Chapter 5 of Mishlei warns against the "strange woman" - and in the allegorical framing of the Malbim, against alien philosophies and physical desires that seduce a person and divert him from the path of Torah. In this section, we arrive at the description of remorse felt by one who pursued them. From there, Shlomo HaMelech turns to the positive counterpart: the "wife of one's youth" - true wisdom, Hashem's Torah, from which one drinks living waters and to which he clings all his days. Let us proceed through the verses in order.
וְאָמַרְתָּ אֵיךְ שָׂנֵאתִי מוּסָר וְתוֹכַחַת נָאַץ לִבִּי׃ - "And you will say: 'How have I hated discipline, and my heart despised rebuke!'"
When a person reaches a point where physical desires no longer appeal to him, and he sees how he wasted his life on emptiness and vanity, he will say: "How have I hated mussar!" *Mussar*, as explained earlier, shares a root with *yissurin* (affliction and chastisement) - being disciplined, struck, or threatened with punishment. That, he hated completely. *Tochachah* (rebuke), on the other hand, comes from the language of rational debate and proof: not through suffering, but through reasoned argument that proves the truth of the Torah and wisdom, seeking to return him to the proper path through rational intellect. He did not hate that, but rather "my heart despised it" - it was held in contempt in his eyes. And such is human nature: a person hates physical blows, whereas intellectual proofs that run contrary to his inclinations he does not hate, but rather disdains: "my heart despised it."
וְלֹא־שָׁמַעְתִּי בְּקוֹל מוֹרָי וְלִמְלַמְּדַי לֹא־הִטִּיתִי אׇזְנִי׃ - "And I did not listen to the voice of my guides, nor incline my ear to my teachers!"
There is a distinction between a *moreh* (guide) and a *melamed* (teacher): a *melamed* stands at a higher level than a *moreh*. A *moreh* merely points out the way: "Do you see over there? That is how you get there." A *melamed* takes you by the hand and walks beside you, showing you precisely where to turn. So it is with a craft: a *moreh* instructs you to cut here, sand there, and glue this part; a *melamed* says, "Come, take the glue, let me show you how to join them" - demonstrating the task in practice and repeating it until the student has mastered it. This is his lament: "I did not listen to the voice of my guides (*morai*)," those who pointed out the path; and worse still, "nor incline my ear to my teachers (*melamdai*)," those who were ready to hold my hand and demonstrate it in practice.
כִּמְעַט הָיִיתִי בְכׇל־רָע בְּתוֹךְ קָהָל וְעֵדָה׃ - "For a mere trifle I was brought into utter ruin, in the midst of congregation and assembly."
The word *kim'at* here does not mean "almost," as it does in contemporary Hebrew, but rather: for a mere trifle (*davar mu'at*), for something minuscule. And what is that trifle? The desires of this world, pleasures that are worthless and endure only briefly. Every physical pleasure is fleeting - when a person eats, how long does the pleasure last? The Mesillat Yesharim notes: a single centimeter, just as it passes through the throat. And so it is with all worldly pleasures. For the sake of that tiny fleeting pleasure, one surrendered the birthright, "until I was brought into utter ruin" - all calamities befell me. To what can this be compared? To someone who spent a million dollars to buy a lottery ticket where the maximum prize is ten shekels. Thus he laments: for a pittance, I sold all matters of truth, Torah, and the World to Come, and the loss far outweighs the gain.
Not only that, but "in the midst of congregation and assembly": the calamities that befell me occurred publicly, in disgrace and indignation before all eyes. Had they occurred in secret, without anyone knowing, it might be bearable; but they came about in the midst of congregation and assembly, where everyone witnessed how I paid the price. Over this he grieves and regrets, as it says earlier, "And you groan at your end" - he groans in bewilderment at himself: "How could I have done such a thing?"
We find the word used in this same sense in the verse: "As a light matter [*kim'at*] I would subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries." One who reads this without proper understanding might wonder: is it difficult for the Holy One, Blessed be He, to subdue their enemies, that it says *kim'at*? Rather, the meaning is: I would subdue them as if they were few (*me'atim*) - not like someone facing an army of a hundred thousand soldiers, but like someone facing four men. Here too: for a trifle, for transient worldly pleasures that do not endure, I was already brought into utter ruin.
שְׁתֵה־מַיִם מִבּוֹרֶךָ וְנֹזְלִים מִתּוֹךְ בְּאֵרֶךָ׃ - Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from the midst of your well.
Countering the enticements of the yetzer hara, which advises man to hew for himself broken cisterns that can hold no water - as if one might find the springs of wisdom with them, when in truth they hold no water at all - Shlomo tells him: You have a cistern of your own, the waters of wisdom and the waters of understanding, and from there you can draw pure, crystal-clear water. Why should you hew broken cisterns?
And what is the difference between "your cistern" (borecha) and "your well" (be'erecha)? (Their combination, of course, alludes to "your Creator", Borecha.) The Malbim explains: A cistern (bor) holds collected water, such as rainwater; a person digs a cistern to gather water that comes from the outside. A well (be'er) contains flowing subterranean water, like a spring: one digs until reaching the underground water table in a place where it is known to exist, and the water rises on its own. The well fills from within itself, while the cistern fills from liquids arriving from the outside.
In the allegory: The beginning of acquiring wisdom is like the collected waters of a cistern, for initially a person cannot deduce wisdom on his own. Wisdom must be received. Distinguishing between right and wrong, between proper and improper, between stinginess and squandering, between anger and composure - to which the title of wisdom applies - is not something one can attain on his own; it must be received from the mouth of a prophet. Only a prophet can tell us the path of wisdom, what Hashem requires of man, and what true divine service is. Therefore, at first, you must be like a cistern: prepare a vessel and receive. "On my own?" No. If you begin on your own, you will fall into grave errors, for one cannot reach the pathways of wisdom solely through one's own faculties.
Afterward, however, comes "and running water from the midst of your well." Once you possess the foundations of wisdom, you reach the stage of understanding (tevunah): to contemplate, deduce, and understand one matter from another, until you yourself become like an ever-flowing spring. And what does the word nozlim ("flowing water") signify? When we say a cup is overflowing, it means the liquid has risen so high that it begins to spill over. So it is with wisdom: after receiving its foundations from a prophet, it will grow and develop within you so much that it begins to overflow. As you delve deeply into the teachings and analyze them, novel Torah insights (chiddushim) will multiply and flourish within you.
יָפוּצוּ מַעְיְנֹתֶיךָ חוּצָה בָּרְחֹבוֹת פַּלְגֵי־מָיִם׃ - Let your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the public squares.
"Let your springs be dispersed abroad" - this refers to the teachings he imparts through in-depth analysis of the ways of wisdom, teaching his children and disciples. Afterward comes "streams of water in the public squares." And what is the difference between "outside" (chutz) and "public square" (rechov)? The Malbim explains, as we have seen previously: chutz refers to the area behind the houses, like a private backyard, where only the members of his household are found. Rechov is the broad plaza in front of the houses, the public domain, what we refer to today as a street. Therefore, in the first stage, "let your springs be dispersed abroad" - to your children and disciples; and in the second stage, "streams of water in the public squares" - until you reach the public domain and everyone drinks from his wisdom, waters that divide and branch out in every direction, becoming like an ever-increasing spring and an unfailing river, from which all benefit.
And this is what the Gemara says regarding a young Torah scholar (tzurva merabbanan), that he is like a seed under a clod of earth (partzida detutei kala) - which at first barely sprouts a tiny shoot, but later, when it grows, one sees a tall, majestic tree. So it is with a talmid chacham: at first people ask where he is, no one has heard of him, two years ago no one knew him; and suddenly, "let your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the public squares" - suddenly there is a surge of water in the streets, and everyone recognizes and appreciates the greatness of his wisdom.
יִהְיוּ־לְךָ לְבַדֶּךָ וְאֵין לְזָרִים אִתָּךְ׃ - Let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
Even though the springs of wisdom spread outward, know that the teachings will be quoted in your name: "So said such-and-such sage," "So said Rav Huna," "So said Rav Pappa" - and consequently, the reward of that wisdom will be yours alone. And what does "and not for strangers with you" mean? Even though your disciples are the ones who disseminate your wisdom and share a reward with you, they are not considered strangers - a person's disciples are considered his children, as it is written, "the sons of the prophets." Strangers will have no share in the reward, but rather only you and your disciples, who are your children.
יְהִי־מְקוֹרְךָ בָרוּךְ וּשְׂמַח מֵאֵשֶׁת נְעוּרֶךָ׃ - Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
"A fountain" (makor) always denotes the source from which a spring emerges: the water flows out of its origin and spreads outward, and the lower, foundational part is called the source. Metaphorically, this means: may your intellect be blessed, so that you receive good understanding from Hashem. "And rejoice with the wife of your youth" - that same Torah over which you toiled in your youth, exerting yourself and laboring in it; now you will find joy in it.
For at the beginning of study, a person perceives only darkness. The Gemara says regarding the verse "and darkness was upon the face of the deep" - this refers to the Talmud of Babylonia. Why? Because when a person begins to learn, he does not understand what is going on, what the Gemara is asking, or what a given concept means - it is great darkness. Only after he toils, labors, and delves into the Rishonim and Acharonim do the matters fit together seamlessly like a garment, and then "the people walking in darkness have seen a great light." So it is with toiling in Torah: read about all the Gedolim, in what poverty and dire straits they lived at the start of their journey. A person for whom people now stand in line to give donations, to support and assist him - you read about his early days, in what scarcity he lived and how much he struggled. That is the beginning. And this is the meaning of: "and rejoice with the wife of your youth" - that wife of your youth with whom life was once so difficult, the time has come to rejoice in her; the Torah you acquired in your youth - now is the stage to rejoice in it.
אַיֶּלֶת אֲהָבִים וְיַעֲלַת־חֵן דַּדֶּיהָ יְרַוֻּךָ בְכׇל־עֵת בְּאַהֲבָתָהּ תִּשְׁגֶּה תָמִיד׃ - A loving hind and a graceful doe: let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be always engrossed in her love.
Two types of animals are mentioned here: a hind (ayelet) and a mountain doe (ya'alah). The Malbim explains that both dwell among the rocks, and both are characterized by having a narrow womb, as it is written: "Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock give birth? Do you mark the calving of the hinds?" as we learned in the Book of Iyov. The hind arouses love and the mountain doe arouses grace; and because their womb is narrow, this evokes an increase in passion at the time of intimacy.
He compares the supreme Wisdom to a doe and a hind: their run is swift, and wisdom comes from an exalted place - a person cannot attain wisdom on his own, but only from a high source, from Above. "And it is swift in its insights" - through the power of wisdom, a person grasps everything with great speed and understands matters with ease. "And it evokes love and grace" - and as explained earlier, one who possesses divine wisdom finds grace and good favor in the eyes of God and man; his words are heard and accepted, spoken with logic and good sense, for divine wisdom is sound intellect and clear logic.
Corresponding to "a graceful doe," he said: "let her breasts satisfy you at all times." Some explain that "dadeha" refers to the breasts, but the Malbim maintains - and explains this in several places - that this refers to the place of union, meaning that she arouses grace at the time of union. And corresponding to "a loving hind," he said: "be always engrossed in her love" - even outside the time of union. The Malbim explains "tishgeh" as related to "tisgeh," from the root sagi, meaning great or plentiful: her love should continually grow and increase within you.
The deeper meaning is: when a person connects to wisdom, "let her breasts satisfy you at all times" - he is continually satiated by it and discovers new insights within it, delving into it and studying it again and again; even in what he has already learned, he finds something new each time. As the Gemara states, the Torah is compared to a fig tree: whenever one searches it, one finds ripe figs. A fig does not ripen all at once; rather, it ripens continually, a little more each time, so whenever you search, you will find. So it is with Torah: when someone learns a sugya and develops original insights in it, when he learns it again he perceives new facets and further wondrous ideas. This is "let her breasts satisfy you at all times" - even though you have already drank your fill, you find fresh satisfaction.
And even when you are not generating new insights - "be always engrossed in her love": out of deep love for it, you review what you have already learned, repeating and reviewing it again and again. As is quoted in the name of the Vilna Gaon, who testified about himself that from the intensity of his love for Torah, he was capable of learning a single Mishnah his entire life. And who can review a Mishnah like that? When people finish a chapter and someone suggests reviewing it, the response is often, "Leave it, let us move forward." A person naturally craves novelty, not only in news flashes but also in learning. Yet one who studies without reviewing is like one who sows but does not reap. This poses a real challenge for a person.
It is told of the author of the Siftei Kohen, the Shach, that one of the leading Torah figures of his era, who had likewise authored a work, asked him: "By what merit did the Rav's books become so widely accepted throughout the world?" (Indeed, the entire yeshivah world studies them, and anyone learning Shulchan Aruch certainly studies with the Shach.) The Shach replied: "When you finish a day of study, what do you do?" He answered: "I summarize all the new insights I arrived at today and write them in a book." "And the next day?" He said: "I start a new halachah or a new ruling, analyze it, study it in depth, and commit it to writing." The Shach said to him: "I do not do this. After I finish studying and record the matters in writing, the next day I review everything I learned yesterday, and verify that everything I learned yesterday was true and correct."
One of the great Torah leaders once said: "My yetzer hara in learning is not to go wandering in the street - my yetzer hara is reviewing what I learned yesterday." And that is truly a challenge: we learned it, so let us move on and learn something new! Regarding this, the Vilna Gaon remarked that from the sheer intensity of his love for Torah, he was capable of learning a single Mishnah his entire life. Appreciate the magnitude of this: for us, we review a Mishnah a second time and understand it better, and a third time even more; but the Vilna Gaon - what we comprehend only on the thousandth time, he already grasped on the first. What else was there for him to learn? Such genius is beyond imagination or description, yet even so, this is the very definition of love for Torah.
Once, Rav Chaim of Volozhin came to him and said: "I would like the Rav to test me on Masechet Sukkah." The Gaon asked him, "How many times did you learn it?" He replied, "Forty times." Even so, the Gaon told him, "That is not enough." Rav Chaim asked, "If so, how many times, one hundred and one?" The Gaon answered, "All his days, a person stands to rise and return." "Rise and return" (amod vachazor) is an expression used regarding a lost object: if one returned a lost object and it ran away again, he is obligated to return it repeatedly, as it says, "You shall surely return them" (hashev teshivem). So too with the pursuit of Torah: all his days, a person stands to rise and return, to review and memorize, to review and memorize. Then, the Gaon told him, you will attain true knowledge of the Torah. Rav Chaim asked, "And what is knowledge of the Torah?" The Gaon asked him, "How many disputes are there between Abaye and Rava in Masechet Sukkah? How many types of sukkot are kosher and how many are invalid?" He began posing questions to him. Afterwards, the Gaon sat and enumerated them one by one: there are this many invalid sukkot - corresponding to the numerical value of "sukkah" spelled with a vav; and this many kosher sukkot - corresponding to the numerical value of "sukkah" spelled without a vav. He likewise listed every single dispute in the tractate, between this Tanna or Amora and that one. That is what is called knowing Torah. True, to achieve that level one must be the Vilna Gaon, but the point is that even someone who has everything clearly retained in his mind from the very first reading still reviews and repeats. This is the meaning of "let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be continually enraptured by her love": a love so immense that even when there is no novelty left, out of sheer love for her you review, repeat, and recite over and over again.
וְלָמָּה תִשְׁגֶּה בְנִי בְזָרָה וּתְחַבֵּק חֵק נׇכְרִיָּה׃ - And why, my son, should you be enraptured with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien woman?
"Why, my son, should you be enraptured with a strange woman" - with a woman who is strange; and not only that, but you go further astray and also embrace the bosom of an alien woman, who is worse than a strange woman. A "zarah" (strange woman) is a woman who is not his wife; a "nochriyah" (alien woman) is a daughter of a foreign god, a non-Jew. The allegory here is that the "strange woman" represents misleading philosophies, those secular disciplines that divert common sense and lead one astray from true wisdom, the wisdom of the Torah. "Tishgeh" can be understood both in the sense of error (shegagah), wandering off the path, and in the sense of engrossing oneself in studying them. Do you imagine you will find benefit in them? True wisdom and knowledge are found only in the Torah of Hashem. And the "alien woman" represents teachings of heresy and apostasy, which you will eventually embrace. How so? Because if you are led astray by the strange woman, you will end up embracing the bosom of the alien woman: it begins with studying their worldly philosophies and ends with studying their heresy.
כִּי נֹכַח עֵינֵי יְהֹוָה דַּרְכֵי־אִישׁ וְכׇל־מַעְגְּלֹתָיו מְפַלֵּס׃ - For the ways of man are before the eyes of Hashem, and He weighs all his circuits.
A derech (way or path), as we noted, is the straight path. A ma'agal (circuit), as explained at the beginning of the chapter, is the roundabout route leading toward the same destination one is ultimately meant to reach. And in order to be certain of arriving precisely at that destination, one needs a peles (a level or scale) - the measuring tool that ensures one will end up at the correct destination.
Regarding this, the verse says: know that "the ways of man" - a person's inner path, his straight course - are before the eyes of Hashem. The Holy One, blessed be He, prepares a path for you in accordance with the holy Torah: "And you shall make known to them the way in which they must walk." The proper, upright path in the service of Hashem is before Hashem. Study the words of Torah, and the Torah will straighten your ways. "And He weighs all his circuits" - even if you occasionally need to deviate from the straight path, as we explained previously: sometimes a person follows a path of chassidut (piety) and acts beyond the letter of the law, and sometimes one must temporarily transgress a Torah law due to the pressing need of the hour, like Eliyahu on Mount Carmel who offered sacrifices outside the Temple. This is termed a ma'agal, a detour from the straightforward path. Yet because your intent is always the service of Hashem and His way, the Holy One, blessed be He, levels and balances his circuits, ensuring that from this deviation you will arrive back at the straight path and achieve the desired outcome, unlike one who turns into a circuitous route and remains trapped within it.
עֲוֺנוֹתָיו יִלְכְּדֻנוֹ אֶת־הָרָשָׁע וּבְחַבְלֵי חַטָּאתוֹ יִתָּמֵךְ׃ - His own iniquities shall entrap the wicked one, and he shall be held fast in the cords of his sin.
We noted that the good ways are before Hashem, for Hashem assists a person who seeks to purify himself and walk upon the good path. Now he states: know that the ways of the wicked are not guided by Hashem. And who traps him? His own iniquities. For one who comes to purify himself, they assist him, and the Holy One, blessed be He, levels his circuits; but for one who comes to defile himself, they open the door for him, and through that crooked path the wicked man reaches defilement.
Let us notice that both avon (iniquity) and chatat (sin) appear here, and this is a principle that the Malbim explains throughout Tanach: avon comes from the root of distortion (ivut), denoting a distortion of the intellect; chet generally denotes an inadvertent error, or the physical act itself - a deficiency in action. Why does a person generally sin? Because desire overcame him, leading him to sin, and it is regarded somewhat like an inadvertent slip, as his inclination coerced him. But what happens when a person sinks deeper into sin? He is unwilling to see himself as a worthless, spineless failure, so he recruits his intellect to prove that what he is doing is correct. Thus, from an inadvertent stumble - "What could I do? The evil inclination overpowered me" - he becomes someone with an ideology behind his heresy. He stops excusing himself by blaming his inclination and begins to say: What is wrong with this? This is how one ought to act. A person always wants to justify himself.
It turns out, then, that the sin leads him to avon, and avon is far more severe, for it is a distortion of the intellect. Sin pertains only to the instruments of action, and of it one can say, "his inclination overcame him." But when avon arrives, the very ideology becomes warped, which is exceedingly grave, as it corrupts the intellect and understanding. This is the meaning of "and he is held fast by the cords of his sin": what holds him bound in sin? The avon, which supplies an ideology for his sin. If until now he sinned out of helplessness, now, armed with this ideology, the matter has shifted from a regrettable lapse into an ideal - "this is how one ought to act." And how does this occur? Through habit: once a person grows accustomed to heresy and disbelief, it turns into a core principle for him.
הוּא יָמוּת בְּאֵין מוּסָר וּבְרֹב אִוַּלְתּוֹ יִשְׁגֶּה׃ - He shall die for lack of discipline, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
In the end, he will die for lack of musar - he is no longer capable of accepting rebuke or discipline. And what is musar? As we explained, it refers to suffering, as well as being intimidated by the prospect of divine punishment. Yet even if he is punished, he does not accept correction. Why? "And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray," for he clings to his foolishness.
We have also explained the difference between an evil (a fool) and a kesil: evil is related to the word ulai ("perhaps"), characterizing the chronic skeptic. Whatever you tell him - that there is a Creator to the world, that there is proof - he responds: Who says? It is not clear, it is not completely proven, there is no evidence. That is an evil: someone who casts a skeptical "perhaps" over everything. Consequently, he does not believe that punishment comes through Divine Providence. After all, here is chastisement - why do you not accept it? Instead, he says: Perhaps it is mere coincidence; perhaps I just happened to be there at that exact moment and got hurt. This is what prevents him from accepting the rebuke and understanding the message: "in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray" - he wanders astray after his folly, asserting that everything is mere coincidence, that there is no Providence here, and that there is no proof his path is mistaken. As a result, his end is that he will die for lack of discipline.
In this section of the chapter, King Solomon describes the remorse of one who hated discipline and spurned rebuke, who listened neither to his teachers nor to his instructors, and who traded away all matters of truth and the World to Come for fleeting, petty pleasure - and publicly, in the midst of the congregation and assembly. In contrast, he shows the proper path: drink water from your own cistern - first receive the foundations of wisdom from their authentic source, from the mouth of a prophet and from the Torah, and afterward you will become like a flowing well, until your springs spread abroad and streams of water in the public squares, with teachings cited in your name. Rejoice in the wife of your youth, the Torah in which you toiled amid the hardship and darkness of the beginning, and cleave to her with love: "let her breasts satisfy you at all times" - through the novel insights renewed with every study session; "always be intoxicated with her love" - through constant, loving review and memorization. And do not wander astray with an alien woman, with deceptive foreign philosophies whose ultimate end is embracing the bosom of a stranger. For a man's ways are before the eyes of Hashem, and He levels the paths of anyone who walks toward Him; whereas the wicked man - his own iniquities ensnare him, his sin is supported by the distortion of his intellect, and through his folly of attributing everything to chance, he loses all ability to accept discipline.