In chapter 20, King Shlomo continues to clarify the ways of practical wisdom: how a person arrives at the right decision, and who is the one whose words can be trusted. In this lesson we will focus on two pesukim: the pasuk dealing with the counsel hidden in the depths of the heart and the power of understanding needed to draw it out, and the pasuk dealing with the man of kindness compared with the man of faithfulness.
מַיִם עֲמֻקִּים עֵצָה בְלֶב־אִישׁ וְאִישׁ תְּבוּנָה יִדְלֶנָּה׃ (כ, ה) - Counsel in a man's heart is like deep waters, and a man of understanding will draw it out. (20:5)
Rashi explains: the counsel in the heart of the wise man is hidden within his heart, sealed and not revealed. And who is the "man of understanding who will draw it out"? This is the understanding student, who comes and draws it out from within his teacher.
The classic illustration of this is Rabbi Chaim Vital and the holy Ari. The Ari revealed many secrets to Rabbi Chaim Vital, but the way was always that they would extract the secrets from the Ari. Many secrets he did not want to reveal, and he even said that the revelation harmed him. Yet the students often did not listen, and pressed him forcefully to reveal those secrets, until in the end he revealed one secret and told them that because of it death had been decreed upon him. And indeed he passed away at a young age, at thirty eight or thirty nine.
And this is the rule: the wise man has many counsels in his heart, tremendous wisdom hidden within him. What is needed? Someone who knows how to bring it out of him, how to probe him and inquire of him until one reaches the good counsels. This is very common among great people. A simple person, when he has an idea, goes and publicizes it; he has a novel insight, a vort, he thinks about how to spread it. In contrast, when you approach a great person and ask him a question, and begin to probe and raise difficulties, he says to you: "In truth, in my youth I wrote about this matter" - and reveals to you a tremendous idea. And had you not probed and drawn it out of him, we would never have known of it. He learns Torah for its own sake, not so that you will know and not so that some approach he originated will be publicized. The halachah is sealed in the heart of the wise man, and a man of understanding comes and draws it out from within him.
The Ibn Ezra explains that the expression "deep waters" comes to hint that the counsel in the heart of the wise man is like deep waters. What is the difference between deep waters and shallow waters? Which waters are clearer? Certainly the deep ones. And in the words of the Ibn Ezra: deep waters are cold and pure, and a foot will not muddy them. Shallow waters - every foot muddies them, that is, steps into them. A puddle of twenty centimeters, people step through it and continue on, and the water becomes murky. But deep waters - who steps into them? What vehicle enters them? Certainly not. And so the counsel in a man's heart is pure and clear like the deep waters, cold and pure. But what is needed? A man of understanding who knows how to draw out this pure wisdom.
Rabbeinu Yonah teaches that counsel is not found in a person through instant retrieval, but through measured thought and inner reflection: "the clear understanding will not be reached by him except through measured thought and reflection of the mind." Therefore you will always see great people who do not shoot from the hip. He says to you: I need to think about this, I need to sit with it, to contemplate it, to examine it. Small people know everything, they instantly produce an answer for anything; but the great person contemplates and examines, and sometimes says to you: this is a matter requiring study, I need to check it, I have no clear answer regarding it. That is the great person.
And just as a person cannot manage to drink from the deep waters except by means of a rope and a bucket, so too only "a man of understanding will draw it out" - the deep thought which is the counsel in a man's heart. And the pasuk comes to distance one from the way of those who rely on their own thinking and on whatever arises in their spirit without measured thought and without examination of the heart's considerations - those who immediately decide and immediately jump, and the fool jumps to the front. In contrast, the wise man contemplates and examines in every matter.
Rabbeinu Yonah connects this verse to the one before it:
מֵחֹרֶף עָצֵל לֹא־יַחֲרֹשׁ וְשָׁאַל בַּקָּצִיר וָאָיִן׃ (כ, ד) - The lazy man will not plow because of winter; so he will beg at harvest, and have nothing. (20:4)
The lazy man does not plow because it is winter and he is cold, and in the end he asks at harvest time and finds nothing. And so you should understand: the lazy person in matters of thought lacks the strength to draw up the correct and deep thought from the depths of the heart, and therefore he blurts things out. But if he had reflected and investigated, he would have arrived at correct conclusions. This is advice for every person: whoever wants to reach a correct conclusion should not do things off the cuff. You want to build something, to prepare something, to understand a halachah thoroughly - do not do it hastily. You opened up and said "I already understand" - no, you did not understand. Study it well, read the halachah again and again, look into what the commentators say about it. It takes a person of understanding to draw up the halachah. And do not be like that lazy man who will not plow in the winter. On the contrary, plow the subject thoroughly, and through this you will draw up the correct answer that fits each matter.
The Gra explains that counsel is knowledge, and it is the deep waters. And by whom is it found? Only by an "ish" - one must be within the category of a man, a man of worth. Only a man can properly think through the counsel. And it is impossible to draw it out of him except through a man of understanding. And what is understanding? If counsel is knowledge, understanding is to grasp one thing from another. Whoever truly wants to reach a correct conclusion must be a man of understanding, who grasps one thing from another: through investigation and study he learns, and from this he understands another matter, and from this he draws a conclusion, until he arrives at the correct conclusion.
And the parable for this: a deep well from which you need to draw, and the rope is short. You attach another rope and another cord and another rope and another cord, until you have a rope long enough to draw with. So too with logical inferences: if this is similar to that, and that is like this, and the third is similar to the fifth, then I conclude that this is of the same value as the first. A conclusion from a conclusion, a search from a search, until one reaches the correct conclusion. Many logical inferences are built this way, and therefore a man of understanding is needed to draw it out. Just as one attaches ropes to a bucket, one must connect and infer one thing from another in order to reach the correct conclusion.
The Malbim defines it: counsel is to choose the good and beneficial from among all the possible options. When do we need counsel? When we have before us many "possible options" - possibilities that could be. It might be this way; on the other hand, perhaps it is worth doing that way; from a third angle, perhaps it is better to go an entirely different way; from a fourth angle, it could be... and I am tangled up with myself and do not know what to do. Here counsel is needed, and it is: to choose the fitting, proper, and beneficial thing from among all the possibilities. That is the correct counsel, that is the correct and fitting action.
And the Malbim adds: a person has many thoughts flowing in his heart like a stream of water, as it is written "Many are the thoughts in the heart of a man." And a person who is in a dilemma - it is exactly like this: he has ten solutions, and he simply does not know which of them is the correct one. "Many are the thoughts in the heart of a man, but the counsel of Hashem, it shall stand" - out of all the thoughts one must choose the counsel, the correct and proper thing that will lead to the desired goal. And this thing is hidden in the depths of the heart, and to investigate and find the correct counsel is very far from simple.
There is counsel according to wisdom, according to Hashem. Such counsel we do not have on our own; we receive it from others. And as we discussed in the past, wisdom cannot be attained alone; what is good and what is bad one must acquire from a teacher. Wisdom is always received from others, and people do not attain it on their own. Therefore it is written "and he who listens to counsel is wise" - who is called wise? One who listens to counsel, for counsel must be received from others. And likewise "Torah shall not be lost from the priest, nor counsel from the wise" - once again you see that counsel is linked to the wise man. This is part of what we do when we ask a wise man: to ask a rav, in order to see what the Torah advises me to do in this situation.
But there is counsel that a person can delve into and investigate on his own. I do not have a wise man to ask right now, there is no one to consult with at the moment - there is a possibility for a person to delve within himself and reach the counsel that lies within him. Except that it is very deep, and to delve within oneself in order to reach the correct conclusion is not simple at all. For this one needs the power of understanding, as the Gra explained - to grasp one thing from another, and to judge with the power of his understanding all the conflicting aspects. That is: if I do this, what harm might result? Such an action will provoke a reaction, and the reaction will lead him to do this and me to respond that way, and in the end harm will be caused. This is grasping one thing from another: correct counsel that I want to investigate on my own is meant to weigh the moves ahead.
The analogy for this is the game of ishkoki - this is chess in the language of the earlier authorities. The earlier ones praise it greatly because it develops thought, and why? Because it develops counsel: seeing several moves ahead. Whoever knows how to see more moves ahead is the winner. What makes all the Kasparovs into experts and number one in the world? The talent to foresee moves ahead. And why is playing against a computer almost suicide? Because the computer thinks through all the possibilities in a single instant: if I move the bishop in this direction - there are seven possibilities; of them, the possibility that you will respond in a certain way is the most probable; then I will respond thus, and you thus, and I thus - checkmate, I have won. And the wisdom is to see all the possibilities ahead even before one moves the bishop. Whoever has the power to foresee moves ahead is the one called a navon, a person of understanding, and why? Because he understands one thing from another.
I once told you about the Rav of Brisk, to whom a man came and related that he needed to smuggle merchandise in Russia. The merchandise was already in place, and he was very afraid of being caught. The Rav asked him: where is the inspection located? The man showed him where there were stations, where there were inspections, and wrote it all down for him. The Rav of Brisk said to him: you enter here and exit here, board at this station and get off at this station, board here and get off here - and everything will be fine. So the man did, and indeed he was saved. Afterward he asked: Rebbe, was this ruach hakodesh? The Rav said to him: no, I simply made a calculation according to the places where the inspection is located, what the frequency of the inspection is and what the chance of being caught is. And based on all this he calculated moves ahead and told him where the best chances lay - and so it truly turned out.
From here we understand that a person of tevunah is one who knows how to calculate moves ahead. By calculating the moves and observing all the conflicting parts - what will result from each action I take - one can arrive at the correct conclusion. But this is not simple at all: one must tie rope to rope and rope to rope, in the words of the Vilna Gaon, until one manages to draw up the bucket from the well. "And a man of understanding draws it up" - much understanding is needed to consider all the possibilities. And not only to consider the possibilities, but to consider what could contradict them. For when a person wants something, he builds himself a model that fits exactly what he wants: "Don't worry, it will be fine." That is not wisdom. The wisdom is to consider what happens if it goes wrong. The wise person is the one who says: if I do this, what mistakes could there be? What disruptions? What things could trip me up? And so he will consider all the moves, and out of this he will draw up the correct counsel - the counsel with minimum risks and maximum chances.
The Malbim emphasizes that in Lashon HaKodesh "eitzah" (counsel) means the conclusion of which action to take, and it is acquired through the power of binah. Therefore Chazal say "the more counsel, the more understanding" - that through understanding one arrives at the conclusion, at the correct counsel. So too "counsel has been lost from the sons" - and seemingly what does this mean, that counsel was lost from the sons but from the daughters everything is fine? Rather, the Malbim says: "from the sons" means from the understanding ones, from the term binah. So too "whom did He counsel that gave Him understanding" - again counsel is connected to understanding. So too "Mine is counsel and sound wisdom, I am understanding." We see that counsel and understanding go together: to arrive at counsel, which is the correct conclusion, one must have much understanding and great observation, to examine all sides of the matter, and then one can draw true conclusions.
רָב־אָדָם יִקְרָא אִישׁ חַסְדּוֹ וְאִישׁ אֱמוּנִים מִי יִמְצָא׃ (כ, ו) - Most men will proclaim each his own kindness, but a faithful man who can find? (20:6)
Rashi explains: many people trust in their friends who promise them kindness. "The man of his kindness" - the man who promised to do him a kindness, who said to him: don't worry, when you have a problem turn to me. Most people turn to that man who promised them kindness. But between us - "but a faithful man who can find?" Who is the person who is truly faithful, who promised and also fulfilled, who said I will do you a kindness and carried it out?
And indeed we all know "do not trust in nobles" - you see that these people hold no salvation, and do not expect salvation from them. Yet there are people who live under illusions: on the basis of what that fellow said, he goes and resigns from his job. Why? Because that fellow said he would arrange work for him: "Why do you keep working there? Resign, I'll take care of you, don't worry." And afterward you find yourself half a year at home, the unemployment benefits are already gone and you are still out of work. "But that fellow told me"... True, most people call upon their man of kindness and rely on him, but a faithful man - a person who promised and is faithful to his word - who can find? Therefore do not build on this.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains it in a different way: "רב אדם יקרא איש חסדו" - most people proclaim themselves to be people of kindness. Each one calls out and announces his own kindness. Most people say: don't look at me that way, I give a lot of charity; do you know how much I've donated to yeshivos? Do you know how much I give to the needy? People, sadly, don't understand that they receive their reward of the World to Come right here, in a few compliments. Kindness is done in secret. Kindness is not talked about, and one does not tell anyone what he has fulfilled or what he has done: it remains only with him. But sadly, "רב אדם יקרא איש חסדו" - everyone goes around telling of the kindness he did with others.
In contrast, "ואיש אמונים מי ימצא" - a man of faithfulness is one who covers his righteous deeds and conceals his acts of kindness, doing everything quietly, in the manner of "a gift in secret subdues anger" and "walk humbly with your God." This is called a man of faithfulness, for a man of faithfulness covers a matter: he hides things and does not reveal or publicize them. And about this it says "מי ימצא": who finds such people who conceal their kindness? Most people take pride and boast in their good deeds.
The two pesukim teach two traits of inwardness. "מים עמוקים עצה בלב איש" - wisdom and counsel are hidden in the depths, clear as deep waters that no foot has muddied, and only a man of understanding, who knows how to derive one thing from another, to tie one strand to another, to calculate moves ahead and to weigh even the counterarguments, succeeds in drawing them out. There is no counsel from the quick draw: there is counsel that one receives from a wise man, and there is counsel that one draws up through the power of contemplation. And "איש אמונים מי ימצא" - against the many who proclaim and publicize their kindness stands the single faithful one: the one who fulfills what he promised, and the one who covers his righteous deeds and does kindness in secret. Both true wisdom and true kindness: their place is in depth and in privacy.