The chapter before us continues the fundamental themes of Sefer Mishlei in distinguishing between different types of people: the chacham (wise person), the navon (discerning person), the leitz (scoffer), the kesil (fool), the evil (stubborn skeptic), and the arum (prudent person). In this lesson, we will examine three verses (6 - 8) that address the question of who is capable of attaining the truth and who is blocked from it from the very first steps of the journey. To understand these verses in depth, we begin with a foundational introduction taught by the Vilna Gaon and the Malbim: What are chochmah, binah, and da'at?
The Vilna Gaon explains that a person requires three things, which in the language of the Kabbalists are known as ChaBaD: Chochmah (wisdom), Binah (understanding), and Da'at (knowledge). ChaBaD is not merely the name of a movement, even if those letters have become associated with it, but a Kabbalistic concept - the three intellectual faculties (mochin). This is also the Malbim's consistent approach throughout the book: distinguishing between these three levels.
Chochmah is what a person receives from his teacher. The fundamental nature of chochmah is that it cannot be mathematically or rationally proven. Chochmah deals with uprightness: what is proper, how one ought to act, what is moral and what is immoral, what is good and what is evil - and for these, there are no scientific proofs. You may claim that a certain thing is good, while someone else will claim that that very same thing is evil. The political right and left argue over these exact same matters. One person argues that animals were created to be eaten and that this is good, while another says: No, anyone who eats animals is tormenting them, and that is evil. Therefore, the principles of chochmah cannot be proven; rather, they must be received from a Higher Authority. We received chochmah from the Holy One, Blessed be He, and only one who receives it from a prophet, from God, from Hashem's Torah - can acquire chochmah.
Binah is the next stage: after you have received the foundation, you contemplate the concepts and deduce one thing from another. The simple example is a logical deduction - if A equals C and B equals C, then A equals B. This is a basic illustration, but the power of binah can operate on a far deeper level, generating novel insights and understandings based on what was received through chochmah.
Da'at is the third level: after you delve deeply into chochmah, you arrive at da'at - the principles become clear, settled, and absolute to you. Until this point, chochmah was merely an accepted tradition, an axiom received from another, not necessarily internalized through full comprehension. Hashem said this is good, Hashem said that is evil - even if I do not understand it. A person can spend his entire life at the level of chochmah alone: "I accept this because Hashem said so, but on my own, my intellect would not have concluded this." That is not yet da'at. Da'at means that you have contemplated these truths so deeply that you understand them with your own intellect as well, identify with them, and perceive with your own human mind how these matters represent true uprightness, the correct path, and what is truly proper.
בִּקֶּשׁ־לֵץ חׇכְמָה וָאָיִן וְדַעַת לְנָבוֹן נָקָל׃ (יד, ו) - "A scoffer sought wisdom and found none, but knowledge is easy for the discerning." (14:6)
A leitz, the Vilna Gaon explains, is someone who makes a mockery of everything. He fears nothing, because to him, everything is a joke, everything is comical. Even the most terrifying matters - speak to him of death, and he will immediately counter with a joke. Anything that should inspire dread has no hold on him; he instantly turns it into jest.
This, the Gaon explains, is the very opposite of chochmah and binah. Binah is the source of awe and fear, as it is written, "her labor was in vain, without fear... nor did He impart to her any understanding" - one who has understanding knows what one ought to fear. The leitz, who has no fear whatsoever, stands in direct opposition to chochmah and binah. Therefore, the verse says, "A scoffer sought wisdom and found none": do not think merely that he lacks binah and da'at; even the chochmah that he already learned from his teacher, which is absorbed from an external source, he cannot retain - how much more so the insights he is meant to attain on his own, which are binah and da'at. In contrast, one who possesses awe merits to acquire chochmah and binah, and reaches the level of da'at as well: "and knowledge is easy for the discerning" - to grasp these matters with complete understanding and embrace them is the portion of the navon, who deduces one thing from another and does not engage in mockery.
The Malbim makes a precise observation: the leitz directs his scoffing specifically at chochmah. And why specifically at chochmah? Having defined chochmah, this is easily understood. Chochmah has no empirical demonstrations or absolute rational proofs; it is the domain of morality, where one is told toward whom to show compassion and toward whom to act severely. A person might say, "Nonsense, logic dictates the exact opposite!" Yet this is what Divine wisdom decrees. About such matters, one can easily scoff, since there are no empirical proofs. To accept chochmah requires humility - a willingness to accept truths even when I do not agree with them or understand them, simply because Hashem said so and the prophet conveyed it.
Notice something: the scorner (letz) does not scoff at da'at (clear, verified knowledge). Why? Because da'at can be tested and known with certainty, and if he were to mock it, they would prove him wrong. He mocks only the principles of chochmah (received wisdom), which lack empirical proof. From this, one might ask: let the scorner also attain da'at, and then he will scoff no longer! However, there is a necessary progression of stages. First, one must accept these matters as chochmah; next, one must contemplate them; and only at the third stage does one arrive at da'at. The scorner is disqualified in the preliminaries: "A scorner seeks wisdom and finds none" - right at the first stage he scoffs, and therefore there is no chance that he will delve deeply and reach clear knowledge that can no longer be ridiculed.
But the understanding person (navon), who accepts the principles of chochmah as an axiom - Moshe said so, and so I accept it - and subsequently contemplates them, investigates them, and deduces one concept from another, those very same principles that were previously accepted by tradition from a prophet and from Moshe Rabbeinu will become for him complete knowledge and absolute understanding. This is the meaning of "and knowledge is easy for the understanding": he will attain the level of da'at as well, and with ease.
לֵךְ מִנֶּגֶד לְאִישׁ כְּסִיל וּבַל־יָדַעְתָּ שִׂפְתֵי־דָעַת׃ (יד, ז) - Go away from the presence of a foolish man, or you will not know lips of knowledge (14:7).
Rabbeinu Yonah reads the verse as two clauses: go away from a foolish man (kesil), and also stay away from anyone about whom "you do not know" (u-val yada'ta) that he possesses lips of knowledge. "Away from" (mineged) means opposite him, not with him - do not approach him at all. One who is known for foolishness, folly, and corrupt character traits - you certainly must stay away from him. But not only that: even with someone about whom you are uncertain, do not be quick to associate. Note the precise wording of the verse: it does not say "you knew that he lacks lips of knowledge," but rather "you do not know that he has lips of knowledge" - it is not yet clear to you that he is a person of mature wisdom.
With whom, then, should you eagerly associate? Only with a person whom you know to be a man of da'at. For regarding someone who is unverified to you, you might reveal your secrets to him, forge a bond with him, and then receive a sting or a slap in the face, by which time it will be too late: you have already placed your trust in him and invested in him. True, he might not be an outright fool, but why connect with someone when you do not know whether he possesses fine character traits, proper conduct, and fear of Heaven? Do not associate with him in the first place, but only with someone known to be such.
The Vilna Gaon interprets "from the presence of" (mineged) differently: even if you are moving away to distance yourself from him, because you do not want to follow his path, through that very contact you already harm yourself, "and you will not know lips of knowledge." The very proximity you had with him will prevent you from attaining the elevated level of "lips of knowledge," that realization where concepts become internalized da'at. Even if you say, "Behold, I distanced myself!" the proximity has already influenced you, and it will be difficult for you afterward to attain da'at.
Thus the Chofetz Chaim said: A person who in his youth read newspapers and was influenced by corrupt ideas will find it very difficult to reach pure Da'at Torah, and to become the person people turn to for Da'at Torah. Why? Because at one point you were in proximity to a fool, and even a closeness that is followed by distancing causes "and you will not know lips of knowledge."
It is told that a person once argued with Rav Moshe Feinstein, and the Rav told him: Know that this is how it must be; this is Da'at Torah. The man insolently asked: How does the Rav know that what the Rav says is Da'at Torah? Rav Moshe replied to him: Because I have never admitted any ideas into my mind other than Da'at Torah. I have never read a newspaper, I have never listened to the news, I have never admitted anything into my mind except Da'at Torah. A mind that has constantly engaged only in Da'at Torah becomes itself Da'at Torah, an embodiment of Torah. But someone who once read an article by this writer and was once influenced by the words of that writer - when he rules, where does that ruling originate? From the columnist or from the words of Torah he studied? There is no longer any certainty in it.
Another interpretation: mineged denotes opposition (hitnagdut). Even if you oppose the fool's view, disagree with him, and argue with him - since you were in his proximity, this will make it difficult for you to attain the dimension of da'at.
As we know throughout the book, there is a fundamental difference between a kesil (fool ruled by desire), a letz (scoffer), and an evil (senseless fool). The scoffer, as mentioned, does not scoff at da'at (proven knowledge), because it is demonstrable; he scoffs at chochmah (wisdom received through tradition), which has no obvious intellectual proofs. Had he grasped it with clear knowledge, he would not mock it, and it is precisely because he cannot grasp it that he ridicules it. Therefore, "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none" - and since he never attained wisdom, all the more so he never attained understanding (tevunah) or knowledge (da'at).
The kesil, however, is not a scoffer. A kesil can be highly intelligent, knowledgeable in Torah, even a professor of Talmud - he simply does not want to submit. He has desires. A kesil is not necessarily lacking in intelligence; rather, he is a person whose desires rule over his knowledge. The example we gave in the past: a lung surgeon who smokes. What is he called? A kesil. You possess the knowledge, but you have not translated it into action. The kesil pursues his desires even though he understands perfectly well with his intellect that what he is doing is wrong.
Thus, explains the Malbim, the kesil actually accepts the rules of wisdom; he agrees on what is moral and what is immoral. If so, why does he do the opposite? Because desire pulls him. Therefore, it is said of fools that they hate knowledge: even though he accepts the rules of wisdom, even though he grasps them with discernment, even though he reaches da'at - he hates da'at, because it stands opposed to his desires.
And this is human nature: if I do something wrong, and you repeatedly tell me it is wrong - when will I hate you more, when I know you are right, or when I know you are wrong? When you are right. For if you are wrong, I do not care: you are talking nonsense, you do not know what you are saying, and it does not affect me. But when you are right - it hurts. I know you are right and that I am in the wrong, and here is someone constantly pricking my conscience, telling me: "You are not living properly" - and I know he is right. Therefore, the kesil, who knows wisdom and understanding and also attains da'at, hates da'at precisely because he knows it is true. Knowledge stands as an adversary to his lust.
And what does he do? He goes and deceitfully casts doubt on the rules of wisdom. How can one oppose knowledge that is true? He constructs an elaborate framework of arguments to prove that what da'at asserts is untrue, thereby silencing his conscience. Yet the matter continues to nag at him, for deep down he knows his claims are false; he knows that all the refutations, questions, and objections he raises against the rules of wisdom are baseless - and yet he uses them anyway, so that he may continue permitting himself to pursue his heart's desires. The doubts he casts are merely a smokescreen: "There is no proof, it is not entirely clear" - all just to continue on his way.
From this the Malbim explains the verse: with the scoffer you, who possess lips of knowledge, can walk, for the scoffer does not mock da'at - he does not argue with proofs, he mocks only wisdom. But "Go away from a foolish man (ish kesil)" - distance yourself completely from the kesil, because with him the situation is far worse: "and you will not perceive lips of knowledge," for the kesil rejects even da'at. He knows it is all true, yet he looks for proofs to claim the opposite, inventing evidence out of thin air so as not to accept da'at, because if he were to accept it, he would have to change his ways and his conduct - something his desires will not allow him to do.
Rabbi Uri Zohar related that when he first began his journey of teshuvah, the very first condition they made with him was: do not make a mockery of what you are told. He was known as a great comedian, and they told him - you have arguments, you have questions, ask anything you want, but do not make fun. As we have noted, mockery cannot be reasoned with; one can take the most sacred things, mock them, and sway masses - even if it involves two hundred and fifty heads of Sanhedrin like Korach and his congregation mocking Moshe Rabbeinu. And he accepted this upon himself.
Afterward, they told him that the truth of the Torah and its obligation upon every Jew can be proven. He reacted: "Do you even know what a proof is? You religious people are totally ignorant; do you even know what logical proof means?" They said to him: "Let us meet in Jerusalem. Bring your friends along, we will sit down and clarify the issues, and you will see whether there is solid backing for these claims or not." He gladly agreed. He sat with his group of friends on Friday evening; they all laughed and scoffed, saying: "Sure, let's go, we'll show that religious guy that he has no idea what he is talking about." When the agreed-upon day arrived, he called around, and everyone had an excuse: "It doesn't work for me, I have somewhere I need to be." In the end, he was left alone. He said: "What, will I be a coward? I'll be a man and go alone." He went alone, and only then realized that he understood nothing, and they presented him with proofs. He did not accept them right away; he said: "I still want to study, examine, and verify."
Uri Zohar is among those who returned to Torah not through an emotional experience, but through the intellect. He recounted that when he began observing mitzvot, he was far from enthusiastic. When he stood up to pray, he would say: "Master of the Universe, I do not understand why I must pray, I have no comprehension of this, I have no interest in this at all, but what I do know is that You said a person must pray, and therefore I am standing and praying before You; and I ask You on this occasion to open my heart so that I may connect to what I am doing." This is the exact opposite of the teshuvah common today, which is emotional, born of a desire to connect to something spiritual. He even said that he would have been willing to pay a large sum of money for someone to come and prove to him that the Torah is not true, just to be rid of the whole matter. After all, to change one's desires, character traits, nature, and lusts in the middle of life - as a successful figure, a director and producer - is an immense struggle.
And what happened to his friends? They were not interested in attaining da'at in the first place. When a person scoffs, he is stopped at the very first stage, at chochmah. But one who genuinely wants to probe and investigate, when he arrives at da'at, he sees: here is the truth, this is reality. And even then, internal integrity is required to admit it; otherwise, he will begin searching for arguments and excuses to flee from the truth, or he will let time do its work - until everything he saw no longer affects him, it is forgotten, he disconnects from it all, the world goes on as usual, and his conscience ceases to bother him.
חׇכְמַת עָרוּם הָבִין דַּרְכּוֹ וְאִוֶּלֶת כְּסִילִים מִרְמָה׃ (יד, ח) - The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit (14:8).
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: Of all the wisdoms attainable to man, the shrewd person chooses practical skill in action and the refinement of character traits - how to conduct himself with uprightness and justice, to "understand his way," walking on the proper path. By contrast, of all wisdoms, the fool chooses precisely cunning, deceit, pretexts, and falsehood; in these he becomes adept, and this is what he seeks.
The Vilna Gaon teaches that a person must be shrewd. The serpent was cunning, and the yetzer hara is cunning, approaching man with craftiness and constantly enticing him in sophisticated ways. Therefore, it is impossible to overcome the yetzer hara if one remains an evil (a simple fool); one must be shrewd and sophisticated, for the yetzer hara is sophisticated. If you are an evil, it will bring you down with cunning strategies and wage war against you. If a person is not shrewd, the yetzer hara will trip him up through its craftiness.
And this is the primary purpose of the shrewd person's wisdom: "to understand his way" - to understand your own personal path. The ABC of overcoming the yetzer is knowing my own vulnerabilities, my weak points, where I am liable to stumble. This is primarily what a person must look inward to examine, and by doing so he ensures that if a trial comes, he will be able to withstand it. But a person who is confident that everything with him is fine, and does not recognize at all where he is exposed to failure, is like a general who is unaware of the breaches in his army and his borders through which the enemy might attack. The essence of the wisdom of the arum (the shrewd man) is to understand his way and his nature, so that he knows to take care not to fall into any sin.
In contrast, "and the folly of fools is deceit": The kesil (fool), who does not know how to conduct himself, immediately acts according to his folly. The shrewd person thinks seven times before taking action, because he knows he might stumble, knows that he has such a desire and such a weakness, and weighs everything carefully. But the kesil acts on impulse, because the yetzer hara deceives him, telling him: This is good, this is worthwhile, this is a mitzvah, this is important.
The Vilna Gaon offers an additional explanation: "Deceit" - meaning they also deceive others into becoming like them. Folly deceives the fools, meaning it leads more people to become fools like them, through deceit. Why? Because it is never pleasant to be a transgressor alone, wicked alone, to be the only one failing to do what is required. It is comfortable to recruit others to join you, and then you already have a faction: It is not just me; there are many others here who are unhappy with this, many others who did not show up on the appointed date. In his wickedness, a person always wants to bring others along. This is what Chazal meant by: "The trouble of many is the consolation of fools" - a person wants to drag many into trouble with him so that he can find comfort, knowing he is not the only one facing a problem. Yet this is the consolation of fools, for the fact that others have stumbled just like you does not place you in any better position.
The Malbim remains faithful to his well-known distinction: The kesil is not the evil. The evil is someone who is perpetually in doubt - this is the skeptical mindset, asserting that nothing is certain and there is proof for nothing. Evil comes from the root of ulai ("perhaps"): Whatever you tell him, he responds - Who says? Where is the proof? Perhaps not? Perhaps Gan Eden does not exist? He is always in a state of doubt. The kesil, by contrast, harbors no doubts; he may be brilliantly intelligent, but he has desires and wishes to pursue them. He is called a kesil because he knows the truth, yet despite this, he is drawn after the desires of his heart.
And herein lies his problem: If I know the truth and do the opposite, I live with pangs of conscience. You know that this is not right, not upright, not decent, not just - yet you do the opposite anyway. How does one silence the conscience? One says: Wait, who says this is not right? Who says it is not upright? And so he deteriorates from bad to worse. What began as an improper act about which you felt some pangs of conscience becomes, in the second stage, an ideal course of action (lechatchilah) - because you have already cast doubt on the very principles of wisdom, so that no one can accuse you of acting improperly. "This contradicts the Torah" - and who says the Torah is true anyway? In truth, he is not a genuine heretic; rather, he casts doubt upon the Torah simply to rid himself of pangs of conscience. And why do you follow the desires of your heart? "No, this is not my desire; this is an ideology! I am doing this deliberately, as an ideal, and even if I did not feel like doing it, I would still do it, because this is the truth." This is deceit: "The folly of fools is deceit" - the kesil invents foolish arguments, arguments of "perhaps," and advances them deceitfully. He does not truly have doubts; he manufactures them solely to justify and legitimize the path he has chosen to walk.
In contrast stands the arum (the shrewd man). The arum is not a chacham (a sage) - he has not received the laws of wisdom from the sages and does not know its formal principles. But he possesses an advantage: he is not a peti (simpleton). The peti, as we will see later, believes anything; the arum is shrewd, cannot be duped, and if you try to fool him, he catches on immediately. Although he is not a Torah scholar, he possesses sufficient shrewdness. This is what we call today "street smarts" or life wisdom: he did not study at a university or in a yeshivah, yet he knows how to manage, how to understand, and how to perceive things. His common sense is straight enough to distinguish between good and bad, between truth and falsehood. This shrewdness leads him to "understand his way" - to walk on the proper, upright path, unlike the way of the kesil, who develops paths of foolishness and doubt in order to do whatever his heart desires. This is the wisdom of the arum: although he has not formally received the principles of wisdom and is not a talmid chacham, he knows and contemplates how to avoid stumbling, and through this he will ultimately attain wisdom.
To illustrate this with a parable: Consider a person who studied medicine for seven years - he presumably knows what is beneficial and what is harmful, what is healthy and what is unhealthy; he has studied these matters inside and out. For the sake of our example, we will call him a chacham, one who has received the formal disciplines of wisdom. But there is another person who never studied at all, yet he thirsts for knowledge, is always curious, and you will hear a great deal of information from him: This food is not good; that damages the heart; this can cause diabetes; that lowers blood pressure. If you ask him: Did you study medicine? At which faculty? He will tell you: I never studied medicine at all; I simply observe, listen, and process what I learn. We would call this person an arum - through his shrewdness and practical acumen, by observing and listening, he understands his way and knows how to conduct himself, even without having received wisdom in a structured manner and without earning a doctorate. And through this, he will ultimately reach true wisdom.
But the fool (ksil), who is neither simple nor naive - how did he arrive at doubts, at the "maybe" and the "who says"? Concerning this, Scripture says: "The folly of fools is deceit." He has not genuinely fallen into folly; he is deceiving you when he claims to be in doubt. In truth, he harbors no doubts whatsoever, but is merely searching for justifications for himself.
Man has three levels: chochmah (wisdom) - accepting the laws of righteousness from Hashem and our Sages, which require no rational proof; binah (understanding) - contemplation and deducing one concept from another; and da'as (knowledge) - absolute comprehension in which a person's intellect fully identifies with the truth. The scoffer (letz) is disqualified at the very outset, since he lacks reverence and already mocks chochmah, and therefore he will never attain da'as. The discerning individual (navon), who accepts and contemplates, attains da'as with ease. The fool (ksil) is worse than the scoffer: he knows the truth and even grasps da'as, but he detests it because it stands in the way of his desires. Therefore, he deceitfully casts doubt upon it to silence his conscience - and concerning him Scripture commanded, "Go away from the presence [of a foolish man]," to the point that even entering his vicinity to oppose him is harmful and prevents the attainment of "lips of knowledge." In contrast, the shrewd person (arum) - even if he did not acquire wisdom in an orderly and systematic fashion - since he recognizes his nature and weaknesses and understands his path, manages to withstand the cunning yetzer hara, and through this ultimately arrives at chochmah itself.