closed." It turned out to be exceedingly difficult to find anyone who considered himself happy. Finally, they saw a shepherd sitting peacefully on the grass, his flock around him, playing a flute. They asked him, "Are you happy?" He said to them, "There is no happier man in the world than me." They said to him, "Do a kindness for the king and give us your shirt, for his son has been ill for a long time." He replied, "I do not have a shirt - and if I did have a shirt, I would no longer be happy, for then I would have to worry about washing it, ironing it, and making sure it does not tear." What brings a person happiness is having nothing to worry about, whereas the more possessions one accumulates - "one who increases possessions increases worry," and there is certainly no happiness in that.
The Malbim therefore explains: "A joyful heart makes for good healing" - it is possible for a person to have a joyful heart, where the heart here reflects the exterior, while in his inner depths his spirit is broken. And this state is very dire. It is far better for a person to have sorrow of the heart than a broken spirit, for sorrow of the heart is merely external grief. If outward-facing a person appears joyful and happy, posing nicely for pictures, but deep down he is steadily depressed, that is a tragedy. Better the opposite: that externally he might appear downtrodden and lowly, while deep within, joy fills his entire being.
"A joyful heart makes for good healing" - when a person possesses only a joyful heart, his external aspect, his body (gevah), appears happy; it "makes for a pleasant countenance," smiling as if everything is wonderful. "But a broken spirit dries the bone" - if within him there is a crushed spirit, it dries out even the inner bone; it consumes him from the inside. Therefore, the essential thing is that one's inner essence be joyful, even if an outside observer might think, "Look at that poor, destitute fellow, he does not look happy." A person who gives an outward impression of happiness while eating himself up inside is in a far worse state.
שֹׁחַד מֵחֵק רָשָׁע יִקָּח לְהַטּוֹת אׇרְחוֹת מִשְׁפָּט׃ (כג) - A bribe from the bosom of the wicked he takes, to subvert the paths of justice. (23)
Rashi offers a fascinating interpretation here. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, accepts words of submission and appeasement from the bosom of the wicked - as if He "takes a bribe," a bribe of conciliation and humility, "from the bosom," meaning in secret, between Him and them. And what does He do with this bribe? "To subvert the paths of justice" - to turn his verdict from evil to good.
An example of this is Menasheh. The Chaldeans in Babylon had already placed him inside a copper caldron and kindled a fire beneath him, and he cried out from within the pot to the Holy One, Blessed Is He. There it was not mere submission, but a desperate cry of anguish; he said: If You answer me, it proves You exist, and if not, You are, Heaven forbid, no better than all the other idols that were unavailable until now. And the Holy One, Blessed Is He, tunneled a special opening for him and restored him to his kingdom. And with whom do we find genuine submission? "Have you seen how Achav has humbled himself before Me?" Achav was wicked. Eliyahu came to him and spoke harsh words - "Have you murdered and also taken possession?" - and what did he do? He wore sackcloth and walked softly. This is, as it were, the bribe that the Holy One, Blessed Is He, accepts from the wicked: conciliation in secret between Him and himself, to overturn his judgment from harshness to favor. Therefore it was said to him: I will not bring the evil in his days, but in the days of his sons. See what power a person has when he nullifies his own intellect and will before Hashem and speaks words of appeasement and submission - it possesses the power to sway his judgment for good.
Yet ostensibly, it is said of the Holy One, Blessed Is He, "He will not take a bribe." For what could one give Him? Will one say: Master of the Universe, take a million dollars? That million also belongs to Him, "for all the earth is Mine." Rather, Chazal explain: "He will not take a bribe" - this refers to the bribe of a mitzvah. A person should not say: Master of the Universe, true, I committed a few minor sins, but look how many mitzvos I performed, let us offset them. There is no such offset: for the sins one must pay, and for the mitzvos one receives reward. Furthermore, in another sense: a father cannot bribe with his merits on behalf of his son - even Avraham cannot save Yishmael from Gehinnom; merits are merits, but "I do not take a bribe." And what is meant here by saying that Hashem, as it were, takes a bribe? It is a borrowed metaphor: that He is willing to accept a person's submission, and that is akin to a bribe, in order to sway his judgment and judge him with righteousness and lovingkindness.
Rabbeinu Yonah notes that the Torah warns the judge - "Do not take a bribe" - whereas regarding the giver it does not say "Do not give a bribe." There is no specific negative commandment directed at the giver; the prohibition applies to the recipient. The giver presumably violates "Do not place a stumbling block before the blind," but a distinct prohibition was not written for him. Thus, the verse comes here to teach that the giver is also wicked: "A bribe from the bosom of the wicked he takes" - the bribe is given from the bosom of the wicked, for one knows that through the bribe justice will be perverted, and it is wicked to come and render an unlawful judgment, exonerating the guilty party merely because he gave money.
Rabbeinu Yonah further explains: it is the liable party, the one arguing falsely, who typically gives a bribe. For why would an honest man who knows justice is on his side give a bribe? He is confident he will be vindicated and prove his claims (unless he seeks to counterbalance a judge because the opposing party gave a bribe). Under normal circumstances, does a person feel the need to bribe an inspector who comes to issue a citation for legal construction? Of course not - he will go to the municipality and prove that everything is lawful. Who gives a bribe? One who built illegally, and when the inspector arrives, he slips him a sum. Some inspectors have demands so high they would not embarrass even professors: for them it is supplemental income, and for you, peace of mind for several years. In Romania, it is widely known that when a police officer pulls someone over, the driver hands him a sum and continues on his way; the officer finishes his shift at six, stakes out an intersection, pulls drivers over for failing to signal and the like - and that is his supplemental income.
A driver once went for a vehicle inspection and was failed for something trivial, a taillight or something similar. The mechanic who serviced the car told him: Go back again, and slip fifty shekels between the papers. That is what happened, and he passed without any problem. Had he known, he could have saved the re-test fee as well. But one must reflect: woe to us if this is also how it works with brakes, steering, or malfunctions that endanger human life! Perhaps that inspector fears for his own soul and passes vehicles only with minor defects and not severe ones - who knows? In any case, to return to the laws of jurisprudence: one who is in the right has no need for bribery, and one who finds it necessary to give a bribe thereby proves that he is the liable and deceitful party. "A bribe from the bosom of the wicked he takes" - the judge takes only from the bosom of the wicked; on the contrary, by the very act of offering the bribe, one proves that the guilt lies with him.
On the very question of why the Torah forbids only accepting bribery and not giving it, a Russian judge once challenged the Rav of Brisk. He said to him: Russian law is more just than Jewish law - may dust fill his mouth! Why? Because under Russian law, both the giver and the recipient are prosecuted and severely punished, whereas under Torah law, nothing can be done to the giver: he transgressed no specific negative commandment, receives no lashes, and walks home a free man. The recipient, by contrast, is punished, removed from his post, violates a negative prohibition, and may even receive lashes. It turns out that Russian law prevents corruption, while Jewish law encourages it! The giver thinks, "What do I have to lose? If he takes it, he takes it; if he doesn't, no harm done" - a win-or-draw gamble.
The Rav of Brisk replied: On the contrary, Russian law encourages bribery, while Torah law prevents bribery. The judge asked: How so? He explained: A person wishing to bribe a judge enters his chambers and slips him an envelope containing two thousand, three thousand, depending on the size of the claim; the verdict is tilted in his favor, and the matter is closed. Why is the judge calm? Because he knows it will go no further: "If you talk, they will hang you; if I talk, they will hang me; there is a pact of silence between us." Under Torah law, however, the judge fears the envelope like fire: if he is caught, he will be ruined, whereas the giver can run tomorrow and tell his friends, "Judge So-and-so accepts bribes; I took care of things with him, just slip him an envelope" - since the giver has nothing to lose and will not be punished. Thus, it is precisely Russian law that ensures a pact of silence, whereas Torah law makes the judge fear for his life. In truth, then, the Torah prevented bribery rather than encouraging it. And the Russian judge's face fell in shame, for there is genuine truth and justice in these words for anyone who reflects upon them. This insight was once shared with a judge, and he enjoyed it immensely.
The Vilna Gaon connects this verse to the end of the previous one: that the broken spirit also accepts a bribe from the wicked. How these ideas connect - why someone of broken spirit would take a bribe from a wicked person to pervert justice - is not entirely clear, but since these are his words, they are mentioned here.
The Malbim explains that there are several types of bribery. The first: a judge who takes money from both parties merely to agree to hear their case - "You want me to judge your dispute? Let each give a thousand shekels" - along the lines of what is said, "Her leaders judge for a bribe." This is bribery, yet less severe, since there is no perversion of justice here. The second: taking money to broker a compromise. Here a serious problem already begins, as one of the parties might be completely in the right, yet because of the money one forces a compromise - a little to this one and a little to that one - contrary to the law. Of this it is said, "Everyone loves a bribe and chases after payments." The third: in a case involving shuda dedayana (judicial discretion), meaning a ruling based on the judge's assessment, where there is no clear and fixed law but rather discretion as to where the truth lies. Here too it is grave, for logically one would have leaned toward party A, but because of the bribe, one rules in favor of party B.
Yet there is outright, blatant bribery: when Party A is liable and Party B is innocent, and one takes money from the liable party to exonerate him and convict the innocent. This is a total perversion of justice, and this is what our verse addresses. According to the Malbim, the verse is to be read: "A bribe from the bosom" - that is, a bribe given covertly, in the bosom - "the wicked one will take," meaning the wicked judge is the one taking it. This is not as we explained previously, that the bribe is taken from the bosom of the wicked giver, but rather that the wicked one is the recipient. And why specifically "from the bosom"? Because the earlier types of bribes - taking a fee to hear the case or to broker a compromise - he takes openly, claiming he has come to arrange an equitable compromise. But a bribe whose sole purpose is "to pervert the paths of justice," to convict the innocent and acquit the guilty, is taken secretly and quietly, so that it goes entirely unnoticed.
As an illustration, the Malbim cites the episode involving the philosopher in the Gemara, Shabbat 116a. Imma Shalom, the wife of Rabbi Eliezer and sister of Rabban Gamliel, lived near a philosopher who served as a judge and had cultivated a reputation as one who never accepts bribes. They wished to expose him and make a mockery of his supposed integrity in public. She went to him for judgment, having first sent him a golden lamp to "smooth" things over. She claimed before him that she wished to divide her parents' estate - that is, to share in the inheritance. He said to them: Divide it; she is entitled to half.
Rabban Gamliel said to him: But we have an established halachah that wherever there is a son, a daughter does not inherit! The judge replied: From the day you were exiled from your land, the Torah of Moshe was superseded and the "Aven Gilyon" was given - referring to the New Testament; Chazal mocked their texts, calling them Aven Gilyon, a scroll of iniquity and wickedness, or Aven as falsehood, "words of deceit and falsehood." And it is written in it: "A son and a daughter inherit equally."
Rabban Gamliel did not concede. The next day he brought the judge a Libyan donkey - in modern terms, a heavy-duty, premium vehicle. They arrived for another hearing, and the judge said to them: "There is an update; I read further toward the end of that book, and I saw written there in the name of that man: 'I did not come to detract from the Torah of Moshe, nor did I come to add to the Torah of Moshe.'" Imma Shalom hinted to him: "May your light shine like a lamp" - meaning, remember the golden lamp I gave you! Rabban Gamliel said to her: "A donkey came and kicked over the lamp" - the donkey I gave has overturned your lamp.
Incidentally, that very sentence in their book - "I did not come to detract from the Torah, but to add" - is a devastating refutation of Christianity as a whole. It has been noted more than once that Christianity is like hole-ridden Swiss cheese, where one wonders what is even left of the cheese itself; it is so riddled with contradictions and difficulties. That is why they demand blind faith rather than knowledge. For if he said this, why do you not observe Shabbat? Why do you not fulfill the mitzvot and put on tefillin? And do not imagine that they have answers: there are questions to which even the Pope has no answers, and people who debated Christian scholars and sent questions to the Vatican received no reply. Their only response is, "I feel him in my heart" - and one cannot argue with someone's subjective feeling. They built themselves a construct that is unfalsifiable by design. This Talmudic narrative serves primarily to ridicule those heretics and mockers.
The two verses we studied teach about the power of the inner self. "A joyful heart makes for good healing" - joy is genuine medicine, the foremost cure for all the bodily limbs, and it benefits even a person's outer appearance; whereas "a broken spirit dries the bones" - melancholy depresses to the point of drying out even the bone marrow, and from here stems the parents' duty to educate their children, for grief from children is not merely heartache, but physical harm. And we learned that outward sorrow with inner joy is far preferable to a smiling exterior and a heart consuming itself, since wealth and fame do not guarantee happiness, like the shepherd who said: If I had a shirt, I would no longer be happy. And in the second verse - "A bribe from the bosom a wicked man will take" - we saw that the giver is wicked and the recipient is wicked, that one who is in the right has no need for a bribe, that the Torah actually curbed bribery by not penalizing the giver, and that the most severe bribe of all - that which is taken from the bosom, in secret - is the one designed to subvert the paths of justice. On the other hand, the only bribe that is accepted is the bribe of humble submission and appeasement that a person offers to the Holy One, Blessed is He, which has the power to transform one's judgment from evil to good.