In the verses before us, King Solomon continues to establish for us foundational principles of conduct: the value of a wise son and what he accomplishes for his father in this world and in the World to Come, the virtue of foresight - the ability to foresee the outcome of a matter and guard against evil before it arrives, the moral lesson regarding standing surety, and the value of sharpening Torah knowledge through a chavruta and clinging to a Torah sage. We will follow the order of the verses, presenting the words of the Rishonim and the commentary of the Malbim, along with the Midrashim and accompanying stories.
חֲכַם בְּנִי וְשַׂמַּח לִבִּי וְאָשִׁיבָה חֹרְפִי דָבָר׃ (יא) - Become wise, my son, and gladden my heart, that I may return an answer to the one who taunts me.
First, one must recognize that chakham ("חֲכַם") here is not an adjective or noun, but an imperative verb: become wise, my son. It is a command. Ibn Ezra explains "that I may return an answer to the one who taunts me" - people taunt me for not having an educated, wise son, but as soon as you become wise, I will have an answer ready: behold, see what an enlightened son I have.
The Vilna Gaon explains in another way: by your becoming wise, you gladden my heart and also grant me the strength to respond. There were those who taunted me, raising difficulties against me and confronting me with perplexities, and I had no answers. But if my son is wise, you will provide me with answers; you will supply me with ideas of how to respond to them. And so it is for the World to Come: "and gladden my heart" in Gan Eden, "that I may return an answer to the one who taunts me" - at the gates, as Scripture states: "Like arrows in the hand of a mighty warrior... they shall not be ashamed when they speak with enemies at the gate." There in the celestial realms you will possess strength and standing among the angels, and why? Because you have a son who is great in Torah. When your son grows wise in Torah, it embodies the principle that bera kara de'avuh - a son is an extension of his father's feet - and he enables the father to answer his detractors there in the World of Truth.
The Metzudat David explains that the command here is Solomon's address to his son: grow wise in Torah, gladden my heart, and when you are wise I will be able to answer anyone who insults me. But if you are foolish, I will be forced to place my hand over my mouth, lest my disgrace be revealed that I have a senseless son. People ask him questions, converse with him, and see that he lacks understanding, which is a great humiliation for the father.
And this is what is meant by the verse, "A wise son gladdens a father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother." Why specifically the grief of his mother? When a son is wise, the father takes him everywhere: "This is my son!" He boasts of him, and "all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed blessed by Hashem." Thus, a wise son gladdens the father; and what does the mother gain from this? She remains at home. But when a son is foolish, the father is ashamed to take him along, lest he cause embarrassment as he did before; it is better that he stay home. And who receives grief from him? The mother, with whom the son stays at home, and who must endure his foolishness and lack of sense.
The Malbim explains that a chakham ("wise person"), as we have learned throughout the book, is one who accepts the laws of wisdom - those ethical teachings that cannot be arrived at purely through human intellect and logical deduction, but solely through what we received via tradition, through prophecy, from Moshe Rabbeinu. Therefore he says to him: become wise, my son, and gladden my heart, for until now people have taunted me. Here we must remember the Malbim's definition of a kesil ("fool"): this does not refer to someone with an intellectual deficit; his intellectual capabilities may in fact be extraordinarily high, but he does not conduct himself according to the Torah. He is called a kesil because he is on a self-destructive path, devoid of true sense. When people see such a person, they say: "Cursed is the one who gave birth to him, cursed is the one who raised him, cursed is the one from whose loins he emerged." In contrast, when the son is wise, they say: "Praised is she who bore him, blessed is the one who raised him, blessed is the one who gave birth to him." This is "that I may return an answer to the one who taunts me" - I will have a response for my detractors; but if you are a fool, they will insult me and curse, saying: From what womb did this son emerge?
עָרוּם רָאָה רָעָה נִסְתָּר פְּתָאיִם עָבְרוּ נֶעֱנָשׁוּ׃ (יב) - A prudent man foresees evil and hides; the simple pass on and are punished.
To begin with textual matters: the Minchat Shai notes that in the Naples edition it is written here, "A prudent man foresees evil and hides" (with a vav: "וְנִסְתָּר"). Indeed, many remember the verse that way - "עָרוּם רָאָה רָעָה וְנִסְתָּר וּפְתָיִם עָבְרוּ וְנֶעֱנָשׁוּ" - and their memory is correct, but that is the text in Chapter 22, verse 3, where both words have the letter vav. Some proofreaders here became confused and harmonized the two verses, but that is incorrect. In summary: it is the same verse, except that here "נִסְתָּר" and "נֶעֱנָשׁוּ" appear without a vav. There is another difference as well: there it is spelled "פְּתָיִים" with two yuds, whereas in our verse it is written "פְּתָאיִם" with an aleph, though the aleph is silent and the pronunciation remains identical.
Rashi explains: The prudent person (arum) is the sharp, clever individual who conducts himself with foresight and prudence. He sees misfortune coming upon the world - "sees evil" - and hides. And how does one hide from evil? He knows that evil comes in the wake of bad deeds, in the wake of sins and corruption, and through this he withdraws his hand from sin and is saved from harm. But the simpletons did not hide; rather, they passed along the evil path, and were punished and suffered for it.
The Gra defines: An arum is a person who understands the end of a matter. This is a type of wisdom, for when a person is able to grasp a point and quickly reach conclusions - this is intellectual sharpness. A less clever person needs to hear the matter through to its end, digest it, and only then does the penny drop; but the astute person - you have only just begun speaking, and he has already understood where things are heading.
In this regard, one must be careful: sometimes this is not sharpness, but sheer impatience. A person thinks he has already understood, and it stems from arrogance - "I do not need you to explain it to me; you do not even have to speak, I will just have you in mind to fulfill your obligation." Such a person conducts one-man dialogues; every dialogue of his is actually a monologue. He has no intention of hearing what the other side has to say - whether it is his wife, his children, or his chavruta: he has something to say, and everyone else is just there to listen. Regarding this it is said, "While busy discharging, it does not absorb" (ee detarid lemiflat lo bala). This is a halachic principle in the laws of blood: that an item discharging blood, such as a liver, does not absorb at the time it is discharging, because it is busy expelling. So too, a person in an argument who is constantly preoccupied only with what he wants to say and what claim to make - does not try at all to absorb what you are saying, nor does he even try to consider what the other side might respond. This is a very negative character trait.
Within the verse itself, the Gra offers a wonderful insight: The word nishtar ("hides") does not describe only the action of the prudent person, but also the evil itself. It is as though we read: A prudent person saw evil that is hidden (nishtar) - and hid (venishtar). The word is read, as it were, twice: both regarding the evil and regarding the prudent person. The evil is hidden, yet the prudent person sees several moves ahead, and even regarding hidden danger he tells you: "Know that harm can emerge from there." The simpleton, however, does not look ahead; he passes on and is punished.
It is told of the Brisker Rav that a man once asked him: "Honored Rabbi, is the Rav not overly apprehensive?" There were those who accused him of excessive anxiety - that from here such-and-such will happen, from there ruin could result, and from this corruption will emerge. At that moment, they were standing near a grove of trees. The Rav asked him: "What do you see here?" He replied: "Trees." He asked: "Which trees?" He answered: "The trees right in front of us." The Rav told him: "What can I do when the Holy One, blessed be He, gave me the ability to see even the very last tree of the grove? Therefore, when you ask me what will happen, I already see the last tree, whereas you see only the trees right in front of you." The Brisker Rav then added: "And there are those who do not even see the trees right in front of them." There is a blindness in leadership of such kind, where even a problem visible to the naked eye - which is not at all 'the last tree,' but right before one's eyes - a person fails to see, until he bangs his head and takes a blow, and only then realizes there was a problem here. And indeed, the Brisker Rav would always anticipate the outcome, and his words would come to pass.
It is also told: The Brisker Rav asked the members of his household that if someone knocked on the door, they should wake him, even at two in the morning, no matter what it was about. He went to sleep, and at two in the morning faint knocks were heard. The household thought: "The Rav is already asleep" - but they immediately remembered his instructions and went to wake him, and he left with the visitors. Two hours later he returned, and they asked him: "What was this about?" He told them: "I knew that an important meeting was scheduled to take place today regarding a crucial matter, and I knew they wanted to pass a resolution against my view. I also knew they would act cleverly, claiming they wanted to ask my opinion and sent messengers to my home, but since I was asleep, they went ahead and made the decision. That is why I told you to wake me even at two in the morning. And by the grace of Hashem, you woke me; I went immediately, intervened in the matter, voiced my opposition - and the issue was removed from the agenda."
This is a wise person who sees several moves ahead: he does not wait to start thinking about what to do only after the damage is done. As the saying goes, the difference between a clever person and a wise person is that a clever person knows how to avoid getting into the mud that a wise person knows how to get out of - the greater wisdom is to foresee where the problem lies and avoid entering it in the first place. "A prudent person sees evil and hides": he is capable of seeing hidden dangers that an ordinary person cannot see, and thereby protects himself from them.
"The simpletons pass on and are punished" - the simpletons pass through and are punished on account of that evil. They do not understand the end; disaster befalls them, and the Gra notes that they are also punished for that very misfortune, meaning they are punished for failing to guard themselves. Consider: a person who goes to a dangerous place and is harmed - "And surely your blood of your lives will I require." Heaven judges him, and at times he is even judged like a suicide: Why did you go and do such a dangerous thing? What were the chances of survival? But he was looking for thrills and extreme sports. You took reckless risks - and you will be held accountable for your life being taken. And even if one says, "I was saved by a miracle" - his merits are deducted, for he was saved by a miracle, and a miracle costs a person his merits. Therefore, the simpletons are punished both for the very act of passing through and for their demise, as the blood of their lives is demanded of them.
Ralbag interprets the verse in the realm of spiritual self-refinement: The prudent, wise person sees the vanities of the body and their harm, the pull of physical desires, and how deeply damaging and destructive this is to a person from body to soul - and through this "hides," shielding himself from desires and walking in the way of Hashem. But the simpletons are confident that they can have the best of both worlds, failing to understand that the moment they pass through, they are punished. They follow the desires of their heart and pay a heavy price.
The Malbim, who noted that this verse was already stated earlier, explains: Previously it spoke of temporal harm, whereas here it speaks of spiritual harm. Temporal harm refers to the troubles that arise in the course of human existence in this world - a person sees an obstacle before him and avoids it, not necessarily a physical obstacle, but any future trouble that he foresees and guards against. But here, the verse speaks of spiritual harm: the prudent person sees the evil destined to come upon one who abandons the paths of wisdom - as said earlier, "My son, be wise and make my heart glad" - he sees the ruin of one who does not seek wisdom in Torah, and hides; but the simpletons passed on and were punished.
קַח בִּגְדוֹ כִּי עָרַב זָר וּבְעַד נׇכְרִיָּה חַבְלֵהוּ׃ (יג) - Take his garment, for he was a guarantor for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for an alien woman.
Let us first explain the plain meaning of the verse. A person became a guarantor - meaning he signed a guarantee - on behalf of a stranger, and the lender comes to collect his money, but the borrower has nothing with which to pay. From whom do they collect? From the guarantor. Regarding this, the judge tells the lender: "Take his garment" - collect the guarantor's garment, "for he was a guarantor for a stranger," since he went ahead and guaranteed a loan for a stranger. "And hold him in pledge for an alien woman" - according to the plain sense, this is the same idea in different words, along the lines of "You shall not take a pledge of your neighbor's garment" (Devarim 24:12), where taking a pledge (*chavilah*) means seizing the garment: since he guaranteed on behalf of a foreign woman, take his garment.
מְבָרֵךְ רֵעֵהוּ בְּקוֹל גָּדוֹל בַּבֹּקֶר הַשְׁכֵּים קְלָלָה תֵּחָשֶׁב לוֹ׃ (יד) - He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be considered a curse for him.
Ibn Ezra links the two verses together: this man was a guarantor for a stranger, signed a guarantee for him, and now he blesses his fellow, the lender, in a loud voice so that others will hear him blessing him. And what does he hope to gain from this? To find favor in his eyes - "See, I spoke well of you, I praised you" - all so that he will not take his garment. For once the borrower pays nothing, they come and take from the guarantor even the cloak upon his shoulders, even his garment. Therefore, he does this specifically early in the morning, so that they will not seize his garment that morning. For the law is that at night, one must give him his night garment and take his day garment, and by day, one returns his day garment and takes his night garment: one cannot take his sleeping clothes as a pledge while he is sleeping, nor can one take his daytime clothes in which he goes out to work.
בַּרְזֶל בְּבַרְזֶל יָחַד וְאִישׁ יַחַד פְּנֵי רֵעֵהוּ׃ (יז) - Iron sharpens iron, and a man sharpens the countenance of his fellow.
"Yachad" here is from the language of sharpening (*chidud*). When one wishes to sharpen iron, one rubs it against another piece of iron; so too, two Torah scholars sharpen each other in Halachah. From here we see the specific importance of studying with a *chavrusa* (study partner): when studying together, one sharpens the other, raising difficulties and posing refutations. But one who studies alone - "A sword upon the boasters, and they shall become foolish" (Yirmeyahu 50:36), the person becomes foolish and stultified. But when there is someone to sharpen him, on the contrary, he delves deeply into the Torah.
Ibn Ezra explains differently: "Panim" (countenance) here denotes wrath, as in "The face of Hashem has divided them" (Eichah 4:16), and as in "and her countenance was no longer the same" (Shmuel I 1:18) - an angry countenance. Accordingly: just as iron is sharpened by another piece of iron, so does a man become sharp to quarrel with his fellow because he sees *panim*, meaning the anger of his fellow. This will be explained further below on the verse "As water reflects the face to the face": when you receive an angry countenance from your fellow, a person becomes primed to fight with him. It turns out that according to Ibn Ezra, this is an expression referring to strife and something negative.
The Gra cites the words of Chazal: If you see a Torah scholar who is as hard as iron - gird him upon your loins, for Torah will emerge from him, in the sense of "out of the strong came forth sweetness" (Shoftim 14:14). That is to say, for there to be sharpening, both must be sharp, and then they sharpen each other. And so it was with Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish: when Reish Lakish passed away, they brought him another Torah scholar to sit and engage in Torah study with him, and Rabbi Yochanan went around weeping: "Where are you, son of Lakisha? Where are you, son of Lakisha?" And why? He said: "For every statement I made, the son of Lakisha would raise twenty-four objections against me, and objections require resolutions; and because he questioned from another source, I was forced to make a distinction (*chiluk*), and that distinction produces a new Halachah - that in such a case the ruling is this, and in another case it is that, with the distinction born out of the difficulty. But this Torah scholar you brought me, for every halachah I state, he brings me twenty-four proofs: 'And so wrote So-and-so, and so said So-and-so, and so it appears in the Mishnah, and so stated this Amora' - and what do I gain from that? That I spoke well? That, I already know! I want you to tell me that I did not speak well, to refute my words, and then I will have an objection from elsewhere, I will have to resolve it, and a new approach and logic that we had not stated before will be revealed."
Thus, according to the Gra, in order to fulfill "Iron sharpens iron," both must be sharp, and then they truly sharpen each other; but if they are not sharp, they will not sharpen one another.
The Malbim explains: A sword, in order to realize its essential form, must be sharp - without sharpness, it is not a sword at all. Sharpening also removes the rust, for in ancient times metal processing was primitive and everything rusted easily; they had to rub it, and through rubbing, the rust was removed. So too, "and a man sharpens the countenance of his fellow": by engaging in Torah together, one explains and brings understanding to his fellow, as Chazal said, "I have learned much from my teachers, and from my colleagues more than from them, and from my students most of all" (Ta'anis 7a). And "their countenance" (*peneihem*), explains the Malbim, refers to their essential form, and a person's essential form is his intellect and wisdom - these are his "face." Therefore, a person's intellect, wisdom, and countenance are sharpened one by the other.
נֹצֵר תְּאֵנָה יֹאכַל פִּרְיָהּ וְשֹׁמֵר אֲדֹנָיו יְכֻבָּד׃ (יח) - One who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and one who guards his master will be honored. (18)
Rashi explains: Just as one who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, so one who guards his master will be honored - he will eat the fruit of his deeds and receive benefit. Just as the one who watches the fig tree gains benefit from its fruit, so one who guards his master receives benefit from his master.
The Ibn Ezra suggests that this may be a continuation of the previous verse. According to his approach, the previous verse dealt with a person who sharpens himself to quarrel with his peer because of the angry face he encountered. Scripture now comes and says: Do not start quarrels with your master. In simple terms - he is not your friend. "One who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and one who guards his master will be honored": with one's master, one does not act in the manner of "sharpens the countenance of his friend," for he is not your friend but your master, so honor him. It is unfitting to sharpen oneself against one's master the way one does with a peer; rather, whoever shields him from every harm - the master will honor him.
This is sound advice in any context, and every setting has a different "master." It does not refer only to a king: it could be the boss at work, the teacher in the classroom, or the director at school - anyone who holds authority in that place. Do not try to outsmart him, do not pick a fight with him, and do not sharpen yourself against him; rather, one must recognize that person's role. If it suits you, stay there; if it does not suit you, do not stay. But going and picking a fight with him is not the way. "One who guards his master will be honored" - on the contrary, when you safeguard his interests, he will honor and appreciate you, and you will derive only benefit from it.
The Gra explains why the verse specifically chose a fig tree: the harvest of a fig tree does not occur all at once. There are fruits that ripen together and are harvested in a single picking - oranges, for example, are not gathered every day; rather, in their season, the entire tree is picked at once. But the fig tree is not like that: Chazal taught that figs ripen little by little, and one must pick a few each time. Consequently, it requires constant guarding - what was picked yesterday says nothing about today, and today says nothing about tomorrow; one must come day by day to see what has grown and developed. With a fig this is all the more critical, because it is soft, spoils easily, and rots quickly. If you do not gather them on time, you cannot say, "I will gather everything at the end of the month," because after two days what has ripened is no longer fit to eat. The Malbim cites from the Yerushalmi that worms also eat and wreak havoc there, which is why one must harvest every morning before sunrise; otherwise, the first-ripening fruits will become wormy. Thus, a fig tree requires netzirah - constant, vigilant watching - because it is continually ripening.
"And one who guards his master" - who is this guard? The Gra explains that the guard is the chief bodyguard. Today, people view a "guard" as an anonymous figure: not only does he have no name or prestige, but if someone fires at a government minister or prime minister, his job is to throw himself in front of them, absorb the bullets, and shield them with his body, and that is what he is trained to do. Who is he, what is he, and who knows him? Nobody. He might be an entirely ordinary individual in his personal standing, so long as he knows how to do the job. But in their times, it was not so: when they spoke of a royal bodyguard, they meant an eminent dignitary, akin to a viceroy. The Gra brings proofs: "I will make you the guardian of my head for all time" - was he speaking of an ordinary watchman? Is that the honor being granted to him? Rather, the meaning is: you will be second to me, like the chief guardian who accompanies me at all times. Likewise, "the three keepers of the threshold," who were among the elite who saw the king's face - this clearly shows they were figures of high standing. It follows that "one who guards his master will be honored" means: when a person guards his master, he receives honor like one who stands before the king.
The Malbim explains that one who guards his master must be like one who tends a fig tree. One who truly cleaves to his master - and in our context, one who cleaves to a talmid chacham - must be in the mode of a fig-tree tender: every morning, early, even before it can become worm-infested, for new figs ripen every single day, requiring constant attentiveness. The Malbim notes with precision that the verse uses notzer rather than shomer here, because netzirah is more intense than shemirah - ordinary guarding is less vigilant and meticulous than netzirah. And whoever tends the fig tree, arriving early every morning, is the one who will eat its fruit; otherwise, by the time he arrives, he will discover that the worms have preceded him. So too, "one who guards his master will be honored": this refers to the one who is beside him every morning to gather the fruits. And what are these fruits? The fruits of the sage's wisdom.
Chazal expounded this verse in reference to Yehoshua, and specifically on this very theme: Yehoshua was one who tended the fig tree. Our Sages said that when Yehoshua was appointed leader, the elders remarked: "The face of Moshe was like the face of the sun, while the face of Yehoshua is like the face of the moon - woe to that shame, woe to that disgrace!" What was that shame and disgrace? They had assumed that they would be the successors, and suddenly it emerged that specifically the one who came every morning to arrange the benches was the one chosen to continue the leadership. And where was Yehoshua when Moshe ascended on High? He went to the closest point one was permitted to approach, the manna fell for him there in his place, and he studied privately; and as soon as Moshe Rabbeinu descended, he immediately accompanied him down the mountain. Why? Because from where I stand down to the foot of the mountain, I can hear another halachah; I can accompany my rebbe and absorb one more insight from him. This was the extraordinary virtue of Yehoshua - "One who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and one who guards his master will be honored." See how in the end, because "he departed not from the tent," he merited honor: Moshe laid his hands upon him, and he was appointed to continue the path.
In these verses we have learned four fundamentals: "My son, be wise" - that a child who grows wise in Torah gladdens his father's heart and provides him with an answer against those who reproach him, both in this world and in the World to Come, in the sense that a son is the extension of his father. "A prudent person sees evil and conceals himself" - that the virtue of the prudent person is to see the outcome of a matter and foresee even hidden harm, guarding against it in advance, whereas the simpleton charges ahead and is punished, even for failing to take precautions; and according to the Malbim, this refers to harm to the soul, the downfall of one who abandons the paths of wisdom. "Take his garment, for he was guarantor for a stranger" - the warning against becoming a surety, and the loud blessing shouted early in the morning, which is nothing but an attempt at flattery to prevent his garment from being seized, which is why it is reckoned as a curse to him. "Iron sharpens iron" - that Torah is sharpened only when two sharp minds challenge and refute each other, and a person's "countenance" reflects his character and intellect, which are refined through engagement with his fellow. "One who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit" - that one who cleaves to his rebbe and master requires constant devotion, day after day and morning after morning, like a fig tree whose harvest cannot be gathered all at once, and like Yehoshua, who did not depart from the tent and thereby merited honor and leadership.