Introduction
Chapter 13 in Mishlei deals with a series of contrasts between the path of wisdom and the path of folly, including man's attitude toward acquisition - both the acquisition of wealth and the acquisition of Torah. In the three pesukim before us (11-13), we learn three fundamental principles: how genuine wealth is built, what an unfulfilled expectation does to a person, and what the cost is of scorning a small thing.
"Wealth from vanity will dwindle" - Learning in Bundles versus Consistency
הוֹן מֵהֶבֶל יִמְעָט וְקֹבֵץ עַל יָד יַרְבֶּה׃ (י"א) - "Wealth gained from vanity will dwindle, but he who gathers hand by hand will increase it." (11)
Rashi explains: Do not read me-hevel ("from vanity"), but rather me-chavel ("from bundles") - one who makes his learning into bundles and heaps will see it dwindle, for it will be forgotten bit by bit. That is, a person who does not sit and learn with consistency, but instead sits down for a short burst and learns a massive quantity, and then after a break takes on another large quantity, may amass wealth - but it is wealth made of loose bundles, and it steadily slips away and is forgotten.
What, then, should a person do? "He who gathers by hand" - by his own hand, little by little. Every day a little more, and a little more. Let a person not say: "What took him a month to learn, I sat for eight consecutive hours and achieved, and now I have a month of leisure." Wealth made in bundles is vanity; it will dwindle and be forgotten. But one who learns an hour every day, and an hour every day - gathering hand by hand, in small measures - will ultimately possess great wealth.
The Vilna Gaon: Easy Come, Easy Go
The Vilna Gaon explains: Even one who amasses wealth, if it came to him from vanity and not through the toil of his hands, it will dwindle. Just as it came easily, so it goes easily. What is "vanity"? Today we can point to many forms of vanity, and the greatest of them is the stock market: luftgesheft, business of thin air. What did you buy? Numbers flickering on a screen. You have millions - and suddenly the market crashes, the screen stops flickering, and it begins to display zeroes. Right where the money was, that is precisely where it vanished. A person lost everything in a single moment. This is "wealth from vanity will dwindle." By contrast, one who goes about his honest work, earning not millions all at once but little by little - he is the one who will ultimately achieve more.
The same applies to those who make easy money. Performers who experienced a meteoric rise and boast about how many thousands they made in a single evening, or Heaven forbid, those engaged in shady professions with massive profits. Ask him: What do you have left? Nothing. A person goes to three weddings in one night, performs for half an hour at each, and collects handsome sums - what another person earns in four months. And where is it? The fame is gone, the glamour is gone, the money is gone. Because this is fleeting wealth, not born of sustained toil and dedication; and one who did not toil for his money spends it just as easily, in the blink of an eye.
And this is only the mashal, which concerns physical matters. The nimshal, says the Gra, is in Torah. Chazal taught: "'Even (af) my wisdom stood by me' - Torah and wisdom that I learned through wrath (af), through strenuous toil, is what endured for me." One who learns Torah through deep toil finds that his learning endures and remains with him; this is "he who gathers by hand will increase." But one who did not bother to toil, exerting only minimal effort, casually - will forget, and it will slip away from him. When someone boasts to you, "While he learned one page I finished eight pages," the answer is that the other is a steady learner and you are not. The steady learner will arrive, while one who raced through a large amount in a short time and feels he can now go rest - his learning will be forgotten, and nothing of it will remain.
The Malbim: Wealth That Does Not Multiply Gradually Diminishes
The Malbim explains: Even one who possesses great wealth, if he pursues vanity, that wealth will dwindle. Every wealthy person understands that he must be invested in something: purchasing an office building, investing in stocks, acquiring a factory. The capital must continue to produce. Otherwise, you spend and indulge, and the money steadily depletes. Wealth requires effort and oversight in order to grow; if a person merely chases vanity, buying this and acquiring that, a vacation here and a trip abroad there, he will eventually discover that his funds are gone. Conversely, even someone who has no wealth at all, but makes an effort and gathers hand over hand, collecting a little more and a little more - it will multiply, and ultimately he will attain substantial wealth.
The application of this parable, as the Vilna Gaon explains, relates to Torah study: even a great scholar who has accumulated vast Torah knowledge, but at a certain point decides to rest - "Baruch Hashem, I have completed Bavli, Yerushalmi, Sifra, and Sifrei; now I can sit back and rest" - his wealth will diminish. You accumulated wealth, but you are not actively causing that wealth to multiply, and so it dwindles. Even though you learned, you must continually add more and more. In contrast, someone who learns every day, gathering little by little - though he is not a talmid chacham like you and has not amassed as much as you - adds a little each day, and he will increase and ultimately become wise, until he too possesses great wealth, and enduring wealth, unlike the one who ceased learning.
One of the Gedolei Yisrael recounted that he once met a man dressed in rabbinic garb in the Krayot. He asked him: "What do you do?" The man replied, "I serve in the rabbinate." He asked, "And where do you learn?" He answered, "No, no, I do not learn anymore; I am already a rabbi." He thought that the rabbinate is like a university faculty: you graduate, receive your degree, and that is the end. Have you ever seen a doctor return to university? But this is a misconception: Torah is not an academic degree. Regarding this it is said, "Wealth from vanity will dwindle" - if you have great wealth and do not add to it, it will steadily diminish.
"Deferred Hope Sickens the Heart" - When Anticipation Prolongs
תּוֹחֶלֶת מְמֻשָּׁכָה מַחֲלָה לֵב וְעֵץ חַיִּים תַּאֲוָה בָאָה׃ (י"ב) - Deferred hope sickens the heart, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (12)
Rashi explains according to the peshat: when a person makes a promise to his fellow and fails to fulfill it, he creates in him an ongoing expectation - hope. "He will surely do it any moment now, after all, he promised." This prolonged expectation sickens the heart, bringing it pain. For commensurate with the greatness of the hope is the magnitude of the sorrow and heartbreak when it is shattered.
"But a desire fulfilled is a tree of life" - Rashi explains that the phrasing of the verse is inverted, as if to say: a desire that arrives is a tree of life. When that which one yearned for finally arrives, and the hope was not disappointed but fulfilled, it is like a tree of life. Not only will he not die of heartsickness, but quite the contrary - he receives renewed vitality from the realization of his desires.
Rashi also cites a midrashic interpretation: the expectation that the Holy One, Blessed be He, held for Israel, hoping that they would repent, yet they did not - ultimately brought upon them heartsickness, sorrow, and afflictions. But when His desire arrives, when Am Yisrael repents according to the will of Hashem, it is a tree of life for Am Yisrael. It turns out that whether we repent or not, we are the ones who gain or lose: "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He take from your hand?" (Iyov 35:7). If we repent, we merit a tree of life; if we do not, Chas veShalom, heartsickness ensues.
The Vilna Gaon: Expectant Prayer and Its Remedy in Torah Study
The Vilna Gaon cites that Chazal interpreted this verse as referring to iyun tefillah (excessive expectation of a prayer's fulfillment). A person scrutinizes his prayer, feels certain that the Holy One, Blessed be He, will grant it, and waits expectantly to see how it will come to pass - and concerning this the Gemara says, "Deferred hope sickens the heart." And what is his remedy? Let him engage in Torah study.
The Gaon explains: prayer pertains to temporal life (chayei sha'ah), while Torah pertains to eternal life (chayei olam), as we find in the Gemara when one saw people prolonging their prayer and said, "They forsake eternal life and engage in temporal life." Rav Chaim of Volozhin explains in Nefesh HaChaim that prayer is called temporal life because its focus, on a plain level, concerns the matters of this world: grant me livelihood, health, success, life, forgiveness - all material requests. Torah, however, concerns the life of the World to Come.
In this world, a person may pray, plead, and ask, yet the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not grant it - and then it becomes an aspect of "sickens the heart," purely heartbreak. This is like Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, who asked before the Holy One, Blessed be He: "Master of the Universe, how long will I suffer in this agony of poverty?" The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: "Do you wish that I overturn the world and return it to chaos, on the chance that you might be reborn at an hour of sustenance and wealth?" Thus we see that there are matters for which prayer does not avail, as it was decreed and so it must be, and if you pray excessively for them, you will only suffer heartache. Therefore, the Gemara asks: "What is his remedy? Let him engage in Torah." When you see that prayer does not avail, engage in Torah, which is eternal life. And when you engage in Torah, says the Gaon, his desire and wish will surely come; this is "a tree of life." When you grasp the tree of life through Torah study, through this "a desire arrives." Put simply: what cannot be attained through prayer can be attained through Torah.
The Malbim: Desire, Hope, and Expectation - Three Levels of Anticipation
The Malbim distinguishes between three terms that express anticipation: craving (ta'avah), hope (tikvah), and confident expectation (tochelet). One who hopes (mekaveh) hopes, but has no guarantee that the matter will indeed come to pass; so too in everyday speech, hope carries no promise. But one who yearns with confident expectation (meyachel) - as in, "Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who yearn for the Lord" - implies a guarantee; he is certain it will arrive, and merely yearns for it to come. In contrast, one who craves (mit'aveh) does not even possess hope: he yearns to marry the king's daughter, having no chance whatsoever of doing so, yet such is his craving.
Thus we find three levels: one who craves - where there is not even hope that it will occur; one who hopes - where there is a chance, but no guarantee; and one who yearns with certainty - where the thing will surely come, and he merely yearns for it to come quickly.
Regarding this, the verse states: "Tochelet," related to leyachel, refers to something that is certain to occur - and yet, if this expectation is drawn out, it sickens his heart. An example of this is the coming of Mashiach. We have no doubt whatsoever that Mashiach will come, and this is as clear to us as the midday sun; therefore, one cannot say merely "hope," but rather that we "yearn with certainty." And yet, the very prolonged yearning - behold, now he is arriving, behold, now - makes the heart sick.
Thus: if it is a craving, it certainly sickens the heart, for there is no chance; if it is hope, it also sickens the heart, for there is a chance but no guarantee; and even with one who yearns with certainty, where the matter is guaranteed, if it does not come now - it causes him heart-sickness and grief. How much more so the craving heart, which becomes sick and falls into illness, for one who craves has not even hope. This is the meaning of what is stated, "The desire of the sluggard kills him" - because the craving has no chance of being fulfilled, and this is no longer merely sickness, but death.
From here stems the immense joy in "a desire fulfilled is a tree of life": when the craving comes to pass - not something one merely expected or hoped for, but something one only craved, whose chances were zero, like someone who aspires to become a Rothschild tomorrow - if that desire is fulfilled, it is truly a tree of life that revives the soul of the one who craved it so deeply.
"Whoever despises the word shall suffer harm" - The Cost of Contempt
בָּז לְדָבָר יֵחָבֶל לוֹ וִירֵא מִצְוָה הוּא יְשֻׁלָּם׃ (י"ג) - Whoever despises the word shall suffer harm, but he who fears the commandment shall be rewarded. (13)
Rashi explains: One who scoffs at any of the words of the Torah - in the end he will be held as a pledge for it. "Yeichavel" is related to a pledge (mashkon), as in the verse, "You shall not take your neighbor's garment as a pledge" (lo tachbol), meaning taking security. That is to say, this contempt will cause the person to pay a heavy price, until he must pledge his very self for the thing he mocked and despised.
There is a story that illustrates this verse point by point. It is told of the Chofetz Chaim that he used to travel throughout the provinces of Russia to draw Jews closer to the Torah, distribute his books, and strengthen faith. He arrived at a certain place and found Jews working on Shabbat. He tried to speak to their hearts, but they told him: We have no choice; there is a Jewish factory owner here who refuses to allow us to take off on Shabbat, and he is the one compelling all of us to come to the factory on Shabbat.
The Chofetz Chaim was undeterred; he approached the owner and began speaking with him. The man said to him: Rabbi, do you want me to lose a day every week? Do you know what it means to shut down the machinery? What it means to pay workers when they do not show up to work? In short, he was entirely unwilling to listen. The Chofetz Chaim said to him: Everything you are saying now about profits and money is an illusion, a mirage. Wealth is not what you perceive with your eyes; "The blessing of the Lord is what brings wealth." And if it is written in the Torah, "so that your ox and your donkey may rest," a person never loses from the commandments of the Torah. Shabbat is the source of blessing; when one observes it, there is blessing, and when one does not - Heaven forbid, the reverse.
The man looked at him and said dismissively: Rabbi, do you think a single verse in the Torah is going to stop my factory? A single verse in the Torah will shut down my plant? I am sorry, but I cannot accede to your request. The Chofetz Chaim realized there was no one to speak to, turned, and left.
Not long afterward, the Bolshevik Revolution broke out. The Bolsheviks harbored immense hatred toward the wealthy; they pillaged, looted, and confiscated everything. Hearing that the situation was dire and that they were closing in on him, the man took a bag full of banknotes from his safe, boarded the first wagon, and fled. He indeed managed to escape, and shortly thereafter they broke into his house, pillaged and looted everything - he escaped with barely his life.
However, some time later, when he began examining what he had taken with him, it turned out he had grabbed the wrong bank notes, leaving him with nothing of value. He had not taken any clothes, thinking that with such banknotes in hand he was a millionaire - but in reality, the notes were completely worthless, and he could not spend anything from them. He was reduced to absolute poverty without a penny to his name, owning nothing besides the clothes on his back.
From the place where he had taken refuge, he sent a letter to the Chofetz Chaim and wrote: Rebbe, I have seen firsthand that a single verse in the Torah can establish my factory, and a single verse in the Torah can shut my factory down. This is "He who scorns a word will suffer harm" - one who scorns a single word of Torah will ultimately have a pledge seized from him. Conversely, "but he who fears a commandment will be rewarded" - whoever is reverent and careful to fulfill all of Hashem's commandments receives his reward.
Midrash Tehillim: The Fool and the Spider
Midrash Tehillim expounds "He who scorns a word will suffer harm" regarding King David. He said before the Holy One, Blessed is He: Master of the Universe, what purpose is there in the fools You created? You did not create anything in vain, yet I do not understand what benefit a fool brings. The Holy One, Blessed is He, said to him: By your life, you will ultimately come to need this foolishness.
And so it was. When David came before Achish, king of Gath, the king's servants said to him: Look whom you brought in here! Is this not the one of whom they sang, "Shaul struck down his thousands and David his tens of thousands," and he has come to spy on us? David feigned madness and let his saliva run down into his beard. Achish saw him and said: What are you talking about, is this David? Nonsense! "Do I lack madmen?" - and our Sages note that his wife and daughter were mentally ill - take him away from here! And in this way, David saved his life.
Another example of this: King David asked, "Master of the Universe, what need is there for a spider? What would be lacking in Your world without it?" Later, when David fled from Shaul and hid in a cave, a spider came and within seconds spun a web across the mouth of the cave. When Shaul passed by, Avner said to him: Perhaps David is hiding here? Shaul replied: How could that be? You see an intact spiderweb covering the entrance to the cave; there is no chance David is inside. Avner agreed, and they continued on their way. Then David realized that even a spider has value and purpose. Not that the Holy One, Blessed is He, created it solely for this moment, but rather to show you that nothing He created in His world is in vain, and sometimes even you will come to need it.
This is "He who scorns a word will suffer harm": you scorned fools - you were forced into distress through that very thing, and thereby realized just how necessary it was. This principle can also explain another episode: "Now King David was old... and they covered him with clothes, but he could not get warm." Why? Because he scorned an object (davar) - when he cut the corner of Shaul's cloak; and through this, "it will harm him," so that when he later needed clothes, the clothes could not warm him.
The Vilna Gaon: 248 Limbs Corresponding to 248 Commandments
The Vilna Gaon explains: A person has 248 limbs, corresponding to the 248 positive commandments, and each and every limb draws its vitality and life force from the power of its corresponding mitzvah. Thus, when a person scorns any one of the 248 commandments, he damages the very limb that draws its vitality from that mitzvah. This is "He who scorns a word will suffer harm" - who is harmed by this? He himself, for he becomes bereft of that vital power. In simple terms: do you imagine that by scorning a mitzvah you caused harm to the mitzvah or, Heaven forbid, to Hashem, Blessed is He? No, sir - "it harms him": the injury is yours and the lack is yours, for that limb remains devoid of its life force because you omitted that mitzvah.
And who will be made whole in all his limbs? And this does not refer only to this world - certainly to this world as well, but primarily to the life of the World to Come - it is one who fears missing any mitzvah and is meticulous with every single commandment. This is "he who fears a commandment will be rewarded (yechulam / made whole)": one who fears the commandment and is careful not to omit a single mitzvah, he is the one who will be made whole in the life of the World to Come.
In summary:
The three verses teach one fundamental principle: there are no shortcuts. "Wealth gained through vanity will diminish" - that which comes without toil, whether in money or in Torah, steadily dwindles, and only "he who gathers by hand," with day-by-day diligence, bit by bit, builds lasting wealth; and even one who has already accumulated wealth, if he stops adding to it, his wealth will vanish. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" - any unfulfilled expectation causes pain, from mere craving to certain longing, and the remedy for one whose prayer goes unanswered is to hold fast to the Tree of Life, through diligent Torah study, through which one attains what prayer alone does not attain. And "He who scorns a word will suffer harm" - there is nothing insignificant in the Torah and nothing superfluous in creation, and one who scorns a small thing will ultimately forfeit his entire self for it; whereas "he who fears a commandment will be rewarded" - one who is scrupulous with every single mitzvah thereby gives life to all his limbs, and his reward is complete for the life of the World to Come.