Chapter 19 of Mishlei deals with the roots of character development (avodat hamiddot): the relationship between the intellect and the heart, between wealth and poverty, between truth and falsehood. In this lesson, we will delve into two central themes in the chapter: the verse "He who acquires a heart loves his soul," and following that, the repetition of the verse "A false witness shall not go unpunished" - once in verse 5 and once in verse 9 - and what the Torah seeks to teach us through this repetition.
קֹנֶה־לֵּב אֹהֵב נַפְשׁוֹ שֹׁמֵר תְּבוּנָה לִמְצֹא־טוֹב׃ (ח) - He who acquires a heart loves his soul; he who guards understanding shall find good. (8)
The Vilna Gaon explains: one who acquires a good heart for himself is first and foremost called "one who loves his soul." Why? Because through a good heart, a person merits reward in the World to Come. A person who loves his soul, who desires to refine it, acquires and attaches to it a good heart, conducting himself with kindness and good-heartedness in all his affairs.
This can also be understood on a plain, psychological level. Who is usually the person with corrupt character traits? The one who acts toward others with rudeness, lack of basic courtesy (derech eretz), and animosity. Generally, this is a person who is at war with himself. Psychologically, he is uneasy with who he is, dissatisfied with himself, and this projects onto his conduct toward others. We see this when a person undergoes a period of crisis: his entire attitude toward those closest to him changes - toward his wife, toward his children. He is irritable, impatient, reacts harshly, and hurts anyone in his path. Why? Because he is in conflict with himself.
The same applies to a child: when a child displays such behavior, one must immediately examine what he is going through inside. Perhaps someone is mistreating him, perhaps he is being bullied at school, or a thousand other possibilities. The reality is that whoever torments others and behaves this way is experiencing turmoil within. But one who loves his soul, who is at peace and in harmony with himself, treats others with generosity of spirit, warmth, and love. He has a good heart toward others because his soul is whole with him - he truly loves his soul.
And one who wants understanding to be preserved in his heart must study in order to find good. Two people can study the same material: one remembers what he learned, while the other does not. Why? Because one studies in order to fulfill the mitzvot, whereas the other studies it merely as intellectual wisdom.
One who studies in order to practice naturally retains what he learns. He says: "Wait, how exactly does this need to be done? Tell me again - do we remove the food first and then the refuse (borer on Shabbat)? Do we put this on first, then the head tefillin, and how do we tie the knot around the finger?" Why is he so meticulous? Because tomorrow morning he must actually perform it! But for one who studies it merely as theoretical wisdom, what reason would he have to remember? What means will he have to retain it? He does not view it as a Torah that he must put into practice tomorrow.
There is also a metaphysical dimension (segulah) to this: Torah studied for its own sake (lishmah), with the intention to observe, perform, and fulfill, is Torah that endures. But Torah studied merely as an external discipline of wisdom does not endure. This is the unique spiritual property of the Torah: it endures within the person who studies it according to its proper conditions and in the manner fit for its study.
As is his way, the Malbim explains that the heart represents the seat of rulership within man. Internal governance is always allegorized by the heart, which acts as the ruler swaying a person to act according to its will. The Malbim adds: even one who knows the laws of wisdom still does not truly own his heart, because desires and lusts hold sway over it. It is entirely possible to know full well in one's intellect that a certain action is required, yet in practice do the exact opposite, because the heart pulls in the opposite direction.
What, then, is man's mission? To establish the dominion of his intellect over his desires. A person may feel, "I want this so badly," but intellectually he understands that such a thing is terrible, that it carries the punishment of Gehinnom, and that it will cause him grave harm. This visceral impulse is merely a fleeting desire, and the intellect works to persuade him to overcome it. There is an ongoing, ceaseless battle between the intellect and the heart.
Therefore, "He who acquires a heart loves his soul" (Mishlei 19:8): one who loves his soul and does not want it destroyed by the enemy - the yetzer hara - makes sure to acquire his heart, ensuring that this governing force is drawn toward the good, to do the will of Hashem, to fulfill mitzvos, and to learn Torah. Conversely, one who does not love his soul allows his heart to run wild, and the heart drags him after every physical indulgence, inflicting the greatest harm upon his soul. Why? Because he never acquired his heart, leaving it to act on impulse and follow its cravings unchecked.
How does one acquire the heart? As the verse states, "Wisdom rests in the heart of an understanding person" (Mishlei 14:33). Through contemplation of the ways of wisdom, using the power of understanding (tevunah), the inner conflict subsides and the heart comes under his control. One who pauses to reflect and asks: "What will I gain from this sin? Its pleasure is fleeting, and I am destined to be held to account for it" - acquires the heart through the power of contemplation.
Understanding is like money used to purchase merchandise, as it says, "To acquire understanding is preferable to silver" (Mishlei 16:16). With this currency - with contemplation - he acquires the heart so that it becomes his. How? "He who guards understanding" - for through contemplation, he sees all the deceitful paths along which the heart tries to lure him, and all the traps the yetzer hara sets to derail him. Contemplation is the only shield capable of standing firm against the yetzer hara.
This is why the yetzer hara does not want a person to contemplate. It urges: "Immediately! Go do it now, this very second!" Why? Because if you stop to think, there is a chance you will refrain. By contrast, the yetzer tov desires that everything be done with contemplation, measured calm, and careful thought.
Yet on the other side of that same coin, the yetzer hara's tactic is clever: it does not say, "Do not do it," Heaven forbid. It says, "Do it - but tomorrow." Daf Yomi? "With Hashem's help, why not? But in another six years a new cycle begins; start together with everyone else from Berachos, and then you will have the entire Daf Yomi in order." Ma'asros (tithes)? The yetzer hara is generous with you: "Give a fifth (chomesh)! Just not right now; right now you need to marry off your children and there are heavy expenses." The yetzer hara is completely willing for us to do the mitzvah - just not now.
"Go out and battle Amalek" (Shemos 17:9) - and how does the verse continue? "Tomorrow." And do you know who Amalek is? Amalek is "tomorrow." "Do it, but do it tomorrow" - that is Amalek. Go out and wage war against this Amalek who responds to everything with "tomorrow, tomorrow." The diet starts after the Yomim Tovim; you ask a contractor to finish a job and he replies, "After the holidays." Everything is pushed off to tomorrow, postponed again and again. As the sluggard's motto goes: "Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow." That is the tactic of the yetzer hara. The yetzer tov, on the other hand, proclaims: "Today, if you will hearken to His voice" (Tehillim 95:7) - right now, at this very moment, without delaying until tomorrow.
A man who survived a serious car accident once related his experience: He was driving with his family, collided with the car ahead of him, and his vehicle flipped over multiple times. He recounted: "We emerged from the car completely unharmed. Do you know what unharmed means? I didn't have a single scratch. The car rolled over several times, landed back on its wheels, and we all came out - my wife, the children, and I - all completely whole. It was pure chessed from Hashem." And incidentally, consider how essential it is to wear seatbelts: everyone was buckled in, and the baby was strapped into an infant seat that was firmly secured to the vehicle. How meticulous one must be in this regard.
And he added: "I also know why I was saved, and it was neither in my own merit nor anyone else's. Before we set out on the trip, I read a flyer left in our mailbox about a God-fearing avrech, someone truly extraordinary, who passed away in the prime of his life leaving a wife and seven orphans - a chavruta of Rabbi Yisrael Weintraub, of blessed memory, who was himself a great Kabbalist. I was deeply moved by what was written there. I knew we were about to leave for the trip, so I told my wife: 'Call Kupat Ha'ir and donate five hundred shekels to this family.' She said to me: 'Why through Kupat Ha'ir? I will give it to them directly.' I replied: 'No, if we give it directly, it will get delayed; who knows when and how, and we are walking out the door any moment. Call now with a credit card and make the donation.' And just moments before we left the house, she called and donated five hundred shekels to that family."
He said to me: "I have no doubt whatsoever that charity saves from death. Under normal circumstances I would have said: 'Tomorrow, maybe we'll give directly, we'll see.' But I knew that if I put it off - who knows? And indeed, had I delayed, who knows where I would be today." (Incidentally, Kupat Ha'ir distributes one hundred percent of the donation, without deducting administrative or office overhead, as they have dedicated donors covering all office expenses, and everything a person gives reaches that family in full.)
Tzedakah saves from death - there are no two ways about it. Through the power of charity, even a wicked person like Nebuchadnezzar was spared as long as he gave charity; the moment he stopped, the entire decree issued against him took effect. See how this works: the yetzer hara says, "Certainly give charity, but what's your rush?" while the yetzer hatov says: "Now. If it is a mitzvah, fulfill it immediately."
This is what is meant by: "He who acquires heart loves his own soul" - how so? By being one who "guards understanding to find good." Before the yetzer hara tempts him to sin, he says: "I will wait, I will reflect, I will not act rashly." The phrasing "guards understanding" (*shomer tevunah*) can also be understood in the sense of waiting, as in "and his father kept the matter in mind" (*ve'aviv shamar et hadavar*). He does not commit the sin immediately; rather, he pauses, waits, and contemplates. If he sees that it is not worthwhile, he withdraws and refrains from acting.
"To find good" - such a person will indeed find good. Ultimately, he will make the right decisions and will not stumble into sin, because he will always scrutinize the inclination. For the yetzer hara often presents sins as mitzvot; but one who waits and reflects will not come to commit a sin, and will find only good. He will be able to detect the snares of the inclination - where it is misleading him, and where it makes him think an act is a mitzvah when its sole intent is to trap him in its net and lead him to transgression.
עֵד שְׁקָרִים לֹא יִנָּקֶה וְיָפִיחַ כְּזָבִים לֹא יִמָּלֵט׃ (ה) - A false witness shall not go unpunished, and he who breathes lies shall not escape. (5)
עֵד שְׁקָרִים לֹא יִנָּקֶה וְיָפִיחַ כְּזָבִים יֹאבֵד׃ (ט) - A false witness shall not go unpunished, and he who breathes lies shall perish. (9)
Rabbeinu Yonah notes that this matter is repeated twice in the passage, in verse 5 and in verse 9, in nearly identical language - there it says "shall not escape," and here "shall perish." Why is this? "Because it is proper to issue a forceful warning repeatedly to stay far away from falsehood, for one who speaks lies has neither future nor hope." He employs a poetic turn of phrase based on the verse concerning Yosef: "And concerning the repetition of the dream twice, it is because the matter is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." Here too, the repetition of the matter twice shows how far one must distance oneself and how deeply one must be warned. When the Torah repeats a matter several times, its purpose is to sound the alarm again and again, demanding the utmost vigilance.
It is written: "For the ways of Hashem are upright, and the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble therein." Our Sages said: For those who turn right with it - an elixir of life; and for those who turn left with it - a potion of death. Rashi explains: "Those who turn right" refers to one who studies Torah with all his strength, fittingly and properly; for him, it is an elixir of life. But "those who turn left" refers to one who studies Torah to show off worldly wisdom, to attain a degree, or to attack those who observe the mitzvot - not only does that very Torah fail to shelter and protect him, but it turns into a lethal poison for him.
What is the explanation of this? Here the Vilna Gaon offers a profound insight. The Torah is from Heaven - that is where we received it from, and it is spiritual: when a person speaks words of Torah, it is the breath of the mouth, something spiritual. In contrast, the performance of mitzvot is from the earth, and we fulfill it with earthly materials: a person dons tefillin on his arm - and what are tefillin? Animal hide. And so forth, all mitzvot involve physical things.
From this the Vilna Gaon explains the verse, "Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven." The earth's defining attribute is truth, and this is because "truth springs up from the earth" - through its sprouting, the truth within the earth is revealed. If you sow barley, barley grows. Wheat - wheat. Garlic - garlic. Onion - onion. Whatever you place in it is what you receive, and it never lies in its work. There is no circumstance where you sow barley and receive wheat; its measure is truth, and this truth is seen in "springs up," in what it produces.
And what is "and righteousness looks down from heaven"? How does the earth sprout? Through rain, which comes and saturates the earth. Is the Holy One, blessed be He, obligated to bring down rain for us? He is not obligated - and therefore rain is called tzedakah (charity / benevolence), for the Holy One, blessed be He, acts with charity toward us and brings down rain. This cannot be said of the earth, for the earth sprouts what I put into it - I planted barley and received barley; this is truth, not charity, because it gave me exactly what I deposited. But the rain - what did you deposit for it? Nothing. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I gave, this is charity. Therefore, "righteousness looks down from heaven" - the rain that falls from heaven is called tzedek (righteousness/benevolence), because it descends out of charity and lovingkindness.
Furthermore, rain falls upon all equally and performs its function equally. And if the action is done equally, is it for good or for bad? The Vilna Gaon explains: It depends on the recipients. Rain causes growth - and what does it grow? Whatever you planted. If you sowed wheat, it will grow wheat. If you sowed deadly poison, you will receive deadly poison. The giving of rain is equal to all, and the benevolence in it is equal to all, but what will sprout from it depends on man - on what a person sows.
The rains are called "good," good for the world. So too is the Torah that comes from heaven - Torah is of the nature of rain, as it is written: "My teaching shall drop like the rain" - "my teaching" is the Torah, and it is like rain. And what does Torah cultivate within a person, an elixir of life or a deadly poison? It depends on what you sow: "For those who right-hand it [approach it with purity and right intention], it is an elixir of life; and for those who left-hand it, it is a deadly poison."
This is why you see people who use the Torah they learned to attack and batter everything holy. Where does this come from? From the Torah! How? Exactly like the rain - the question is what you sowed. If you sowed deadly poison, deadly poison will sprout; if you sowed good things, good things will sprout. Torah is the aspect of righteousness that looks down from heaven, and it grows whatever a person has planted; it develops what lies within a person's heart. If one learns Torah lishmah (for its own sake), the Torah will develop him into a tzaddik. If one learns for other motives, that very same Torah will produce a root bearing gall and wormwood.
On the contrary, this Torah will amplify that person's sins and wicked deeds, for as an unlearned person (am ha'aretz) he would not have harmed or damaged so much; but as a result of the Torah he learned, it cultivated the deadly poison within him and magnified it greatly. Through his Torah knowledge he became a "man de'amar" - someone whose opinion people seek out - and since he learned Torah with crookedness, that same Torah sprouts crooked things. The Torah is like rain that grows whatever you planted.
From here we come to the explanation of the verse. "A false witness shall not go unpunished": when a person studies and there is no Torah of truth in his mouth, but rather his Torah is false in his mouth - not studied in order to fulfill, nor to do the will of the Creator - this study is a study of falsehood. For you just read that one must don tefillin on his left arm, yet you did not don tefillin at all. You just read that one must keep the Sabbath day holy, yet you do not keep Shabbat. You just read that one must mend his ways, yet you do not mend your ways.
You have turned the Torah into a forgery. The Torah is a testimony for Israel, and from your perspective it is "a false witness" - everything the Torah testifies to is false, for if it were true, why do you not observe it? You treat the word of Torah as something that is not real. This is how Tanach is taught today in many schools: "The prophet says such and such; there is a belief that it was like this" - everything is studied as if it were merely the folklore and thought of previous generations, not that Hashem gave the Torah, and not as something binding. If so, the entire Torah becomes for you "a false witness." Therefore, "he shall not go unpunished" - he will pay a heavy price, and in the words of the Vilna Gaon, through this his wickedness will grow and the transgression will not be able to be cleansed.
Note the precise phrasing: The Torah is called a testimony for Israel, and if it says "shekarim" (lies / false) in the plural, it should have said "eidim shekarim" (false witnesses) or "eidut shekarim" (a false testimony). Why is "eid" singular and "shekarim" plural? The Vilna Gaon explains: The Torah is like two witnesses - the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. And it is the way of heretics to deny the Oral Torah, which is why the emphasis is on "eid," one witness. Where does the heresy begin? With the Oral Torah: "The Rabbis added this," "this came later," "each time they came and added things, but it is not written in the Torah and there is no obligation in it." Therefore, "eid" is stated in the singular. Nevertheless, "shekarim" is stated in the plural, because ultimately he will come to claim that everything is a lie - he merely begins with the Oral Torah.
What is meant by "one who breathes lies [kezavim]"? This refers to a person who initially studied Torah, gave some charity, and performed good deeds - and afterward abandoned the path. We have already explained the definition of kazav: it is like a dry stream bed (nachal achzav), which highlights the difference between sheker (falsehood) and kazav (a deceptive breach of promise). Sheker was untrue from the very start, whereas kazav began genuinely, but proved disappointing in the end, failing to realize its promise. When a person begins a good deed and does not complete it, it becomes an act of kazav, for the good deed was never brought to fruition.
Therefore, one who studied Torah, did some charity and good deeds, and later abandoned it all will lose the merit of his earlier deeds, as it is written: "The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him" on the day of his transgression (Yechezkel 33:12). However, we must emphasize: this applies specifically to one who "learned and abandoned" - meaning he genuinely regretted his former deeds (toheh al harishonos). He performed good deeds and fulfilled mitzvos, and later exclaimed: "What a fool I was! Why did I waste my time in yeshivah?" In that case, the years he spent studying Torah are erased. This is a terrifying and tragic fate. This is the definition of toheh al harishonos: one who actively regrets the mitzvos he performed.
Conversely, if a person learned Torah and later stumbled because his evil inclination overcame him, does he regret the mitzvos he performed? Absolutely not! He will receive reward for them, and that reward remains preserved for him. He will certainly first undergo purification in Gehennom, but he will receive his reward. Yet if he says, "What a pity that I kept mitzvos; what a waste of time" - this is one who regrets his previous good deeds, and the righteousness of the righteous will not be remembered for him on the day of his sin. This is the meaning of "he who breathes lies": he began fulfilling the truth, but in the end it turned into a disappointment (achzav) - "he will perish," and none of his good deeds will be remembered.
The Malbim explains this verse along a different path. "A false witness will not go unpunished": This refers to a person who contemplated - since understanding (binah) is the faculty capable of discerning between one thing and another and distinguishing truth from falsehood, binah being related to deep contemplation (hisbonenus) - yet nevertheless uttered falsehood, such as denying the existence of the Creator and denying His divine providence. "He will not go unpunished": he will be punished for the very deeds he committed.
"And one who breathes lies" - this refers to someone who spreads deception through all manner of fallacious reasoning, flawed analogies, and false comparisons. Such deception is not immediately recognizable: initially, it seems that he is speaking logically, presenting proofs, sources, and citations. But upon closer scrutiny, it becomes clear that it is all completely unsubstantiated and utterly void of substance. Therefore, it is called "lies" (kezavim), and "he will perish." The Malbim adds that according to this interpretation, this verse is fundamentally different from verse 5 as explained there; thus, Scripture does not merely repeat itself, for in each place it addresses a completely distinct subject.
Chapter 19 sets before us two central spiritual duties. The first is "He who acquires a heart loves his soul": the heart is the seat of self-governance within man, and the base desires seek to rule over it. One who loves his soul acquires the heart with the silver of understanding and reflection, studying in order to practice - and as a result, his Torah is preserved within him, and his character traits toward others become refined, for his soul is at peace with him. In contrast, the evil inclination pushes with urgency - "Now, immediately!" - when it comes to sin, yet postpones with "Tomorrow, tomorrow" when it comes to a mitzvah; this is the spiritual Amalek that must be battled. The second is "A false witness will not go unpunished," which is repeated twice as an urgent warning to distance oneself from falsehood and deception: the Torah is like rain that falls equally upon all, causing whatever seeds a person has planted to sprout - for those who engage with it properly it becomes an elixir of life, while for those who turn it toward the left it becomes a potion of death. And one who began with good but later regretted his former deeds loses all of his good deeds. Therefore, a person must safeguard his understanding, learn in order to fulfill, and fulfill immediately - and then he will find good.