Chapter 20 opens with two verses that seem distant from one another, yet are really a single progression: the first deals with a person drawn after wine who becomes a scoffer, and the second teaches the great dread a person must have before the king. Chazal and the commentators connected them: one who has lost his restraints through wine is not fit to stand before a king. We will proceed in the order of the verses, bringing the words of the Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Yonah, the Vilna Gaon, the Ralbag, and the Malbim.
לֵץ הַיַּיִן הֹמֶה שֵׁכָר וְכָל שֹׁגֶה בּוֹ לֹא יֶחְכָּם׃ - Wine is a scoffer, strong drink is raging, and whoever strays through it will not grow wise.
The Ibn Ezra says that the word "man" is missing here: a scoffer is a man of wine. In other words, the scoffer is the man of wine. And what is "homeh shechar"? Homeh is an expression of shouting and noise. This scoffer shouts and clamors: bring strong drink, give strong drink. "And whoever strays through it" - one who strays in this path and is drawn after wine, "will not grow wise," will not learn wisdom. For a person who comes to learn while intoxicated has no clarity of mind, and how could he grow wise?
Rabbeinu Yonah agrees with the Ibn Ezra that the intent is the scoffing man of wine who clamors after strong drink, and he adds here a connection to what preceded. We already saw "judgments are prepared for scoffers," and now Shlomo HaMelech comes to reveal to us one of the factors that brings a person to the trait of scoffing: the man of wine. A person drawn after wine - this is a cause of scoffing. And why? Because the nature of wine is to cast off the yoke of the heart. A person who drinks wine unravels, and first and foremost his restraints and brakes are removed. Suddenly he speaks nonsense, suddenly he scoffs at this one and that one, when wine enters, secrets come out. Things that a person naturally holds within himself and does not say - suddenly come out of his mouth for no reason. What happened? The wine removed the brakes.
From here comes also what is said to the sotah: "My daughter, much wine does this." They seemingly try to teach merit on her behalf - you drank much, and wine can cause all sorts of unpleasant situations, so admit that you really drank. But this very defense reveals to us just how far wine reaches: it is capable of bringing a person to unravel from all spiritual values, to scoff, to cast off the yoke, and to let loose his tongue to every desire of his heart and to words of mockery, derision, and ridicule.
I was at a sheva brachot, and I saw this with my own eyes. Someone brought a large bottle of wine, homemade wine, and there was one fellow who was set on it - on the bottle and on the man, in both senses. Each time he handed him the cup, and the other was delighted to have customers, pouring and filling, and this one says to him: pour, pour. From the third cup he did not stop talking, as if he had swallowed a phonograph. And at the peak of it all he turned to me and said: look, I am drinking, and it does not affect me at all, but everyone around me is drunk... pour another little cup. It was almost shameful. This is how wine removes barriers, and from there the path leads to scoffing, to casting off the yoke, and to letting loose the tongue in mockery, derision, and ridicule. This is "the scoffer of wine" - a person who, by virtue of being a man of wine, becomes a scoffer.
And what happens to a person who becomes a scoffer? The prophet says: "And now, do not scoff, lest your bonds grow strong." "Mosreichem" is an expression of mosrot, those harnesses placed on the backs of oxen to straighten them onto the right path - they discipline the ox to walk in the way. And this is measure for measure: the scoffer removes the harnesses from himself, he has no boundaries, no fences, everything is permitted and anything may be said - therefore strong bonds will be tied upon him.
And we already explained in the past why "judgments are prepared for scoffers": because in no other way does the scoffer understand. He is in a kind of ecstasy of laughter and scoffing, and anything you tell him, even the most serious, he will turn into a joke. I once saw a report in the newspaper that high school students decided to instill the values of the Holocaust in a humorous manner, and they even brought an example of a joke about a Holocaust survivor and a tattooed number. In this way, supposedly, "we absorbed the values of the Holocaust." A person who scoffs - the most serious thing, the most painful thing, the thing that is supposed to bring a person to sorrow and to recognition of his own nothingness, becomes for him a joke.
Therefore "judgments are prepared for scoffers." A person says to him: my friend, the world is serious - and he laughs. What do you do? A few blows, and suddenly the world is no longer funny. And it does not necessarily mean slaps; sometimes it is enough that the doctor calls and says: your test results have come in, I want to speak with you. Suddenly the scoffing is over, and suddenly he is looking for a rabbi to bless him, gives two hundred shekels to charity and asks them to pray for him, and is careful that they write his name and his mother's name correctly. Say to him: let us tell jokes about doctors - now he has no desire for it. This is the only way to overcome scoffing, whose entire essence is the casting off of restraints.
Rabbeinu Yonah notes precisely that there are three elements in the character of the man of wine and strong drink. First, "a scoffer" (letz) - he turns everything into mockery and ridicule. Second, "riotous" (homeh) - even when he is not scoffing at people, he multiplies words and noise; a man drinks and becomes talkative, and whoever multiplies words brings sin. Third, "and whoever goes astray in it will not become wise" - even if he does not scoff and does not multiply words, and even if he now wishes to learn and become wise, since he is immersed in wine his mind is not clear and he cannot engage in matters of intellect. And what is "goes astray in it"? He is drawn after it as if unintentionally, as one compelled.
The Vilna Gaon explains that most scoffing occurs when people sit down to drink wine. Among the men of the taverns and drinking houses, the currency that circulates is jests, and the mark of the group is frivolity and laughter. This is "a scoffer is wine": who is a scoffer? One who chases after wine. "Riotous is strong drink" - he growls after strong drink in order to find and drink it.
The Gra adds: as it says, "it emits the scent of the perfumer's oil." Why is Torah compared to oil? Just as with oil, when a little water enters it the oil comes out, so too with words of Torah, when a little scoffing enters them, much Torah is lost. And the parable is precise: if you take a cup of wine filled to the brim and pour into it a little water, what will overflow? A mixture of wine and water; there is no way for the water to remain inside while only the wine comes out. But if you do this with a cup full of oil, only the oil will overflow, for the water is heavier than the oil and immediately sinks to the bottom, while the oil floats and rises. This is exactly how scoffing operates within Torah.
From here emerges a difference in the interpretation of the end of the verse. According to the Ibn Ezra and Rabbeinu Yonah, "whoever goes astray in it" refers to wine: one who is drawn after wine will not attain the ways of wisdom. But according to the Gra, "goes astray in it" refers to scoffing: one who scoffs distances himself from wisdom and loses it, like the water that enters the cup of oil and drives the oil out.
The Malbim, in his way, explains according to the definition of the concepts. The scoffer mocks the laws of wisdom, and as we have explained several times, the laws of wisdom - what is the upright path, what is good and what is evil - have no proofs or demonstrations. In matters of morality there is no proof; this is not mathematics and these are not exact sciences. You claim that a certain act is evil, and the other will say to you: on the contrary, I think it is very good. Therefore one must receive the laws of wisdom from the wise man, in faith and with an upright heart.
And even one who has already received the laws of wisdom, if he goes astray in wine he will not become wise. Why? Because wine rules over the heart, and the acceptance of the laws of wisdom is an acceptance of the heart. When a person drinks wine, the heart has received a new master, and the master is the wine. And to a drunkard, the world seems as level ground: he has no morality, no boundaries, no restraints. It emerges that not only will he fail to attain wisdom, but the wine nullifies within him even the laws of wisdom he already knew.
The Malbim makes a further distinction: the scoffer mocks wisdom, but not knowledge. Knowledge consists of things that have decisive proofs - two plus two equals four, that water boils at one hundred degrees, and the like. About these there is nothing to mock; take it and calculate and check whether it is correct. Therefore scoffing is directed specifically toward wisdom, which has no decisive proof but is received from a prophet and a sage.
The word "shechar" (strong drink) has two meanings in Scripture. In the language of the Torah and the Prophets, it generally refers to aged wine, and the proof is from the nazir, who is forbidden "wine and strong drink," whose translation is "new and old wine" (chamar chadat va'atik) - new wine and old wine; and the old intoxicates more. But in the language of the Gemara, "shechar" generally expresses all types of intoxicating beverages, such as date beer and fig beer, for one can make strong drink from any fruit. Either way, strong drink intoxicates more than wine, and therefore its effects upon a person are far more severe.
Based on this, the Malbim analyzes the two halves of the verse. "Wine is a scoffer" - one who errs through wine mocks wisdom, yet he still accepts knowledge. But "strong drink is riotous" - this refers to one who has become drunk with strong drink, as the Malbim puts it: "his intellect is nullified and he becomes like animals that make noise without knowledge." He is like the lowing beast; you speak to him and he emits a moan. With him even the proofs of knowledge no longer speak, for he has completely lost his intellect.
נַהַם כַּכְּפִיר אֵימַת מֶלֶךְ מִתְעַבְּרוֹ חוֹטֵא נַפְשׁוֹ׃ - The dread of a king is like the roaring of a lion; he who angers him sins against his own soul.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: a person should fear the dread of the king just as he fears the roaring of the lion, even when the king does not rebuke him at all. I once passed by the fence of a villa, and suddenly two Rottweilers barked. The decibels, the closeness, my heart fell within me. Even after I realized there was a fence between us, I did not calm down, because I kept hearing their breathing like a resonance box. Then I understood what is written in the holy books about the fierce dogs that come to tear the soul after death, and the soul enters a terrible fear. So Rabbeinu Yonah explains: even though he does not rebuke you, the dread exists. Just as you recoil from the roaring of the lion, so should you fear the dread of the king.
"He who angers him sins against his own soul" - one with whom the king becomes angry is indeed a transgressor and sins against his own soul. If you have brought yourself to a situation where the king has anger against you, meaning wrath and severity, you cannot say I was forced, it did not occur to me that the king would be enraged over such a thing, I did not think he had such a short fuse. Scripture calls him a transgressor, for a person ought to fear the dread of the king, and should speak before him only something clear as the sun, so that it will not seem difficult in the eyes of the king. One who goes to speak with the king must weigh his words on a scale, for a small matter can bring about the roaring of the lion. And "sins" here is from the language of deficiency, as in "and I and my son Shlomo will be lacking" - deficient; one who misses causes the target to be missed. "He who angers him sins against his own soul" - he can cause his own soul to be lacking.
Rabbeinu Yonah says that this verse is deliberately placed next to the previous one. The first verse spoke of the baseness of the scoffer and the lowliness of the riotous one due to strong drink, and the second verse warns: it is not fitting for a person to stand before a king while intoxicated. Do not stand before him drunk, lest you cause him anger and find yourself sinning against your own soul. And this is what Chazal said: Who is considered drunk? Anyone who cannot speak before a king. If you are in a state where you cannot stand before a king with dread and fear, you have already been called "wine is a scoffer" and "strong drink is riotous," and it is better that you not enter before him, lest it be an entrance without a departure.
And Rabbeinu Yonah is precise that one cannot interpret "he who angers him" as referring to the person who grows angry and quarrels with the king, for if a person goes to quarrel with the king, it is obvious that he has gotten himself into trouble, and it is clear that the king will cut off his head in a single moment, and over such an obvious matter Shlomo would not need to say anything. Rather, the intent is to one with whom the king becomes angry: he spoke an improper or unfitting word, and he was as one forced, for it did not occur to him that the king would grow angry over it, and nevertheless he sins against his own soul. Why did you go to speak without weighing your words on a scale?
The Vilna Gaon explains along the same line: even the dread from the king at the time one stands before him, even when it is not a time of anger, is like the roaring of the lion. And one with whom the king grows angry sins against his own soul, for the king has "the wrath of the angels of death": one who angers the king, the king decrees death upon him in a single moment.
The Ralbag takes the matter to its deeper meaning. The dread of the king and ruler within a person - this is the human intellect. As we have mentioned several times in the name of the Chazon Ish, a person has a heart and has an intellect. The intellect weighs matters coolly and analyzes them, while the heart follows desires and cravings, following "give me." The dread of the ruling king should be the dread of the intellect, that it should rule over the faculties of the soul, for so did the Holy One arrange on the day of their creation. And the more a person's actions stem from the intellect and less from emotion, the more that person is the higher man.
And the Chazon Ish says that a person must have his intellect rule over his emotions as well. If a person acts only according to his emotions, on Tisha B'Av a spirit of merriment may rest upon him and he will not know how to explain why, because he goes with his feelings. But one who possesses intellect knows that this is not a time for merriment, and he brings himself into an atmosphere of sorrow and weeping. And if not, a person would sit in a house of mourning and burst out laughing, and would say: I am free, I remembered a joke, what do I care for conventions - and about such a person it is said that he is frivolous and devoid of understanding. He must have his intellect rule and understand that he is in a place where seriousness and gravity are required. And likewise in reverse: a person who sits in depression at a wedding, in a place of the joy of bride and groom - we tell him to have his intellect rule, so that the intellect will activate joy within him. There are ways to do this, for thought is drawn after actions and hearts are drawn after them. But the reins must always be in the hands of the intellect.
And this rule, says the Ralbag, ought to be so strong that it is like the roar of the young lion coming to tear its prey - "The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion." And who is "the one who angers him," who is the disputant of the intellect? Desire. The intellect knows and says: do not go after this desire, it will harm you, it will pain you, who can foresee its end. And if, despite this, a person follows the desires of his heart, then desire has committed a transgression and a quarrel with the intellect, and this leads him to "sins against his soul," for he destroys and diminishes his soul.
The Malbim explains differently from the Gra and Rabbeinu Yonah. "The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion" - when the king is enraged, one certainly must not approach him, just as you would not approach the young lion when it is hungry, for then it will surely tear its prey. A sated lion does you no harm, but when it is hungry it is not advisable to be near it. And in a time of wrath one must be exceedingly careful. From here the verse comes to add that even in a time of favor a person is warned by the terror of the king.
And what is the definition of terror? The Malbim says: terror is fear stemming from awe of exaltedness, from his great stature. And one must be careful not to do things that are contrary to this terror. A person for whom the king is not fearsome would say: I will use his scepter, I will sit on his throne and see if it is comfortable, perhaps they made him an orthopedic chair. Who goes and sits on the king's throne? Only one who has no awe of exaltedness before him. Even when the king is not present here, if you have awe of exaltedness you will not use his scepter, you will be careful of his fear and not treat him lightly.
"The one who angers him" - whoever transgresses these laws is liable to death and sins against his soul. One who approaches this terror without dreading it, without the fitting fear of the king, is like one who approaches the young lion in its den at the time of its hunger. The proper way in conduct with the king is distance, terror and awe of exaltedness; and one who feels chummy and approaches him on that basis has gotten himself into trouble, plainly put.
And why does the Malbim explain "the one who angers him" from the language of transgressing and crossing over, when "evrah" is a term for wrath? The Malbim explains that "evrah" itself is derived from the root "avar" (to cross over). Anger (ketzef) is against one who deserves to be angered at, according to the law; "evrah" is when the king departs from the letter of the law and lashes out in all directions, punishing even one who did not sin. If so, there is here an expression that includes both matters: the person crosses the boundary fitting for him in his conduct with the king, and by this he causes the king too to cross the fitting boundary and be filled with wrath and anger against him beyond what he deserves.