Chapter 12 of Mishlei opens with two great foundations: a person's attitude toward rebuke and discipline, and the Holy One, Blessed is He's attitude toward the good person versus the schemer. This time, we will examine the first two pesukim and see how Rabbeinu Yonah, the Vilna Gaon, and the Malbim plow through them, drawing out profound foundations in Avodat Hashem.
אֹהֵב מוּסָר אֹהֵב דָּעַת, וְשׂוֹנֵא תוֹכַחַת בָּעַר׃ (א) - Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates rebuke is brutish. (1)
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: If you see someone who stumbled, who committed some sin because he was drawn after his desires, but when you come and rebuke him, speak with him, and show him the gravity of the transgression, you discover that he has an open ear and is willing to accept and listen - know that this person possesses true knowledge. His soul is receptive to words of reason and chooses knowledge. And if you ask: If he chooses knowledge, how did he commit an act of folly? The answer is that physical desire overpowered him. But since he loves discipline - he rejoices in rebuke - it is a sign that he loves knowledge. Because he loves knowledge, he appreciates when people come to correct him and straighten his ways. On the contrary, you come to rebuke him and he tells you: "True, you are right; I have a real struggle with this, and I am glad you are rebuking me. It only helps me overcome it and gives me strength." That is a sign that this person truly loves knowledge.
"But one who hates rebuke is brutish" - In contrast, one who hates being rebuked and says: "Do not lecture me, I know on my own, you are not my rabbi and I do not need you to correct me" - this person is a fool and brutish. Why? Because his soul is not merely drawn after desire, but attached to it. "Here will I dwell, for I have desired it" - do not drag me out of here, I feel comfortable in the mud; it is cool and nice, it is hot outside, I am fine right here in the muck and dirt, I am managing just fine.
And what is the meaning of ba'ar ("brutish")? It is related to be'ir - an animal, a beast, as in the verse "and lets his beast loose to graze in another's field." One who hates rebuke has a soul drawn after lust like a beast; his soul is animalistic. And as the verses state: "they are brutish and foolish," "every person is brutish, devoid of knowledge," "and I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You." A person who cannot tolerate and does not love reproof is like an animal that is content with its base state.
The Vilna Gaon explains the verse differently: One of the three things acquired through afflictions is Torah, and Torah is acquired only through suffering and exertion. Notice his phrasing: it is impossible to know Torah unless one accepts afflictions upon himself. To acquire Torah requires tribulations. Therefore, one who loves suffering - "loves discipline," in the sense of tribulations - loves knowledge, for he knows that this is the ticket, the gateway into Torah.
Then there is a person who not only dislikes hardship, but is unwilling to exert himself in the slightest for Torah study: "I am a bit cold, it is a bit hard for me, I have no energy, I do not feel well, the day before yesterday I sneezed" - endless excuses from the yetzer hara: "There is a lion in the path," "a lion in the streets." Shelomo says: I am not speaking only of one who is unwilling to accept afflictions, but of one who is not even willing to hear rebuke, which is far easier than afflictions. Afflictions involve physical suffering, when a person studies Torah amidst bodily hardships. Yet this person is not only unwilling to bear that, but when people speak with him and try to persuade him to learn Torah, he is not even willing to listen to mere words - such a person will remain brutish, devoid of all knowledge like a beast.
The Malbim distinguishes between discipline and rebuke. Rebuke shares the root of dispute and debate, as he explains in multiple places. When two people debate, who wins? The one who brings decisive proof for his position. And how is that accomplished? Only through intellect, by means of evidence and proof, demonstrating to him what is good and what is evil. If I convince you by slapping you twice, I have not resolved the debate; rather, I am a violent person who had nothing to say and resorted to pantomime. A debate is settled only through reason.
By contrast, discipline operates not through intellectual reasoning, but through punishment - like one who obeys out of fear of being struck, "the junior who fears the senior." Likewise, when one imparts discipline regarding the fear of Heaven: one describes Gan Eden to a person, and in contrast, Gehinnom and the severe punishments awaiting those who violate His will. This is the meaning of discipline - instilling fear in a person and frightening him with suffering, so that he becomes alarmed and realizes it is not worth transgressing the will of Hashem.
According to this, the Malbim explains, one who loves rebuke (tochechah) certainly loves knowledge (da'at), since rebuke is built upon proofs and intellect. And what is da'at? Da'at is something that depends on sensory perception. Wisdom (chochmah) cannot be grasped through the senses, as wisdom deals primarily with moral matters - what is fitting and what is not, what is right and what is wrong - and such things are difficult to prove empirically. But da'at deals with things that are like axioms, which anyone can verify through touch, sight, and smell, immediately realizing that they are true. Therefore, one who accepts rebuke - which consists of proofs (hochechot) - loves evidence, intellect, and clear demonstrations, meaning he truly loves knowledge.
Yet here lies the novel insight: while it is obvious that one who loves rebuke loves knowledge, what about one who loves discipline (mussar) - meaning he welcomes being warned and told that the penalties for defying Hashem's will are such and such, accepting it willingly because he knows it is for his own good? Seemingly, he would not be classified as a lover of knowledge. Mussar does not operate through pure intellect but through emotion, via threat: if you do not act this way, you will be punished. To this, Shlomo reveals: one who loves mussar also loves knowledge. Why? Because mussar itself is rooted in da'at. For when I tell you that whoever rebels against Hashem will be punished, I prove it from history: go and learn from the generation of the Flood, the generation of the Dispersion, the people of Sodom, and the congregation of Korach. The nations that once inhabited the Land were expelled and afflicted, and the Ten Tribes are not with us today - all because they rebelled against Hashem. I instilled fear in you, I administered mussar, but it is a mussar backed by proof, an undeniable history known to all. I did not scare you with some unfamiliar demonic fiction, but with something you can examine and verify, studying history to see that the facts speak for themselves. Thus, the lover of mussar also loves knowledge, since the discipline he accepts is built on evidence grasped by direct perception.
And so it is with the reverse: one who hates mussar is undoubtedly a brutish fool (bo'er). After all, even a child becomes afraid when frightened, and all the more so an adult. If someone is told, "Sir, watch out, it is dangerous here, there is a pit ahead, beyond that is an abyss" - any sensible person takes care. If a person is told there is a cliff and he continues driving at 120 km/h around the sharp curves of Tzfat, what would you call him? An absolute fool. This does not require intellectual persuasion, but simple mussar: a car goes over the edge here, and your life is over. One who refuses to accept this is certainly devoid of sense, for even a child understands discipline, and even a dog understands - a dog struck with a stick once or twice knows that it hurts. Even the most ignorant of fools understands mussar and fears suffering, recognizing danger and keeping away. Therefore, Shlomo innovates: one who hates rebuke (tochechah) is also a fool. Even one who is reproached purely through intellect, through proofs and reasoned discussion rather than through suffering, yet still refuses to accept it - he, too, is a fool.
And this is the language of the Malbim: "A person worthy of being called a living, speaking human being is already naturally predisposed to accept rebuke, or at the very least not to hate the rebuke that comes to open the eyes of his intellect." Naturally, a person ought to be receptive to rebuke. Someone comes and says, "Let me prove this to you; I want to show you that this is how things are," and if he replies, "I do not want to hear it, I am not interested" - this person is acting against reason; he is irrational. I am coming to demonstrate that his actions are harming and destroying him, yet he refuses to listen. If someone were told, "Sir, a study was conducted showing that the shirt you are wearing cuts a person's lifespan in half, come let me prove it to you" - would anyone say, "I do not want to hear it"? That would be utter folly. It is simple logic: when someone comes to convince me and prove something through reason, I accept it. Therefore, one to whom proof is offered and who refuses to accept it - a "hater of rebuke" - is undoubtedly a brutish fool as well.
טוֹב יָפִיק רָצוֹן מֵיְהֹוָה, וְאִישׁ מְזִמּוֹת יַרְשִׁיעַ׃ (ב) - A good man obtains favor from Hashem, but a man of wicked schemes He will condemn. (2)
Rashi explains: a person who is good brings forth satisfaction from the Holy One, blessed be He, and a divine will to shower goodness upon the world. In contrast, the man of schemes, the evil person - "He will condemn" (yarshia) - condemns and incriminates other people, causing them to commit sins, and when people act wickedly, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings misfortune upon them. The good person draws down goodness from Hashem's will, while the evil person draws down harm upon himself and the collective from Hashem. This is the meaning of the verse, "and one sinner destroys much good": you, the scheming person, that single sinner, cause harm to many people, preventing goodness from entering the world on your account.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: a good person, who possesses a good heart and a desirable, virtuous intention, "will obtain favor from Hashem" - Hashem will fulfill his desire, for it is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, to bestow good. But as for a man of schemes, someone filled with evil thoughts who constantly plots harm against others, the Holy One, blessed be He, will find him guilty and condemn him in judgment, showing him no leniency beyond the letter of the law. Normally, the Heavenly Court features advocates for the right and prosecutors for the left, searching for merits and defense - but that is for an ordinary person. A schemer, a person of malicious designs, is abhorred by Heaven. With a person whose mind is constantly working on how to harm and do evil, the Heavenly Court will not seek out defenses on his behalf at all. Rabbeinu Yonah adds that the term mezimmot in the Holy Tongue sometimes refers to the desire to do harm and sometimes to illicit passion (zimah), as the Targum translates, "Zimah is the counsel of sinners," and as in the verse, "The wicked plots (zomem) against the righteous" - harboring malicious thoughts to harm another.
The Vilna Gaon explains: the mitzvot are Hashem's will, and what is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He? His will is to bestow good. By fulfilling Hashem's will through the mitzvot, you also receive His will to do good, for "he who comes to purify himself is assisted." It is the nature of the Good to bestow good, and Hashem desired that there be recipients for this beneficence; therefore He created man and gave him mitzvot. For this reason, the mitzvot themselves are called "good." This is the meaning of "A good man obtains favor from Hashem" - one who is righteous and performs Hashem's mitzvot draws forth Hashem's will, for it is His divine desire that you observe His commandments and receive goodness. But as for the schemer - not only will he fail to obtain the will to do him good, but He will also condemn him.
Another explanation is brought in the writings of the Vilna Gaon: The Holy One, blessed be He, desires to bestow abundance, and to what extent does He desire to bestow? Without limit. Hashem is limitless, and therefore His flow of abundance is limitless as well. Yet can we possibly receive such boundless bounty? We have no capacity to absorb it. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: I will establish a measure according to which I can bestow, so that the abundance will arrive measured and calibrated precisely according to what is fitting for you. And what is that measure? The fulfillment of the mitzvot. In accordance with the degree to which a person fulfills Hashem's commandments, he receives a corresponding measure of divine abundance.
Through this, we gain two things. First - we do not receive limitless bounty for which we have no vessels, for the Holy One, Blessed be He, tied the bounty to our actions and our mitzvos; since one cannot perform mitzvos without limit, one does not receive limitless bounty, but rather according to one's fulfillment of mitzvos. Second - each person receives precisely according to how much effort and investment he put in. This is what Chazal meant when they said, "With the measure a person metes out, so it is meted out to him": exactly in proportion to your efforts in Torah and mitzvos, so will you receive good. And this is the meaning of "A good person draws favor from Hashem" - how much good is within you? According to that good, one draws favor from Hashem. If there is much good in him, he draws forth much favor from Hashem, for His will is to bestow without limit; if there is little good in him, he draws forth little of His Blessed will.
The Vilna Gaon offers another explanation based on one of the aggados of Rabbah bar Bar Chanah in Bava Basra (74a). But first, a brief introduction: the aggados of Rabbah bar Bar Chanah are famous - stories he related that sound utterly fantastical. Some might mistakenly think they are akin to the tales of the "Arabian Nights," but this is entirely unfounded. When Chazal speak of aggadah, they do not mean the secular sense of the word - a "legend" or something unreal; that is a distortion of the term aggadah. In the language of Chazal, aggadah is the realm where our Sages, in their profound wisdom, concealed the inner secrets of the Torah, cloaking everything in the external garb of parables and stories that hint at profound and sublime matters. For in the Oral Torah - in the Midrashim and Talmuds - the esoteric dimensions, the Sefiros, and higher spiritual concepts are not openly displayed. Where are they found? In the aggados of Chazal, where they concealed these teachings. Why? So as not to teach these matters to unworthy individuals who might misuse them. Therefore, they hid them in aggados: one who is wise and understands on his own will perceive what their words allude to, and is truly worthy of them; whereas an unlearned person, who seeks only to draw power from these secrets, will come away empty-handed. Now let us see how the Vilna Gaon interprets the narrative.
Rabbah bar Bar Chanah said: A certain Arab nomad said to me, "Come, and I will show you where the earth and the sky kiss each other" - he met a nomad who said to him: Come, and I will show you the place where heaven and earth kiss. "I took my basket and placed it in the window of the sky" - Rabbah bar Bar Chanah relates: I had a basket with my bread, and I set it in the window of the firmament. How did he reach it? He was brought to the place where heaven and earth kiss, where the sky descends to the earth, and there he placed his basket in the windows of the firmament. "While I was praying, I sought it and could not find it" - I stood to pray, and afterward I looked for the basket of food and could not find it. "I said to him: Are there thieves here?" - I asked that nomad: Are there thieves here? "He replied: It is the sphere of the firmament revolving" - the sphere of the heavens revolves (and the Gemara notes that the sphere revolves while the constellations remain fixed). Since you placed the basket in the celestial sphere and went to pray, and the sphere keeps rotating, you cannot find the basket now. He asked: What should I do? He answered: "Wait here until tomorrow at this time, and you will find it" - the sphere completes a full revolution; wait here tomorrow at this exact time, and you will find your basket.
Can this story possibly be understood literally? Is there truly a place where heaven and earth kiss? Clearly, this is an impossibility, for the heavens and earth are separated "as the heavens are high above the earth." Even if they appear to touch on the horizon, they obviously do not meet; it is nothing more than an optical illusion, a fata morgana. If so, what is the inner meaning of this story?
The Vilna Gaon explains: Who is that nomad (Tay'a)? The word relates to ta'us (error) - one who errs and leads astray. And who leads the entire world astray? The yetzer hara (the evil inclination). "That nomad" - this is the yetzer hara that misleads man. And he says to Rabbah bar Bar Chanah: Come, and I will show you the place where heaven and earth kiss - come, let me show you a way by which you can inherit both worlds, this world and the World to Come. How so? Engage in worldly livelihood, for "greater is one who enjoys the toil of his hands than one who fears Heaven, as it is stated: 'You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you' - happy in this world, and it shall be well with you in the World to Come." Do you want to inherit both worlds? Leave Torah and study, go out and earn a living - there is progress, there is high-tech, come and train. In truth, that nomad, that yetzer hara, sought to pull him away from Torah. And this is the meaning of "heaven and earth kiss": you will have both this world - you will make a living, earn well, and have food to eat - and also the World to Come, an eternal reward, since greater is one who enjoys the toil of his hands than a fearer of Heaven.
"I took my basket, placed it in the window of the sky, while I was praying" - livelihood comes from Heaven. Chazal ask: What should a person do to become wealthy? Let him conduct his business faithfully - meaning with trust and faith in Hashem, dealing honestly, and through this he will grow rich. The Gemara asks: But haven't many done so without success? And it answers: Rather, let him pray to the One to Whom wealth belongs. And this is what he did - he took his basket, placed it in Heaven, and prayed. Placing the basket in Heaven means that he relied on the Holy One, Blessed be He, fulfilling "Cast your burden upon Hashem" - I hand over the basket with the bread to Him, Blessed be He, and He will provide for me. Yet trust in Hashem alone is not enough; prayer is also required, so he stood to pray. And the fact that he subsequently came to look for the basket and could not find it indicates that neither his faith nor his prayer had availed him.
"He said to him: Are there thieves here?" - are there thieves in Heaven? And what do thieves do? They steal what is rightfully yours. For when sustenance descends through the chain of the upper worlds, it passes world after world until it reaches our lower world. In each world, it is asked: Is this person worthy of receiving this sustenance or not? If he is worthy, it continues to cascade downward until it reaches this world. Now we can understand why earning a livelihood is so difficult - inevitably, the sustenance is caught in some world and remains up there. This was his question: Are there thieves here? The thieves are the forces of impurity, which plunder the channels of divine bounty and divert them to themselves, for this is their vitality and from this they draw sustenance.
And what did he answer him? "It is the sphere of the firmament revolving" - this is the cyclical wheel of the heavens, meaning that the world is governed by a revolving wheel. And "children, life, and sustenance depend not on merit, but on mazal (fortune)." In other words, he told him: You are right, you deserve it, but what can we do? A wheel revolves in the world, and your mazal dictates poverty.
Like the story told about the Ibn Ezra, upon whom poverty was decreed, and whatever he put his hand to did not succeed. His disciples came and wanted to give him a gift, but he adamantly refused to accept. They said: We will toss it in front of him along the path where he walks; he will find it and think it is a lost find that Hashem provided for him rather than a gift from flesh and blood, and he will take it and sustain himself. It is told that he passed by the money, did not pick it up, and went on his way. They were astonished: he could at least have picked it up for the sake of returning a lost object (hashavat aveidah), so why did he not do so? They went and asked him. He said to them: By my life, I did not see what was before me! They asked him: How can that be? You were walking with your eyes wide open! He said to them: Know that on that day when I left my house, I had a slight dispute with my wife, who began weeping over our dire financial straits. I told her: What can I do? Hashem has decreed poverty upon me. I left the house deeply disheartened, and then I said to myself: Why are you so dejected? Is your situation really worse than others'? After all, there is a person you would never agree to switch places with even if you became fabulously wealthy - a blind person. Would you be willing to trade places with a blind man? 'Ashir' (wealthy) is an acronym for einayim, shinayim, yadayim, raglayim (eyes, teeth, hands, feet). Is there anyone willing to switch places with a blind man and become the wealthiest person in the world, giving up only his eyes? Heaven forbid! Said the Ibn Ezra: I said to myself, your situation is better than a blind person's, so why are you weeping and complaining? So I decided to walk from my house to the beit midrash like a blind man, with my eyes closed, and I did not see anything. That is why I saw nothing at all. The disciples understood: when the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees poverty upon a person, even if you toss money under his very feet, he will not notice - on that day he will walk as if blind, on that very day.
And so the Ibn Ezra composed a poem about himself: Woe to the man born without a star, without mazal. If he goes to the noble's house, they will say he has already retired; if he were to sell shrouds, people would cease to die; if he were to sell candles, the sun would never set. Bad luck, misfortune. And this is what he told him: Know that what you see - that I placed the basket, trusted, and prayed, yet did not receive a livelihood - is not because of thieves; rather, a wheel turns in the world, meaning mazal, and at present the mazal does not designate wealth and sustenance for you.
"Wait until tomorrow and you will find it" - what does it mean to wait until tomorrow and find it? One could explain that mazal is always temporary and indicates only today, whereas tomorrow brings a new mazal. But the Vilna Gaon explains differently: The Gemara states, "Today to do them, and tomorrow to receive their reward" - the reception of reward is tomorrow, in the World to Come. And this is what he said to him: Do not say, 'Here I left the basket and what did I gain?' Rather, you will receive an immense reward in the World to Come for serving the Holy One, blessed be He, through hardship, through effort, and through toil, and for that itself you possess a great reward.
According to this, it would seem that reward depends on the celestial wheel of mazal. But the Vilna Gaon explains: If a person is exceptionally good, in the category of "very good" and at the highest level, they do good to him and overturn the mazal for him, because he receives directly from the hand of the Creator, blessed be He, and not through the intermediaries of mazal. This is "A good man obtains favor from Hashem" - one who is truly good obtains favor directly from Hashem and not from the mazalot. They do not tell him, 'What can be done when your mazal dictates poverty?' for the Holy One, blessed be He, has a direct, personal bond with him. By contrast, "a man of wicked devices" (ish mezimmot), one who devises all sorts of evil schemes, even if sustenance was allotted and decreed for him and the wheel indicates wealth for him - nevertheless, "he will condemn" (yarshia): through his deeds he condemns that sustenance, and along the chain of the descending worlds it will be stripped from him and given to others. Either the Sitra Achra, or the angels appointed to examine whether he is deserving, will find that he is unworthy and he will not receive it. Therefore, one who is a man of wicked devices will condemn - he will forfeit his reward.
The Malbim explains that the verb zamam denotes deep, calculated thoughts, where a person reflects extensively on how to carry something out. A zomem (schemer) - even in contemporary usage - does not merely have a passing thought, but engages in profound calculation: How do I plan this? How do I execute it? How do I construct the entire scheme? When scheming appears in the context of wisdom, it refers to profound contemplation in matters of wisdom, delving deeply into Torah, which is truly wonderful. But when it appears in the context of another person - plotting against someone - it is generally for evil. Anyone who plots against another typically harbors malicious intent, as Shlomo states in Mishlei (24:8): "One who plans to do evil, him people call a schemer (ba'al mezimmot)." A person like that is called a master of schemes. Thus, a ba'al mezimmot between man and his fellow is usually negative: he devises strategies to bring him down, what conspiracy to orchestrate so that he stumbles, calculating deeply and trapping him in his net.
The Malbim further explains: The verb marshia indicates that his wickedness is immense - he is not merely wicked himself, but he causes others to become wicked and corrupts others, which is an extremely severe level of wickedness. And what does the verse tell us? The good man does not immerse himself in conspiracies; rather, he strives to obtain favor from Hashem - to bring pleasure (nachat ruach) to his Maker, so that His favor rests upon him and the Holy One, blessed be He, desires his deeds. He takes care to act with pure intention, and does not simply expect Hashem to delight in him - for why would He delight in him if he were a transgressor? This person directs his thoughts so that only good emerges from them, and he harbors no malicious schemes, for he is truly a good person and does everything for the good. In contrast, "a man of wicked devices" - one who does not rely on Hashem and constantly hatches deep schemes to harm others - this person constructs his plots in order to condemn, and therefore "He will condemn" (yarshia).
The first two verses of the chapter teach us two tests. The first is a person's attitude toward rebuke (tochechah) and discipline (mussar): one who accepts rebuke because it is grounded in reasoned proof and intellect, and accepts mussar because even mussar is founded on evidence and facts that a person can verify, is a lover of knowledge; while one who hates either of them - whether mussar, which even a child or an animal understands, or tochechah, which any rational person accepts - is brutish (ba'ar), his soul drawn after desire like a beast. The second test is a person's attitude toward his thoughts: the good man directs his thoughts toward the good, obtains favor from Hashem, and channels goodness into the world, and in the measure he metes out, so it is meted out to him; and if his goodness is truly profound, he receives directly from the hand of the Creator, and even the celestial mazalot are overturned for his sake. But the man of wicked devices, who delves into evil thoughts, condemns himself and his fellow beings, and even what was designated for him will be taken away, and he will forfeit his reward.