Chapter 19 of Mishlei is studded with verses dealing with the fear of Hashem and its effects on human life. In this lesson, we will delve into a single verse - verse 23 - and see how our Sages, from Ibn Ezra to the Malbim, each open a different window into it: what is meant by "satisfied" (save'a), what is meant by "visited" (yipaked), and why fear of Hashem specifically - out of all the fears in the world - is the one that adds life rather than shortening it.
יִרְאַת יְהֹוָה לְחַיִּים וְשָׂבֵעַ יָלִין בַּל יִפָּקֶד רָע׃ (משלי יט, כג) - "The fear of Hashem leads to life; he who has it rests satisfied, untouched by evil" (Mishlei 19:23).
Ibn Ezra explains: "The fear of Hashem leads to life" - a person fears Hashem for the sake of life, for the Holy One, blessed be He, is the Giver of life. The verse continues regarding that God-fearing person: "and he rests satisfied, untouched by evil [bal yipaked ra]" - here yipaked has the meaning of remembering something, meaning that this God-fearing individual will not recall the troubles that have already passed over him. And why? Because he is sated with the goodness of God.
A person who cleaves to Hashem, blessed be He, does not live in the past. He does not wallow in "I had such misfortune" or "things were once like this for me." Ask him about anything, and he will reply: Hashem's lovingkindness is upon us. There may well be bad things too, but about everything he says, "Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good." Such a person will always sleep sated and will not recall the hardships he endured, because everything the Holy One, blessed be He, does is perceived by him as good.
Rashi explains: One who fears Hashem does not worry or fear any evil thing. He sleeps sated - lacking nothing - and fears no harm.
Rabbeinu Yonah asks: What is the meaning of "satisfied"? He answers: sated of bodily desires, meaning he does not lust. The wicked, by contrast, is called "the thirsty one," as in the verse, "to sweep away the moist with the dry [literally, the sated with the thirsty]." Who is the "thirsty one"? The soul of the wicked person, which constantly yearns and thirsts for desires, pleasures, and physical materialism - this is his perpetual craving. The righteous person is the embodiment of "the sated": he is satisfied, and his soul does not continuously crave pleasures and desires.
We find a similar idea in the verse: "The riffraff among them felt a gluttonous craving [hit'avu ta'avah]." The commentaries ask: What is meant by "they craved a craving"? Scripture could have simply said, "The riffraff among them craved," or "There was a craving among the riffraff." The explanation is that the nation in the wilderness ate the manna, and since the manna was absorbed directly into their limbs, it did not produce a coarse, physical body prone to lust, so they naturally lacked physical desires. Seemingly, that is wonderful - so what was the problem? They grieved over this very fact: Why do we have no cravings? In the past we had cravings, how enjoyable that was, and now we no longer have them. "They craved a craving" - they craved to have a craving! They did not understand why worldly desires no longer appealed to them, and they blamed it on this "miserable bread" that eliminated all appetites. It emerges, according to Rabbeinu Yonah, that the "satisfied" person in our verse is someone who feels no appetite for worldly desires.
This person always covets only the fear of Hashem, which is why the verse opens with "The fear of Hashem leads to life" - this is his life, this is his entire aspiration, desire, and yearning. And when these are his desires, he is sated from all worldly lusts, and consequently does not seek out physical pleasures or mundane affairs, for he has mastered his desires. Rabbeinu Yonah adds further: "Untouched by evil [bal yipaked ra]" - no harsh decree will befall him. Since he cleaves to Hashem and fears Him, and is sated of desires and does not seek them, even if a harsh decree is issued against the populace or against mankind, he will be spared from it. This person fears Hashem and is sated of bodily desires, and therefore he rests and no evil will be visited upon him.
The Vilna Gaon explains: for one who is a God-fearing person, this fear leads him to life; he will also "dwell satisfied" (savei'a yalin), and also "he shall not be visited with evil" (bal yipaked ra). According to his approach, bal yipaked does not derive from the idea of memory or visitation, but from mifkad, an enumeration or census - meaning that he will not be counted or numbered among the wicked. To understand this concept, he provides a foundational introduction.
Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, instill in man's nature the need to sleep? Have you ever pondered this question? We might assume: because a person becomes weary, and poor thing, he has to go to sleep. But is that a sufficient reason? Who determined that man must reach a state of exhaustion? The Holy One, blessed be He, could just as easily have created a reality in which man never tires at all, and would consequently never require sleep. After all, the Gemara states that if someone takes a vow not to sleep for three days, he is administered lashes and may go to sleep immediately, because it is physically impossible to endure three days without sleep. It emerges that this need for sleep is an innate requirement implanted by Hashem, and we must understand its purpose.
On this, the Gaon explains: The Holy One, blessed be He, placed sleep into human nature so that man's soul could ascend to the Heavenly Academy (Yeshivah shel Ma'alah), where the secrets of the Torah are revealed to it - what an individual cannot learn in seventy years, he acquires there in a single hour. And the Vilna Gaon knew whereof he spoke; for him, this was not mere theory, but lived experience.
There is a well-known story about the Vilna Gaon: One night he dreamed an explanation of the verse, "Go up this way into the South" (Alu zeh baNegev). He arose in the morning, recalled the explanation, arranged it in his mind, and then went to pray. That single explanation - the Gaon said - encompassed 2,400 distinct insights into the verse "Go up this way into the South." Just try to offer even one! Yet he had 2,400 explanations, all from a single night's dream. This is what he meant: what a person learns in seventy years can be absorbed in a single hour - and an "hour" here does not mean sixty minutes, but a single moment. The concept is straightforward: within his physical body, man is confined by the limitations of time. When his soul departs during sleep, which is one-sixtieth of death, it is no longer bound by temporal limits, and in a single moment it can perceive concepts that would otherwise require long years to master.
Confirmation of this can be brought from another perspective. The holy Ari once took an afternoon nap, and Rabbi Avraham HaLevi noticed that he was murmuring words of Torah in his sleep. He approached closely to listen, but the Ari sensed someone nearby, woke up, and said: "It is a pity that you disturbed me." Rabbi Avraham HaLevi asked: "I wished to hear the Torah teachings the Master was uttering in his sleep; perhaps the Master might reveal what he was speaking of?" The Ari replied: "Even if I were to teach you continuously for eighty years, I would not have sufficient time to teach you what was just revealed to me in this dream." Sleep is a reality transcendent of time, and the detachment of the soul operates above time; therefore, a dream lasting a single second can encompass immense spans of learning.
Let us return to the Vilna Gaon. After contemplating these insights, he went to pray. It should be noted: the Gra's famous ruling is that it is forbidden even to contemplate Torah thoughts prior to reciting Birkot HaTorah. The Shulchan Aruch rules that one may not speak words of Torah, and the Gra adds that one may not even meditate on them, because meditation on Torah is itself considered study, through which one fulfills the mitzvah of Torah learning. Thus, on that morning, he had ostensibly run afoul of his own ruling.
And this is what he recounted: "I arrived at the prayer service - and I forgot everything. I forgot all the explanations, and I felt terrible, intense anguish. I began reciting the Shemoneh Esreh, and suddenly all the explanations rushed back into my mind. I paused for a moment, organized them, and continued praying. When I finished the prayer - everything vanished from my memory once again." It is related that the Gaon then sat for about half an hour unable to recite Hallel, for it was Rosh Chodesh, and Hallel must be recited with joy, but the grief over this immense loss prevented him from doing so. After half an hour, he managed to compose himself somewhat, recited Hallel, listened to the Torah reading, and then reached Musaf. In the middle of the Musaf prayer - all the explanations flooded his mind once again! But he said: "I had already learned my lesson; I did not contemplate them for even a fraction of a second. I pushed them entirely out of my mind and continued praying with intense devotion. When the prayer concluded - all of them were organized in my head as if neatly arranged in a box." One sees what it means when the Vilna Gaon studies in the Heavenly Academy, and the extraordinary loftiness of learning in the Academy on High.
It is told of the Baba Sali that one morning he awoke and asked: Who is this Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael from Bnei Brak? Who is this tzaddik? They told him: There is a tzaddik in Bnei Brak, the Steipler, Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, the father of Rav Chaim. They asked him: Why does the Rav ask? He told them: Because when I descend from the Heavenly Yeshivah, I hear the heavenly herald proclaiming, "Make way for Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov from Bnei Brak," and I see his soul ascending to the Heavenly Yeshivah to study Torah. For the tzaddik, sleep is not merely "sweet dreams" - rather, dreams more precious than fine gold, dreams filled with words of Torah.
Incidentally, in one of the eulogies for Rav Ovadia Yosef, it was related that at times he would wake up in the middle of the night, walk over to his writing desk, jot something down, and return to sleep. When asked, "The Rav got up last night, what happened?" he replied, "I had a difficult question, and during the night I dreamed the resolution, so I hurried to get up and write it down so I would not forget, and then I went back to sleep."
And so it was with Rav Chaim Kanievsky as well. It is told that one morning he awoke and said to his grandson: Bring some lekach (honey cake), bring some wine, a siyum! A siyum on what? A siyum on a tractate. His grandson said to him: Wait, Zeide, you still have seven pages left! Rav Chaim said to him: I finished them in my dream. Rav Chaim used to learn eight pages of Gemara every day, and later it emerged that this was not the first time - members of the household related that it had already happened several times that when he went to sleep, he would continue learning from the exact point where he had stopped, progressing through the pages. Rav Chaim was like a plastered cistern that does not lose a drop, and all of Torah was at his fingertips. Already at age eighteen, there is a letter where the Chazon Ish writes of him as "mari dechula talmuda" (master of the entire Talmud) - an astonishing thought: at age eighteen, how much does a young man cover? Barely a few yeshivah tractates, and even of those, how well does he know them? Yet of him it was said, "master of the entire Talmud." And since his gaze surveyed the entirety of Shas and Halachah, naturally, when he went to sleep, he continued studying in his dream.
There are works that were composed on the basis of dreams. Resisei Laylah by Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin is an entire book authored on the basis of Torah insights revealed to him in a dream, and there are other works and pamphlets of chiddushim that were conceived in dreams. There was also the work She'eilot U'Teshuvot Min HaShamayim by Rabbi Yaakov of Marvège, one of the Ba'alei HaTosafot, who had difficult questions, performed a she'eilat chalom (dream inquiry), received answers in dreams, and recorded them in a book. Yet for practical halachah we do not rely upon it - precisely because we are certain that these are answers from Heaven, and the rule we hold in matters of halachah is: "It is not in heaven."
The Vilna Gaon explains: For that study one learned at night in the Heavenly Yeshivah, one receives no reward at all. Rather, what is it? It is the reward itself! You were privileged to be taught Torah in Heaven - and you would still ask for reward for that? Reward is granted for what you toiled for: you went to the beit midrash, you exerted yourself, you labored - for that, reward is due. But you went to sleep and in Heaven they gave you a gift; for what should you receive a reward? The gift itself, the words of Torah revealed to you at night, is the reward. But what a person learns during the day - that is what truly brings him to the life of the World to Come.
And this is what Scripture states: "The fear of Hashem leads to life" - what you learn out of the fear of Hashem, when you are conscious, during the day, grants you life in the World to Come. "And he shall abide satisfied" - what you are sated with from the Torah that you learn when you sleep, during slumber, in the Heavenly Yeshivah, what do you merit through it? "He shall not be visited by evil." Even if there is no merit in it for life in the World to Come, at least one merits not to be counted among the wicked. And how so? It is written that when the soul ascends to the Heavenly Yeshivah, there is a risk that demons may harm it and toy with that soul. Sometimes a person wakes up in the morning exhausted and weary and cannot understand why - more tired than when he went to sleep; what happened? Demons toyed with him up above. But "and he shall abide satisfied" - one who learns in the Heavenly Yeshivah, the demons wish to harm him but cannot, because this person is sated with words of Torah.
From here there is also a segulah against bad dreams, as expounded in the Gemara - except that according to this explanation, the meaning is not as the Gra explained, but rather: one who goes to sleep sated with words of Torah, who studies before sleeping - even a small matter, a sefer or pamphlet, a short discourse - "shall not be visited by evil," meaning he will not be visited by bad dreams. This is also the concept behind reciting verses after the Bedtime Shema: if a person spoke or said something, he should recite a few verses so that his sleep begins from words of Torah rather than idle chatter - and certainly not from a quarrel with his wife - but rather he should fall asleep amidst words of Torah.
The Ralbag explains: "The fear of Hashem leads to life" - a person who fears Heaven, that fear sets him straight so that he merits eternal life. And one who possesses the fear of Hashem "shall abide satisfied," satisfied and detached from physical desires. The meaning is: if a person pursued the desires of his heart during the day, at night those same desires surface and rise in his thoughts. He recalls all the desires in which he was immersed during the day, those forbidden sights, the evil deeds and evil thoughts, that hatred, envy, and pettiness, the desire to harm his fellow or an ill thought about another person, about someone he quarreled with - all of this floats up onto his bed.
Why does a person say, "I cannot fall asleep"? Because he has no peace from the events that occurred throughout the day, from something that upset him. Often this is the reason: his heart is not at rest, someone angered him, and he cannot stop thinking about it. When a person harbors desires and such blemishes, he naturally cannot fall asleep.
However, one who possesses the fear of Hashem, which leads him to life, that very fear also causes him to be free of base desires, and he is considered "sated" - as Rabbeinu Yonah explained, sated from lusts. Consequently, "he shall lodge, and not be visited by evil": no evil will be remembered by him when he goes to sleep on his bed, for he has no corrupt desires, and it is impossible for foul imagery to arise on his bed when there is no foul imagery in his mind. Such a person guarded his eyes, does not develop hatred toward others, and holds no evil things - and consequently, repulsive matters do not harm him or disturb his sleep. And why? Because the fear of Hashem prevents him from longing for these disgraceful things; fear of Heaven is what withholds negative thoughts and base desires from him, causing him to be sated, and so he lodges without being visited by evil thoughts from the day - for he truly has no bad thoughts from the day.
The Malbim explains the difference between the fear of Hashem and fear of anything else. One who fears worldly occurrences - his fear shortens his life, as it deprives him of food and sleep. As has been said more than once: what kills a person is not what he eats, but what is eating him. The things that frighten a person, the inner restlessness and constant dread - these shorten one's life. One who lives in tranquility, who is not perpetually engulfed in stress and anxiety, enjoys a far calmer and more peaceful life.
Furthermore, external fear causes a person to lose his appetite: he harms himself and lacks essential nutrition - because he is fearful, anxious, and terrified. All this comes from external fear. But one who fears Hashem - his fear is not of the sort that deprives him of an appetite and destroys life, leading prematurely, Heaven forbid, to ulcers, heart problems, blood clots, and all the ailments caused by incessant stress and anxiety. If one asks whether the fear of Hashem can also be harmful, the answer is no. Only fear of other things is harmful, but the fear of Hashem leads to life and is unlike any other fear.
On the contrary: one who fears Hashem fears nothing else. As Chovot HaLevavot quotes from the pious man: "Your fear removed all fears from me - dread of You removed all other dreads." Trust in the One, and fear not. If one fears the Master of the Universe, one no longer fears anything else, for who can cause harm besides Him? Who can bring good or bad upon me - that is, something perceived as good or bad - if not Hashem, blessed be He, given that everything He does is ultimately good? If one instills this single fear within oneself, one shields oneself from countless other fears.
Therefore, "he shall lodge sated, and not be visited by evil": he has no worries and no dread; he possesses the fear of Hashem, and thus his fear does not prevent him from eating, and he eats to his heart's content - unlike the person terrified of worldly perils who has lost his appetite. This person is sated, and he goes to sleep without fearing any harm, and the fear of Hashem will only add to his days.
One verse - "The fear of Hashem leads to life, and he shall lodge sated, he shall not be visited by evil" - and six ways to understand it, all converging into one. Ibn Ezra: One who is sated with God's goodness carries no memory of evil. Rashi: One who fears Hashem has no fear of any harm. Rabbeinu Yonah: "Sated" means sated and free from desires, and therefore no harsh decree will befall him. The Gra: "Shall not be visited" means he will not be counted among the wicked, for sleep was created so that the soul may ascend to the Heavenly Academy, and one who is sated with words of Torah is protected there. Ralbag: One who has no lusts during the day experiences no foul imagery at night. And the Malbim: All fears shorten life, whereas the fear of Hashem alone adds life, as it frees a person from all other fears. The practical conclusion is singular: go to sleep amidst words of Torah, and instill this one fear in one's heart - so as to be rid of all other fears.