Chapter 30 of Mishlei opens with the words of Agur bin Yakeh, who converses with two questioners - Itiel and Uchal. In this lesson, we will examine the opening verses of this dialogue: the monumental questions posed regarding the work of Creation, the answer Agur provides, and the foundational principle he establishes - that these mysteries cannot be grasped through human speculation, but only through the refined word of God. We will follow the approach of the peshat commentators (Ibn Ezra), the Midrashic expositors (the Pesikta and Rashi), the Vilna Gaon, and the Malbim.
מִי עָלָה שָׁמַיִם וַיֵּרַד, מִי אָסַף רוּחַ בְּחָפְנָיו, מִי צָרַר מַיִם בַּשִּׂמְלָה, מִי הֵקִים כָּל אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ, מַה שְּׁמוֹ וּמַה שֶּׁם בְּנוֹ כִּי תֵדָע. - "Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son, if you know?"
There are many interpretations and lengthy discussions among the commentators on this verse, but we will endeavor to be concise. Let us begin with its plain sense. Ibn Ezra, who is always most faithful to the peshat of the verses, explains: Who has ascended to heaven and come down - who possesses the power to ascend to the high heavens and descend to the depths of the earth; who can comprehend this through his wisdom? "Who has gathered the wind in his fists" - who can gather the wind to himself so that it ceases to blow; do you have the strength to stop the blowing of the wind? "Who has bound the waters in a garment" - who has the power to bind the waters, as the Holy One, blessed be He, bound the waters in the clouds; are you capable of binding water in a garment? "Who has established all the ends of the earth" - afsei always denotes edges or extremes; the earth hangs upon nothingness, and who is it that established the earth, as it were, so that it does not fall, that it remains fixed in its place?
And finally: "What is his name, and what is the name of his son, if you know?" - perhaps his son knows the father in wisdom. Agur says to him: You, Itiel, or his son - tell me, do you know who he is, or who his son is? Can you tell me either one of them? The entire intent here is: created beings have no capacity to comprehend His wisdom, may He be blessed. Can you perform anything of what the Holy One, blessed be He, does? And since you possess neither the power nor the intellect to perform those deeds, neither do you possess the power to grasp His mind. This is the explanation of the verse according to the plain meaning.
However, Rashi cites here the Midrashic exposition found in the Pesikta, and the Vilna Gaon expands upon it. In the Pesikta, this entire verse is expounded as referring to Moshe Rabbeinu, who performed four deeds for Israel: he brought down the Torah, brought the Tablets, split the sea, and erected the Mishkan.
"Who has ascended to heaven and come down" - this is Moshe, who ascended to heaven and came down, bringing the Torah down to the Jewish people, as it is written: "You ascended on high, you took captives, you took gifts of man." "Who has gathered the wind in his fists" - this corresponds to the Tablets, for Moshe Rabbeinu held the Tablets in his hands. One must be careful not to misunderstand: the Torah and the Tablets are two distinct things. The Tablets contain only the Ten Commandments, whereas the Torah encompasses the 613 mitzvos. And why are the Tablets called "wind" (ruach)? Because through their power, the entire wilderness generation were prophets, with the Divine Presence among them - and this is ruach hakodesh (the holy spirit). When Moshe brings the Tablets, he brings wind in his fists, a holy spirit for the people of Israel. The Vilna Gaon explains accordingly: when Israel sinned with the Golden Calf, the Divine Presence departed from them until Yom Kippur, and on Yom Kippur Moshe brought the second Tablets, whereupon prophecy and the holy spirit returned as before. Who is like Moshe, who gathered spirit for Israel in his fists? Incidentally, Rashi explains "gathered wind" in reference to the soot of the furnace that Moshe cast into the wind, thereby striking Egypt.
"Who has bound the waters in a garment" - this is Moshe, who split the sea and piled the waters like a wall, as though placing them in a vessel and standing them upright. "Who has established all the ends of the earth" - this corresponds to Moshe erecting the Mishkan, which he erected by himself, as is well known. And what is the connection between erecting the Mishkan and "all the ends of the earth"? The Vilna Gaon explains: the Zohar states that when the Mishkan was erected, all the worlds, upper and lower, were erected along with it - and thus, by erecting the Mishkan, Moshe established all the ends of the earth.
The Vilna Gaon adds: these four matters also correspond to the four festivals. "Who has ascended to heaven and come down" - corresponds to Shavuos, the time of the Giving of the Torah. "Who has gathered the wind in his fists" - corresponds to Yom Kippur, when Moshe descended with the second Tablets, which, as we noted, represents the holy spirit returning to them. "Who has bound the waters in a garment" - this refers to the splitting of the Red Sea, which took place on Pesach. "Who has established all the ends of the earth" - the aspect of erecting the Mishkan, which corresponds to Sukkos, when they began constructing the Mishkan, as the Vilna Gaon explains at the beginning of his commentary on Shir HaShirim.
The Vilna Gaon further states: these four also correspond to the four classical elements. "Who has ascended to heaven" - heaven is fire. "Who has gathered the wind" - this is air (wind). "Who has bound the waters" - water. "Who has established all the ends of the earth" - earth (dust). Thus we have fire, air, water, and earth, the four elements. And regarding this the verse concludes, "What is his name" - who is like Moshe, whose name reflects his very essence.
כִּי בַעַר אָנֹכִי מֵאִישׁ וְלֹא בִינַת אָדָם לִי. וְלֹא לָמַדְתִּי חָכְמָה וְדַעַת קְדֹשִׁים אֵדָע. - For I am more boorish than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man. Nor have I learned wisdom, that I should know the knowledge of the Holy Ones.
Agur introduced his words by stating that he lacks understanding: "For I am more boorish than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man," nor does he possess knowledge of the Holy Ones on his own. From here he continues and tells them, as the Malbim explains: you are asking about the work of Creation. Their question was how the two primary primordial elements (the homer hiyuli) from which the heavens and the earth were created came into being, and Who set their boundaries in the heights above and the depths below - in the heavens and the earth. "Who has ascended to heaven and descended?" - Who ascended to heaven to establish the upper heights, and who descended to earth to establish the lower depths?
And when speaking of this first primordial matter, we have mentioned that simply understood, this refers to the atom, which is the foundational building block for everything in the world, as everything created in the physical universe is composed of atoms. This is what the Ramban explains: that initially, the Holy One, Blessed is He, created the primary formless matter (homer hiyuli). The word hiyuli has Greek roots, but in any case, the principle is that at the beginning, the Holy One, Blessed is He, fashioned this raw, unformed substance, and from this raw matter an infinite variety of things could be created. This is the meaning of "In the beginning, God created."
And there was another question: "Who has gathered the wind in his fists?" Here, the Malbim explains this according to his consistent approach in Iyov. We know that air naturally expands everywhere; into any empty space, any vacuum, air rushes in immediately. Take a bottle, suck all the air out of it, and seal it - the moment you unseal it, air rushes back inside. We learn that it is the nature of air to expand into any void. Yet behold this wonder: up above, beyond the atmosphere, there is no air. The reality changes there. Thus, someone must have gathered the wind in His fists and ensured that the atmosphere envelops and surrounds only planet Earth, while beyond it lies a vacuum. Someone concentrated the air and placed it here, and the atmosphere acts as a container, so to speak, enclosing the air down here below.
Who gathered the wind in this manner and ensured that there would be the breath of life and the possibility of living existence in the world? After all, the reason we know there is no life outside planet Earth is because it is impossible to breathe and survive beyond it. Even when astronauts reached the moon, they required helmets and oxygen tanks, without which survival is impossible. Some speculate whether there might be creatures whose form of life differs from ours, like a fish that lives in water, wondering if there could be beings in outer space. We know that there are none, as we have mentioned several times, and this is clearly stated in the words of Patach Eliyahu: "Uvehai alma it bei" - in this world there are creatures, animals, trees, and so forth.
From this comes a wonderful insight: when they went to the moon, they asked Rav Mordechai Sharabi if they would find life there. He told them: "They will find nothing. I will write down the answer for you, and after they return, open what I have written." He gave them a note, and after the astronauts returned and found nothing, they opened the note and read: "Uvehai alma it bei" - only in this world are there animals and human beings. From a single word in the Zohar, one can know what exists throughout all the worlds, not merely what exists down here. There is no need to invest billions like NASA - open the Zohar, open Patach Eliyahu, and "Lift up (nesah) upon us the light of Your countenance." It is far cheaper and far more worthwhile. By the way, this is exactly what will happen with Mars: Mars is considered the most plausible place regarding the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and they explore it hoping to find life - but there is no life anywhere except here in this world, and for this purpose the Holy One, Blessed is He, created the atmosphere. Who gathered the wind in His fists and wrapped it around the earth?
And furthermore, "Who has bound the waters in a garment?" For the natural tendency of water is to surround and cover the entire earth. Who set their boundaries and gathered them as though in a garment, like inside a vessel, as it is written: "Who placed the sand as a boundary for the sea"? Water originally covered the entire earth, and only afterward did the Holy One, Blessed is He, issue a decree and place a boundary for it. Since then, the waters do not breach their boundaries - except in rare instances, like a small tsunami. But in the normal course of nature, the waters do not overflow their borders, because Hashem set their limits. And another question: "Who has established all the ends of the earth?" - Who ingrained into the nature of the earth that it should stand at the center and draw everything toward it? The earth stands at the center and exerts gravity, the gravitational force that draws everything toward the center. Who accomplished this?
Thus, the Malbim explains, Itiel and Uchal asked Agur questions concerning all four elements: about the heavens, which correspond to the element of fire as cited by the early authorities; about wind (air); about water; and about the earth, which corresponds to dust - exactly as the Vilna Gaon explained. The questions encompassed all four primary elements.
The Malbim explains: The questioner was philosophizing in the manner of the secular philosophers, who maintained that from the Prime Cause emanated a first effect, which is the Emanated Intellect, whom they referred to as the "son" of the Supreme Emanator. They believed that there was a supreme power that created an entity in the status of a son, which was this emanated intellect. If you will, an "emanated intellect" corresponds to angels, referred to in the terminology of the early sages as "separate intellects" - intellect detached from physical form. We possess intellect, but it is not separate; our intellect is bound to a physical body. An angel, by contrast, is a separate intellect, an emanated intellect. According to their view, the Prime Emanator supposedly created an angel, and that angel created the entire universe. The ancient philosophers argued that the Holy One, Blessed is He, has no involvement in the lower world, exalting Him as so lofty and transcendent that He does not concern Himself at all with what happens down here. This approach made things very convenient for them, for if so, one may do whatever one pleases and the Creator of the universe does not care - making life much easier.
To this, Agur says to him, "if you know" - do you claim to know all these things through philosophical speculation? Such matters cannot be grasped through human rational inquiry at all.
כָּל אִמְרַת אֱלוֹהַּ צְרוּפָה, מָגֵן הוּא לַחֹסִים בּוֹ. - Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
In all these inquiries, the Malbim explains, one must rely on the testimony of the Torah. The testimony of the Torah is that human beings and everything that exists in the world were created ex nihilo by the word of God - He spoke and it came into being, and the moment He spoke, the world was created. The words of the Torah regarding the entire Work of Creation are "pure," refined of all dross. And what of the philosophers and all their discourse on these matters? It is like silver dross glazed over pottery: conclusions based on conjectures, guesses, theories, and notions born of the philosopher's feverish imagination. Do they have any solid foundation to stand on?
Today, people rely to some degree on empirical research, which explains why philosophy has largely remained confined to academic faculties and philosophy departments - no one relies on it, because everyone has recognized its limited grasp. What is philosophy? Speculation, a type of conclusion based on intellectual contemplation, logic, and conjecture, without empirical research. And even where there is research, fine, but research is also limited: science can investigate what occurred in the first moments the universe came to be, but if you ask it what the purpose of Creation was, scientists will tell you that belongs to the realm of philosophy, outside their domain. And this is precisely what Agur bin Yakeh is saying here to Ithiel and Ucal: You are asking questions that touch on the heights of the universe, and there is no hope of grasping them through philosophy. What is the true path? That He Who created the world revealed His plans to us; He made known what He intended to achieve in the world and what He seeks through it. All the words of the philosophers are mere silver dross glazed over pottery, whereas the word of God alone is refined and pure, the absolute truth.
And what is the meaning of "He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him"? What danger is spoken of here? Not physical danger, but the danger of error. Whoever takes refuge in Hashem, Hashem will shield him from arriving at mistaken conclusions and futile philosophies; instead, he will know the true answer to every question. Therefore, do not seek answers in philosophical speculation, for the answers are found in the word of God, which is pure, and which shields those who take refuge in Him from all error.
The Vilna Gaon explains that "Every word of God is pure" means that the Torah is refined sevenfold, referring to the forty-nine facets of the Torah. As Chazal teach, fifty gates of understanding were created in the world, and Moshe Rabbeinu attained forty-nine of them. The Torah itself encompasses all forty-nine facets, yet it is fundamentally one - which is why the verse uses the singular form imrat ("the word of"), a single utterance that encompasses all forty-nine facets.
The Vilna Gaon adds: The same applies to the mitzvos. There are 613 mitzvos, yet they too are encapsulated in a single principle, as Chavakuk came and established them upon one: "The righteous shall live by his faith," meaning trust (bitachon) in Hashem. This is what Agur bin Yakeh is telling his companions, Ithiel and Ucal: You have no business probing the hidden realms to attain mysteries of wisdom. Know that "every word of God is pure" - the Torah is refined sevenfold and everything is contained within it. Therefore, turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it, and do not depart from it; seek everything within the Torah rather than searching for philosophical deductions. And this applies not only to the Torah, but also to the mitzvos: though they number 613, they are all encompassed in one, in bitachon. Therefore, "He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him" - one who trusts in Hashem and possesses bitachon is shielded from stumbling in the other mitzvos, which are all included in this trait of trust. Do not inquire into hidden matters; delve into the Torah and trust in Hashem, and then you will possess both Torah and mitzvos.
אַל תּוֹסְףְּ עַל דְּבָרָיו, פֶּן יוֹכִיחַ בְּךָ וְנִכְזָבְתָּ. - Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you and you be found a liar.
The Minchat Shai notes here that this word is unique (leit) - there is no other word like this in the entire Tanach written in full and with a dagesh, meaning a pei with a dagesh and vowelization. The general grammatical rule is that when two consecutive shevas appear, the first is a sheva nach (silent). Here, however, he cites in the name of the Michlol other examples where the final sheva is silent, such as vayebk and vayeshb, and some grammarians hold that when two shevas occur at the end of a word, both are silent. According to this, the case here is exceptional; because these two shevas are at the end of the word, they are silent, and the reading is "al tosf," with a sheva and a dagesh in the pei.
"Lest He reprove you" - Rashi explains: He will reprove you to your face, showing that through adding you come to sin, and certainly if you subtract. King Solomon is the one stating these words: do not add to the words of the Torah - even adding is forbidden, and all the more so, do not do as I did, for not only did I not add, but I actually subtracted. Subtracting is even worse, because when a person adds, he still acknowledges that everything Hashem said is true, only he wishes to do more; but subtracting is the worst of all, for you are saying: even what Hashem commanded, I am erasing.
The Vilna Gaon explains "Do not add to His words" - this applies to His mitzvos as well. For according to the Gra, the previous verse, "He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him," refers to the mitzvos, and we have noted that the trait of trust in Hashem encompasses all the mitzvos. Regarding this, the verse comes and says: do not add to the mitzvos either. "Lest He reprove you" (*pen yochiah becha*) - *yochiah* is related to debating or refuting, as we have seen several times in the Malbim: He will debate with you and show you that your addition amounts to nothing, "and you be found a liar" (*venichzavta*) - and as a result, you will cease performing mitzvos altogether.
Why is an addition not truly an addition? Because in order to add to something, one must be an expert in the matter. It is completely impossible to add to something you do not understand. Consider someone who has never seen a car engine, does not understand how it works, and says: "Look, here is an old washing machine motor, let us connect it with two or three wires to the car engine, maybe it will give it extra power - after all, it is another motor!" We all understand that most likely the engine will fail to run because of those wires you attached. When you do not understand a matter - do not add anything.
This brings to mind the person who asked a rabbi: "What is so terrible if a mezuzah or tefillin is missing the thorn of a *yod*? So the thorn of a *yod* is missing, why be so extreme - calling it invalid, saying he did not fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin, and recited a blessing in vain?" The rabbi said to him, "Give me your email address, and I will send you an answer." He gave it to him. Two weeks later, he met the rabbi again and said, "I am waiting for the email." The rabbi told him, "I sent it to you." The man asked, "To what address?" The rabbi replied, "To such-and-such address, at such-and-such." The man said, "No, it is Gmail, and it requires dot-com." The rabbi asked him, "What, you didn't include the dot?" He said, "No." The rabbi said, "Come now, don't be extreme - just because of a dot it won't arrive?" We all understand that if someone designated a dot in the address, then without that dot, it will not reach its destination.
The same applies to electronic devices: if a single transistor or diode fails, the entire machine may shut down. There was once a printer that stopped working, and someone offered: "Bring it over, I will fix it cheaply." He worked for ten minutes - there was a tiny diode with two pins, like the ones found on circuit boards; he desoldered it in two minutes, soldered in another, and that entire massive machine that photocopies and performs twenty functions sprang back to life. A tiny component can cause everything to fail. This is the meaning of "Do not add": any addition of yours is a defect. Suppose one says: "Why settle for one dot? I will put two dots - dot, dot, com!" It will not arrive; if a specific format was instructed, it must remain exactly as instructed. All the more so here, where Divine wisdom and Divine mitzvos are concerned: with the slightest modification, you miss the mark, failing to reach the destination. A person thinks, "What could happen if...?" - but do you understand how it works? Do you know how it impacts the upper worlds? Do you have any grasp of the spiritual lights that act and are activated through each mitzvah you perform? If you lack such comprehension, why speak of matters beyond your grasp, and why attempt to alter things when you do not understand how they operate?
One must understand that everything in the category of rabbinic mitzvos (*mitzvos d'Rabbanan*) is not considered an addition, and does not fall under the prohibition of *bal tosef* (not adding) at all. The entire prohibition of *bal tosef* is that one must not invent mitzvos and attribute them to the Torah itself: do not claim that the Torah contains 614 mitzvos. Why? Because that represents casting off the yoke, as if one could insert another mitzvah into the Torah. This is what Chassidic works cite on the verse, "And it shall come to pass when you break loose (*tarid*), you will cast off his yoke from your neck" (Bereishis 27:40) - when you make it 614 (*tarid* / *taryad*), that is casting off the yoke. A person must know: there are 613 mitzvos (*Taryag*), neither 612 nor 614. If someone comes and asserts that the Torah commanded an additional mitzvah, inserting another commandment into the body of the Torah - that violates *bal tosef*.
However, if someone says: I am not adding to the mitzvos of the Torah, but rather establishing a safeguard and a fence - that is an entirely different matter. A safeguard says: if you eat cold meat with cheese, you may end up cooking them together or putting them into a toaster oven; therefore, do not eat cold meat with cheese in the first place, lest you come to cook them. Thus, eating cold meat with cheese is permitted by Torah law, and only cooking them together or eating them cooked together is biblically forbidden; the Sages came along and made a safeguard, saying: we are not adding to what the Torah says, but instructing you to keep a distance so that you do not come to violate the biblical prohibition itself. Likewise, the Sages can institute mitzvos of their own, which also do not intrude into the body of the Torah: establishing an obligation to light Chanukah candles while emphasizing that it is rabbinic; reading the Megillah - rabbinic; washing the hands (*netilas yadayim*) - rabbinic. One does not say, "Hashem commanded this in the Torah," for to claim Hashem commanded it when He did not would be adding a mitzvah to the Torah, which is *bal tosef*. But when we say: Hashem did not directly command the performance of this specific mitzvah, yet the Torah states, "You shall act according to all that they instruct you" (Devarim 17:10) and "You shall keep My charge" (Vayikra 18:30) - meaning it is permissible to establish safeguards and fences, provided one emphasizes that it is rabbinic - that is entirely proper. Since the Torah itself granted this authority, the Sages are empowered to do so.
Regarding our blessing, "Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us," Chazal already explain: "and commanded us" derives from the commandment of *lo sasur* ("do not deviate"). The negative commandment of *lo sasur* means: do not deviate from whatever the Sages instruct you, right or left. Thus, when performing a rabbinic mitzvah, one is actually fulfilling a Torah commandment, since one is fulfilling Hashem's will and His command to heed the Sages of every generation. As the Torah commands: "If a matter of judgment is beyond you, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, between affliction and affliction, matters of dispute within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place..." (Devarim 17:8) - we see that the Torah commands us to obey the Sages and forbids deviating from their rulings. Therefore, we say: Hashem sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the Chanukah light - and where did He command it? When He commanded us to listen to the Sages, that is where He commanded it. So it is with washing hands, and with all rabbinic mitzvos.
The Malbim explains "Do not add to His words" - do not add to the words of the Creator by putting forward ideas derived from your own intellect. For according to the Malbim, the text here addresses Isiel and Uchal, who were philosophers seeking to propose theories and opinions; and we have seen that the opinions of philosophers are like silver dross glazed over pottery. If you wish to know the truth, know that every word of God is pure, and He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him; but if you seek to add to what is written in the Torah using your own human logic - do not add to His words.
"Lest He reprove you" - He will show you that you do not even understand yourself: how you were created, the details of your limbs, the connections between them, and the binding of the soul within the body - about which the Rama writes in the Shulchan Aruch that it is an aspect of "Heals all flesh and acts wondrously": it is a wonder that the Holy One, blessed is He, created a reality in which two opposites, the spiritual and the physical, are bound together as one. Why does the soul not depart from the body? In simple terms, he says to him: you do not even understand yourself, and yet you expect that "Can you search out the depths of God, or find the ultimate purpose of the Almighty?" (Iyov 11:7)? You seek to fathom the Creation (*Ma'aseh Bereishis*), you seek to comprehend the secrets of the Divine Chariot (*Sod HaMerkavah*) - all of these are exalted, lofty, and sublime realms, yet you do not even understand your own being.
This is comparable to a person who wrote a book on methods and systems for winning the lottery. It is inherently fraudulent: if you truly had a system for winning the lottery, you wouldn't write a book; you would just play the lottery again and again! And if you are writing a book, it turns out that your way of winning the lottery is on our backs; we are the "lottery," we are the enterprise. It is from us that you want to make a living, not from the lottery commission.
And as brought regarding Ashmedai, when Benayahu ben Yehoyada captured him: he saw a man there who supposedly knew hidden secrets, and Ashmedai remarked about him that he did not even know he was sitting on a treasure - right beneath him lay buried treasure! You claim to know hidden secrets, yet right underneath you is a treasure and you have no idea? Where are these secrets you claim to know? How utterly absurd.
Likewise, a person once recounted that he visited a certain "baba" who considered himself a seer of secrets. The baba asked him: "Where did his honor come from?" The visitor replied: "Do I need to tell you? That is what you are supposed to tell me!" He said, "Thank you very much," took his leave, and walked away. "Are you supposed to start interrogating me with questions? Your honor claims to know hidden things - so tell me where I came from and what my family situation is! As for the future, no one truly knows it, and whoever sells fortunes is selling nonsense; but those who make such claims at least pretend to tell you about the past. If you start asking me questions, it turns out you do not really know anything - and as for leaving my money with you, I truly have no interest in that."
The four questions of "Who has ascended to heaven and descended?" are expounded in their plain meaning (peshat) as proof that created beings lack the capacity to grasp His wisdom, may He be blessed. In the homiletic approach (derash), they correspond to the four great deeds of Moshe - the Torah, the Luchot, the splitting of the Yam Suf, and the erection of the Mishkan - which also correspond to the four festivals and the four elements. According to the Malbim, these are the inquiries of Ithiel and Ucal regarding the four elements: primordial matter (chomer hayuli), the gathering of the atmosphere around the earth, the containment of the waters, and the gravitational force at the center. And the answer is one: "Every word of God is pure" - there is no way to comprehend these deep mysteries through philosophical speculation, which is merely silver dross glazed over earthenware, but rather through the testimony of the Torah, which is a shield to those who take refuge in Him from all error. Hence, "Do not add to His words": do not add based on our own reasoning, and do not add to the mitzvot, for any addition to something one does not comprehend is a flaw - whereas the protective fences and decrees of the Sages are not an addition, but rather the fulfillment of the Torah's commandment to heed the voice of the Sages. And the conclusion of the matter: one who does not even truly know himself ought to delve deeply into the Torah and trust in Hashem, rather than pretend to understand hidden mysteries.