In this chapter, King Solomon addresses the sluggard and sends him to learn mussar from a tiny creature - the ant. This is not merely a charming parable, but a major foundational principle of hashkafah: everything the Holy One, blessed be He, embedded in His world, and indeed whatever occurs throughout the entire world, was intended for us to derive moral instruction from it. Let us examine the verses in order according to the commentary of the Malbim.
לֵךְ־אֶל־נְמָלָה עָצֵל רְאֵה דְרָכֶיהָ וַחֲכָם׃ (ו) - Go to the ant, sluggard; observe its ways and become wise. (6)
The Malbim explains: You, the sluggard, who do not find the trait of alacrity within yourself, or who do not consider diligence to be such a positive and beneficial trait - telling yourself that a person should live by the motto "He leads me beside still waters," calmly, without unnecessary pressure. Go to the ant and see that it possesses this trait of alacrity, yet it does not even need it for its own sustenance. After all, how much wheat does it really need? It already has more than enough. For whose sake, then, was this trait implanted within it? So that you may "observe its ways and become wise." That is the very purpose for which the Holy One, blessed be He, ingrained this quality in it - so that you would learn from it.
There is a story told of a Jew from Radin who traveled around the world for his business and reached as far as China. One day, he came to the Chafetz Chaim to receive a blessing, and the Rav asked him: "What is the news in China?" The man began to tell him that there were very few Jews there, the communities were tiny, and there was no rabbi to guide and instruct them. The Chafetz Chaim sighed and said: "This is a great tragedy. I hear of such troubles in Africa and in Australia as well - small communities with no one to guide them. It is for these communities that I authored the sefer *Nidchei Yisrael*, for all the scattered communities, to strengthen them in their difficult situation. Take this book and distribute it there so they can study from it." He asked him further: "And what else is new in China?" The Jew began recounting that a massive dam had burst there, flooding a vast area, and several villages were washed away. Hearing this, the Chafetz Chaim said: "Oy, the Attribute of Justice is taut!" And once again he asked: "And what else is happening in China?"
The Jew was surprised and said: "Honored Rabbi, what do we have to do with them? Why do I care if millions of Chinese people lost their homes? Since when is the Rav interested in the news and reports of world events?" After all, the Chafetz Chaim had far more important matters to be concerned with. The Chafetz Chaim said to him: "You do not understand. Tell me, if someone stands up right now in the central square of Vilna and delivers a speech - to whom is he speaking, to Jews or to non-Jews?" He replied: "Certainly to the non-Jews. After all, how many Jews are there in Vilna? A tiny minority; the majority are non-Jews." The Chafetz Chaim said: "Wait, I forgot to mention one detail - the man is speaking in Yiddish. To whom is he speaking?" He answered: "Clearly to the Jews." "But just a moment ago you said to the non-Jews?" "Yes, but the Jews are the ones who understand the language!" The Chafetz Chaim told him: "If so, when the Holy One, blessed be He, strikes the nations - to whom is He speaking? To the Jews. What purpose is there in speaking to the Gentile, seeing that he does not understand the language? So don't you understand that when a flood occurs in China, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought it about so that you would come and tell me, and so that I would be strengthened by it? What does the Chinese person gain from it? What does he understand? He does not understand the language."
It turns out that everything that happens in the world happens solely for the sake of Israel. This is the meaning of the verse: "I have cut off nations; their corner towers are desolate; I have laid waste their streets with none passing by; their cities are destroyed without a man, without inhabitant. I said: Surely you will fear Me, you will accept instruction" - all this destruction was intended so that you, the Jew, will hear, take interest, and take mussar. Not to take interest just to know the current events, but to see that the Holy One, blessed be He, acted there, so that I receive the message, so that I learn, so that I recognize a signal from Heaven. And this is precisely what the Malbim tells us here: "Go to the ant, sluggard" - why did the Holy One, blessed be He, endow it with this nature? For it does not need it for itself. Rather, it is so that you "observe its ways and become wise." The Holy One, blessed be He, speaks to whoever understands the language, and you understand the language - so observe the ant, and learn and gain insight from it as to what constitutes proper conduct.
אֲשֶׁר אֵין־לָהּ קָצִין שֹׁטֵר וּמֹשֵׁל׃ (ז) - Which has no chief, officer, or ruler. (7)
Now Scripture describes its manner of conduct. The Malbim explains: Sometimes people act in a certain way because they say - look, the officers do so too, the ministers do so too, and a fish rots from the head down. If the head does this, what do you expect from me, to be the lowly hyssop on the wall? If this is the way leaders conduct themselves, we will do so as well. When people see that those at the top line their pockets at every opportunity through underhanded schemes and through government power, ordinary folk also say to themselves: well, why not?
The story is told of Golda [Meir], may her merit protect her, who called upon an Orthodox Jew whom she had known back in Russia to install window bars in her office in the government building. He asked her: "Why do you need bars?" She replied: "Because of the thieves." He told her: "Golda, it won't help you at all - the thieves are right here inside."
And sometimes a person behaves improperly because he has an officer and a ruler over him: the ruler commands him to act that way, and the ruler has officers - the ruler is the leader, and the officers are those who strike and compel him to comply with the ruler's decree. But with the ant, this is not so. Its entire conduct is not because it has a chief whom it watches and follows, nor because there is a ruler who forces it through officers appointed over it who dictate what to do - "Which has no chief, officer, or ruler" - and yet it behaves with diligence and responsibility.
תָּכִין בַּקַּיִץ לַחְמָהּ אָגְרָה בַקָּצִיר מַאֲכָלָהּ׃ (ח) - She prepares her bread in the summer; she gathers her food in the harvest.
The order here is precise: the harvest comes before the summer. Throughout the harvest, she gathers and stores grain kernels for her sustenance. Once the harvest has passed and the summer begins, when there are no longer any kernels in the field, she exerts herself to "prepare" her bread - that is, to process what she brought in: to store it in a guarded place and to cut the tips of the grains so that they will not sprout and germinate in the burrows where she conceals them.
From this, a person should draw a moral lesson: one must gather the principles of wisdom while he is young. "She gathers her food in the harvest" - throughout youth, one must gather the words of wisdom and dedicate his life to Torah. Afterward, once you have amassed knowledge in your youth, "she prepares her bread in the summer" - you can comprehend them with your intellect and contemplate them, as Chazal teach: ligmor inish vehadar lisbor (a person should first learn the broad material, and then analyze). This means that a person's path of study should be to first acquire broad breadth of knowledge (bekiut) and achieve extensive familiarity with Torah, and only then delve into in-depth analysis (iyun). For if someone remains stuck on the very first page, not moving forward but only analyzing it deeply - what does he have left? There is the next page, and two more pages, and ten more pages, and entire tractates of which he has no idea what is written in them! Therefore, first comes ligmor - acquiring breadth of learning - and afterward comes in-depth study and analytical reasoning in what one has learned.
In the yeshivah world, they share a clever insight in jest: "And he sent Yehudah ahead of him to Yosef, to direct before him to Goshen," and Rashi explains that he sent him to establish a house of study there. People ask: What was wrong with Yosef's house of study? Why did he specifically need to send Yehudah to establish a yeshivah there? Rather, when Yosef sent wagons (agalot) to Yaakov, what was the son telling the father? "I am still occupied with the topic of eglah arufah that we learned back then." Yaakov said: "Woe is to us! Twenty-two years, and you are still stuck on that same topic of the eglah? My dear son, they had better go establish a yeshivah there! One has to make progress; you cannot stay stuck on the exact same subject forever."
Therefore, the verse says: "She gathers her food in the harvest" - the laws of wisdom and the words of Torah must be collected during the days of youth, and that should be one's sole focus. And after you have gathered all this, "she prepares her bread in the summer" - you prepare provisions for the appointed time, just as the ant prepares for the winter days, and you contemplate the teachings so that they become the bread of the soul. Because you have learned widely, you are now able to delve deeply, contemplate, and understand matters to their true depth. Indeed, when a person possesses breadth in Torah, it is not merely breadth but depth as well, for as soon as he encompasses more and more topics, he can analyze every single subject far more profoundly. But when his breadth is meager and he attempts to delve into a specific topic and offer logical theories - who says his logic is sound? It may well be that what he proposes is contradicted by another tractate entirely! Yet when a person has mastered the breadth of the Torah, even when he formulates his own logic, his reasoning is genuine and true.
עַד־מָתַי עָצֵל תִּשְׁכָּב מָתַי תָּקוּם מִשְּׁנָתֶךָ׃ (ט) - How long will you lie there, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
And you, sluggard - the harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and you are still lying down, still daydreaming and fantasizing, having accomplished nothing. It is the way of the sluggard, says the Malbim, to sleep many hours during the day - some all day, and some part of the day, each according to his degree of laziness. He wakes up, sees that it is only eleven o'clock, and stays in bed because he needs to relax and recover - another hour to adjust and regain his energy - while the bed is practically smoking from how long he has warmed it! Concerning this, the verse says: "How long will you lie there, sluggard?" - you continue lying down even after your sleep has ended; "and when will you arise from your sleep?" - when will you finally get out of bed?
This is the allegory: in his youth, a person is "asleep," completely oblivious due to folly, for a youth is still foolish and lacks the maturity and understanding to utilize his time for the pursuit of Torah. Yet even after he awakens and realizes what man's purpose is, for what reason he was created, what is demanded of him, what duty rests upon him, and what his purpose in this world is - even then, he lies there and does nothing, because he is lazy. This is the meaning of: "How long will you lie there, sluggard?" - how long will you remain immersed in that foolishness?
As a certain sage once put it: "When I was young, thank God, I had plenty of energy, but I lacked the sense to use my time to engage in Torah. Today, having reached fifty, thank God, I have the sense and understanding needed to engage in Torah - but I no longer have the energy. I sit down to learn and grow tired, falling asleep." When he was young, he could stay awake twenty hours a day without tiring, but today, after four hours of wakefulness, drowsiness overtakes him, for the body is already worn out. Therefore, a person must realize: as long as you are young - capitalize on your strength.
מְעַט שֵׁנוֹת מְעַט תְּנוּמוֹת מְעַט חִבֻּק יָדַיִם לִשְׁכָּב׃ (י) - A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down.
Initially, a person sleeps a sound, deep sleep; this is called sheinot ("sleep"). Afterward comes tenumot ("slumber") - dozing, half-asleep and half-awake, neither fully asleep nor fully awake, drowsy. And even after he wakes up, he continues to lie in bed and does not get up, lingering to pull himself together. Regarding this, the verse says: "a little folding of the hands to lie down" - minimize this folding of the hands and lying in bed, where you continue to lie doing nothing at all.
וּבָא־כִמְהַלֵּךְ רֵאשֶׁךָ וּמַחְסֹרְךָ כְּאִישׁ מָגֵן׃ (יא) - So shall your poverty come like a traveler, and your want like an armed warrior.
"So shall your poverty come like a traveler" - when this person is dispossessed of his wealth, re'ash being related to rash, an impoverished man. Poverty is like a traveler walking along his way, whom no one resists: at first, you do nothing to counter the poverty knocking at your door, as it approaches seemingly innocently. "And your want like an armed warrior" - afterward, when acute deprivation actually strikes, when he has no bread to eat and lacks all his basic necessities, he finally stands up to fight against this lack, wanting to drive it from his home. But want is depicted here as an adversary in its own right, like a soldier standing to fight you, armed with shield and buckler. Will he surrender so easily? One who slept through the summer and did not fix the roof cannot complain that it leaks in the winter. Now, when want is actively waging war against you, it is exceptionally hard to extricate yourself from your situation, and nothing will help.
Shlomo HaMelech directs the sluggard to the ant, in which was implanted an alacrity that is not even for its own need, but so that we might learn from it - just as everything that happens in the world is meant for Israel, who understand this language, to derive moral instruction from it. The ant acts without an officer, overseer, or ruler, driven from within, and not because its elders do so, nor because it is compelled. It gathers during harvest and prepares in summer - from which we derive the proper order of a person's Torah study: to amass breadth and comprehensive knowledge in one's youth, and afterward to delve deeply and analyze, "a person should first learn and then analyze" (ligmar inish vahadar lisbar), without remaining stuck in one place. And one who persists in sleep, slumber, and folding of the hands, until he comes to say, "Today I have the intellect, but I lack the strength," in the end, "so shall your poverty come like a traveler, and your want like an armed warrior" - poverty creeps up quietly, and want wages war against him like an armed combatant, and by then it is exceedingly difficult to escape.