Introduction: The True Value of Acquisitions
Chapter 22 of Sefer Mishlei opens by comparing the acquisitions that people pursue in this world. King Solomon juxtaposes wealth against a good name, and silver and gold against good grace, teaching us which acquisition is genuinely valuable and which is merely an illusion. From there, he goes on to teach that both wealth and poverty are not the product of human endeavor, but the handiwork of Hashem, blessed be He.
Verse 1: A Good Name and Good Grace
נִבְחָר שֵׁם מֵעֹשֶׁר רָב, מִכֶּסֶף וּמִזָּהָב חֵן טוֹב. - A good name is chosen over great wealth, and good grace over silver and gold.
The plain meaning of the verse: The name a person possesses is far more important and desirable than great wealth, and good grace is far preferable to silver and gold.
Rabbeinu Yonah connects this verse to what we learned previously. We saw that wisdom and might offer no benefit on a day of distress and divine decree. Regarding wisdom, it is explicitly stated: "There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against Hashem." And regarding might, it is stated: "A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to Hashem" - you can prepare a horse, but ultimately it is the Holy One, blessed be He, Who determines how the battle ends. And if wisdom and might are powerless against a decreed verdict, then certainly wealth will neither avail nor rescue.
Moreover, says Rabbeinu Yonah, wealth is inherently inferior to both of them. When a person possesses wisdom, it is an elevation of his soul; the wise man is not defined by his eighty kilograms of body, for wisdom is an inner quality of the soul. Might is not in the soul but in the physical body, yet it too is an intrinsic part of him. What they have in common is that both are part of the person himself. Wealth, by contrast, is the lowest of them all, because it is entirely external to you. It sits in the bank; it is not you. A wise person is you in your soul; a mighty warrior is you in your body; a wealthy man is something completely outside of you.
Furthermore, wealth does not necessarily come through a person's own strength or intellect. If a person became wise, you know he studied diligently until he acquired wisdom; if he became mighty, he trained rigorously until he gained strength. But if someone grew rich, he may simply have received a handsome inheritance. What did he do to earn it? A person can obtain wealth without taking any action at all, whereas wisdom and might demand discipline and toil.
This hierarchy is also reflected in the verse: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me." The highest among them is the wise man in his wisdom, which resides in the soul; lower than that is the mighty man in his might, which resides in the body; and the lowest of all is the rich man in his wealth, which is entirely external to him.
Based on this, Rabbeinu Yonah explains our verse: A good name is of far greater benefit to a person than great wealth, for wealth cannot save its owner on the day of distress, and "wealth will not avail on the day of wrath." And should you argue that wealth brings honor - after all, when people see a rich man, they rush to shake his hand, flatterers laugh even at his dullest jokes, and everyone fawns over him - the answer is that as much honor as wealth might bring, a good name surpasses it greatly. People will gaze with far deeper admiration upon the bearer of a good name than upon the wealthy man.
And why did the verse make this distinction, setting a good name against wealth, and good grace against silver and gold? Rabbeinu Yonah explains that each is paired with its counterpart. Wealth implies visible estates, towns, fields, vineyards, and enterprises - "rich in assets," an abundance that everyone can see and whose reputation spreads far and wide. Opposite this stands a good name, which is likewise a reputation that travels far - and in this regard, a good name is far preferable. But silver and gold are hidden: people bury them in the ground, in a safe, or in secret vaults. Opposite them stands good grace, which does not travel to distant places - anyone who meets you and comes to know you finds grace in you, yet it does not become widely publicized across distances. The Vilna Gaon also followed this line of thought presented by Rabbeinu Yonah.
The Malbim: An Imagined Acquisition Versus An Intrinsic Acquisition
The Malbim explains that possessions of wealth are illusory acquisitions. As explained, they are not part of you, and in a single moment one can lose everything. Strength is not lost in a single moment, wisdom is not lost in a single moment; but wealth - suddenly a phone call arrives announcing a stock market crash, all investments have gone down the drain, and you are already deeply in debt to many people. By contrast, the good name that a person acquires through his good deeds becomes an inseparable part of his very self.
The Malbim adds: the ultimate purpose of great wealth is to attain honor, so that one's words will be heeded - yet the words of someone with a good name are heeded even more than the words of the rich man. Furthermore, wealth deprives one of sleep: What is happening with the business? Did it stay open or close? Who is there right now? What is happening on the global stock markets? Oil prices are dropping, construction costs are rising, and what about all the projects in which I am invested? A wealthy person is not a calm person. A calm person is one who does not have money and does not chase after money - because a person might have no money yet still chase after it constantly. One who does not chase has sweet sleep and does not live in fear of who might rob him. Wealth requires guarding, and it robs its owner of sleep. Not so a good name: there is no need to lock it in a safe or purchase insurance for it. For wealth, you buy insurance so that you can sleep well at night; a good name lets you sleep well at night even without it.
"Better is Favor than Silver and Gold" - Value by Convention
Here the Malbim points out another difference between wealth and silver and gold. Wealth, such as real estate, is something real and indisputable: you own so many acres, so many houses. But when they tell you, "He has so many gold bars" - does this possess any intrinsic value? Another person might say: "I have so many iron bars." People immediately start laughing. Why? This one has two tons of gold and that one has two tons of iron - what is the difference? If you reflect on it, you will see that the entire difference is public consensus: that gold is precious and therefore people are willing to pay a fortune for it, while iron is cheap.
And do not say that gold is beautiful and shiny. Perhaps in the past one could have argued that. But today, a woman buys a gold piece of jewelry, and you look at it and ask: "Is that gold?" "Yes." "Then why is it white? It looks like silver." "White gold is in style today." Surely this is absurd: you paid the price of gold for something that looks like silver. So buy silver jewelry! But you cannot convince anyone; it is a matter of feeling. And thank God, everyone wants the real thing - "What, should I wear an imitation? Zirconia? Fake diamond, fake gold?" And if she wears it, it should be bought properly: a ring, a real diamond, preferably several carats, so that people know what I am worth. But ultimately, says the Malbim, gold has no greater intrinsic worth than iron; we simply agreed that it is desirable, and market forces make it expensive. By contrast, with real estate and tangible assets there is no question of convention: a person has so many factories, fields, and vineyards - real, tangible assets.
The classic example of this is our paper money. You pull a red banknote out of your pocket, and some people see red and charge toward it like a bull to a red cape. What are you so excited about? It is just a piece of paper. But society decided to grant this piece of paper a value of two hundred shekels, and the green paper a value of twenty or fifty. There is no intrinsic value here; it is purely a matter of consensus. And the same is true of gold: it was decided that a metal of a certain color costs this much, and another metal costs that much.
From here stems the complete comparison to favor, says the Malbim: good favor is also a matter of social consensus. People implicitly agree among themselves that a certain person finds favor in their eyes - "And Esther obtained favor in the eyes of all who saw her." If you ask me what virtue he possesses, I have no explanation. When asked why a certain person is admired, I can say: because he is great in Torah. But why does everyone love that other person? There is no clear answer. He possesses a special charm and grace; people are simply drawn to him. Just like gold, to which everyone is drawn by common agreement. Even so, favor is better than silver and gold, because favor resides within the person himself and not in an external object: gold is outside of me, whereas favor is within me.
This is especially true from a practical standpoint: whatever can be achieved with silver and gold can be achieved to a far greater degree by finding favor. You might say: Does not money open doors? True. But when you try to open doors with a wealthy man and offer him a million dollars to arrange a matter for you, he laughs at you and says, "A million dollars is what I make in a day." Perhaps with lesser people, promising ten or twenty thousand shekels will take care of the matter, but for a person who possesses favor, all doors are open wherever he goes. "And Esther obtained favor in the eyes of all who saw her"; Yosef found favor in the eyes of all who saw him; Moshe Rabbeinu - "For you have found favor in My eyes"; and Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem. Favor opens doors more than silver and gold, and through it you gain the goodwill and desire of others to help you far more than with money.
A Name Is Acquired Through Toil, but Favor Is Found
The Malbim teaches another fundamental principle: the name a person acquires for himself corresponds to his deeds. How does one acquire a good name? Consider a business that enjoys a good reputation, and everyone comes to shop there. How did that happen? The owner acted with integrity, always gave a little extra, and when you came to return a product, he did not spin tales that you broke it or acted improperly; rather, he refunded your money and treated you properly. A good name is acquired through hard work, through years of upright conduct, until a person justly and honestly earns his good reputation.
Favor, on the other hand, is not like that: "And I have also known you by name, and you have also found favor in My eyes." What did I do for it? How hard did I toil? There is no such thing. Favor is something you either find or you do not find. "And Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem" - what did he do to earn that? He was certainly a tzaddik, but concerning other righteous people we do not find the expression "you found favor in My eyes." Finding favor does not stem solely from righteousness. To be sure, the holy Or HaChaim in Parashat Noach explains that Noach fulfilled a specific mitzvah through which one finds favor in the eyes of Hashem, and it has not been revealed to us which one it was, for if it were known, everyone would pursue it. Nonetheless, it is something that does not depend strictly on a person's toil. And so it is in the eyes of people: there are individuals who possess a special grace, and anyone who speaks with them wants to connect with them, yet what toil did they invest to achieve it?
To summarize the words of the Malbim: wealth is an acquisition, and a good name is chosen over it because it is an intrinsic acquisition, whereas wealth - in the words of Rabbeinu Yonah - can vanish in a single moment. And favor is not an acquisition at all: a person does not toil for years to acquire it; rather, it is found - "found favor in my eyes." Therefore, it is better than the silver and gold that others give you. Note: when one says that someone finds favor in the eyes of people, the dynamic lies in the eyes of the beholder; you receive that favor from others - they look at you and you find favor in their eyes. The same applies to silver and gold that others give you, and it is far better that they grant you favor than that they give you silver and gold.
Verse 2: Rich and Poor Meet Together
עָשִׁיר וָרָשׁ נִפְגָּשׁוּ, עֹשֵׂה כֻלָּם ה' - The rich and the poor meet together; Hashem is the maker of them all.
Rashi explains: When a poor person says to a rich person, "Support me," and the rich person answers him harshly and speaks to him impudently - regarding this it is said, "Hashem is the maker of them all." The Holy One, blessed be He, can reverse the situation and make them anew: He can make this one poor and that one rich.
The Story of the Pinch of Snuff
There was once a destitute man who, on the eve of Yom Kippur, did not have even a morsel of food at home to prepare for the fast. He arrived at the synagogue on an empty stomach and saw the wealthy townsperson take out his snuffbox. He asked him: May I have a pinch of snuff? The rich man did not take any for himself, but put the box aside and said to him: Right before Kol Nidrei, before pure prayer, is this what concerns you? A pinch of snuff? The poor man was wounded to the depths of his soul: was it not enough that his situation was dire, that he had left his house with his wife weeping and complaining that there was nothing to eat - am I not even worth a pinch of snuff? On that Yom Kippur he wept from the depths of his heart, and in Heaven they saw his distress. It was decreed that the rich man would become poor, and the poor man would receive the wealth and become rich. And indeed, within a few months the wheel turned for both of them.
A year or two passed, and the impoverished rich man tried every avenue, but could not escape his plight. Finally, he turned to one of the great Torah leaders - likely the Maggid of Mezeritch - and related his story. The Rebbe asked him: Did you ever hurt a poor man who came to ask you for charity? Did you insult someone? He tried to remember and said: There was an incident on the eve of Yom Kippur. The Rebbe told him: If so, your money is with him. He wanted to tear his hair out: Over such foolishness I lost my entire fortune? He asked: Rebbe, what should I do now? The Rebbe replied: Approach him when he is in a stressful moment, and ask him for a pinch of snuff. If he reacts to you as you reacted to him, you will be even, and the money will return to you. And if not - may Hashem help, for I have no counsel for you.
He waited for an opportune moment and heard that this newly rich man was about to marry off his son. He arrived at the chuppah and saw him in the tense seconds right before the kiddushin. The officiating rabbi called out: The ring, please - and everyone was searching, the groom was searching, asking his father if he had it. He seized the moment and stepped forward: May I have a pinch of snuff? The father could easily have snapped: Don't you have anything better to do? Can't you see we are in the middle of a chuppah and the photographer is arranging the scene? Move aside! But he said nothing of the sort. He smiled at him, took the snuffbox out of his pocket, and said: Take as much as you like. At that moment the former rich man fainted and collapsed, and people began crying out to help him until he was revived.
After the wedding, when he had calmed down, they asked him what had happened, and he recounted the whole story. The Rebbe said: Come to me, both of you, after the seven days of feasting. They both came, and he sat with the poor man and the rich man together. He said to the formerly poor man: Know that your wealth is this man's money, and you received it as a result of that harsh word. Act with kindness and give him half the fortune. And remarkably, that man accepted the Rebbe's words with complete and simple faith, giving him half of his wealth and writing out a contract to that effect. Who among us would have considered such a thing? We would have argued: Honorable Rabbi, that is all well and good, but Heaven gave it to me, it is already mine, and why should we meddle in Heavenly calculations? This is the Creator's will! Suddenly we become great believers, or perhaps we claim the opposite - if I give it to him, I would be going against the will of Hashem, Heaven forbid! Yet he, with wholehearted and perfect faith, accepted the Rebbe's guidance. This illustrates the very words of Shlomo: "The rich and the poor meet together; Hashem is the maker of them all."
Rabbeinu Yonah: The Encounter Is Not Coincidental
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: The rich man did not attain his wealth through his own strength or intellect. And if you say: Do you know how hard I worked for this, how much effort I invested? My friend, are you the only one who worked? Hundreds, thousands, and millions of people have worked and invested effort. Simply put: wealth comes from Hashem. Abandon all thoughts of "my power and the might of my hand"; it is all vanity. Hashem willed it; a decree of poverty was placed upon one person and a decree of wealth upon another, and everything comes from Him, blessed be He - neither your effort nor the poor man's lack of action determined this.
The Ibn Ezra tried his hand at every kind of trade, yet poverty was decreed upon him, and he remained utterly destitute. He even composed a poem about himself: "Woe to the man born without a star" - born without good fortune. In that famous poem he wrote: If I were to sell candles, the sun would never set; and if I were to sell shrouds, people would simply stop dying. In other words, any venture I undertake is destined to fail. And yet, the Ibn Ezra was among the greatest sages of all generations - there was certainly no lack of wisdom here, nor was there indolence, for he surely exerted effort in his work.
Thus, Rabbeinu Yonah explains: The rich man did not reach his wealth through his strength or intellect, and the poor man did not reach his poverty through indolence or lack of wisdom. Rather, they "met" - the rich man encountered the circumstance of wealth, and the poor man encountered the circumstance of poverty, and neither of them brought this about. Therefore, it is unfitting for the rich man to boast over the poor man. And if you say that everything is driven by the wheel of fortune, by what people call luck, this is not so: "Hashem is the maker of them all." All causes are the handiwork of Hashem, and it is in His power to prevent the cause that brought you wealth or the cause that brought your fellow poverty. Do not say, "This came about because of that cause" - for whence did the cause itself come? From Hashem. It turns out, then, that this encounter is not random at all; Someone designed it.
We have already explained in the past in the name of Rav Dessler that the word mazal does not mean sheer coincidence, what people today might call a "fluke" or "luck." Mazal comes from the root for flow (nozel) - descending, cascading, and pouring down from the upper realms, as in the verse, "Water shall flow from his buckets." Ultimately, everything cascades from Above.
The Vilna Gaon: Reputation and Grace Meet Both of Them
The Gra explains that this verse is a continuation of the previous one. "A good name is preferable to great riches, and good grace rather than silver and gold - the rich man and the poor man meet": both a good name and good grace meet both the rich man and the poor man alike. It is very possible for a poor person to have as good a name as a wealthy one, and he may possess just as much grace as a wealthy one. This has nothing to do with wealth or poverty, or with what you own or lack. A poor person can acquire a good name for himself, and a poor person can merit good grace. Why? "Hashem made them all" - Hashem made all of them, and consequently, they are equal regarding a good name and good grace. Either you possess it or you do not, but it does not depend on wealth or poverty at all.
One commentary noted homiletically: sometimes an individual uses his wealth to purchase the title "Rav" for himself - ensuring that someone passes him on an easy exam and, in exchange for payoffs, he is granted the title. This is hinted at in the words, "A name is chosen out of wealth - a Rav": a person chooses a name in the land so people will honor him, and by virtue of what? By virtue of his wealth; he purchases the title "Rav" through his riches.
The Ralbag: The Existence of the World Requires Rich and Poor
The Ralbag explains: "The rich man and the poor man meet" - the world cannot exist without both rich and poor. And why could everyone not be wealthy? The parable is simple: if all people were wealthy, no one would be found to perform any practical labor. Could you find a shoemaker if everyone were rich? Could you find a butcher? Would you find a shopkeeper? Bill Gates does not open a retail storefront. And if you say people would work for him - who would work, given that everyone is wealthy? If everyone were rich, there would be no carpenter, no tile layer, and no plasterer.
A proof of this principle: Chazal decreed that scribes - sofrei Sta"m - should not become wealthy. Why? Because if they were to become wealthy, who would write Sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzot? And so it remains today: scribes do not become wealthy from the actual craft of writing. Those who make good money are those who transitioned from being a scribe to being a dealer, which is usually the next phase of expanding the business. After all, how much can one person write? A mezuzah takes an hour or an hour and a half, and that does not make anyone rich. But someone who receives orders for fifty mezuzot and takes a cut on each, or who sells Sifrei Torah and charges a commission of thousands of dollars on each scroll - that is where easy money is made. Yet purely as a scribe, one cannot become wealthy. It was decreed this way so that we would continue to have sofrei Sta"m - and not merely scribes, but those who write Sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzot properly.
And if you ask: why shouldn't everyone be poor? That too would not work - how would they earn a living from one another? There must be people of means who provide livelihoods for the rest. Therefore, "Hashem made them all": Hashem created poor people and Hashem created wealthy people so that the world could function and endure. The convergence of rich and poor that one observes in the world is the handiwork of Hashem for the preservation of the world, without which society could not sustain itself.
The Malbim: The Reason for the Superiority of a Good Name
The Malbim, like the Gra, also links this verse to the preceding one, seeing it as providing the rationale: why is a good name preferable to great riches? Because wealth is not a permanent acquisition. Today one acquires it, but the wheel of fortune turns, and in the end the rich man may lose his wealth - hence the possessor of a good name is far better off. "The rich man and the poor man meet": the wealthy man may meet the poor man tomorrow - one on his way down, and the other on his way up. Wealth is a revolving wheel, whereas a good name endures forever, unless one actively acts to ruin and destroy his reputation. Under normal circumstances, no one can steal a person's good name, and it does not depend on any external circumstances.
In summary: The opening two verses of the chapter establish the true hierarchy of values. A good name is preferred over wealth because wealth is an external, illusory possession that robs its owner of sleep and can vanish in an instant, whereas a good name is earned through years of upright living and becomes an integral part of the person himself. Grace is better than silver and gold, whose value is merely conventional, while grace resides within the person himself and opens more doors than any amount of money. Above all, "The rich man and the poor man meet; Hashem made them all": the wealthy man does not achieve his wealth by his own strength, nor did the poor man arrive at his poverty through his own negligence. Everything comes from the Creator, both for the preservation of society and so that man may recognize that the wheel constantly turns. Therefore, the rich man must not boast over the poor man, nor oppress him even by withholding a pinch of tobacco - for "Hashem made them all," and in a single moment, He has the power to overturn the bowl completely.