Chapter 21 of Sefer Mishlei continues to clarify man's relationship with his Creator and with his fellow human beings: the power of concealed charity, the tzaddik's joy in justice, the fate of one who strays from the path of wisdom, and the danger of pursuing pleasures. Here we will examine several pesukim from the chapter in order, in light of the commentators and the Malbim.
מַתָּן בַּסֵּתֶר יִכְפֶּה אָף וְשֹׁחַד בַּחֵק חֵמָה עַזָּה׃ (יד) - A gift in secret subdues anger, and a bribe in the bosom, fierce wrath.
Why did the verse specifically employ the terms "in secret" and "in the bosom"? Because we all know that the greatest form of charity is when a person gives and the pauper does not know from whom he received it, while the giver himself neither tells anyone nor even knows to whom he gave. This is the lofty level of matan b'seter (giving in secret), and therefore the verse uses terms denoting concealment: "in secret," "in the bosom" - slipping it into his garment without his noticing. This is an unequaled level of tzedakah, and it has the power to subdue anger and remove fierce wrath.
Rav Yaakov Galinsky, ztz"l, once quipped in jest that his mitzvah of tzedakah was superior to that of the Master of the World. When asked how that could be, he replied: When the Holy One, Blessed is He, gives tzedakah, everyone knows who the Giver is, for everything comes from Him, and He Himself knows who the recipient is. But when I give, I do not know to whom I gave, and the recipient does not know from whom he received. It turns out, then, that my charity is of a higher order...
The Vilna Gaon explains: Af (anger) is the beginning of wrath. Through a secret gift, one ensures that anger does not flare up at all - not even slightly, not even mere af. But one who gives a bribe in the bosom brings wrath upon himself, since he gives only after trouble has already begun, once he is already embroiled in a dilemma. This is "fierce wrath": as though there is a grievance against him, asking why he did not give beforehand and gave only at the very end.
In the Baraita of the Thirty-Two Hermeneutical Principles of Rabbi Yosi HaGelili, the verse "a gift in secret subdues anger" is cited, and the statement is also applied to bribery. This immediately raises a question: is it not stated of the Holy One, Blessed is He, that "He does not take a bribe"? How then can anger and fierce wrath be subdued through bribery? The Vilna Gaon explains: if a person does not give secret charity to the needy among the Jewish people, he will ultimately be forced to give to the officials of the nations to quell their fierce wrath. This is a marvelous insight: when you give in secret to your impoverished neighbor, it subdues heavenly anger and removes celestial wrath from upon you. If not, do not imagine that you have escaped and that "the money stays in your pocket"; rather, "a bribe in the bosom [will subdue] fierce wrath" - you will be compelled to slip a bribe into the bosom of a gentile official to neutralize his rage. Had you given to the pauper in time, there would have been no harsh decree in the first place; having withheld it under the illusion of saving money, you will now have to pay double and triple to remove that fierce wrath. Thus, the verb "subdues" applies to both parts of the verse: a gift in secret subdues anger, and if one fails to do so, a bribe in the bosom will be forced to subdue fierce wrath.
The Malbim explains: money that a person gives secretly can be for good or for bad. A "gift" (matan) is a disbursement given with nothing expected in return, like a present: money given to a pauper is called a gift, as is money presented to ministers and dignitaries. Regarding this, the verse says "subdues anger": giving charity subdues the anger Above, while giving money to an official or wealthy ruler subdues anger down below. That is, if a ruler issued a decree and you gave him a discreet gift, it quells his wrath against you. However, money given secretly in order to pervert justice is what is termed a "bribe" (shochad). The Malbim is the only commentator here who interprets "and a bribe" literally: an actual bribe given to a judge. What a person gives in order to subvert judgment, slipping it into the judge's bosom as if without anyone noticing, arouses fierce wrath, both Above and below. Above, because the Holy One, Blessed is He, commanded "You shall not accept a bribe," and one causes the judge to sin by accepting it; and below, because if the matter is uncovered by legal authorities, disaster ensues. It follows that offering a bribe incites fierce wrath in both the higher and lower realms, whereas a secret gift - whether given to a pauper or to an official - subdues anger, either Above or below, causing the ruler to turn away his burning wrath and refrain from bringing trouble upon us.
The Malbim has already clarified the distinction between af (anger) and cheimah (wrath): af is external, whereas cheimah is internal. Af refers to smoke rising in a person's nostrils and the face flushing red - a sign of outwardly visible fury. Cheimah, on the other hand, is an internal burn, as we find with Achashverosh: "and his wrath burned within him" - within him, on the inside. Thus, cheimah is harsher than af: af manifests externally, whereas cheimah consumes a person from within, which is far more severe. Furthermore, the Malbim emphasizes that a bribe (shochad) strictly denotes something given to a dayan or judge to distort a verdict. What is colloquially called bribery today - a payoff given to an official, minister, or bureaucrat - though considered a criminal bribe under civil law, is not classified as shochad according to the Torah, since halachically shochad applies solely to the perversion of judicial rulings. This is not to say that such conduct is upright, for one gives it to distort reality, yet it does not bear the halachic classification of shochad.
שִׂמְחָה לַצַּדִּיק עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וּמְחִתָּה לְפֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן׃ (טו) - It is joy to the righteous to execute justice, but ruin to the workers of iniquity.
Rashi explains: It is a joy to the Holy One, Blessed is He, to execute judgment upon the righteous. When Hashem exacts retribution from the tzaddik and administers judgment upon him, there is joy before Him, blessed be He, for this purifies them to merit the life of the World to Come. It is likewise a joy to the tzaddik himself when the Holy One, Blessed is He, brings afflictions upon him, since he too desires to merit life in the World to Come. This is also cited in Midrash Tehillim.
Clearly, this joy is not joy in the literal sense, for when a person is in pain, the Shechinah cries out, "My head is heavy, My arm is heavy" - the Shechinah shares in the suffering of Israel. Rather, it is the kind of joy a parent feels when taking a child to the dentist: true, there were screams, there was distress, and you wept along with him, but at last the ordeal is behind him and he will suffer no longer. In the same way, there is joy when the Holy One, Blessed be He, collects from the righteous here in this world, through minimal suffering, what is due, in order to grant them boundless reward in the World to Come.
"And destruction to the workers of iniquity" - that very same "executing of justice" cuts both ways. For the righteous, there is joy in judgment, whereas for the wicked, when Hashem executes judgment upon them, the suffering brings them no benefit: they suffer to no avail, since they do not repent and do not mend their ways. And what is the purpose of suffering if it achieves nothing? It turns out that this suffering is a pit and ruin, a stumbling block for the workers of iniquity. This is especially true if the workers of iniquity fail to grasp the value of suffering, kicking against it and leveling complaints against the Holy One, Blessed be He - there is no greater ruin than this. It becomes a literal pit: instead of declaring, "Hashem is righteous according to His word," they claim, Heaven forbid, that Hashem judges them without justice, asking, "Why do I deserve this?" with endless grievances and accusations. Thus, the very "executing of justice" becomes yet another pit for them to fall into and be harmed by. A sensible person would realize: I deserve this, the Holy One, Blessed be He, wishes to purify me, and this is only a fraction of what my deeds warrant. But with the workers of iniquity, the failure is twofold: first, they do not repent, so the benefit of the suffering is missed; and second, they do not accept the suffering with love, and as a result, they lapse into heresy.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains this in another way: we are obligated to serve Hashem, Blessed is He, with joy, as it is written, "Because you did not serve Hashem your God with joy and gladness of heart, out of an abundance of all things," and "Serve Hashem with joy." The righteous person rejoices when he sees others serving Hashem; he rejoices when he sees people who refrain from iniquity and instead execute justice, and he grieves when he sees wrongdoing and injustice - "If you see oppression of the poor and the perversion of justice in a province." By contrast, for the wicked, justice and law enforcement only hinder and harm them. This is the meaning of the verse's continuation: "executing justice is destruction to the workers of iniquity." Has law enforcement begun? "Woe to me, I am in trouble." The very execution of justice is ruin to them, and they dread the Day of Judgment. But the tzaddik who conducts himself with righteousness - on the contrary, he rejoices when Hashem executes justice, and he looks forward to it, knowing that he conducted himself according to the laws of righteousness in all his affairs.
אָדָם תּוֹעֶה מִדֶּרֶךְ הַשְׂכֵּל בִּקְהַל רְפָאִים יָנוּחַ׃ (טז) - A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the congregation of the dead.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that one who wanders from the way of understanding is someone drawn after bodily desire, and because of that desire, fails to follow intellect. As has often been noted: when physical desire takes the driver's seat, the intellect hangs a "Towed" sign. A person wanders from the path of intellect whenever desire does the talking, which is the very antithesis of wisdom. "Will rest in the congregation of the dead" - such a person does not deserve to stand among the living, but rather among the dead, and it is fitting that his bodily elements return to their source. "Refa'im" refers to the dead, so named because they have become limp and weak (from the root rafeh); for at the moment of death a person's muscles go slack (only later stiffening as the body dries), and all related phenomena stem from the deceased being limp.
Rabbeinu Yonah delves even deeper: when the Holy One, Blessed be He, fashioned man, the intention was that the soul - wisdom and intellect - should govern his physical desires. We have already illustrated that the intellect is the reins in the hands of the rider upon this donkey or horse called the body, holding the power to steer the beast toward the will of Hashem. Left to itself, the beast merely craves food and drink, pleasures and indulgences; who then can restrain man, place a muzzle upon the animal, and guide it along the king's highway? That is the role of the intellect, of the soul.
One who abandons the way of understanding and refuses to heed the direction toward Hashem's path, divine service, mitzvah observance, and the curtailing of worldly pleasures, following falsehood instead - acts in direct opposition to the purpose of creation. For "Everyone called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him": everything created in the world was brought into being for the sake of Hashem, Blessed is He, and for His glory. If one does not live accordingly, he has failed to fulfill the purpose of creation. Rabbeinu Yonah describes this as: "he did the opposite of the intention behind his creation" - the complete reverse of the purpose for which he was formed. If so, why was he created at all? It would have been better had he never been formed, and consequently, "he will rest in the congregation of the dead" - it is better for him to return to his grave. For the Sages concluded: it would have been more comfortable for man had he not been created than to have been created, but now that he has been created, let him examine his deeds and engage in Torah and mitzvos; if he fails to do so, we return to the starting point: it would have been better had he never been created.
Thus, the wicked person fails to fulfill the purpose of his existence. "Let us make man" was said for your sake - if you strive to follow in the ways of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, it was for your sake that "Let us make man" was said; but if not, the gnat preceded you. And why did the gnat precede you? Because the gnat fulfills its purpose. The cow fulfills its purpose: eating grass and producing milk, and it does so excellently. Meanwhile, man presumes to take a cow, slaughter it, and enjoy steaks.
And what was accomplished by that? One took a creature that fulfills Hashem's will, and used it to nourish someone who defies Hashem's will. This is why the Sages state: an am ha'aretz (an unlearned, unobservant person) is forbidden to eat meat. What justification is there for someone who does not do Hashem's will and neglects his role in creation to take a creature that does fulfill its role, roast it over the fire, and use it to sustain someone who will commit sins? In this regard, it has been noted that opponents of meat-eating touched upon a profound truth without realizing it: they argue that it is wrong to slaughter and eat - and indeed, from the perspective of the Torah, for such a person it truly is forbidden. Given how such an individual lives and what he does with his days, he ought not to eat meat. But if, through the strength gained from that meat, a person attends a Torah class, prays, and fulfills Hashem's commandments, the cow itself pleads: "Please, make a steak out of me! Left on my own, I merely graze on grass at a lowly animal level; but if you eat me, divine service will emerge from my existence, and my fat and blood will be offered up to the Holy One, Blessed be He." This is the meaning of "Everyone called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him": one elevates the animal to the loftiest plane it could ever reach, through the study of Torah and the observance of mitzvos.
It emerges that one who wanders from the way of understanding that steers man toward the service of his Creator, and who instead chases lusts and pleasures, "will rest in the congregation of the dead": it would have been better for him had he never entered the world, and it is better that he return to the dust as he was. Indeed, the fewer years he lives, the less kindling he gathers for the fire that awaits him Above. Longevity works to his own detriment, which is why Chazal teach that death is a benefit for the wicked, for the wicked are considered dead even while alive; it is better that he not linger here, so that less fuel is piled up Above. With each passing year of life, he merely adds more wood to the pyre, and how terrible it will be for him there afterward.
This directly continues what was explained earlier: workers of iniquity dread judgment; they despise justice and truth, and love falsehood. Such people stray from the path of the rational soul, for falsehood is the very antithesis of truth, while truth is intellect and wisdom. Therefore, one who is dragged after his desires wanders from the way of understanding; his punishment is vast and grave, and in the congregation of the dead he shall rest.
Ralbag explains that "one who strays from the way of understanding" refers to a person who has gone astray in his beliefs, someone whose outlook is corrupted: faith in Hashem, trust in Hashem, divine providence (Hashgachah Pratit) - everything pertaining to beliefs in the service of Hashem is distorted for him. Such a person "will rest in the congregation of the shades (Refa'im)": among the assembly of people treading toward death and ruin, or more precisely, on the slope leading toward death and oblivion. And these people feel comfortable with him, because he is just like them, and they rejoice in his views. Why? Because his corrupted views - all the heretical notions that "there is no divine providence" and "no one has ever returned from there" - provide fuel for sinners. Until now they lacked legitimacy; until now they had pangs of conscience. Then came this corrupted thinker with his distortions, and because of this they feel better about sinning. Thus, "he will rest in the congregation of the Refa'im" - among the wicked, among the dead souls; there they find rest in him and feel comfortable with him: "It is good that you are here," for your way gives me legitimacy to continue in the path of wickedness; behold, I have a guide who explains to me that my actions are fine and proper.
Metzudat David explains: A person who strays from the way of understanding, which is the path of Torah, "will rest in the congregation of the Refa'im" - after death, when he joins the congregation of the dead, only then will he rest; that is, his error will cease. Every day that he lives he persists in his error, and when will he rest from his mistake? On the day of death. Only then is it over, and the error will continue no longer. Whereas every single day that he is alive, he errs more and more, wandering deeper into the thickness of the forest, deeper into the clutches of the sitra achra (the unholy side).
The Malbim distinguishes between sechel (intellect and spiritual perception), chochmah (wisdom), binah (understanding), and the other faculties of the soul. Haskalah, according to the Malbim, is the power within man to comprehend the Divine, metaphysical, and spiritual realms - matters that do not rely on preliminary premises, logical deductions, or empirical proofs, but on direct divine apprehension. When it is said of a person that he "entered the Pardes" (the mystical orchard), it means that he reached a high spiritual level and perception of connection with spirituality, and this does not stem from binah, da'at, or chochmah, but from the power of sechel. The term haskalah always denotes the perception of Divinity and spirituality, sometimes attained through Ruach HaKodesh (divine inspiration). By contrast, da'at is acquired through sensory perception: through da'at we comprehend that Someone created the world and did so for His own reasons - this is the dimension of da'at, and this can be attained through da'at. But to genuinely connect to Divinity - for that one needs haskalah. Most often, this haskalah is accompanied by Ruach HaKodesh, and then it is termed sechel tov (good understanding), as in the verse, "And You gave Your good spirit to instruct them (lehaskilam)": "Your good spirit" refers to Ruach HaKodesh, through which comes lehaskilam - the apprehension of the Divine.
According to this, the verse is interpreted: "A person who strays from the way of sechel" - strays regarding divine beliefs. A heretic who strays in understanding the reality of the Creator, His providence over His world, and reward and punishment, is the one called straying from the way of sechel. These are the heretics, the deniers of faith, those who have no portion in the World to Come. "He will rest in the congregation of the Refa'im" - he will descend to Gehinnom, for Refa'im refers to the dead, those who have become limp and powerless.
אִישׁ מַחְסוֹר אֹהֵב שִׂמְחָה אֹהֵב יַיִן וָשֶׁמֶן לֹא יַעֲשִׁיר׃ (יז) - A needy man is he who loves pleasure; he who loves wine and oil will not grow rich.
The verse is phrased as if inverted: he who loves pleasure will become a needy man. A person who is constantly seeking parties, indulging in all sorts of pleasures, luxuries, outings, and hotels - his end will be as a man in want. Even if this person is wealthy, through his extravagance and hedonism he will eventually be reduced to poverty.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that "a lover of pleasure" here is used in the sense of "and behold, joy and gladness, slaying cattle and slaughtering sheep" (Yeshayahu 22:13). This does not refer to spiritual joy, nor to the joy of "the orders of Hashem are upright, rejoicing the heart," but rather to that earthly brand of revelry, along the lines of "a feast is made for laughter." And since the text previously praised the righteous person who serves Hashem, it now contrasts this by condemning rejoicing in worldly pleasures and physical indulgences, which ultimately brings a person to lack and ruin.
Moreover, Rabbeinu Yonah adds further reasons to condemn this type of joy: one who rejoices in physical matters makes this world his primary focus, revels in its vanities, is drawn after materiality, and distances himself from his Creator. For matter and spirit are rivals to one another, and physicality and spirituality cannot dwell together in the same basket; the more a person sinks into materialism, hedonism, and the pursuit of pleasures, the further he inevitably drifts from spirituality. Thus, even setting aside the aspect of becoming "a needy man" - that indulgences lead to poverty - the very attraction to physical indulgence reveals that a person treats this world as primary, and in doing so, he separates himself from the Divine.
We have seen a single running thread throughout these verses: a concealed act of giving to the poor subdues wrath and averts harsh decrees from a person, whereas one who withholds his giving will find himself paying bribes and arousing fierce fury above and below. The righteous man rejoices in justice - whether in the judgment Hashem executes upon him to purify him for the World to Come, or in the justice and righteousness he witnesses in the world - while for workers of iniquity that same execution of justice is terror and ruin, for they do not learn from suffering and even kick against it. One who strays from the way of understanding, whether drawn after his desires or corrupted in his beliefs, forfeits the purpose of his creation, and his place will be in the congregation of the shades. By contrast, one who recognizes that the intellect serves as the reins steering the physical toward the Creator's will thereby elevates himself and everything around him, guarding himself against material revelry, whose end is ruin and estrangement from Divinity.