In Chapter 15, King Solomon continues to teach us the Torah of character traits in speech and conduct: the power of a soft response, the harm caused by an angry person, and the nature of laziness that seeks out excuses. In this lesson, we will examine two adjacent verses - "A wrathful man stirs up discord" and "The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns" - and see how, according to the Vilna Gaon, they combine into a complete system of four foundations in the service of Hashem.
אִישׁ חֵמָה יְגָרֶה מָדוֹן וְאֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם יַשְׁקִיט רִיב׃ (משלי טו, יח) - A wrathful man stirs up discord, but he who is slow to anger appeases strife. (Mishlei 15:18)
Rabbeinu Yonah explains this verse as practical guidance: when you see a quarrel between people and wish to appoint a mediator and peacemaker to bring them to common ground - under no circumstances should you choose a wrathful man (an ish cheimah) for this role. Why? Because he comes to mediate, begins explaining things to one side, and that person erupts; he turns to the other side, and that person erupts too; and then the mediator himself begins shouting at both of them - and instead of calm, an even greater brawl erupts. A wrathful person lacks patience. The absolute fundamental requirement of a mediator is nerves of steel and immense patience, because the process can be maddening: you return to the second party and he hardens his stance; you leave him and go back to the first, and he raises a new claim. A person who lacks forbearance will say, "This story will never end" - whereas the patient person will ultimately achieve a compromise. A wrathful person, on the other hand, will only stir up discord: between people who already have a dispute, he will only add strife, because he is disgusted by their claims and cannot tolerate listening to either of them. In contrast, "he who is slow to anger appeases strife" - only one who has forbearance and listens patiently to each and every side can calm the dispute.
The Vilna Gaon analyzes the exact wording of the verse: the first clause states "stirs up discord [madon]" while the second states "appeases strife [riv]". Madon is the beginning of the dispute, as in the verse "The beginning of strife [madon] is like letting out water" (Mishlei 17:14), and it stems from the root din (litigation and judgment). When a person begins to quarrel with his fellow, he is essentially litigating with him - reminding him of what he did back then and what he did later, and pressing claims against him. This is madon, the beginning. The riv is already the stage that follows, the middle: once he has begun to dispute against him and present his grievances, the open quarrel actually erupts.
In this context, Rashi cites the verse concerning Avram and Lot: "And there was strife [riv] between the herdsmen of Avram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle" (Bereishit 13:7), yet Avram says, "Let there be no quarrel [merivah] between me and you" (Bereishit 13:8). But ostensibly, isn't there already one? Rather, there is a riv, but not yet a merivah. What is the difference between riv and merivah? Masculine and feminine: the masculine form does not give birth, whereas the feminine gives birth and reproduces. If there is a riv, it is small and does not multiply; but merivah, with the letter hei at the end, multiplies, grows, and becomes a raging fire. Therefore Avram said: Let us ensure that this remains merely a riv and that we do not come to a full-blown merivah.
According to this, the verse is understood: a wrathful man "stirs up" [yegareh] - he searches and digs around for ways to provoke, ways to cause madon, from which the quarrel will subsequently develop. He creates the very genesis of the conflict, the madon, which did not exist at all beforehand. The person who is slow to anger, however, is his complete opposite: not only does he not provoke discord, and not only does he have the power to quiet initial discord, but even a full-fledged riv that has already developed and grown immense - that too he has the power to appease, through his forbearance and patience.
The Malbim likewise distinguishes between riv and madon: madon is the litigation over the matter, and the disputed matter is the cause of the quarrel; whereas riv encompasses all forms of conflict. Thus we find: "A contentious man stirs up strife" (Mishlei 26:21) - ish medanim is from the root madon, a person whose nature is to raise legal claims, seek litigation, and meet in court, always finding legal clauses to sue you over. And because he summons people to court, hatred and strife are born between them: it all began from the legal claim (din) he lodged against you.
However, the Malbim raises a difficulty from a later verse: "An angry man [ish af] stirs up discord, and a wrathful man [ba'al cheimah] abounds in transgression" (Mishlei 29:22). There, the one who stirs up discord is the ish af, whereas here it is the ish cheimah. He resolves this by explaining that there is a difference between af and cheimah: cheimah is the burning of internal anger, as in the phrase "and his wrath burned within him" (Esther 1:12) - something burning within him and consuming him from the inside; while af is external anger, as in "For a fire is kindled in My nostril" (Devarim 32:22) - one sees the fire blazing from him, his reddened face, and his outward eruption.
Therefore, there it speaks of a man of anger (ish af), one driven by outward rage: he wants to harm his fellow, and so he stirs up contention and searches for a pretext or legal clause to sue him - a sort of "casus belli," something that can serve as a declaration of war. But the man of fury (ba'al cheimah), within whom the fire burns internally, is far worse, for internal fury is always stronger than external anger - and therefore it is said of him that he is "abounding in transgression": he harms his fellow even without law and without pretext, out of sheer malice. He steals, destroys, ruins - why? Because he feels like it. The angry man needs a legal clause, but the furious man needs nothing at all.
Our verse comes to teach that this is not always so: sometimes even a man of fury uses legal arguments, and "a wrathful man stirs up strife" - searching for ways to vent his fury through the legal system. For when he has the power, he will strike and inflict harm with no regard for the law; but when he has no choice, when someone blocks him - the police or another force - he will attack you through claims and legal technicalities. And from this contention, actual quarrel is ignited as well. However, if the responding party is slow to anger, answering him with soft words and derech eretz - "a soft answer turns away wrath" - he has the power to turn back his fury and appease him with gentle words. Then, "he who is slow to anger calms a quarrel": even a quarrel born of fury, the one with a soft answer has the power to extinguish the blaze ignited by the man of wrath.
דֶּרֶךְ עָצֵל כִּמְשֻׂכַת חָדֶק וְאֹרַח יְשָׁרִים סְלֻלָה׃ (משלי טו, יט) - The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is paved. (Mishlei 15:19)
Rashi explains: in the eyes of the sluggard, it seems as though all roads are hedged off before him with a barrier of thorns. "Mesuchah" means a hedge or fence - as in modern Hebrew, a hurdles race (merotz mesuchot), meaning obstacles and barriers; and "chadek" means thorns. The sluggard tells you: It is impossible to walk; don't you see there is an impassable hedge of thorns in the way? In contrast, "the path of the upright is paved" - the upright person does not hide behind excuses of a hedge of thorns, and the road lies open before him.
In simple words: the way of the sluggard is the way of excuses. Whatever you tell him - it is impossible, "there is a lion in the way," "a lion in the streets." He will always find explanations: now it is cold, now it is hot, and the gates of excuses never close. He will always tell you that there are thorns and one cannot pass. But the path of the upright is paved.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains the deeper meaning: in a person's service of Hashem throughout life, he is in the category of a "walker" - "And I will give you places to walk among these that stand by." A "walker" means one who advances, moving from character trait to character trait and from level to level. A person must be in constant motion all his days. To what can this be compared? Life is like riding a bicycle uphill - if you do not push the pedals, you do not stay in place; you roll backward. There is no standing still: you are either climbing or sliding down.
This is the sluggard "like a hedge of thorns": he is like one trapped among thorns, unable to move forward or backward, making no progress in the service of Hashem. By contrast, the upright person - his path is paved; he advances and moves from trait to trait, from virtue to virtue and from level to level, continuously ascending the ladder of Torah and fear of Heaven. His path is paved and leads to the House of God, whereas the sluggard goes only backward and never forward.
A Midrash Aggadah interprets this verse as referring to Esav: the way of Esav is like a thorn entangled in a fleece of wool - try to pull it out from here, and it catches over there; it is extraordinarily difficult to extract. In the same way, a person cannot escape his false accusations without money. The sluggard in the verse is Esav, and "like a hedge of thorns" refers to thorns from which one cannot break free: once a thorn is entangled in wool, wherever you pull, you get snagged. And the only way to overcome him is with money.
It is told of one of the great leaders of Israel, a prominent Rebbe, that people came to him in a panic and said: "Kevod HaRav, they appointed a minister known as a fierce hater of Israel to head the government, and this is terrible trouble - how will we manage with him?" The Rebbe replied: "I do not know what you are talking about; I saw him, and he looks completely fine to me." They asked him: "What do you mean, completely fine?" He said: "He has no physical blemish; thank God, he has two hands. All that is needed is simply to fill his hands, and everything will be resolved. If he were handicapped and missing hands - we would have a problem; but as long as he has two hands, a few dollars and the matter is settled."
This is the meaning of the Midrash cited by Rashi: A person does not escape the false accusations of Eisav without money. This was the way of Israel throughout the exile, the way of "baksheesh" (bribes), and in this way they smoothed over many dangerous situations. This was not always possible - when a decree was sealed, even all the money in the world was of no avail - but under normal circumstances, this was the way to deal with Eisav. Even with the Germans, may their name and memory be blotted out, with whom one could not talk about money initially - that was only at the start of the war; by its end, they were already willing to release entire trainloads of Hungarian and other Jews in exchange for money, gold bars, and arms shipments. This was the case in the Kastner affair, where through money he succeeded in ransoming trains of Jews who were already being led to Auschwitz. Although a trial was held concerning him as to whether he indeed did what was required and what exactly his ties with the Nazis were, in any case, the conclusion that emerges from this remains: the way to negotiate with Eisav is through money, and escaping him without money is nearly impossible.
The Vilna Gaon notes - and the Malbim agrees with this principle - that there is a distinction between a derech (road) and an o'rach (path): here it says "the way (derech) of the sluggard," and there "the path (o'rach) of the upright." A derech is a broad thoroughfare, akin to an intercity highway, while an o'rach is a narrow, confined route, akin to a local access road.
Based on a parable in the Midrash, the Vilna Gaon explains the verse. It is comparable to a man who stood at a crossroads and asked someone sitting there: "The road branches off to the right and to the left; which of them should I take to reach the city?" He replied: "The right-hand road is long but short, and the left-hand road is short but long." The fool and sluggard said, "I prefer the short one," and took the left road. Indeed it was short, only two kilometers, but full of obstacles, briers, and thorns, Heaven forbid; it was short in distance, but in practice very long. The wise man, however, even though he was told that his road is long, knows that it is a long road that is actually short.
This is the explanation of the verse: The sluggard chooses the short route because he was told so, and at first he even sees it as clear and free of troubles - yet only later does its difficulty become apparent to him, proving to be long. The upright and decent people, by contrast, may see difficulties initially, and they are told that the road is long, but they know that in the end it will bring them to their destination most swiftly. "The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of briers" - you see it paved right now, but later discover how many thorns await you; "while the path of the upright is a paved highway" - you are told the work is hard and long, but you know it is paved and will easily bring you to where you need to go.
The Vilna Gaon adds and notes that in these recent verses, Shlomo encompassed four matters, corresponding to the verse: "And now, Israel, what does Hashem your God ask of you, but to fear Hashem your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him..." (Devarim 10:12). "To fear" is one; "to walk in His ways" is in the plural, which indicates two, making three in total; "and to love" is four.
And what is "to walk in His ways"? To master one's character traits. And the primary traits that the Vilna Gaon consistently counts as the two fundamental roots are desire and anger: the trait of lust and desire within a person, which draws him toward everything, and the trait of anger, which burns within him over everything that happens to him.
Thus is the order of the verses: "Better is a little with the fear of Hashem" corresponds to fear, with which he opens. "Better a meal of herbs where there is love" corresponds to love. "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife" corresponds to the trait of anger. "The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of briers" corresponds to lust and desire: the sluggard lacks the energy to act because he desires rest and physical indulgence, and when you tell him to rise and act, it is not for him, for he follows the desires of his heart. It turns out that Shlomo encompassed in these four verses all four things that Hashem asks of us: fear, love, and distancing oneself from anger and desire.
The Malbim explains this based on the distinction between a derech and an o'rach: a derech is the major road leading from city to city, while an o'rach is the small, narrow path leading from the city to the village or between villages. The sluggard is too lazy to walk, and therefore even a wide road seems to him like a hedge of briers: they say to him, "See what a wide, beautiful road lies before you, why complain?" Yet he replies that it is as difficult to traverse as a fence tangled with thorns. The upright, on the other hand, who desire to walk the straight path and fulfill the will of Hashem, even a narrow path, a route not frequented by the public, is like a paved highway before them, like a smooth track that is easy to traverse. One who is lazy finds even a wide, paved road inadequate; while one who is upright walks comfortably even along a narrow path.
However, the Malbim raises a difficulty: Why did the verse contrast "sluggard" with "upright"? Ostensibly, it should have contrasted a sluggard with an industrious person, and an upright person with a deceiver. We have an established rule from Rabbeinu Yonah that wherever Shlomo mentions two things in a single verse, he speaks in opposites - meaning that the upright are the antithesis of the sluggard. What, then, is the connection between them?
The Malbim explains that this is understood in light of the allegory. Who is the lazy one? A person who is too sluggish to walk in the path of wisdom. Even what he is strictly obligated to do by law - which is the broad highway, that which is required of everyone, the basic halachah and din - seems to him full of thorns. "It is impossible to overcome this," he says; "one has to fight the yetzer hara, and the yetzer is made of fire while we are flesh and blood." Even an upright path, even clear and absolute prohibitions, are like a thornbush in his eyes. And if he cannot manage on the broad highway, then on the narrow personal pathways - which represent going beyond the letter of the law, meticulous halachic observance, and pious deeds - he certainly will not tread; that is completely out of the question.
In contrast stands the upright man, whose heart is straight and inclined toward good: even the narrow path, the personal and fine track along which he walks in ways of piety and righteousness, is smoothly paved before him. He does not wage an immense war against the yetzer and worldly desires like the wicked, for he has straightened himself and his heart is not drawn after cravings. Therefore, it is easy for him to observe even matters of mere piety, stringency, and meticulous halachic detail. But the sluggard, who is too lazy to walk in the way of Hashem and desires to follow his heart's lusts, having habituated himself to this - even the mitzvot required of everyone, which form the broad highway, feel difficult and burdensome to him.
These two verses set before us two character traits and their rectification. A wrathful man stirs up strife and ignites quarrels, whereas the patient person - through the power of a gentle response and patience - quiets even a dispute that is already blazing; this is why one should not appoint an angry person as a mediator, for a mediator requires nerves of steel. And the sluggard, whose way is paved with excuses, sees a hedge of thorns along every broad road and makes no progress at all, for in the service of Hashem there is no standing still - one is either ascending or sliding backward; whereas for the upright, even the narrow path of meticulous halachah and piety is smoothly paved before him. And so, in the words of the Vilna Gaon, these four verses encompass the four things that Hashem asks of us: fear of Heaven, love of Hashem, and mastery over anger and over physical desire.