Introduction: Two Pesukim on the Secret of Acquisition
In chapter 20 of Mishlei we consider two adjacent pesukim that teach us a great secret in the labor of acquisition: "רַע רַע יֹאמַר הַקּוֹנֶה" and "וּכְלִי יְקָר שִׂפְתֵי דָעַת". At first glance these are two pesukim about buying and selling, about haggling in the market; but the commentators reveal here a wonderful analogy to the acquisition of Torah: what happens to a person before he acquires wisdom, what happens to him afterward, and why precisely this acquisition is more precious than all gold and pearls.
"רַע רַע יֹאמַר הַקּוֹנֶה" - the Ralbag: the Opposite of All Acquisitions
רַע רַע יֹאמַר הַקּוֹנֶה וְאֹזֵל לוֹ אָז יִתְהַלָּל׃ (פסוק יד) - "It is bad, it is bad," says the buyer, but when he goes his way, then he boasts. (verse 14)
The Ralbag says: the acquisition of wisdom is not like other acquisitions. In other acquisitions, whose price is money, it usually happens that before the purchase a person thinks of the item as good, and after he buys it he thinks of it as bad. We all know this from reality, and especially with products coming from China: a person wants to buy something, gets excited, goes, invests, is certain it will make his life easy - it will clean his house, make him coffee, whatever it is. A car - he is sure this is the peak of happiness. Before he buys it he thinks it is the best thing, and after he buys it: "Let me tell you, it isn't what I thought, it doesn't do the job, here it uses a lot of electricity, and there this, and the fuel, and the headache, and the insurance." Before the purchase the thing is good in his eyes, after the purchase he sees it as something negative. "It is bad, it is bad," says the buyer.
But with wisdom, says the Ralbag, it is not so. With Torah it is not so. With Torah, when a person comes to acquire the thing, at first he thinks it is bad. Not that he considers the Torah not to be good, but the intention is how hard it is to acquire it: the investment he must invest, the hardships that pass over him, "bread with salt you shall eat and water in measure you shall drink." At first "it is bad, it is bad, says the buyer." And this is the opposite of physical acquisitions: with a physical acquisition a person is drawn in - "this is excellent, I want it"; here it is the reverse, he is not drawn after it, and when he acquires it, it is hard and demands effort. "But when he goes his way" - by contrast, after he has attained the thing, then he discovers the next pasuk: "There is gold and an abundance of pearls, but the lips of knowledge are a precious vessel." He discovers that what he acquired is a wonderful thing, precious and important, like gold and pearls.
The Malbim: at First He Thinks of the Price, and Afterward He Enjoys the Thing
The Malbim explains the pasuk in his own way: usually when a person comes to buy something, at first he disparages the merchandise. "No, it isn't worth it. How much do you want for it? What are you talking about, it's expensive. You know the market is weak today, right? They told you the market is weak - it isn't worth it." At the start, "it is bad, it is bad," says the buyer. "But when he goes his way" - but afterward, when the item passes from the domain of the seller into the domain of the buyer, "then he boasts." He goes about and takes pride: "Did you see what I bought? Did you see what a bargain?"
And why is this so? The Malbim explains: at the start, when they offer me the item, I want it very much, but it costs money. The money is in my pocket and it is hard for me to part with it - and therefore at first he thinks about the price he must pay. But after he has bought it, the money has already gone out anyway, and from now on he only enjoys the thing. And this is reality: with a good product you quickly forget the money you spent on it, and enjoy it for years. "You remember this cost you that much? Forget it, who remembers by now, it's already absorbed into the overdraft."
And there is no contradiction here between the Malbim and the Ralbag. The Ralbag says that at first a person gets excited and afterward sees that it isn't worth it - and this is true of most things, which make an impression far beyond what they are. But there are things you continue to enjoy for many years, and you have long since managed to forget what you spent on them. There is an expression merchants like to say: the taste of a good product lasts long after the bad taste of the financial expenditure has passed. And the reverse: the taste of the immediate discount, of the cheap price, dissipates quickly when you begin to eat bitterness from the product you bought. "Why did you take that one? It's just expensive" - and afterward it turns out: "Oh, you bought that? Well, everyone knows that device has problems." The bad taste that accompanies the discount is bitter and worse beyond compare than the good taste of the cheap immediate payment, and makes it forgotten.
We find, then, that at the start it is hard for a person because he must part with the money, but after he has parted with it, the item is elevated in his eyes, and on the contrary he says: "Know this, this thing is no small matter, it cost me dearly." Precisely a thing that cost us dearly we value; a thing that came cheap - "forget it, they're three for ten."
The Analogy to the Acquisition of Torah: Little Sleep and Little Pleasure
The Malbim says: all of this is a parable. In contrast to what was said earlier - "Do not love sleep lest you become impoverished, open your eyes and be satisfied with bread" - that a person should not love sleep and should not love laziness, this verse comes and says: Know that the Torah is acquired through little sleep and little pleasure. And even though at the beginning of wisdom "it is bad, bad, says the buyer." The Ralbag spoke about the end, while the Malbim speaks about the beginning: when he goes to acquire it, he says "this is bad." What does he mean? That it demands of me - I have to get up earlier, I cannot chase after my pleasures. The buyer says at first "bad, bad": this is something that limits me. It is told of the great Torah scholars that they never went to the sea, and all sorts of things like that, from which you understand that to merit the crown of Torah one needs devotion. So at first it seems bad, because you think about what you have to give up for it: with someone buying an object - money, and with Torah - pleasures, desires, wants, materialism. All of this a person must sell in order to merit the Torah.
"But once he goes his way, then he boasts" - when he acquires the wisdom, then he boasts. When the thing "goes away to him," from the root azil, going from the domain of the Holy One, blessed be He, into his own domain, and he has already acquired the Torah and will meditate on his Torah day and night, and the Torah is called his own as Chazal say - then he boasts. And as we explained regarding Rabbeinu Yonah and the Gra, either he boasts in the World to Come, or he boasts even in this world, where people honor him for his greatness, his Torah and his wisdom. And by then he has already had enough time to forget the efforts he invested - to invest he always continues, but the poverty he lived in and the tremendous devotion of his youth he forgets, because "then he boasts," now he receives only good.
Rabbeinu Yonah: "Why should a person lie without need?"
Rabbeinu Yonah learned from here a great lesson in the ways of negotiation. The buyer's way is to disparage the merchandise: "What a wreck. Did you notice the scratch under the left headlight, there by the bumper at the bottom? What, you think I did not see it? I came with a magnifying glass" - he relates to the car as if he is inspecting an etrog. "And also the antenna, did you notice it is a bit bent? I like straight antennas" - as if he is about to buy a lulav. My friend, it is just a piece of metal to get around in. (There was once someone driving a wreck, and the driver behind him called out: Would you mind moving along faster? He answered: To tell you the truth I would, but what shall I do with the car? Where would I leave it?) This is what the verse says: at the beginning he examines and searches for how to disparage the merchandise.
And Rabbeinu Yonah says: this is not the way of good sense. For why should a person lie without need and speak falsehood without benefit? This is a terrible thing, and many people stumble in it: when he goes to buy, he disparages the thing while knowing that the criticism he voices is not true. You tell him how bad the product is and how much repair it needs: "You have such and such a problem here, that is at least ten thousand shekels. Now am I to go into a ten thousand shekel expense on a car worth twenty thousand?" - while you say to yourself: No, I had this same issue with my previous car, it was a thousand five hundred shekels and the matter was settled. And you tell him stories. The example is with a car, but so it is with an apartment and with anything a person buys. Nowadays they have come to call this a "white lie" - a modern era expression to describe supposedly legitimate lies. And do you know why it is called a white lie (sheker lavan)? Because Lavan started this way, and afterward we saw where it led - he changed my wages a hundred times.
And all the more so after the purchase: the merchandise is already in his hand, already registered in his name, and now he comes and says to the seller: "You should know, you are lucky I am in a hurry; this car is really worth nothing, and I have friends who know how to arrange things...". This is seven times worse, because here there is already no benefit whatsoever in the lie. Fine, when you deceived him at the outset, you thought to gain money - let him understand the car is not worth much and sell it to me for half price; but when you continue telling stories after the fact, that is sheer wickedness of heart, a lie from which you derive no benefit at all. One should not employ falsehood in a matter that neither helps nor harms.
Sometimes it even comes from a good trait: he does not want to disappoint the seller, he wants him to come away feeling good, and so he tells him: "Rejoice, you made a good deal." I recall the story of a certain man who went to buy a refrigerator, haggled and haggled and brought the seller down from six to four, and paid in four installments. The first check bounced, the second bounced. The seller called him: What is this? He answered: I will tell you the truth, I have no money to pay. The seller said to him: Thief, swindler! For an entire hour you haggled with me, brought me down from six to four, and then you tell me you never intended to pay anyway? He replied: True, but I wanted to minimize your damage. It pained my heart that you would lose six thousand, so I wanted you to lose only four.
But before the purchase, says Rabbeinu Yonah, it is the way of the world to lower the price of the merchandise - and here too one must be very careful not to lower the price through falsehood. Do not tell him stories about great damage and expenses, things that he does not know. And all the more so those who try to buy and say: "Its price is such and such; I saw in the price guide that it says this," and they truly explain to him: "That is not the plain reading, your car is a different model, it is cheaper by four thousand shekels; what is written there is about that other model." I heard several stories about people who went to check afterward and saw that they had been deceived by falsehood, and that according to the true figures they were owed another four thousand shekels for the car. Regarding that there is certainly nothing to discuss - it is outright fraud and falsehood. But even when there is no lie here, only that you tell him unnecessary things after the fact - that is wickedness of heart, to deceive a person when you derive no benefit at all from it.
"But the lips of knowledge are a precious vessel"
יֵשׁ זָהָב וְרָב פְּנִינִים וּכְלִי יְקָר שִׂפְתֵי דָעַת׃ (פסוק טו) - There is gold and an abundance of pearls, but the lips of knowledge are a precious vessel. (verse 15)
This is the plain meaning of the verse: there is gold and there is an abundance of pearls, but more precious than all the vessels of gold and pearls - these are the lips of knowledge. And what is "an abundance of pearls"? The Gra explains: there are small pearls that are not worth much, and the choice ones are the large ones. It is the same with diamonds: ten small diamonds weighing a carat are not worth one diamond of a carat. One diamond worth a carat can cost eight or nine thousand shekels, and small diamonds can be had even for seven hundred - and they are all a carat. And several diamonds weighing as much as an egg do not amount to one diamond weighing as much as an egg. In other words: the larger the diamond, the greater its importance. Therefore the verse divides them: with gold the importance is in its abundance - "there is gold"; and with pearls the importance is in the size - "an abundance of pearls." And know that the lips of knowledge are more precious than gold and than an abundance of pearls.
Rabbeinu Yonah: to weigh one's words on a scale
What are the lips of knowledge? Rabbenu Yonah explains: a person should train his lips not to speak until he has weighed his words on a scale. In common speech: "weigh your words" - and this is usually said just before an explosion: "Sir, think about what you are saying, so it will not cost you dearly afterward." The pasuk tells you: the tools of knowledge are the most precious of all, and what are the tools of knowledge? That before a person speaks, he weighs his word and considers: is this fitting to say or not.
From here, says Rabbenu Yonah, the connection to the previous pasuk becomes clear: we spoke about the way of the buyer to disparage the merchandise, and that this is not the way of knowledge, for why should a person lie needlessly and speak falsehood without benefit. In contrast to those lips that disparage with falsehood, the Torah comes and says that the most precious tool is the lips of knowledge - lips that are carefully weighed before they open.
The Malbim: From the Mouth to the Lips - From Wisdom to Knowledge
The Malbim explains: the acquisition that a person gained through toil - that same toil spoken of in the previous pasuk, "It is bad, it is bad, says the buyer," referring to a person who acquires Torah and mitzvot for himself, which at first demands effort and strength from him and he finds it hard - what is that acquisition? "The lips of knowledge."
And what are the lips of knowledge? That the person has reached a state where he has complete knowledge of the matters, and does not accept them merely on tradition. As we explained previously: "wisdom" is when someone teaches me something and I do not yet understand it in its depth; and to advance from wisdom to the level of "knowledge" means that I have grasped the full matter. At first, in wisdom - and especially in matters of character traits - I do not understand why it needs to be this way and why that way; and afterward, when I delve deeply into the matters, I see that this path is the correct and good path, and that is already the aspect of knowledge. Knowledge means clear understanding of the matter, and not fulfilling the matter merely because that is what I was told or what I received.
And how does one reach this? "Open your eyes" - by a person opening his eyes he attains clear understanding: that he should be accustomed to speak in words of Torah, to study them and delve deeply into them, and through this he will merit the lips of knowledge.
And why is it said specifically "lips of knowledge" and not "mouth of knowledge"? We have already spoken several times about the difference between the mouth and the lips. The mouth is the inner part, and it is the aspect of wisdom - "and wisdom, from where is it found," wisdom is still hidden and not revealed. The lips are the outer part, and they are the aspect of knowledge: the matter has already come out of him, he has mastery over it, the matter is clear to him and he understands it well. At first it is like wisdom, hidden within the mouth; and now it is the aspect of lips. By a person opening his eyes to delve deeply into matters, he merits that the matters be with him from the lips outward, clear to him with clear knowledge.
The Practical Distinction: "I Understood" versus "Bring It Out"
Notice: when I know something partially, I know it - but if I am asked to explain it, I get tangled. When I know something well, I explain it smoothly. Many times the rabbi asks: Did you understand? You say: I understood. Repeat it - and you get tangled. You read something, you say: I understood what is written; now bring it out - not so simple. This means that there are two levels of understanding: understanding in the aspect of the mouth, which is inside - "I understood"; and understanding in the aspect of the lips, which is knowledge - I have reached clear understanding, full comprehension, and I can also explain it and bring it out through my lips. This is a higher attainment in understanding.
And therefore one of the ways to learn Torah, and we have already spoken about this before, was the way of Rav Elyashiv. He had a chavruta who learned with him for two years without the rav knowing: the rav would sit and study a sugya, and the chavruta would sit beside him and only listen. That is, Rav Elyashiv did not learn with him - Rav Elyashiv learned by himself, except that he would recite and explain, recite and explain: "Rava asks, if you said earlier that according to the Mishnah's explanation it is so, how is it now written differently in the Baraita? Abaye tells him that although the Mishnah's explanation is so, yet the text is deficient and this is what it teaches, and if something is missing here in the Mishnah - it turns out that it does fit." As if he were delivering a lecture. And that person sat beside him and learned from him for two years, without the rav knowing at all.
What did we learn from this? That when you bring the matters out through your mouth, you reach a far higher attainment in them. And this is good advice: whoever wants to understand matters deeply should review them by reciting them out loud. Did you learn something? Go back and say: In summary, according to Rava the law is thus and according to Abaye thus; according to Rava the Mishnah is explained this way, and according to Abaye that way - and wonderful, you have reached the level of knowledge. But if you only read with your eyes, you did not reach this.
Learning From the Book or From the Screen
Rav Elyashiv was asked about learning Torah from a computer. He said that there is much room to discuss this, but one thing is certain that it loses: a person does not learn aloud. Have you ever seen someone sitting at a computer chanting "Amar Rava, menalan"? A person reading from a computer reads with his eyes; next to a Gemara, by contrast, he reads and learns, learning the way one should. So that is certainly, without any doubt, a minus.
And by the way, I read a study, and even before I read it I had personally realized it was true and correct: two groups of students were given the same material to learn. Some received it in a book, and some in PDF files to read on a computer, the same font, everything the same. Those who learned from the book succeeded immeasurably more than those who learned from the computer. And I saw this for myself: there is a program called "Otzar HaChochma," tens of thousands of books, and you study there, and I noticed that things I learned from the computer I remember less than things where I took a book and learned from it. What is the explanation? There are all sorts of explanations: how the eye transmits and how it absorbs; and that generally, in a person's awareness, things that come from the computer are lighter matters, requiring less in-depth study, while when a person learns from a book he feels more that the matter requires careful study and he takes it more seriously. Psychology, I do not know what the explanation is, but what I am telling you are facts. And therefore, whatever a person can learn from a book, that is certainly preferable, and it certainly grants greater retention.
"Buy truth and do not sell it"
Let us return and summarize the pasuk: "lips of knowledge" means that a person has clear knowledge in a matter. The Malbim says: lips of knowledge are a precious vessel, a very precious vessel unlike any in the world. And if you acquired it and gave in exchange gold and pearls, know that this is no great loss, for "there is gold and an abundance of pearls": did you sell gold? No matter, gold is not lacking. You want gold, what kind do you want? I will send you and you can buy whatever you wish. You bought here, buy there. But "a precious vessel are lips of knowledge": lips of knowledge are very precious, rare in reality. To arrive in Torah at full knowledge and full depth, that is not common. Do not sell that: "buy truth and do not sell it." Do not give this up, for this you cannot buy everywhere.
In summary:
These two pesukim paint for us the path of acquisition. "Bad, bad, says the buyer": in physical acquisitions a person gets excited before the purchase and is disappointed after it, and in the acquisition of Torah it is the opposite: at first he sees only the price, less sleep, less pleasure, giving up desires and wishes; and afterward, once he has merited it, "then he praises himself," and the efforts are forgotten. And within this we learned a piercing ethical lesson from Rabbeinu Yonah: that a person should not lie needlessly nor speak falsehood without benefit, not at the time of the transaction and certainly not afterward. And from the second pasuk we learned what the most precious acquisition is: "a precious vessel are lips of knowledge," lips that weigh their words on a scale, and lips that have arrived at clear and complete knowledge, such that a person can bring it forth from his mouth and explain it to others. Gold and pearls can be bought anywhere; lips of knowledge are acquired only through toil, through opening one's eyes, through repetition aloud and learning from the book, and these one does not sell at any price.