Our chapter continues King Solomon's chain of ethical instruction to his son, and here we will focus on one concentrated and profound passage: from verse 23 to verse 27. There are three stages here: acquiring truth, the joy that parents and teachers take in a son who walks this path, and the grave warning against that which severs a person from this path. Let us follow the order of the verses.
אֱמֶת קְנֵה וְאַל תִּמְכֹּר חָכְמָה וּמוּסָר וּבִינָה׃ - Buy truth and do not sell it, wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
The Malbim explains: "Buy truth" - even though you must pay a steep price for the truth. And what is that steep price? Desires, childhood amusements, physical pleasures - you invest all of them to acquire the truth. After all, what defines a yeshiva student, what defines someone devoted to Torah? During this time, he could be going out and having fun like everyone his age, yet he does not do so. He buys the truth, buys the holy Torah at what seems to be a steep price: the price of pleasures, cravings, and following the impulses of his heart. He does not do that; rather, he sits and immerses himself in Torah. This is "Buy truth" - you pay a steep price to acquire the truth.
"And do not sell it" - what does this mean? A person is often willing to invest heavily in a purchase when calculating: "Do you know how much this will be worth when I sell it?" Then he is ready to invest, to make a deal. Scripture tells you: with you, it must not be so. You are to invest your vitality in the enterprise of Torah, but not with the mindset that it is worth investing because in the end you will sell it. What does it mean to sell? To seek an honorable position, thinking, "Do you know what kind of salary I am going to make from this, they will give me such-and-such..." That is called selling. Selling means using what you acquired to turn a profit. "Buy truth and do not sell it" - do it genuinely, so that you grow in Torah, and not to make money from others through it.
And what is that truth you are buying? The verse continues: "Wisdom, discipline, and understanding." Chochmah (wisdom), as the Malbim explains and as we have noted previously, encompasses the rules of character traits and conduct that must be followed according to the Torah, received through tradition from the prophets and the holy Torah. These principles cannot be deduced by human intellect alone, and at times they run contrary to human nature. This is the definition of chochmah.
The Malbim notes: desire disputes the laws of wisdom. This means that wisdom demands giving up pleasures, relinquishing desires, and overcoming impulses. One might strongly feel like doing such-and-such, but the attribute of wisdom declares: this is improper, this is unbecoming. Through wisdom, a person overcomes his cravings and impulses.
Yet how is this truly possible? Through mussar (discipline). What is mussar? Its root lies in the fear of Hashem. I refrain because wisdom says not to - yet I still desire it deeply. True, but consider this: there is punishment, there is suffering. There is fear of Heaven, and at its basic level, fear of punishment, it tells a person: whoever follows the cravings of his heart pays a terrible and severe price; there is Gehennom. Thus, what leads me to uphold the laws of wisdom - which oppose my desires and impulses - is mussar. Mussar encompasses chastisement, the realization that if you do whatever you please, you will be held accountable. Mussar disciplines and refines the soul so that it upholds the laws of wisdom.
And if you indeed do so - through wisdom and discipline - the third stage arrives: "and understanding" (binah). You will grasp matters with profound insight, for binah follows chochmah. Binah means knowing how to contemplate matters, delve deeply into them, infer one thing from another, and identify with them. Wisdom, as we have explained multiple times, is not something readily comprehended by human intellect alone, and bodily desires oppose it. But if through discipline you apply it repeatedly, you will merit contemplating and deepening your grasp of these truths, and they will become fixed in your heart until you can deduce one concept from another on your own. And through what power will all this be realized in you? Through the power of truth: "Buy truth and do not sell it."
גִּיל יָגִיל אֲבִי צַדִּיק וְיוֹלֵד חָכָם יִשְׂמַח בּוֹ׃ - The father of a righteous one will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise child will be glad in him.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that simchah is greater than gilah: rejoicing (lagil) is joy, but experiencing simchah is an even greater joy. There are two distinct virtues here: the virtue of a tzaddik and the virtue of a chacham. Rabbeinu Yonah asks: when the verse mentions a "chacham" here, could it possibly refer to a wise person who is not righteous? That is impossible. Even though it states first, "The father of a righteous person will surely exult (gil yagil)," and then, "and one who begets a wise child will rejoice (yismach) in him," one must understand that this "one who begets a wise child" refers to a wise person who is also righteous. Why? Because otherwise, King Solomon would be praising an intellectual who lacks righteousness, which is unthinkable. What are we impressed by - mere intellect? Secular wisdom? When praising a chacham, the meaning is one wise in Torah and wise in the fear of Hashem. Solomon would never praise a wise person who is not righteous and declare, "he who begets a wise child will rejoice in him." What did he father - an Einstein? Is that a reason to rejoice? Because of what, that he developed the atomic theory, from which the entire world could be destroyed in seconds? What kind of wisdom is there here to rejoice over? If it is not Torah wisdom, if it is not righteous wisdom, Solomon would certainly not speak of it or tell a parent to rejoice in it.
And there is another point that the Malbim mentions many times: who is truly called a chacham? If a person possesses tremendous analytical ability, a brilliant mind, sharp intellect, and an IQ of 180, is he called a chacham? Not yet. A chacham, as Solomon teaches us throughout the book, is one who conducts himself according to the ways of wisdom. If someone has vast knowledge, yet lives his life terribly - having no basic interpersonal decency, intolerable to others, living a degraded lifestyle - would one call him "very wise"? That is not called wise. True wisdom exists only when a person lives by it and builds his life properly. But someone whose entire life is broken, possessing only theoretical knowledge in which he is a genius, is not a chacham. Whenever the term chacham is used, it means a person who lives according to the laws of wisdom.
And so is the example brought by Rabbeinu Yonah regarding the term yashar (upright). What is an upright person? Suppose someone is an expert in all the laws of integrity, yet the man is thoroughly corrupt. Is that an upright person? Is expertise enough? It is not. If you live according to the laws of integrity, you are upright. But merely knowing the law from beginning to end is not enough. Look at what happens in our day, where top officials are led into interrogation rooms one after another. Such an individual knows the law inside out; if he arrests someone, he can cite regulation 32, subsection 44 from the British Mandate - he knows everything. And what did he do with it? Despite all his rank, some petty desire or trivial vanity lured him away. That is neither wise nor upright. A chacham is one who acts in accordance with wisdom, and a yashar is one who acts in accordance with uprightness.
One of the great Torah leaders was once told about a young man: "Listen, this fellow is such an incredible lamdan (scholar), you have no idea!" The sage asked, "Is he a masmid (diligent student)?" They answered, "Truthfully, he does not learn very much, but you should see what a lamdan he is!" - meaning, he offers brilliant analyses and grinds mountains together in debate. The sage replied, "That is not called a lamdan. Just as a thief is not defined as someone who knows how to steal, but as one who actually steals, so too a lamdan is not one who knows how to study, but one who actually studies. In the same way, an upright person is not one who knows the laws of integrity, but one who acts in accordance with them; and a wise person is not one who knows the laws of wisdom, but one who lives by them."
Accordingly, says Rabbeinu Yonah, let us look at what is written here: "The father of a righteous person will surely exult (gil yagil)" - the father of a tzaddik exults, but the son is not yet a chacham, and therefore there is only gilah, which is lesser than simchah. In contrast, "and one who begets a wise child will rejoice (yismach) in him" - one who fathers a wise child experiences true simchah, for this child is both wise and righteous, conducting himself according to the laws of wisdom. Over this he can truly rejoice, having a son who achieved both, and simchah is greater than gilah.
Notice also the difference in phrasing: regarding the wise person, the verse says "and one who begets a wise child (veyoled chacham)," whereas regarding the righteous person, it says "the father of a righteous person (avi tzaddik)." Rabbeinu Yonah explains with simple logic: can one say "one who begets a tzaddik"? Did you give birth to a tzaddik? Was it decreed at birth that he would be righteous? You did not give birth to a tzaddik; you gave birth to a child, and he became a tzaddik. But a chacham - that capacity was established from conception, as the Talmud states regarding the drop: "What will become of it - wise or foolish?" Therefore, it is fitting to say "one who begets a wise child," since he was endowed with that from birth, but it is not fitting to say "one who begets a righteous person," since a tzaddik becomes righteous on his own through refining his character. Thus: "The father of a righteous person will surely exult" - you are the father of someone who became righteous; "and one who begets a wise child will rejoice in him" - here there is an element tied to birth, decreed from that time, yielding simchah, which is greater than gilah, because the son is both wise and righteous.
A person might say: "I was born foolish, so what is expected of me?" A man once approached the Chazon Ish wishing to establish a yeshivah for elite students: to gather the sharpest, most brilliant minds from the entire yeshivah world and create an elite academy from which the future Torah leaders of Israel would emerge. It is related that the Chazon Ish adamantly refused to support it. He told him: "Do you think the leaders of Israel emerge specifically from the brilliant? Not necessarily. Know that the leaders of Israel emerge specifically from those with willpower and diligence, and many of them were average or even below average in their youth." Famous figures reached immense heights despite humble beginnings. One notable example is the Maharam Schick, who wrote of himself that as a child his mind was blocked, having been born with great intellectual difficulty - yet he became one of the greatest leaders of his generation and authored monumental works. In other words, said the Chazon Ish, it does not depend on what you were born with. You were born with certain capacities, but if you invest effort, realize your potential, and persevere, you will reach immense heights. On the contrary, the Chazon Ish noted, those upon whom great hopes were pinned often disappointed.
The Malbim explains three distinctions in the verse. First, between a tzaddik and a chacham: a chacham has acquired the rules of wisdom through study and conducts himself by them. A tzaddik, however, is not necessarily a chacham - he is righteous because he has habituated himself to doing what is right, not necessarily through study. As previously explained, "an unlearned person (am ha'aretz) cannot be pious (chasid)," but an unlearned person can indeed be a tzaddik. A chasid is one who acts beyond the strict requirement of the law, and how can one go beyond the law without knowing it? What he adds might only cause harm. A tzaddik, however, simply fulfills what is prescribed, and this is attainable even for an unlearned person. The tzaddik has been habituated to doing righteousness, walking according to Halachah as he was trained from youth.
Second is the distinction between gilah and simchah. As previously explained, the Malbim takes a different approach from Rabbeinu Yonah, maintaining a consistent principle: simchah is a continuous, enduring joy, whereas gilah is a renewed, sudden outburst of joy - rejoicing over something new that was just heard or experienced. In contrast, simchah is steady and constant.
Third, the difference between "av" (father) and "molid" (one who begets). "Av" includes the guardian and the teacher as well - he too is called a father, as people say, "his spiritual father," and it is a broad term. But "molid" is the one who actually fathered him, specifically the biological father who begot him.
According to this, just as we saw from the Gra, acting righteously depends on one's own choice - choose to be a tzaddik and you will be a tzaddik - and therefore it is not the molid of a tzaddik who exults, but "avi tzaddik" (the father of a righteous person). The Malbim aligns these points: "avi tzaddik" is not necessarily the biological father, but also the tutor, the teacher, and the rebbe, who are all included under the category of a father. "I educated him, I guided him along the upright path" - thus, such a person is called "avi tzaddik": even though he did not sire him, he guided him to become righteous.
Notice, however: "yagil" (he shall exult), the father of a tzaddik, but not "yismach" (he shall rejoice). Why? Because with a tzaddik, there is no guarantee that he will remain on his path. Today he may be righteous, and tomorrow - Heaven forbid. A tzaddik can stumble; he can be righteous for a certain period and then fall. Therefore, "the father of a righteous person shall greatly exult" - but he does not have constant joy (simchah), because one cannot be certain he will not fall from his righteousness. With whom is one certain? With one whom he sees is a chacham (wise person). The chacham walks constantly in the paths of wisdom; for him it is built-in, grounded in study, deep roots, and profundity. With a tzaddik, however, it may be that an emotional surge came over him and he began serving Hashem righteously, but just as it came, so it can go. One does not necessarily have constant joy in him, but rather exultation (gilah): every time he sees that he is still righteous, he rejoices - look, he is still a tzaddik! In contrast, with a chacham there is constant joy: "and he who begets a wise child shall rejoice in him." "Begets" (yoled), as explained by both the Gra and the Malbim, refers to birth, for indeed it is already determined from birth who will be wise and who will not. When he is wise and walks in the ways of wisdom - which comes with deep roots, study, and depth - you can rejoice with enduring joy and be at ease, knowing that in all likelihood he will not fall from his wisdom and his righteousness. But if it is only righteousness without wisdom accompanying it, every time you see that he is still righteous you will experience great exultation - "yagil" - but it is not a constant joy. And who rejoices? The one who made him righteous, namely "avi tzaddik."
יִשְׂמַח אָבִיךָ וְאִמֶּךָ וְתָגֵל יוֹלַדְתֶּךָ׃ - May your father and your mother rejoice, and may she who bore you exult.
Here we see something fascinating: Rabbeinu Yonah explains in the opposite direction of the Malbim. According to the Malbim, "yoladtecha" (she who bore you) must be the biological mother, the one who actually gave birth. Rabbeinu Yonah disagrees and says: "yoladtecha" refers to the one who raises you, as in the phrase "were born upon Yosef's knees" - which means they were raised upon Yosef's knees. According to the plain sense of things: if a person had a child but did not merit to raise him, who rejoices in him more, the biological father or the adoptive parents? Certainly the adoptive parents, who have constant joy with him; they raise him, see him, and witness his development. If a mother gave birth and the child is elsewhere, she does not truly have joy. The one who experiences true joy is the one who raises the child. Therefore, "may your father and your mother rejoice" - according to Rabbeinu Yonah, for whom simchah (joy) is lesser than gilah (exultation), when a child is born the father and mother rejoice; but the one who has great joy, which is gilah, is "yoladtecha," the one who raised you on her knees.
The Gra also explains similarly to Rabbeinu Yonah, that "yoladtecha" is not necessarily the biological parent who gave birth. "May your father and your mother rejoice" refers to the biological father and mother, and they will truly rejoice in the World to Come, for they are adorned with crowns in the merit of the son who engages in Torah. And there is no greater satisfaction for parents than seeing their children walk in the path of Hashem and observe Torah and mitzvos. "And may she who bore you exult" refers to his rebbe, who is like the one who gave birth to him, as Chazal say that whoever teaches his fellow's child Torah is considered as if he gave birth to him. Thus, "yoladtecha" can also refer to his rebbe, and this aligns with the direction of Rabbeinu Yonah, that "yoladtecha" is the one who raises or teaches him. He will exult in him, "may she who bore you exult," but the great and true joy will belong to the father and mother there in the World of Truth.
The Malbim explains: "May your father and your mother rejoice, and may she who bore you exult" - my wish is that you conduct yourself in such a way that the one who raises you will also rejoice, even someone who did not physically sire you. And if a person masters his spirit, as we explained, through wisdom and mussar - for walking in the path of wisdom is not simple, since it opposes physical desires and lusts, but through mussar he succeeds in subjugating himself until he becomes wise of heart, and wisdom enters his heart and rules over him to the point where physical desires no longer appeal to him and he is entirely dedicated to the service of Hashem - through this, he brings about a state where his father and mother rejoice, they being in the role of fosterer. This is the reverse of Rabbeinu Yonah and the Gra: according to them, father and mother are biological, whereas according to the Malbim, "may your father and your mother rejoice" refers to the spiritual father, the teacher, and the rebbe. "And may she who bore you exult" - the mother who gave birth will also experience exultation, beyond the initial joy, over his consistent choice of the upright and good path. It follows that you can also bring your rebbe who taught you Torah to a state of joy. How? By persevering in the tenets of wisdom. And as we mentioned, a tzaddik can falter spiritually, but the chacham possesses very sound foundations in the service of Hashem and will not falter - and through this, his rebbe who taught him Torah will also rejoice.
תְּנָה בְנִי לִבְּךָ לִי וְעֵינֶיךָ דְּרָכַי תִּצֹּרְנָה׃ - Give your heart to Me, my son, and let your eyes observe My ways.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: "Give your heart to Me, my son" - to My fear and to My love. When we speak of "heart," we are referring to desire, craving, and will - "the longing of his heart" is inner desire and passion. Here he cautions that one must give his entire heart to Hashem, Blessed be He. This means that as long as a person harbors physical yearnings and cravings, his heart is not completely clear for Hashem, Blessed be He. When a person wants his divine service to be complete, he must nullify those other yearnings, cravings, and desires, and then his heart is devoted entirely to the service of Hashem, Blessed be He, alone. Then, "and let your eyes observe My ways" - if the heart belongs completely to Hashem, Blessed be He, and desires nothing else, the eyes will naturally guard the ways of Hashem.
This can also be explained by way of homiletical insight: Scripture states, "and that you not follow after your heart and after your eyes." Seemingly, it should have said the reverse: "after your eyes and after your heart," for a person first sees, and the image enters his heart, leading him to dwell on it. The answer is that a person only sees what his heart desires to see. Why did the person look? Because the heart wanted to look. This is the meaning of "Give your heart to Me, my son" - that the heart be holy and pure, without any desire to gaze upon inappropriate things, and then "let your eyes observe My ways," and the eyes will automatically be guarded. It does not begin with sight and move from there to thought; rather, it begins with the desire to see, and out of that desire, one looks and ponders. Therefore, from the outset: "Give your heart to Me, my son," and then "let your eyes observe My ways."
The Malbim explains: How does this come about? By giving Me your heart. The heart, as explained several times according to the Malbim, means that the laws of wisdom govern it: it has no doubts, no wavering thoughts; a person is secure in his service of Hashem and in the path he walks. And when these matters are engraved upon his heart - "and let your eyes observe My ways." The eyes always describe and denote the desires and bad thoughts that arise through the senses, what one sees outside and internalizes, as Chazal say: "'Do not follow after your own heart' - this refers to heresy; 'and after your own eyes' - this refers to immorality." If the heart belongs entirely to Hashem, blessed be He, with the rules of wisdom ruling over it and free of doubt and heresy, then the eyes, seeing all the desires of this world outside, are neither impressed nor drawn after them, because the person is upright in the path of Hashem and confident in his service. And even when there are desires and temptations outside, they are not swayed by the lusts of the yetzer and the charms of this world, because the heart is wholly devoted to Hashem, blessed be He.
כִּי שׁוּחָה עֲמֻקָּה זוֹנָה וּבְאֵר צָרָה נָכְרִיָּה׃ - For a harlot is a deep ditch, and an alien woman is a narrow well.
The Gra notes that the letter *kaf* of comparison is omitted here, as if it said, "like a deep ditch is a harlot" - a harlot is like a deep ditch. And what is "a narrow well"? Like a person who enters a narrow well, who cannot turn around, cannot move, cannot make any motions. So it is with the foreign woman. This is the literal explanation of the words, and we will immediately explain the underlying meaning.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: "For a harlot is a deep ditch" - whoever draws near to the entrance of her house will be suddenly trapped, like someone trapped in a ditch. For if one is not careful and passes by a place where there is a ditch - a *shuchah* is an elongated trench - and does not pay attention, he falls right into it. So it is with the immoral woman, of whom it is written, "Keep your way far from her" and do not approach the entrance to her house, for if you approach, you are likely to enter.
And the "harlot" here is not necessarily a literal harlot. As explained many times, especially in Sefer Mishlei, the harlot serves to characterize alien philosophies. Why are they called a harlot? Because the original wife is the holy Torah; she is the wisdom to which a person must cling, and when a person seeks alien philosophies, it is as though he goes to a harlot. *Zonah* shares a root with straying: there is a straight path, yet he strays and veers off to the side, toward alien ideas. The Gemara says, "Heresy is different, for it attracts" - once a person begins dabbling in heresy and alien philosophies, he is drawn after them. How many doctors and professors from religious backgrounds can one find with a sound Torah hashkafah, genuine Daas Torah, clinging to the path of Hashem? You could count them on your fingers, if at all. The reality is that whoever is drawn after alien philosophies gets pulled in.
To such an extent - though it is difficult even to utter, but as noted previously - see what the Gra writes in Yoreh De'ah, siman 179, regarding the Rambam. When the Rambam rejects the reality of demons and all mystical phenomena, the Gra asks: How could one say such a thing? We have explicit Gemaras, explicit sources. And he writes: "Accursed philosophy led him astray with its smooth talk." Meaning, the extraneous philosophies the Rambam studied had an influence somewhere, in the view of the Gra. From here we can learn: if even the Rambam, in the subtlest of ways, according to the Gra, was caught in an outlook that was not properly aligned regarding demons, necromancy, and all those phenomena he dismissed as groundless, when seemingly Chazal indicate otherwise - what will become of an ordinary person, who lacks the Rambam's immense reservoirs of Torah, mitzvos, and yiras Shamayim, if he enters such a deep ditch? This is a reality one can witness: suddenly such people begin singing a different tune, and one wonders where they picked it up. Suddenly they voice criticisms of the Sages and Torah teachings, saying, "One doesn't have to understand it this way; it can be understood differently." And this person once learned in a yeshivah, and even if it was a good yeshivah, there is still no guarantee. In any case, one sees how distortion develops. "For a harlot is a deep ditch" - whoever draws near to the entrance of her house is trapped in an instant.
And an alien woman, even if she is not a prostitute, is "a narrow well." What does this mean? Rabbeinu Yonah explains: If one becomes accustomed to conversing with her, or accustomed to looking at her face, day by day he will be drawn further after her, rekindling desire and a spirit of straying until he lusts and stumbles. Regarding the harlot, it says "a deep ditch" - a sudden fall, like someone plunging into a pit. But an "alien woman" is simply an outsider, someone not his wife; he talks with her, chats and laughs with her here and there, she tells him about her home and children and he shares his, and we all know where such things lead. It is horrifying: terrible and tragic stories, homes that have been torn apart. And from what? About this Shlomo says: a foreign woman is a narrow well. Once you enter a narrow well, the chances of moving about and escaping are very slim. Yet the entire ordeal begins with casual familiarity: working in the same office, needing to talk to her, she mentions what the boss said, he passes along some work material, and so on - and out of that, desire and an illicit spirit are renewed until he craves and ultimately stumbles.
Why did he specifically compare this to a well, when he could have said "a narrow pit"? Because the unique quality of a well is that water flows from within it, and the more one draws from it, the more new water replenishes it. This is the concept: with an unfamiliar woman, it starts small, with casual, incidental conversations, and from there they gradually get to know each other better, until emotional attachment and desire take root in his heart. Just like a well, where the more you draw, the more water emerges. One must not think, "I was only talking, we keep our distance, we're just talking, no harm done" - once closeness begins, you never know where it will end. It is not for nothing that the Sages forbade *yichud*, for the Sages truly understood that the inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth and all his thoughts are bent on wrongdoing all day; if a person does not erect a clear boundary around himself, he can end up committing the gravest transgressions.
And if these words apply to the examples Rabbeinu Yonah writes here, they can certainly be applied today to the internet and all kinds of smartphones: "For a harlot is a deep ditch." When people fall into these traps, you see afterward how they struggle to get out, seeking rehabilitation and searching for anyone who can liberate them from these troubles. These are terrible, heartbreaking realities.
Rav Glazer related that there was a conference in Elad on the perils of technology - all the internet and these awful, frightening pitfalls. He recounted that there was only one person willing to speak, just one, and he spoke because he was already well known there in Elad: a Chassidishe Yid, wearing a shtreimel and peyos, a man clearly recognizable as a yarei Shamayim. This man recounted: His wife had started working at a certain workplace, where they gave her an iPhone for work purposes, for typing and various tasks. He said he watched as she slowly opened up to the outside world. He said: My wife was the kind of person who wouldn't let me wash a cup at home, saying it was a waste of time - "You sit and learn, I will take care of it" - truly zealous in her meticulous observance of mitzvos. And it was unbelievable: slowly the skirts started getting shorter, the sheitel started getting longer, then makeup appeared, along with all sorts of things we had never known before.
And one day he comes home on Friday night and sees that the table looks completely untouched. He walks into the bedroom and sees his wife on an iPhone. The man feels like he is about to faint. He asks her: "What are you doing? Chilul Shabbat!" And she tells him: "Well, I can tell you now that I have been in this story for a year and a half already. You are only finding out now, but I have been deep in this for a year and a half." She tells him that they have a group, and in this group are all sorts of refugees from the Torah world, people who slipped and drifted, who browsed their way to spiritual ruin. "For a harlot is a deep pit" - a deep pit from which it is impossible to climb out afterward, and woe to anyone who enters there. Rav Shteinman said regarding this: "All who go to her do not return," Rachmana litzlan. Whoever even begins with this - Heaven spare us, you never know where you will end up.
Therefore: "Give your heart to me, my son, and let your eyes observe my ways," "For a harlot is a deep pit." You only start with it, but it is a spring that flows and flows and flows, and then sweeps everything away. "And an alien woman is a narrow well" - things that are foreign to you are a narrow well, from which you will not be able to escape at all. The wisdom is not to start at all, and not to bring it into the home - neither in this way nor in that way, not "just for this" and not "just for nature documentaries," and not under the pretext that staying away makes a person detached and ignorant of current events. Why, if I read a kosher newspaper, do I not know what is going on? Must I be plugged into all the filth and degradation just to know what is happening? "A harlot is a deep pit, and an alien woman is a narrow well."
The passage before us builds a complete progression: "Buy truth and do not sell it" - pay a dear price to acquire truth, but do not turn the Torah into merchandise; and this acquisition is built in three stages: wisdom (chochmah) that stands opposed to desire, discipline (mussar) that compels a person to guard the laws of wisdom, and understanding (binah) that internalizes these principles in his heart until they become his own. From this stems the joy: "The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise son will be glad in him" - righteousness depends on free choice and one can fall from it, which is why the verse uses *gilah* (a joy mingled with trembling); but the wise man, over whom wisdom rules at the roots and through constant study, brings enduring joy - to his parents and teachers alike. And for this reason, "Give your heart to me, my son": when the heart is wholly devoted to Hashem and governed by wisdom, the eyes are guarded on their own, for a person sees only what his heart desires to see. In contrast comes the warning: "For a harlot is a deep pit, and an alien woman is a narrow well" - whether with foreign philosophies or the habit of forbidden intimacy, the beginning is small, but the wellspring surges constantly, and escape becomes virtually impossible. True wisdom is simple: do not begin at all.