Introduction
In this section of Chapter 19, we deal with two verses: the verse of the sluggard, and the verse of the scorner and the simpleton. The verse concerning the sluggard is one of the most famous expressions in Mishlei, and precisely for that reason, it is worthwhile to pause and examine it: this is an expression that in itself requires explanation, and many different interpretations have been given to it. We will go through them one by one and see how each interpretation opens a different window into the soul of the sluggard - not only in matters of livelihood, but primarily in matters of Torah and fear of Heaven.
"The Sluggard Buries His Hand in the Dish" - An Expression Requiring Explanation
טָמַן עָצֵל יָדוֹ בַּצַּלָּחַת, גַּם אֶל פִּיהוּ לֹא יְשִׁיבֶנָּה. (כד) - The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, he will not even bring it back to his mouth. (24)
A person might say to his fellow: I exerted myself, I worked, and he - buried his hand in the dish. But if we pause for a moment: what does it mean that he "buried his hand in the dish"? This is not a self-evident expression. In and of itself, it requires explanation, and we will examine several interpretations given to it.
Rashi's Explanation: Warming Himself Beside the Pot
Rashi explains that a tzalachat is a warm cooking pot. When the pot is removed from the fire, it remains warm, and in the winter, when it is cold, what does a person look for? A pot to grasp with both hands to warm them. This is the sluggard: he seeks out a warm corner, buries his hands against the warm pot - and people say to him, come, work, do something, get moving - but nothing happens. Rashi brings proof for the term tzalachat from II Chronicles 35: "And they boiled... in pots, in caldrons, and in pans [uvatzelachot]." By the way, "pots" [sirot] here are neither boats nor thorns (in Biblical Hebrew, sirim means thorns), but the plural of pot [sir] - a caldron.
A Second Explanation in Rashi: Hands Chapped from the Cold
Rashi brings an additional explanation in the name of Rabbeinu Yitzchak HaLevi: batzalachat is from the Targum's translation of "and he split" [vayivaka] - utzelach. Tzelach means to split, just as people say "I broke through [tzalachti] this." According to this, in times of cold and frost, what happens to a person's hands? They become chapped and cracked. In the winter, there are cracks on the hands, cracks on the lips, cracks on the skin - due to dryness. In the summer there is humidity in the air, but in winter a person needs moisturizing cream to keep his hands hydrated. "The sluggard buries his hand in tzalachat" - the cold cracks and cleaves [tzolei'ach] his hands.
A Third Explanation: The Slit of the Tunic
Another explanation is cited in Rashi (and some say this is not from Rashi himself, but an addition to his commentary): tzalachat refers to the slit of the tunic, called fendaduri in Old French, meaning that he buries his hands in his bosom. When a person is an idler, what does he do? He crosses his arms. It may refer to the sleeve opening, or perhaps he had a wide tunic and slips his hand inside - just as a person who feels cold slips one hand into the opposite sleeve. Tzalachat is thus an expression for a split opening, a slit in the garment, and there the sluggard tucks his hands away. In short: he folds his arms and does nothing at all.
"He Will Not Even Bring It Back to His Mouth"
Even when he needs to eat, and even when he needs to earn a living so that he has food to eat - he does not bring his hand back. He is lazy. People tell him: "Look for a job." He replies: "I looked and found nothing." "Here, they are offering a position, they are looking for workers." He says: "I was there. Do you know how much they are willing to pay? Four thousand shekels. What, for four thousand shekels I should leave my house?" He considers himself a CEO; he wants them to start him off as CEO. Like the man who came looking for a job and was told: "The first month you will receive this much, the second month a raise of this much, and the third month this much." He told them: "I will come in the third month." A person can be full of fantasies and illusions. Start working, start from the bottom and work your way up - but he wants an executive appointment immediately, and if they do not give him a senior position, he buries his hand in his bosom.
Then you see him later, and he has nothing to eat. "Listen, I am still looking for work, the market today is very difficult." Is the market difficult, or are you difficult? Whoever genuinely looks for work will find it. But someone who is looking for pampering, or who wants to collect a salary without exerting himself, will not find anything. Someone is asked: "What kind of work do you do?" He replies: "804 - you come at eight, do zero, and leave at four." A man was once asked where he worked, and he answered: "There are people who go to work, and there are people who merely show up at the workplace, and I am among those who merely show up." Such is the sluggard: his laziness grows to such an extent that he will not even bring his hand back to his mouth. The food has already been served to him, all he has to do is put it into his mouth and eat - and even that he is too lazy to do.
Ibn Ezra's Explanation: The Dish Is Empty
Ibn Ezra explains that a tzallachat is like a small dish or bowl (tzlochit), and the sluggard thrusts his hand into the dish and does not take it out - because he finds nothing at all to eat in it. He puts his hand in, searches and searches, and there is nothing. And why is there nothing? Because he is lazy. Had he gone out and done something with himself, he would have had food with which to fill his dish, and he would have had what to eat.
Notice the difference: according to the previous explanations, that the lazy person warms himself over a pot or folds his hands, this is an expression of reproach - a description of his corrupt behavior. According to Ibn Ezra, "buries his hand in the dish" is not merely an expression of reproach, but already a description of the punishment: the sluggard buries his hand in the dish to take out food, and he does not bring it back to his mouth because there is nothing there - all because he was lazy.
Rabbeinu Yonah: The Sluggard in Spiritual Matters
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that it is the way of this book that whenever it mentions the matter of fear of Heaven (yirah), it addresses laziness, and likewise whenever it mentions the matter of wisdom (chochmah). In simple terms: who is the sluggard? One who refrains from fear of Heaven and one who refrains from wisdom. A person who does not follow the path of wisdom - which requires effort - and a person who does not follow the path of fear of Heaven - which requires effort - is the one called a sluggard. Do not think that the verse speaks only of livelihood. Although all the matters of the book can certainly be explained in their literal sense as referring to livelihood and material matters, we see that the Gra and the other commentators apply everything to spiritual matters, because everything is essentially an allegory for the spiritual realm.
Rabbeinu Yonah says: fear of Heaven and wisdom require alacrity and strength, as Chazal said, "Alacrity leads to cleanliness." A God-fearing person cannot be lazy; the two simply do not go together. One must wake up early, run to the beit midrash, get things done on time. Someone once asked: why does everyone in Bnei Brak run? Because one runs to kollel - otherwise the Rosh Kollel docks his stipend; then he runs to the preschool - otherwise the teacher charges a late fine; then he runs home, where the children are already waiting at the door and he must prepare food for them; and then he runs again in the afternoon. "We run and they run" - praiseworthy is Israel, who run to perform mitzvot! A God-fearing person must do all his actions with alacrity.
And wisdom, meaning Torah, likewise cannot be acquired without alacrity. You cannot download the entire Torah onto a hard drive in an instant; with a computer that works, but not with the human mind. What is required? Labor and toil. And this is what Rabbeinu Yonah explains: the sluggard begins an undertaking and never finishes. You see his Gemaras, his Chumash, his Mishnah Berurah: the first three pages are dog-eared and stained, while all the rest is brand new, straight from the factory. He resolves: "From now on I will go through the entire Shas, from now on I will finish" - he learns two or three pages and gives up. He begins an action and does not see it through.
From this one can understand the matter of fear of Heaven: a person must not begin an undertaking without finishing it, for otherwise he is considered lazy in the work of Heaven. Therefore Chazal said in the Yerushalmi, "He who begins a mitzvah is told: Complete it!" Do not bury your hand in the dish, but see it through: if you began an undertaking, complete it.
Ralbag's Explanation: A Hand Trapped in the Vessel
Ralbag explains that the sluggard is compared to someone who buried his hand in a tzallachat - a narrow vessel into which you insert your hand, and afterward find it difficult to pull it back out. It is like a bottle with a slightly narrow opening, where you manage to force your hand inside, and then cannot remove it.
It is told that this is how they used to hunt monkeys in Africa: they would set traps shaped like large jars with food inside. The monkey would insert its hand, grasp the food, and try to pull it out - but could not. It screams, struggles, and cannot break free, and then the hunter arrives and captures it. Fool - open your hand! And this is precisely what a person driven by lust is like. Someone who is immersed in his desires, clutching and clinging to them, cannot break free. He screams, he cries, he suffers - yet he does not let go of the desire. Let go of the desire and you will be free! But he refuses to let go.
This is "A sluggard buries his hand in the dish": his hand is, as it were, stuck in the dish and he cannot bring it out, because he is lazy and invents excuses for himself - I cannot, I am incapable, this is too hard for me. "He will not even bring it back to his mouth" - he did not finish. He began studying and did not finish; he began a mitzvah and did not finish; he began the task and did not bring it to completion.
When Overly High Ambitions Prevent Completion
So it is with the sluggard in material matters, and so it is in spiritual matters. You see a person who is lazy in worldly matters, and look at how many unfinished projects he has: a wall half-painted at home, a bathroom half-tiled, everything with him is half-done. He began out of momentary excitement - and did not finish. Do you know those children who always come home from school with half an art project, and then the mother has to hang up the half-finished piece at home?
Know that sometimes this actually stems from perfectionism. You ask: What happened? He answers: They did something very simple, and I could have finished long ago, but I want to do it with three threads and four colors, something special. Meanwhile, the others finished the work, while you are left with a quarter. His high demands on himself cause him to feel that if it is not at the highest standard, he will not do it at all; it requires effort, drains too much energy from him, and so he abandons it halfway through. This is the desire to swallow everything at once. Do not aim too high; start more modestly and finish.
The same applies to construction, which is why Chazal say, "Whoever builds becomes impoverished." When he begins building, they tell him: You can use this kind of concrete or that kind, and the difference is such and such. He says: You only build once - and upgrades. This type of rebar or that type? You only build once. These windows or those? You only build once. In the end, he is left stuck in the middle, suffocating financially, because he is a perfectionist and will not cut corners - yet he lacks the means to finish. It would have been better had he built ordinarily and finished properly, for something complete is always preferable to something half-done, even if the half is of superior quality. Completeness has its own unique virtue: finish the task, even if it is not exactly as you envisioned.
And so it is with Torah study: one tells you that he could finish a tractate, yet he did not finish. Why? Because he feels that if he has not studied Tosafot, it is worth nothing, and so he remains stuck on the first three pages, while his friend has already finished and moved on to the next tractate. Sometimes this is literally the counsel of the Yetzer Hara: the evil inclination places lofty demands before us in order to prevent us from acting. "How can you study without Tosafot? That is substandard, you have not understood anything, you must study Tosafot" - and he knows this will overwhelm you, stop you, and halt your progress, and the Yetzer emerges satisfied that he succeeded in blocking you. In the end, you are left with no tractate, no Tosafot, and nothing at all. But if you say: I want to achieve a great deal, yet one cannot swallow everything at once; whatever I am capable of right now, in that I will invest effort and achieve, "Whatever your hand finds to do" - then one will manage, achieve, and finish the tractate. Do not set demands for yourself that you cannot possibly meet from the outset; take on less - and succeed.
The Parable of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh: Why Man's Lifespan Was Shortened
In this vein, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains: in the early generations, people lived long lives - nine hundred years; Noach lived nine hundred and fifty; Adam HaRishon lived nine hundred and thirty and more - whereas now, "The days of our years among them are seventy years, or with strength, eighty years." Why is this? A parable of a king who gave his servants diamonds to polish, and saw that they were not completing them. What did he do? For the next group, he said: I will no longer give each person nine hundred or a thousand diamonds, for I see that they do not finish, and on the contrary - when they see so many, they despair. You will receive seventy diamonds, and you will polish only them.
The Holy One, Blessed is He, shortened our time specifically so that we would invest in it. A person who has seven hundred years before him says: Do not worry, I am only two hundred and twenty years old, I am still a child, let me enjoy life. His whole life is still ahead of him. What did the Holy One, Blessed is He, do? He shortened his time. A person reaches the age of fifty, and hair begins falling out, and already "he has turned completely white" - well, did you get the message? And then he begins to stir himself to action. So it is in our context: when a person has overly high ambitions, he accomplishes nothing. Lower the bar - and complete things whole.
And as for the core explanation of the Ralbag: the sluggard inserts his hand into the vessel and finds it hard to take it out. His hands are as if bound, and he accomplishes nothing. This is the model: a man whose hands are tied - and who tied them? He himself did. He buried his hand in the dish, placed his hand inside, and cannot pull it out. And even though he has nothing to eat and needs to go to work to earn a livelihood - "he will not even bring it back to his mouth"; even for the sake of his mouth, he will not pull his hand out of the dish to go and work, not even to support himself with basic sustenance. And the message to the person driven by lust: let go of it and do not scream; detach yourself from the desire and do not struggle against it in vain.
Metzudat David: Engrossed in Eating Instead of Work
The Metzudat David explains that the lazy person is not occupied with work but with eating. In his words, he buries his hand in the dish "to wipe up the food that is stuck to it" - even what remains clinging to the sides of the bowl, perhaps a little is still left, that too he wipes and cleans away. There are people who, once they have finished eating, can pass the plate straight to the dish rack; it no longer needs washing, a plate licker, not even a single crumb was accidentally left behind.
By the way, regarding eating, it is worth knowing that there is value in leaving something over on the plate, and sometimes that is hard, because it is a person's craving. Not as the mothers say, that the last spoonful is strength - the last spoonful is the strength to overcome. Let us see you not eat the last spoonful. And there is one who is clever and says: the last one I already ate at the beginning. But the main point is to leave something over.
And in the end, says the Metzudat David: "he will not even bring his hand back to his mouth." Since you are immersed in eating and in cleaning the plate instead of engaging in work, you will reach a state where you will not even have something to bring back to your mouth.
The Malbim's explanation: even the small movement is hard for him
The Malbim explains based on the verse "the craving of the lazy one will kill him, for his hands refuse to act": the hand of the lazy person refuses to move. He does not want to exert it at all. And if the craving of hunger already overcomes him and he sends his hand to the dish - there he buries his hand and is reluctant to move it from there. And even once he has already put his hand into the dish and taken out food, he is too lazy even to bring it back to his mouth.
This is "the lazy one has buried his hand in the dish" according to the Malbim: once he has already made a movement and reached the dish, it is too heavy for him to take the food out of the dish and bring it to his mouth - "he will not even bring it back to his mouth," he does not even make this slight effort.
"Strike a scoffer and the simple will become clever"
לֵץ תַּכֶּה וּפֶתִי יַעְרִם, וְהוֹכִיחַ לְנָבוֹן יָבִין דָּעַת. (כה) - Strike a scoffer and the simple one will become clever, and reprove a discerning one and he will understand knowledge. (25)
Rashi explains by way of derash regarding the plagues of Pharaoh and the war of Amalek: Yitro grew wise and converted. "What report did he hear that made him come? The splitting of the Sea of Reeds and the war of Amalek." The Holy One, blessed be He, struck the scoffer - Pharaoh, and struck the scoffers - Amalek, "and the simple one will become clever" - from this Yitro grew wise, and came and converted and joined himself to the inheritance of Hashem. You strike the scoffer, and the wise one learns the lesson.
In summary:
"The lazy one has buried his hand in the dish" is an expression that has been explained in many ways: the lazy person warming himself by the hot pot, his hands cracking from the cold, his hands tucked into the tear of his garment, his hand stuck in an empty little dish that has nothing in it, his hand trapped in a narrow vessel like a monkey in a trap, or his hand busy licking the plate instead of working. From all these explanations a single line emerges: a person who has bound his own hands with his own hands. And on the spiritual level, in the words of Rabbeinu Yonah, the lazy person is the one who refrains from fear of Heaven and from wisdom, who begins an action and does not finish it - and therefore they said, "whoever begins a mitzvah is told: finish it." Sometimes it is precisely aspirations that are too high that are the counsel of the yetzer to block us, and therefore it is better to lower the bar and finish in completeness, like the parable of the Ohr HaChaim about the few diamonds we were given to polish in our short days. And on the other hand, "strike a scoffer and the simple will become clever" - the discerning person does not need a blow in order to learn; he sees what happened to the scoffers, and like Yitro, he grows wise, converts, and joins himself to the inheritance of Hashem.