Chapter 8 of Mishlei is Wisdom's great call to humanity. In the passage before us, we examine four distinct realms to which Wisdom addresses herself: to the masses and to the elite few, to those endowed with understanding and to those who find knowledge. From here, King Solomon continues, showing the price at which wisdom is acquired and why fear of Hashem in particular is the gateway to it. As always, we will proceed hand in hand with the Malbim.
בְּצֶדֶק כָּל אִמְרֵי פִי אֵין בָּהֶם נִפְתָּל וְעִקֵּשׁ׃ (ח) - All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
Here, the verse speaks of the Written Torah, which is referred to with the term amarim ("sayings"). "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness" - this is the phrasing through which each and every mitzvah was spoken, and all of them were uttered from the Supernal Wisdom. The "mouth" alludes to Wisdom, and it says to you: All of these were spoken in righteousness, and from all of them the inhabitants of the world will learn justice and righteousness. This applies equally to all people, and from the Torah they are meant to learn how to conduct their lives uprightly.
Yet there is another dimension here, reserved for the select few: "there is nothing twisted or crooked in them." When a person speaks, take everything he said, edit it down, and you will find that forty percent of his words could easily have been filtered out. And that is when dealing with a very wise person. With an average person, you could filter out eighty percent. And if you are dealing with a politician, you could filter out a hundred and two percent, since he may talk for two hours without saying anything at all! Therefore, when speech is found to contain nothing twisted or crooked, that itself testifies to the wisdom of the speaker. As the Vilna Gaon remarked about the Ramchal's work, that through the eighth chapter of Mesillat Yesharim there is not a single superfluous word. Who can write such a book? Only the greatest of the wise.
And indeed, a great person can delve and understand how wondrous this is: in one place the Torah writes the word et, and in another it omits it; here it adds the letter yud to teach us one detail, and there it leaves it out to teach the opposite; here it says "one" (achat) and there "from one" (mei'achat); here an extra vav and there none. And as is well known, every et in the Torah comes to include something additional: "You shall fear (et) Hashem your God" - to include Torah scholars. Seemingly, when a person says in everyday speech, "Bring the book," does he intend to include anything extra? Of course not. But when the Holy One, Blessed is He, speaks, there is not a single extra word, nor even an extra letter. Everything is written with absolute precision, with allusions, and with profound secrets. This is the meaning of "there is nothing twisted or crooked in them."
Thus we see that the Written Torah addresses two directions simultaneously: "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness" - for the masses, that they may learn justice and upright conduct; and "there is nothing twisted or crooked in them" - for the discerning scholars, who find within it supreme wisdom and meticulous precision, where not a single letter is superfluous.
This is one of the marvelous qualities of Rashi's commentary: a young boy in cheder studies Rashi and understands it, yet on the other hand, the greatest luminaries, giants of Torah, and early authorities (Rishonim) delve deeply into Rashi's words. There is no other field of wisdom where both the genius and the simple person find complete intellectual satisfaction. In a mathematics textbook, if it is advanced, only a seasoned mathematician will grasp it; and if it is basic, the advanced mathematician will find no interest in it, for he already learned that 2 + 2 = 4 in kindergarten. In every other discipline, a book must be tailored to a specific audience.
Not so with the Holy Torah. A young student in cheder begins with "Two hold a garment" (Shenayim Ochazin), and the greatest sage of the generation also studies "Two hold a garment," each on an entirely different plane and with different depth. A child in kindergarten learns "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and the Ramban, the Rambam, the Vilna Gaon, and all the giants of Israel studied that very same verse and found within it unfathomable depths and layers. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai studied that same verse, and from it we have the seventy Tikkunei Zohar - seventy deep expositions on the word Bereishit alone! The child learns Bereishit on the level of a child, and Rashbi learns it on the level of Rashbi. This is the meaning of "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness": the plain meaning of the Torah teaches everyday people honesty and righteousness, while one who delves deeper sees that there is nothing twisted or crooked in them, revealing layer upon layer of profound wisdom.
כֻּלָּם נְכֹחִים לַמֵּבִין וִישָׁרִים לְמֹצְאֵי דָעַת׃ (ט) - "They are all straightforward to the discerning, and upright to those who find knowledge." (9)
The fourth category is the secrets of the Torah and its hidden depths. There are those who grasp them through the power of binah (understanding): a person contemplates Hashem's greatness, His wonders, the work of Creation, His celestial legions, and the Work of the Chariot (Ma'aseh Merkavah). And there are those who grasp them through da'at (knowledge) - in the Malbim's phrasing, the pure perceptions found in the souls of holy, pure-hearted individuals concerning matters of Godliness. Through binah, a person says: "I contemplated and understood." Whereas da'at is, as it were, something imparted directly to him, a clear and pure cognition.
A prerequisite of da'at is that it must be straight. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, and any other path is longer. Da'at is an expression of everything a person knows through direct sensory experience: I feel the book - I know it is here; I saw it - I know it is here. Therefore, da'at is absolute, complete knowledge.
Usually, however, it is difficult for a person to attain clear knowledge, because in order to comprehend abstract concepts, he must probe, delve, and contemplate until he reaches that understanding. Consider how much scientists researched, delved, and tested until they arrived at conclusions that have become axioms today. One cannot attain da'at in an instant. Yet regarding the pure perceptions of the Torah's secrets - "and upright to those who find knowledge" - one who finds the knowledge of God within his soul arrives at it by a direct route, like a straight line from point to point, without prolonged deliberations, searches, tests, and investigations to reach the right conclusion.
In contrast stands binah: understanding one thing from another, contemplating and drawing deductions from earlier events to later ones. One examines something, observes what happened to it over three months, and when asked what will happen next, deduces that it will continue in this pattern. And sometimes the reverse, from later to earlier: if this was the case over the past three months, then six months ago it was presumably such and such.
Yet are the deductions of binah necessarily accurate? No. If one observes a child's growth in his first year and tries to extrapolate what will happen to him over a hundred years, the results will be absurd: in the first year he doubled his weight from 2.5 kilos to 5, in the second from 5 to 10, in the third from 10 to 20 - and by age one hundred cranes would be needed to move him. This is the drawback of binah, and in the words of the Malbim: "His analogies may lead him astray." One deduces from what is seen to what is unseen, and can easily stumble. But with the Torah's secrets that the wise person grasps through his intellect - "they are all straightforward to the discerning" - he perceives them directly, face-to-face, seeing them without straying from the truth.
Note: Everything explained here follows the Malbim. The Vilna Gaon has a different approach in explaining the Peshat, Remez, Derash, and Sod of these verses, and one who wishes may look it up. We initially considered studying his approach as well, but it might blur what we have understood so far. It is preferable that we continue walking hand in hand with the Malbim.
קְחוּ מוּסָרִי וְאַל כָּסֶף וְדַעַת מֵחָרוּץ נִבְחָר׃ (י) - "Receive my discipline and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold." (10)
Silver, the Malbim explains, is meant for circulation: with it, one buys whatever is needed. Not so with charutz, the finest and most precious gold - it is not used as common currency. One cannot walk into the grocery store, hand over a piece of fine gold, and ask for two challahs and three containers of leben. What does one do with it? It is stored away in vaults and secure depositories, kept as a prized treasure.
Accordingly, he compares the discipline of wisdom to silver. We saw earlier, "The fear of Hashem is the discipline of wisdom." Wisdom (chochmah), as we explained, is the distinction between good and evil, and it essentially constitutes the realm of morality. We also explained that wisdom is not accessible to human intellect alone; it can only be attained if received from a Divine source. For wisdom determines what is moral and what is immoral, and we see that everyone has their own "truth": one says having pity on the Palestinians is moral, while another says quite the contrary, being ruthless toward them is moral. What is the true morality? It is impossible to settle this through pure intellect. That is why right and left exist everywhere in the world, not only here. In moral matters, one cannot bring an empirical proof - a demonstrative validation - for wisdom, since one person will argue this way and another will argue that way. We do not have the direct proofs of da'at for wisdom, because da'at is clear sight, the perception of the senses, whereas wisdom is not da'at.
Not only that, but man's yetzer (inclination) opposes wisdom. If wisdom tells a person, "Do not be selfish; give" - yet the Holy One, Blessed is He, created man with love of the self - that is yet another reason for him to resist accepting it, for it makes demands of him. And if wisdom tells him, "Do not follow the desires of your heart," yet he was formed from crude matter and yearns to follow them, he has yet another reason to resist. Wisdom sets boundaries; morality imposes limits.
What, then, is required to acquire wisdom? A great deal of fear of Heaven (yirat Shamayim). If a person possesses fear of Heaven, he says: Who commanded us to stay far away from forbidden relations? The Holy One, blessed be He. If so, it is dreadful to transgress the word of Hashem, and then he guards the words of wisdom and accepts them. But if he lacks fear of Heaven - "What does it matter? Just go with the flow, do whatever you feel like" - then the rules of wisdom are unacceptable to him. What causes the laws of wisdom to be accepted by a person? Fear of Hashem, Who commanded them. This is the meaning of "The fear of Hashem is the discipline of wisdom" (musar chochmah), where musar (discipline) is also related to ma'asar (imprisonment): restraining the soul's impulses that seek to run wild, and locking them up - which is accomplished through the fear of Hashem.
It turns out that the discipline of wisdom is like money: something spent to make a purchase. For through discipline and fear of Hashem, one purchases wisdom - one accepts that this is forbidden and that is forbidden; do not speak lashon hara, do not let your eyes wander, do not indulge in what is not permitted to you, and do not eat forbidden foods. This is the currency with which one acquires wisdom. Therefore, "Receive my discipline and not silver": do not exhaust yourself amassing money with which to buy vanity, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Take discipline, with which divine wisdom is purchased.
"And knowledge rather than choice gold" (charutz) - charutz is not used as currency for buying; rather, it is precious gold kept in vaults, royal treasuries, and princes' palaces. In contrast, it tells you: it is far better for you to store up words of knowledge. Knowledge of God, the inner secret of Hashem's governance and His providence, all of these precious insights that fill the soul - this is a full treasure, more precious than silver and gold. And this is the analogy: just as fine gold is placed into a treasury, so it is better for you to treasure up the knowledge of Hashem, for knowledge is preferable to choice gold.
כִּי טוֹבָה חָכְמָה מִפְּנִינִים וְכָל חֲפָצִים לֹא יִשְׁווּ בָהּ׃ (יא) - For wisdom is better than pearls, and all desirable things cannot compare to it. (11)
Corresponding to what was said, "Receive my discipline and not silver" - that through discipline one acquires wisdom - he adds: even if you could use that silver to buy pearls, which are exceedingly precious, wisdom is better than them and well worth acquiring. We have already seen "She is more precious than pearls," where the reference was to cost and price, whereas here it speaks of inherent goodness (tovah). What is the virtue of pearls? A woman who wears a string of pearls finds favor in the eyes of onlookers; when adorned, she finds favor. But what kind of favor is this? An external grace, favor in the eyes of human beings. In contrast, one who acquires wisdom finds favor in the eyes of God and man.
"And all desirable things cannot compare to it" - with money, a person buys things that the body desires: delicious foods, indulgences, pleasures, and lusts. But through wisdom, you must cast aside all physical desires in order to acquire it, for all bodily desires and pleasures do not equal what you attain through acquiring wisdom. A person might buy a house, buy a car - yet what is all of that compared to acquiring wisdom? Acquiring wisdom is the loftiest, most precious, and most sublime attainment of all.
אֲנִי חָכְמָה שָׁכַנְתִּי עָרְמָה וְדַעַת מְזִמּוֹת אֶמְצָא׃ (יב) - I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge of sagacious counsels. (12)
Rashi explains this in its plain sense: once a person studies Torah, sharpness and resourcefulness in all matters enter into him. There is no such thing as a great Torah scholar who is simple-minded - the two cannot coexist, just as it is impossible for a successful lawyer to be a simpleton. Through engaging in Torah, a person develops his thinking power, as well as the ability to analyze new situations and alternative possibilities - what people commonly refer to as thinking outside the box.
How so? A person studies a Talmudic passage (sugya): the Gemara says this, raises a difficulty like that, and resolves it like so. Suddenly he sees that Rashi explains it differently. He moves on to Tosafot, and Tosafot asks why Rashi explained it that way, given that it could be understood differently. He turns to the Maharsha, and the Maharsha questions Tosafot. He turns to the later commentators (Acharonim) and sees that they question the Maharsha. What does this teach you? Do not accept anything at face value; delve into everything, analyze it, and ask whether what was said is necessarily the correct understanding.
How does a simpleton study Gemara? "Abaye said: liable" - Abaye said he is liable, and one must not second-guess the Sages, so ask no questions! There is no such thing in Torah. In Torah, the very foundation is to raise difficulties and ask questions. The Mishnah and Gemara are full of this: a Tanna states something, and immediately the question is asked, "From where do we derive this?" (Menalan?). Sometimes the Gemara even invokes chisorei mechasra ("words are missing") and emends the reading of the Mishnah, because the Tanna's words cannot be maintained at face value. Even though he is a Tanna, the words must be logical and intellectually sound; being a Tanna does not mean one can simply say whatever comes to mind. Thus, the Torah grants a person sharpness and resourcefulness: great wisdom to examine every matter from additional angles and explore further possibilities, even to the point of being able to declare an impure reptile ritually pure through 150 arguments - all stemming from that immense power of pilpul, analytical scrutiny, and intellectual acumen.
Thus far Rashi. The Malbim explains: Prudence (ormah), as explained earlier, is the soul's capacity to weigh every matter, to observe and consider - perhaps it is this way, or perhaps that way. "Every prudent man acts with knowledge," and his opposite is the simpleton (peti). The one who weighs matters is like someone sitting with a cellular company representative who presents extraordinary terms and asks, "How many devices will you take?" And he replies, "I am very impressed by what you said, give me two days to think it over." Why? Because the representative spoke very persuasively, but the customer has not yet checked whether the details are true, nor read the fine print. This is prudence: delving into a matter, examining it, verifying it, and weighing every detail. The simpleton, by contrast - when told the promotion ends in three days, he immediately says, "It's ending? Fine, sign me up for two devices, one for my child too, a shame to miss the deal." And two days later, it turns out he fell into a trap, got locked into a three-year contract, and received far less than he could have obtained elsewhere.
Yet sometimes, the Malbim notes, shrewdness is used for bad. For if I am shrewder than you - I am the agent and you are the simple customer, and I am the one meant to dupe you with smooth talk and sell you empty promises so that you purchase the product. That is negative cunning; I am tricking you. But one who has learned Torah, even if he is very shrewd, uses that prudence to calculate his ways according to wisdom and perform his deeds according to the Torah. He uses it to outsmart the evil inclination - this is positive cunning - not to pull schemes on his fellow man. And this is "to give prudence to the simple": wisdom teaches the simple to be shrewd and deliberate about their actions, whether to act immediately or not, and to discern whether something is truly worthwhile.
"I, wisdom, dwell with prudence" - I, wisdom, reside alongside prudence. Shrewdness unaccompanied by wisdom is usually negative cunning; after all, we generally use the term "cunning" in a derogatory sense today. But when wisdom dwells alongside prudence, it transforms it into something positive.
"And find out knowledge of devisings" - mezimah (deep contemplation), as the Malbim explained above, is the profound thought within wisdom: delving into the thoughts of wisdom and meditating upon it until one attains da'at (clear knowledge). Da'at is clear and absolute knowledge, like something perceived directly through the senses. Through the depth of contemplation, the principles of wisdom and of the holy Torah become in his heart an absolute certainty that appeals to reason, until they become like first principles to him. Thus the order emerges: prudence dwells first, followed by deep contemplation (mezimot), and from them one reaches da'at.
To give an example: a person hears about a certain mitzvah and says, "I do not understand it." But if he reflects and delves deeply, there is a strong likelihood that he will reach a complete understanding of it, until it becomes entirely obvious to his intellect that it must be observed. Consider an analogy, even if not fully precise, merely to illustrate the idea: researchers have noted that putting on tefillin has positive physiological effects similar to acupuncture, through the binding and its placement; or that brit milah benefits health, and takes place on the eighth day because clotting agents in the blood reach their peak level then. This is not the exact depth of contemplation the verse refers to - it is merely an illustration. The concept is that through deep study, a mitzvah that one initially had to accept as an axiom, simply because "Hashem commanded it," without understanding or proof, turns into da'at: understanding that what one has learned is true, correct, rational, and intellectually compelling.
יִרְאַת ה' שְׂנֹאת רָע גֵּאָה וְגָאוֹן וְדֶרֶךְ רָע וּפִי תַהְפֻּכוֹת שָׂנֵאתִי׃ (יג) - "The fear of Hashem is to hate evil; pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, do I hate."
We saw earlier that "The fear of Hashem is the beginning of knowledge." As explained, wisdom cannot be known at first, nor can proofs be brought for it, except through mussar (discipline) and the fear of Hashem. When one possesses fear of Hashem, one accepts that wisdom was received from Hashem and acts according to His commandment; then there is a prospect that after "mezimot," after deep reflection, one will also reach the level of da'at in wisdom itself. But the starting point is the fear of Hashem.
We have also seen that it is naturally difficult for a person to acquire wisdom, because it runs contrary to his desires, his wishes, and his ambitions, and he must wage a battle against it. For example, when a person harbors pride, it is hard for him to accept wisdom - for wisdom demands that he humble himself and act with modesty, whereas the arrogant person says: "Why should wisdom dictate to me? Why should the Torah tell me what to do?" Thus, negative character traits create resistance to accepting wisdom and the Torah.
And how can a person come to accept it? Through the fear of Hashem. If he has fear of Hashem, then naturally "to hate evil; pride and arrogance": he hates evil, hates pride, and distances himself from it. Awe governs his heart, and he then realizes that the Torah is profound wisdom and absolute truth. This is achieved by hating evil, the desires, and the pride and arrogance that prevent him from receiving wisdom.
Yet Chazal say: "If there is no fear, there is no wisdom; if there is no wisdom, there is no fear." That is, fear alone is not enough without wisdom - even one who has fear must possess wisdom, meaning the knowledge of what to do and how to do it. Nor is wisdom alone enough without fear, because fear is what preserves wisdom.
"And the evil way, and the perverse mouth, do I hate" - this refers to a person whose conduct is the reverse of the ways of wisdom, usually because he became accustomed from his youth to follow the desires of his heart and his own thoughts, and this has taken root within him. Even his intellect and understanding become a "perverse mouth": they formulate all sorts of rules and desires for him that run contrary to wisdom. The "mouth," as seen earlier, alludes to wisdom. When a person is driven by lusts, this is the inversion of wisdom; it is in direct opposition to it. One cannot acquire wisdom in such a state, for wisdom tells him not to follow the desires of his heart, yet he has no desire to cease them. As long as what is contrary and inverted to wisdom resides within a person, he will never be able to reach it.
But when wisdom is coupled with the fear of Heaven, then naturally "an evil way and a perverse mouth have I hated" - they are detested by wisdom. Wisdom guides you along an upright and proper path, and through the fear of Heaven you hate the evil way and the perverse mouth. Then, you suddenly realize how much divine wisdom resides in the holy Torah.
We have learned that the Written Torah addresses everyone simultaneously: "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness" - to the common folk, teaching them righteousness and integrity; "there is nothing crooked or perverse in them" - to the select elite, who find in every single letter depth and layer upon layer. Its secrets are straightforward to him who understands, whose logical deductions will not lead him astray, and upright to those who find knowledge, who arrive at them along a direct path. Wisdom is acquired through mussar and the fear of Heaven, which are the "silver" with which it is purchased, and knowledge is treasured like choice gold - and it is better than pearls and all physical pursuits. Wisdom dwells alongside shrewdness and transforms it for the good, and through deep contemplation - the depth of analytical study - one attains absolute knowledge. And all of this rests upon a single foundation: the fear of Hashem, which hates evil, arrogance, and perverse speech; without it, wisdom does not penetrate the heart at all.
"All the words of my mouth are in righteousness" - and fortunate is one who merits acquiring wisdom through them.