Introduction
Chapter 11 of Sefer Mishlei focuses on contrasting inwardness with outward appearance: What is beauty worth without good character traits? What is desire worth without substance? And what happens to a person who disperses what was given to him versus one who hoards it for himself? In this part, we will examine four verses: a golden ring in a swine's snout, the desire of the righteous and the hope of the wicked, one who scatters and yet increases, and the generous soul made rich alongside the one who withholds grain. We will study them according to the Malbim, alongside the Vilna Gaon and the Ralbag.
A Golden Ring in a Swine's Snout - When the Ornament Itself Is Disgraced
נֶזֶם זָהָב בְּאַף חֲזִיר, אִשָּׁה יָפָה וְסָרַת טָעַם׃ (כב) - Like a golden ring in a swine's snout is a beautiful woman lacking discretion. (22)
The Malbim explains: An ornament appears beautiful only on someone who is inherently prepared and fitting to receive that beauty. Take an expensive necklace, the kind that beautifies any woman, and hang it on a pig's snout - does the pig become beautiful as a result? It would be absurd to say so. The pig is soiled with filth, and not only does the ring fail to beautify it, but the pig actually disgraces the ring. It roots around with it in garbage and dirt, and thus the ring itself becomes soiled and ugly. So too with a beautiful woman lacking discretion: her external beauty does not adorn her when her character traits are ugly; rather, it turns into her downfall.
Yet Shlomo HaMelech is not merely offering advice on whom to marry; this is not a manual for matchmaking. As we have seen many times throughout Sefer Mishlei, where bad character traits and corrupted behaviors are likened to a wayward woman seeking to seduce man - so too here. When he speaks of a beautiful woman lacking discretion, he is presenting an allegory for a person's inner character traits and dispositions.
And what is "ta'am" (discretion or taste)? The Malbim explains: *Ta'am* refers to the inner qualities of the soul and the character traits that manifest outwardly. Thus we find regarding David, when he disguised himself and acted like a madman, Scripture says, "and he changed his behavior (ta'amo) in their eyes," and "Of David, when he changed his behavior (ta'amo)" - he altered the outward expression of his inner faculties and character, presenting himself as demented. Likewise, "Blessed be your discretion (ta'amech) and blessed be you." The term is borrowed from the sense of taste in food: through tasting, the palate senses whether the food is good or spoiled, sweet or bad. Similarly, through the character traits, speech, and conduct that a person displays externally, we perceive his inner character - whether he is wise or foolish, whether his mouth speaks words of wisdom or empty babble. This is his "ta'am": just as one tastes food and discerns its quality, so through outward conduct one recognizes a person's true character.
And when she is "sorat ta'am" - meaning her character traits are corrupted, and the nature revealed in her speech and conduct is flawed - what good is external beauty? On the contrary, it only worsens things. The allegory is this: a person of handsome form, meaning someone who possesses fine innate capacities - he is sharp, learned, and when he studies something he grasps it thoroughly and delves deeply into it - yet his character traits are corrupted. The beauty of his intellect and wisdom does not work in his favor; quite the contrary: everything he has learned and all his brilliance is like a golden ring in the snout of a pig.
Chazal say: If someone reads Scripture and studies Mishnah, but his speech with people is not pleasant, what do people say about him? "Woe to his teacher who taught him Torah, woe to him who studied Torah!" Is the Torah not good? It is the most exquisite thing; it is the golden ring! The only question is what you attach it to. On a person with positive character traits, it is a golden ring adorning a fine and noble person. But on someone whose middos are ruined, the Torah is no ornament or crown for him; rather, he disgraces the Torah through himself. People will say: "Did you see how someone who engages in Torah behaves?" Thus, he brings a bad name upon the holy Torah.
This is why Rabbi Chaim Vital notes that the Torah does not explicitly command concerning character traits: there is no formal commandment in the Torah stating "Do not be angry" or "Do not be envious." Why? Because *derech eretz kadmah laTorah* - proper character and decency precede the Torah. Even before studying Torah, one must possess *derech eretz*, for otherwise, instead of being an elixir of life (*sam chayim*), the Torah becomes a deadly poison (*sam hamavet*). For if someone is wicked and corrupt, when he studies Torah he merely learns how to devise schemes, how to manipulate people, how to extract money from them deceptively, and how to project the image of a tzaddik - all to deceive and act dishonestly. And what enabled all this? The Torah. Is the Torah an elixir of life or a deadly poison? It all depends on what you dress it in. Place the ring on a pig, and the pig will defile it; place it on an honorable and distinguished person, and the ring will adorn and magnify him. "A beautiful woman lacking discretion": what value is beauty when there are no good character traits and no proper conduct?
The Desire of the Righteous and the Hope of the Wicked - The Difference Between Desire and Hope
תַּאֲוַת צַדִּיקִים אַךְ טוֹב, תִּקְוַת רְשָׁעִים עֶבְרָה׃ (כג) - The desire of the righteous is only good; the hope of the wicked is wrath. (23)
The Malbim explains: there is a difference between craving (ta'avah) and hope (tikvah). One who craves something does not realistically expect to attain it - he merely craves it. But one who hopes already has a tangible prospect of attaining it. For example: a person may crave marrying the king's daughter, but he hopes to marry the neighbor's daughter. The king's daughter is a pipe dream; one cannot say "I hope," unless blue blood runs through his veins. By contrast, regarding the neighbor's daughter he has real hope: that the matchmaker will speak to her heart, that they will reach an understanding, and so forth. Hope has a realistic prospect of realization; craving is a dream.
What does the wicked person crave? Evil. First, he craves things that are not his: acquisitions, money, and property that do not belong to him, plunder, robbery, and forbidden things, as it says, "The soul of the wicked craves evil." And second, he will not achieve his cravings - "The craving of the wicked will perish." He craves to possess what this person has and what that person has, and thank God that this remains merely a craving.
By contrast, "The craving of the righteous is only good." The tzaddik craves only good: he does not crave to steal, rob, or partake in forbidden matters, but rather "For Your Name and for Your remembrance is the craving of the soul" - his desire is the Name of Hashem, to fulfill His will and keep His mitzvos. And even though this is a craving, which we defined as something inherently out of reach, the Holy One, blessed be He, grants it to him: "You have heard the craving of the humble, Hashem," "He grants the desire of the righteous." You crave to cling to Hashem - an exceedingly exalted goal that is technically beyond human reach - and because you craved and yearned for it so deeply, the Holy One, blessed be He, enables you to attain the unattainable. Furthermore, the very fulfillment of the craving is pleasant: "A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul." When the righteous person attains closeness to God and the Holy One, blessed be He, shines His face upon him, this is "only good": both the desire itself is for good, and its fulfillment is good, as Hashem showers upon him boundless spiritual abundance.
Conversely: "The hope of the wicked is wrath." With the wicked, even the thing he merely hopes for, which seems close and within reach, ends in wrath (evrah). And what is wrath? The Malbim explains two aspects. The first is from the perspective of the outcome: you will not attain your hope, but rather their hope is heartache, as Iyov says: "The hope of the wicked will perish," "For what is the hope of the hypocrite when he makes gain?" I hoped, I wanted, it seemed within reach, yet I did not attain it - and nothing remains for you but wrath and anger. In contrast, the righteous, even though theirs was a distant craving, receive good.
The second aspect: what, in essence, does the wicked person hope for? For wrath. His entire desire is that there be harm rather than good. This is like the mindset of anarchists: the worse things get, the better it is. When the wicked person sees that someone else is suffering, he feels good. He rejoices when another's property burns, when another suffers a loss, thinking that in the end only he will survive: let everyone else perish as long as I remain. This is news to him; he passes it along: "Did you hear what happened to so-and-so? Did you hear how he fell?" And sometimes, feeling uncomfortable showing his glee, he adds, "Oh, poor thing," as if sharing in the sorrow, but in his heart his hope is that anger and misfortune befall other people.
Both explanations are true: both that he hopes for evil, and that he will not attain his hope but will instead receive wrath. Moreover, what you wish upon others ultimately rebounds upon you, in the principle of "one who prays for his fellow is answered first." You wish that someone else suffers harm - be careful that it does not happen to you first. Therefore, never wish harm upon others, only good.
This aligns with what the Malbim explained earlier: that the righteous have expectation (tocheles) - something destined to arrive, whereas the wicked have mere hope (tikvah) - something uncertain. And what is evrah (wrath)? It is related to fury that has crossed (avar) the boundary. There is anger kept within bounds, and there is fury that has crossed the line, which is why scripture states "the heat of anger and wrath" - exceeding ordinary anger and wrath. And as explained previously, wrath can even strike someone who does not deserve it, since it has already crossed the boundary, as in "Hashem was wrathful (vayit'aber) with me for your sake" - exceeding the standard measure and meting out punishment far beyond.
There Is One Who Scatters and Increases Yet More - Stinginess and Extravagance
יֵשׁ מְפַזֵּר וְנוֹסָף עוֹד, וְחֹשֵׂךְ מִיֹּשֶׁר אַךְ לְמַחְסוֹר׃ (כד) - "There is one who scatters and increases yet more, and one who withholds what is proper, only to suffer want." (24)
The Vilna Gaon explains: there are two extreme traits in a person - the miser (kilai) and the openhanded (vatran). A kilai is a skinflint; a vatran is what we call today generous, liberal with his money, as was said of Iyov that he was liberal with his wealth. Both of these traits can be negative: stinginess is a negative quality, and excessive lavishness is also not a positive path. However, the trait of openhandedness possesses an advantage, in that it can sometimes lead to good, whereas the trait of stinginess is never good.
Here is the example: the Midrash relates the story of a man who gave a destitute person a dinar during drought years, when he himself had nothing to eat. Following this, he went and gathered all the esrogim that had been discarded on Hoshana Rabbah, boarded a ship, and arrived at a place where they were searching for esrogim to heal the king. A proclamation had been made there that whoever brought an esrog for the king would be rewarded by the king with immense wealth. He told them, "I have esrogim." Those very esrogim, which after Sukkos were not worth a penny, were purchased from him for a massive fortune for the king's cure. Here you have "There is one who scatters and increases yet more": he had a single coin, gave it away to a poor person, and gained yet more. By contrast, "and one who withholds what is proper, only to suffer want": one who is exceedingly miserly and stingy, acting outside the path of uprightness, will see nothing good come of it, only lack and loss. Great extravagance and great stinginess are both negative, but from great openhandedness good can still emerge, whereas from great stinginess nothing good will ever come.
One Who Scatters His Wisdom - The Ralbag's Explanation
The Ralbag explains that this refers to a person of perfection in in-depth study (iyun) - someone who delves into learning and is a great scholar: the more he teaches knowledge to others, the more his own wisdom increases. And how so? "And from my students more than all of them." A person sits and studies a sugya in depth, arrives at conclusions, insights, and novel interpretations (chiddushim), and comes to deliver a shiur to his students. One student raises a difficulty from here, another contradicts him from there, another refutes his premise - and suddenly the matter becomes much clearer to him. He sees that certain points he intended to say are not entirely plausible; he retracts them, refines them, and corrects them. A student suggests an original resolution - and he notes that down as well. "I have learned much from my teachers, and from my students more than all of them." Do not say: "I lost out; during this time I could have learned on my own." "There is one who scatters and yet increases" - by imparting your wisdom to others, you gain even greater understanding than you had before.
Conversely, "and one who withholds what is right, it leads only to lack": someone who refrains from teaching upright ways to people detracts from his own perfection. There will be no one to correct him or set him on the right path, and as a result, his own depth of study and his comprehension will diminish. When a person engages others and involves them in his ideas, his thoughts undergo refinement, purification, and scrutiny: one person sheds light on his words, another raises an objection, another challenges him from another source - and the ideas become refined and far clearer.
A Blessing Soul Will Be Enriched - The Virtue of the Teacher
נֶפֶשׁ בְּרָכָה תְדֻשָּׁן, וּמַרְוֶה גַּם הוּא יוֹרֶא׃ (כה) - A generous soul will be enriched, and one who quenches thirst will also be refreshed.
In light of this, the Ralbag continues, the next verse becomes clear. "A soul of blessing" refers to the soul of a benevolent person, someone who constantly seeks to bring blessing - and blessing implies increase and abundance - his soul will be enriched and take greater delight. For by adding blessing and increasing Torah for others, they too increase Torah for him; he hears novel ideas from them, and his own insights pass through the crucible of scrutiny as others examine them and offer comments. And one who quenches the thirst of others does not only benefit them, but "he himself will also be taught" (yoreh) - he instructs and teaches himself as well, since through this he analyzes the concepts more deeply, delivers them, and they become much clearer to him.
One must realize that studying something for oneself is not at all like teaching it to others, and this is for two reasons. One who studies for himself understands on a certain level and moves on; but someone who must give a shiur cannot settle for a superficial understanding, because he has to explain it. When you have to explain, you must understand on a much deeper level, or else you will be unable to explain it properly. You often see this with people who are not accustomed to giving a shiur: someone reads something, and now comes to teach it - "Wait a second, hand me the book." He wants to look inside again, and even though he says, "I read it and understood it," understanding for yourself and understanding in order to teach are two entirely different levels of comprehension.
And the second reason: after you have delivered the material and articulated it aloud, it becomes far more refined to you yourself. For this reason people study with a chavrusa - I sit and explain to you, and you sit and explain to me. Knowing something mentally and expressing it verbally are two different things, and once you have articulated it, the concepts become much clearer to you. Anyone can testify to this: there are times when you studied something and understood it wonderfully, but when you came to teach it, an objection suddenly occurred to you in the middle of delivering it. Why did it not occur to you before? Because teaching a matter and articulating it brings about a much deeper understanding of the subject.
Incidentally, writing something down works the same way, and it possesses a very great virtue. When a person learns for himself, and even when he explains something to another, he does not reach the same level of clarity that he reaches when he has to write. Writing is far more demanding, for it is intended "so that they may endure for many days," and if one is also going to publish it in print, he is all the more cautious. There is an adage: not everything one thinks should be spoken, not everything spoken should be written, and not everything written should be published. Each stage requires greater examination and precision. Even after you have written something down, think seven times before publishing, because publication demands far greater exactitude and scrutiny.
This is the meaning of the verse: "A generous soul will be enriched" - if a person delves more deeply, his own soul will be enriched; "and one who quenches thirst" - if he does not suffice with his own contemplation but also quenches the thirst of others, "he himself will also be taught," instructing himself in the process, as his investigation and in-depth analysis reach a much higher level.
Withholding Grain and Blessing for the One Who Sells It
מֹנֵעַ בָּר יִקְּבֻהוּ לְאוֹם, וּבְרָכָה לְרֹאשׁ מַשְׁבִּיר׃ (כו) - One who withholds grain, the nation will curse him, but a blessing will be on the head of one who sells it.
This verse also continues in the same vein, says the Ralbag. One who refrains from distributing grain (bar is grain) - meaning he does not act like Yosef, who provided grain to the multitudes, and fails to teach wisdom and Torah - "the nation will curse him": the people will curse him. "You are capable of teaching me; why do you not teach? You do not want to benefit me; Hashem granted you bounty, yet you do not share it with me." Conversely, "a blessing will be on the head of one who sells it": one who distributes and teaches knowledge to others, a blessing will come upon him. First, they bless him and thank him; second, a blessing will come to him in his own in-depth study, as explained, because when you teach others you clarify the matters and understand them better; and third, a blessing will come to him from Hashem, for since he is not begrudging toward others and shares with them from the bounty he received, he becomes a fitting vessel for blessing - when one is given to and he channels it to others, the Holy One, Blessed be He, grants him even more.
The Middle Path - The Malbim's Explanation
On the verse, "There is one who scatters and yet increases," the Malbim explains: The Sages have already explained that it is good for a person to choose the middle path. The trait of generosity is the middle path between squandering and stinginess. The miser is stingy; the squanderer spends recklessly, throwing and giving in every direction - a person with holes in his hands and his pockets. This too is not good. What is good? Generosity: he is certainly not a miser, but neither is he a spendthrift - he knows what to give to and what to invest in. That is why Chazal said that one who spends should not spend more than a fifth; even the trait of generosity must have a limit.
For the attribute of Chesed is sweetened by Gevurah, and the attribute of Gevurah is sweetened by Chesed. Gevurah is strength and closedness - people ask of him and he gives nothing, refusing to budge a millimeter. Chesed, by contrast, is boundless, endless giving - abundance upon abundance. And when one practices boundless Chesed, where does it lead? To forbidden sexual relations, which Scripture refers to as "it is a chesed" - and concerning them it is said, "they shall surely be put to death." Why is this called chesed? Because Chesed is giving, and if you place no boundaries on giving, a person will come to give in a way that is rooted in impurity. We have already discussed this: Avraham Avinu's attribute was Chesed, and what was the dross of that Chesed? Yishmael. And what was Yishmael's flaw? Immorality. The Gemara says that ten measures of promiscuity descended to the world, and the Arabs took nine. Why? Because this is a manifestation of Chesed taken to the ultimate extreme - Yishmael too welcomes guests, but it is Chesed in the manner of impurity, the dross of Chesed.
In contrast to him stands Yitzchak, whose attribute was Gevurah. And where does Gevurah lead in its extreme? To murder and bloodshed - a mighty warrior who kills, and if something does not suit him, he eliminates it immediately. The dross of Yitzchak's Gevurah is Eisav, whose essence is bloodshed, and his color is red, symbolizing strict judgment and Gevurah. What, then, is the proper trait? Tiferet. "Which is the straight path that a person should choose for himself? Any path that is a glory (tiferet)..." - the attribute of Yaakov Avinu, and Rebbe was a reincarnation of Yaakov. Tiferet means Chesed sweetened by Gevurah, Chesed that has boundaries; and Gevurah sweetened by Chesed, Gevurah that has boundaries. For if you take either extreme to the limit, you end up with perversion. So too here: stinginess and miserliness, a tight fortress that will not spend a single coin - that is Gevurah, and it is negative; on the other hand, giving without limit to the point of impurity is also negative. The proper trait is generosity: give to charity, but not more than a fifth - give with measure.
Now, the Malbim says, if you were to ask a person which is preferable - a spendthrift with holes in his hands or a stingy miser - he would certainly tell you that the miser is preferable. After all, the miser still has something left, whereas if you give a spendthrift a million dollars, after two weeks he will not have a penny left. Yet the wise man tells you: the logic is actually the reverse. If one must lean toward an extreme trait, it is better to be a spendthrift than to adopt the trait of stinginess. Why? "There is one who scatters and yet increases" - sometimes, through scattering his money, he actually gains more, because he earns a name and reputation among the wealthy of the land. Everyone lends to him, saying, "We saw how much money he pours out, clearly he has great wealth" - and thus, through scattering, his wealth grows.
The miser, however - "and one who withholds what is right, only to want." Because of his stinginess, people flee from him, and no one will do business with him. He will argue with you even over the string he used to tie your package, calculating exactly how much it cost him. Who would do business with such a person? It turns out that stinginess leads only to lack, and do not imagine that he is saving. Furthermore, in terms of divine punishment, as it says in Kohelet: "A man to whom God gives riches... but God does not give him the power to eat thereof" - this too is evil and vanity. Do not think that miserliness will leave you with more; on the contrary, it is an evil thing and Hashem exacts retribution for it. Thus, one must certainly be generous, which is the middle path, and if you are not generous, squandering is still preferable to stinginess.
A Generous Soul - The Vilna Gaon's Explanation
The Vilna Gaon explains "A soul of blessing will be enriched" in the manner of "Good news enriches the bone." What is a "soul of blessing"? A benevolent, generous-spirited person who wishes everyone well, rejoices in what others have, and is not jealous of them. When he hears that things are going well for others, it enriches his bones and brings him joy. This is in contrast to "envy is the rottenness of the bones": when a person is jealous of someone, we say that he is "eating himself up" - "How did that person succeed?" and he eats himself up inside. That is the rottenness of the bones, his bones rotting from within. But for a soul of blessing, the blessing of others enriches and brings it joy.
"And he who waters will also be watered" - one who feeds and satisfies every person, ensuring they are satiated and satisfied (and the term for watering applies both to drinking and to eating), the Holy One, Blessed is He, will grant that he too will be satiated and satisfied. One who rejoices in the blessing of others will also have blessing and abundance rest upon him, and one who quenches the thirst of others will be quenched from Heaven as well.
The Two Verses as One - The Malbim's Explanation
The Malbim connects the two verses: "A soul of blessing will be enriched, and he who waters will also be watered," and "He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but a blessing will be on the head of one who sells it" - the second verse interprets the first. One who withholds grain possesses produce but refuses to sell it. Why wouldn't they sell? In order to inflate market prices. This happens to this day: when there are surplus vegetables, they go and destroy them - unfortunately - so that the price does not drop and tomatoes are not sold for a shekel a kilo. Back then too, there were hoarders who drove up prices: he does not sell, a shortage is created, the price climbs, and only then does he open the granaries and sell. That is "he who withholds grain," and because he seeks to enrich himself while people are starving, "the people will curse him" - the curse of the nation will come upon him. In contrast, the provider, who feeds people in years of famine and does not calculate closing his warehouses to make a few extra coins - a blessing will come upon his head. And this is a great blessing: through providing food to others, his own soul will be enriched, and through quenching the thirst of others with drink, he too will be fully satisfied.
The Malbim adds: We find the verb "dashen" (enriched) applied to the soul - "And I will sate the soul of the priests with abundance (deshen)," "And your soul shall delight in fatness (bedashen)." Deshen refers to the essential moisture that multiplies and adds vigor to the body; a soul situated in a moist place gains strength, as opposed to an arid place that withers it. And revayah (being watered) is complete satisfaction. Therefore: "A soul of blessing will be enriched," and one who waters and does not settle for little, but gives true abundance - "will also be watered," meriting not only deshen, which is modest moisture, but full satiation, which is far greater than deshen.
And all of this, says the Malbim, is an allegory. For as we have discussed, Shlomo did not come to teach us business practices and material affairs; rather, the entire essence of the book consists of parables for spiritual matters. When he speaks of the "evil woman," he does not mean a literal wife at home, but an allegory for the base soul and the temptations of the yetzer hara. So too here: "He who withholds grain" refers to one who withholds wisdom and Torah study from students - he has the ability to teach them yet holds back, and for this "a nation will curse him."
The Malbim notes a principle in several places: What is the difference between an am (a people) and a le'om (a nation)? An am is a gathering of people; a le'om is a gathering of people united under a specific religion. To illustrate: the entire Arab world could be defined as one le'om, but not as one am - when speaking of peoples, there are Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, and so forth, but by religion, as a le'om, they share one faith, Islam. A le'om expresses a single religious umbrella. Therefore, one who withholds the Torah from students - the adherents of the faith, the le'om, will curse him: "You have the capacity to grant me spiritual bounty and teach me Torah; why do you withhold it from me?" In contrast, the one who dispenses grain, who teaches Torah to those who desire to learn - "a blessing will be upon his head."
This also sheds light on the preceding verse: when the blessing rests upon him, his soul will be enriched with spiritual nourishment and he will receive spiritual abundance. For reality shows that when a person possesses ability and shares of his strength with others, Heaven bestows upon him even more strength and grants him further abundance so that he may continue giving and sharing. A generous soul that bestows its blessing upon others and teaches them Torah - it will itself merit spiritual enrichment. And one who waters his students and teaches them - "he too will be watered," for from Heaven they will teach him knowledge and make known to him the path of understanding. Consistently, says the Malbim, the motif of bread and water serves as a parable for the holy Torah, as it is written: "Ho, everyone who is thirsty, go to the water," "and come, buy and eat," and "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine I have mingled."
Bar and Shever - The Explanation of the Vilna Gaon
The Vilna Gaon explains in line with the approach of the Gemara. The Gemara asks: What is meant by le'om? The fetuses in their mother's womb, as it is said, "and one nation (u'le'om) shall be stronger than the other." Therefore, regarding one who withholds grain - even the unborn infants in their mother's womb, who do not yet need to eat bread, curse him; whereas the mashbir, who ensures that grain is readily available, is blessed by them. According to the Gra as well, this refers back to the Torah: one who prevents students from studying Torah - even embryos in their mother's womb curse him, while "a blessing will be upon the head of the mashbir" - upon the one who teaches Torah to those who need it.
And what is the distinction between bar (grain) and shever (broken grain/provisions)? The Gra explains: Bar is the produce while still in its husk. Where do we find this? "Just as it is impossible for grain (bar) to be without straw, so it is impossible for a dream to be without idle matters." Bar is the grain and the straw is the stalk that accompanies it, for when grain is still in its husk, pieces of stalk cling to it. Just as when cracking sunflower seeds one finds small stems among them - during harvesting, part of the stem gets mixed in, and that is what the sunflower grew upon. Thus, bar is the grain with its husk, whereas shever refers to grain after it has already been ground.
So too in Torah: if one does not teach at all and withholds even the bar - even the wheat along with its bran and husk, meaning basic halachic rulings without rationale - "a nation will curse him." But one who stands at the other end and acts as a mashbir, teaching clearly elucidated halachah with its underlying reasons and logic - which corresponds to ground wheat ready for consumption - on the contrary, blessing will rest upon him and abundance will descend upon him from Heaven.
In summary:
The four verses we have studied come together into one cohesive theme. "A golden ring in a swine's snout" teaches that every spiritual acquisition, even the Torah itself, is only as valuable as the character traits upon which it is worn - and therefore derech eretz precedes the Torah. "The desire of the righteous is only good" teaches that the righteous person desires good and merits that the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills even that which seems unattainable, whereas the wicked person who hopes for the misfortune of others will not realize his hope, and nothing will remain in his hand but wrath. "There is one who scatters and yet increases" teaches that the proper path is balanced generosity, and that scattering - especially the scattering of wisdom - adds rather than subtracts. And "a generous soul will be enriched" together with "he who withholds grain" conclude the matter: one who shares his blessing with others, teaching and slaking their thirst, is himself enriched and replenished, while one who withholds and hoards is cursed and left in lack. Whoever gives, receives; and whoever gives generously and rejoices in others is blessed.