Chapter 15 in Mishlei continues with a series of concise proverbs, each of which is a world unto itself. In this lesson we will examine three of them: Hashem's knowledge of the thoughts of the heart, the nature of the scorner who flees from rebuke, and the power of the heart - both joyful and sorrowful - throughout the entire human construct. We will follow the insights of Rabbeinu Yonah, Rashi, the Vilna Gaon, and the Malbim.
שְׁאוֹל וַאֲבַדּוֹן נֶגֶד יְהֹוָה אַף כִּי לִבּוֹת בְּנֵי אָדָם׃ (יא) - Sheol and Avaddon are before Hashem; how much more so the hearts of the children of man! (11)
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that this verse comes to warn a person to purify his heart. And why? Know that the Holy One, blessed be He, examines the kidneys and the heart, so do not plot thoughts of iniquity in your heart, do not devise evil plans - the hearts of human beings are revealed before Hashem. And if Sheol and Avaddon are revealed before Him, how much more so the hearts of human beings: the soul emanates from the Divine Glory, a portion of God from above, hewn from holiness - "he who blows, blows from within himself" - it is, as it were, a part of the Holy One, blessed be He, and therefore everything within it is certainly revealed before Him. If the physical, material realm is revealed, how much more so the heart.
This is a great warning, says Rabbeinu Yonah: that a person must not entertain in his heart whatever his heart desires. A person might say, "What happened? I only had a fleeting thought," without realizing the severity of evil thoughts. First of all, your thoughts are open before Hashem. Second, evil thoughts - as the Rambam says - are like placing an idol in the Sanctuary: the most sublime and exalted place is the human intellect, and when a person taints it with evil thoughts, he has brought an idol into the Sanctuary. How cautious a person must be not to defile his intellect.
The Vilna Gaon explains this kal vachomer (a fortiori argument) in a different way: Sheol and Avaddon are in the deepest depths of the earth. Who is "closer" to the Holy One, blessed be He, in Heaven - and of course, this is in heavy quotation marks, since the Holy One, blessed be He, fills all worlds, but we speak according to human perception - surely man, who is upon the earth, is closer than Sheol in the depths. And if Sheol and Avaddon, which are deep within the subterranean depths, are revealed and stand before Hashem, how much more so the hearts of human beings who dwell on the earth and are even more visible before Him.
The Vilna Gaon offers an additional explanation: let not a person say, "Hashem is of pure eyes, His gaze is undefiled, He does not look upon evil and corrupt things, so when I commit an impure, tainted act, an act of filth, I have nothing to worry about, for Hashem does not look at such deeds, but only at good ones." The verse tells him: that is not so. Hashem looks even upon Sheol and Avaddon, and there is no place as defiled and abominable as they are, the dwelling place of the sitra achra (the other side), yet they are before Hashem - all the more so the hearts of human beings are before Him, and everything is bare before Him, blessed be He.
The Malbim explains that this verse comes to refute the view of the philosophers, whom he also mentions in Sefer Iyov. They argued that it is inconceivable for Hashem to know the thoughts of human beings. Their first claim was that human thoughts are profoundly deep and hidden, "deep, deep, who can find it?" within one's heart; Hashem sees actions, but what you thought - how can that be seen? Their second claim was that thoughts are not static; they change from moment to moment and from second to second, a rushing river of thoughts that is constantly flowing, and it is impossible that the knowledge of Hashem, blessed be He, should undergo multiplicity or change, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not change.
To this Shlomo says to you: Sheol is deeper and more hidden than the heart, and Avaddon is primeval matter (chomer hayuli) that endlessly sheds its forms and adopts new ones without pause - it is not static, but the primordial substance in constant flux. And nevertheless, it is "before Hashem." If so, how can you think that your thoughts, which are less hidden than Sheol and change at a slower pace than Avaddon, are unknown to Him? If Hashem knows Sheol and Avaddon, how much more so your thoughts!
לֹא יֶאֱהַב לֵץ הוֹכֵחַ לוֹ אֶל חֲכָמִים לֹא יֵלֵךְ׃ (יב) - A scorner loves not one who rebukes him; he will not go to the wise. (12)
The Vilna Gaon connects this verse to what is written elsewhere: "Do not reprove a scorner lest he hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you" (Mishlei 9:8), and contrasting it with, "Give to a wise man and he will become wiser still" (ibid. 9:9). There are two distinct dimensions here. Regarding reproof - in order to reprove someone, I must go to the wrongdoer's house and rebuke him, not wait for him to come to me: I go and tell him, "You did such and such; this is improper and unbecoming, and you must mend your ways." But regarding Torah study - I am under no obligation to go to your home to teach you; if you want to learn Torah, come to me and I will teach you. The duty is upon the student to come to the sage, not upon the sage to chase after the person. Therefore it says, "Reprove a wise man" - go to him to reprove him, and he will love you; but "Give to a wise man" - it does not say "go to the wise man," but rather "give to him"; when he comes, give to him and impart your influence to him.
And about this the verse says: "A scorner does not love one who reproves him" - even when someone comes to his house, as is customary with reproof, and rebukes him, the scorner does not like it. All the more so will he not bother to walk to the home of the reprover; coming to hear a shiur and receive musar is completely out of the question: "I'm staying home." Furthermore: "He will not go to the wise" - not only does he not learn, but he does not even make the walk. After all, Chazal enumerated four traits among those who go to the beit midrash, one of which is "one who goes but does not practice" - meaning that even if he did not listen at all, in the very act of walking he already had a reward, already performed a mitzvah. But this scorner does not even go, let alone listen to words of reproof - that is completely off the table!
The Malbim explains: a scorner is someone who mocks the rules of wisdom and moral discipline. We have already explained that wisdom and musar do not carry undeniable logical proofs; rather, one must accept them from a sage or a prophet, as they cannot be fully established through intellectual proof alone - and therefore, there the scorner finds room to mock. But reproof is rational debate, logical proof, and one cannot scoff at hard proof. What does he do? He guards himself from reproof, taking care that no one proves him wrong. For when they prove him wrong, he has no choice: he is confronted with the facts and forced to change his ways, and the scorner does not want to change his ways. Therefore, "A scorner does not love one who reproves him": I do not like proofs; I do not want proof.
This is an example we have discussed in the past: if you approach someone very far from mitzvos and tell him, "Come hear a shiur, come hear a lecture, compelling and beautiful things are said there" - do you think you have brought him closer? You have driven him even further away. If he assumed the arguments were unconvincing, he might actually come - to clear his conscience and say, "See, the religious folks talk nonsense," and return home at ease, free to carry on however he pleases. But the moment you tell him, "A brilliant and educated person is coming to speak, Professor So-and-so and Doctor Such-and-such, respected intellectuals by every metric, and they present compelling arguments for observing Torah and mitzvos" - you have frightened him even more. As long as someone who seemed uneducated in his eyes was speaking, he could say, "I saw it, they have nothing to offer, he doesn't know what he's talking about." But when someone comes with proofs, that terrifies him: proofs I must accept.
A similar story is told about Galileo, who invited the leaders of the church. The church had excommunicated him because, according to their doctrine, everything he said about the Earth revolving around the sun was considered heresy. He invited them over: "Come look through the telescope and I will show you." They refused to come; they refused to look. Why? They thought: If we look, we might be convinced - and that is a problem, you might convince us! Look at how a person is willing to walk in the dark rather than listen, lest he hear and be persuaded. For the very same reason, a smoker does not want to hear anti-smoking lectures - precisely because of the truth in them. If it were nonsense, why would he care? He would attend, laugh, sneer: "Nonsense, unproven, unscientific, there's no evidence." But when he knows the matter is proven and backed by scientific studies, he cannot argue; no matter how much of a scorner he is, one cannot argue with facts. What option is left to him? "I have no time; I'm very busy today." The only way to evade it is "He will not go to the wise" - do not attend, do not listen, because reproof poses a problem for me, and I cannot scoff at it.
Therefore it is said: "Do not reprove a scorner lest he hate you." Reproof is proof that he is wrong, and he himself knows he is wrong. When you prove it to him, you expose his flaw and spoil his enjoyment of what he is doing, for he knows you are right, yet what can he do - his inclination overpowers him. That is why he will hate you, and that is why, from the outset, he does not go to the wise, in order to avoid getting trapped in this bind.
לֵב שָׂמֵחַ יֵיטִב פָּנִים וּבְעַצְּבַת לֵב רוּחַ נְכֵאָה׃ (יג) - "A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but through sorrow of heart the spirit is broken." (13)
Rashi explains: If you bring joy to the heart of the Holy One, blessed be He - by walking in Hashem's ways and fulfilling His commandments - the Holy One, blessed be He, will turn a cheerful face toward you; "Hashem make His face shine upon you," fulfilling all your needs and desires and granting your will. "But through sorrow of heart" - if you cause grief to the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written, "and it grieved Him at His heart" (Bereishis 6:6) in the wake of man's wickedness, and what does the verse state next? "And Hashem said: I will blot out man" (ibid. 6:7) - you cause your spirit to be broken, and Heaven forbid you may be harmed by this, just like that "I will blot out man."
Some people believe that only the action matters: Did you do good or did you do evil? What you thought, what crossed your mind, whether your intent was positive or negative - that doesn't matter; what counts is the bottom line, the action. The verse tells you: Know that this is not so; do not let such an idea enter your mind. The proof is that the heart acts directly upon the body. The primary pleasure and pain of the body depend upon the heart: from joy of the heart comes physical pleasure, and from sadness of the heart comes physical brokenness. "A joyful heart cures like medicine" (Mishlei 17:22) - where gehah means healing (as in Geha Hospital, a place of healing). On the other hand, through sorrow of heart comes a "broken spirit," and "a broken spirit, who can bear?" (ibid. 18:14). Here you see that the power of the heart has an immense impact on the human body: when a person's heart is joyous, his entire body rejoices, vibrant and flourishing; but when the heart is sad and crushed, his body is hunched and broken, lacking appetite for anything. Everything depends upon the heart. How, then, could you say that action alone matters and the thought of the heart makes no difference? If man's entire constitution and everything he experiences depends on his heart, then the heart is certainly paramount.
But a heart without action - let there be no mistake - is certainly no good. A person should not say, "I am religious in my heart" - building a sukkah in the heart, putting on tefillin in the heart, taking the lulav in the heart, everything in the heart. Then afterward he suffers a heart attack and no one understands why: he loaded so much onto his heart, how could it not collapse? Rather, it must be the heart - together with the action.
Therefore, Chazal said, "Greater is a transgression performed for the sake of Heaven than a mitzvah performed not for its own sake" (Nazir 23b): if the heart is the main thing, then even a transgression that is lishmah is greater than a mitzvah that lacks the heart, which is shelo lishmah. While this does not apply in practice in our times, but was said concerning their era, it illustrates the profound importance of the heart in all of human conduct. And so, when we want to tell someone to do something with mindful attention, we say in Hebrew, "tasim lev" - "pay attention," literally "place your heart." That is the essential point: put your heart into it; dedicating the heart is the essence of every human deed.
The Vilna Gaon explains: one whose heart rejoices in his toil - "a glad heart makes a cheerful countenance," it improves his face; and when he is sad, it shows upon his face, "his spirit is crushed." The explanation: a person's longing to do a mitzvah or anything else comes from the spirit - the ruach is the inner force that activates all of these things. One whose heart is sad has a spirit that is crushed and broken; his spirit is short in everything, and he does not act at all, because his spirit is broken.
And so it is with Torah. In the Torah there is Peshat, Remez, Derash, and Sod, and each has its own distinct countenance, as the Gemara says: an awe-filled countenance for Mikra (Scripture), an illuminating countenance for Mishnah, a smiling countenance for Talmud, and as it is written, "Face to face Hashem spoke with you." Scripture must be studied with awe, just as it was received at Sinai - hence an awe-filled countenance for Mikra. The Talmud is complex and deep - it requires a smiling countenance, one that brings clarity to everything. And the Mishnah - an illuminating, welcoming countenance, for it holds depth that is not readily visible on its surface, and it therefore requires the Talmud to elucidate it further. It turns out that for every facet of Torah, one must present the proper countenance and study it according to its own nature. "A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance" - when a person has a glad heart, he studies the entire Torah according to its appropriate countenance, each and every area as it deserves. But "by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed" - one whose spirit is broken cannot study the Torah in the manner appropriate to it: there is that which requires a smiling countenance and that which requires an illuminating countenance, but this person has no countenance at all; his spirit is crushed.
And everything stems from the spirit, as it is written: "My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth." How does one attain "My words which I have put in your mouth"? Through "My spirit that is upon you." For all of a person's yearning for Torah, for mitzvos, and for any good deed comes through the power of the spirit, and the spirit is what is drawn forward. If the spirit is crushed, there is no "My spirit that is upon you," and consequently there is no "My words which I have put in your mouth" - he is unable to study and cannot acquire a portion in the Torah. Therefore, one needs a glad heart: the spirit is joyful, the heart's yearning is alive, and through this, one can study every part of the Torah as is fitting for it.
The Malbim explains that joy of the heart and its sorrow can manifest in several ways, and here the verse refers to a heart that rejoices in worldly matters, as it is written, "and my heart rejoiced in all my toil." And who is it whose heart rejoices in worldly affairs? A person whose sins do not trouble him; what matters to him is that he earned another sum of money, bought another property, completed another home renovation. All that interests him is material success. Such a person - "makes a cheerful countenance" alone. The heart's joy is evident on the face, which is why the face is called panim: it is the place where what is happening on the inside (penim) is most clearly reflected. Nothing is more expressive than the face - look at a person's face and you can see whether he is joyful, sad, pensive, broken, or afraid; everything is apparent on the face, revealing what is within.
One whose heart rejoices in materialism, and whose heart does not ache over the deficiencies in his divine service or his lack of spiritual attainment - over failing to perform mitzvos properly - but is instead pleased with himself and enjoys all worldly pleasures, he will "make a cheerful countenance" and nothing more. His heart's joy shows on his face, but he does not improve his spirit. And the spirit encompasses the soul's inner faculties: "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of Hashem." It turns out you have only external joy, for what do you have? A heart glad over some material achievement. Sometimes, says the Malbim, the heart is glad while the spirit is crushed. Why? Because you debased it: you did not engage in spiritual matters and gave it no nourishment. What were you busy with? Another steak, another material pursuit, another indulgence - the heart may indeed be happy, but the spirit is broken and crushed, unable to soar, crushed because the person failed to grant it life.
And sometimes, know, it is specifically through sorrow of the heart that you improve the crushed spirit, for the word "will improve" applies to both parts of the verse: "a glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, and by sorrow of heart [it improves] a crushed spirit." What do you sorrow over? Over your meager attainment in Avodas Hashem, over the fact that my service is superficial rather than internal, that I lack fervor in serving Hashem, that I am not meticulous enough in mitzvos, and that I am not careful to avoid sins. This is sorrow of heart, heartache over the lack of achievement in divine service - and this is precisely what will improve the crushed spirit, elevating it, uplifting it, and raising it high. And this is far better than merely improving the countenance: the glad heart improves only the face, which is external, while deep within, his spirit is broken. But one who has heartache over his spiritual state, who grieves that he is not advancing in Avodas Hashem, infuses life into the crushed spirit, for the lifeblood of the spirit is the service of Hashem. By offering yourself mussar and demanding more of yourself, you revive your spirit. But one who showers endless gifts upon his physical desires at the expense of his spirituality achieves nothing; he will not improve his crushed spirit, but will only brighten his countenance: outwardly he will appear joyful, yet within he is broken and empty.
This is also why we see so many young people drifting to various cults, to Hare Krishna, searching for themselves in Goa, and later ending up in psychiatric wards. Where does all this come from? Know that this phenomenon is found among Jews completely out of proportion to any other nation - in India and all those centers of idolatry, disproportionately so. Rabbi Fanger can come and tell you; he spent time in all those centers of impurity and lived through that entire ordeal. What is the explanation? The explanation is simple: a Jew possesses a soul, and "the soul will not be filled." You cannot satisfy the soul with steaks or pizzas - that does not speak to it. What happens? The soul clamors within, pulls, hungers, demands. And what does the person do? "I have a craving, I really want it - bring me pizza, give me another physical pleasure, indulge another desire, let me buy this, upgrade that, a new model just came out." This urge stems from an inner desire, an innate longing for something greater and loftier - except that he does not understand the language. He feels that something gives him no rest, and he assumes it must be a desire for yet another material indulgence; so he feeds another craving, only to find that it leaves him cold.
So he seeks it in spiritualized desires: connecting to something mystical, to yoga, to some Buddhist monk somewhere in the Himalayas - this offers him something pseudo-spiritual, and it begins to resonate with him slightly. But the soul still clamors, because this is not the answer and it is not its nourishment; you are feeding it a cheap substitute, a counterfeit knockoff. And when does the soul finally rest? Hear it from all those who were there and became ba'alei teshuvah: "I reached the light; I found what my soul longed for. All along, I was running, searching, chasing, never grasping what I was missing. I discovered prayer, I discovered Torah, I was privileged to connect to true spirituality - here I felt a sense of wholeness."
And that is what the verse tells you: a heart glad in materialism will improve the countenance - externally, there is only a cheerful face. Look at all the advertisements and movies: a smiling face, everything seems wonderful, everything is fun - yet it is entirely superficial. Go and check what is happening with these people behind closed doors: one is divorced for the seventh time, another had a son take his own life, a third attempted suicide himself, and another has undergone seventeen surgeries because he cannot accept his physical appearance. You see how people simply degrade themselves. Outwardly it photographs nicely - glossy pictures, content, ecstatic, surrounded by indulgences and pleasures. But "by sorrow of heart" - one who feels sadness in his heart and rebukes himself for his spiritual shortcomings and lack of achievement in Avodas Hashem - this will improve a crushed spirit; this revives the soul, giving it what it truly lacks. The soul yearns for what will bring it to completion and guide it toward the service of Hashem. That is what will revive the crushed spirit, not all the physical pleasures and worldly indulgences.
The three pesukim we learned all touch upon man's inner world. "Sheol and Avaddon are before Hashem" teaches through a kal vachomer that no thought is hidden from Him, serving as a warning to purify the heart and not defile the intellect, which is the sanctuary of Hashem. "A scorner loves not one who reproves him" exposes the scorner's flight specifically from clear, irrefutable rebuke, which he cannot mock and whose demands he refuses to adopt - and therefore he will not even go to the wise. And "A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance" teaches that the power of the heart is the foundation of a person: a heart rejoicing in material pursuits puts on a cheerful face externally while leaving a broken spirit within, whereas sorrow of the heart over a deficiency in serving Hashem is what revives and restores the crushed spirit - and a heart that rejoices in the service of Hashem illuminates all facets of Torah, meriting the fulfillment of "My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth."