The three verses before us in chapter 15 continue the theme of the entire chapter: the power of speech, a person's direction in life, and the Divine Providence that brings down the arrogant and raises up the humble. We will study them in order - verse by verse, with the commentaries of the Rishonim and the Gra, and the commentary of the Malbim.
שִׂמְחָה לָאִישׁ בְּמַעֲנֵה פִיו וְדָבָר בְּעִתּוֹ מַה טּוֹב׃ (כג) - A man has joy in the utterance of his mouth, and a word in its season, how good it is!
Rashi explains according to the plain meaning: through a gentle response and calm speech, people come to love him. Whom do people dislike? One who reacts in an unpleasant, coarse, vulgar, agitated, or condescending manner. But when a person responds pleasantly, it brings joy and satisfaction to others: someone speaks, and you answer him gently.
And our Sages expounded, as Rashi cites, regarding masters of text: a person who reviews and recites much Torah, and when asked a question, he knows how to answer. Someone asks him where such-and-such is written, and he instantly cites it and knows it - this brings him joy. "And a word in its season, how good it is" - and best of all is when he is asked about a timely matter: the laws of Pesach on Pesach, the laws of Succos on Succos. How wonderful it is when the questions pertain directly to that specific time.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains: It is human nature to feel joy when one speaks aptly, meaning when one says the right sentence at the right time and place. It gives a person a good feeling - he knew how to react in time, delivering the sharp, witty, and incisive remark at the exact right moment. "Just as he finished speaking, I countered with this, and that was it - he was silenced, with nothing left to say." That happens in an argument, but not only in arguments: saying the right thing in the right place gives a person the satisfaction of having expressed himself well.
Even so, Rabbeinu Yonah adds, this is no reason to speak excessively: "and a word in its season, how good it is." Even if you crave to speak, and even if you know you have something appropriate to say - do not speak whenever the thought crosses your mind. Some people talk incessantly: a person always feels he must express himself, always feels he must react, always has something to say. Says Rabbeinu Yonah: even though a person finds joy in the response of his mouth when he knows how to say the right thing in the right place, nevertheless, he must set aside his natural inclination and craving to speak, master his spirit, and speak only a word in its proper season. Speak only what is needed and necessary right now. If it is not essential, do not say it merely because you find joy in the speaking itself or because you enjoy delivering the remark. Pleasure is not the yardstick; rather: is it in its season? Is it necessary and vital right now? If so, speak. If not, it is better to remain silent.
And this is indeed the way of the wise: they always have something to say, yet you see them remain silent. Only when someone turns to them or when there is a pressing need to speak do you see them rise and speak.
Once, several Torah scholars and community leaders gathered to discuss pressing issues of the day. A discussion arose over who would speak first - or rather, who would speak last, as each one deferred respectfully to his fellow. At a certain point, one of the elders stood up and said, "Listen, most of you here are young; honor and prestige matter to you - who speaks and who does not speak. I am already old and gray; games of honor mean nothing to me, so I will speak first." And he stood up and delivered his words.
Rav Leib Chasman, the Mashgiach of the Chevron Yeshiva, who had previously preferred not to speak and deferred to others, now took the floor. He stood up and said: "I would not have spoken, but since something was said here that I feel obligated to protest, I am standing up to speak. It was mentioned here that when a person is old and gray, considerations of honor no longer affect him. I want to tell you that this is a grave misconception and contrary to the Torah. You should know: when a person is young, all desires rage within him - the craving for food, physical lusts, all desires. But as a person grows old, physical desires weaken; his sense of taste diminishes, and he no longer enjoys anything - except for one desire, which grows stronger at the expense of all the others, and that is the craving for honor. All the desires he has lost now channel into this single craving. Woe to anyone who insults him, fails to invite him, ignores him, neglects to say good morning, or forgets to phone him before Shabbat and Yom Tov. In an elderly person, the desire for honor intensifies. Therefore, I felt obligated to protest" - and he sat down.
Here is a wonderful illustration of the verse. "A man has joy in the utterance of his mouth" - in everything he could say, there would be joy in speaking, yet he remains silent. And when does he speak? "And a word in its season, how good it is" - when there is an absolute necessity and an obligation to rise and speak, he stands up and speaks, for in such a case silence is forbidden. Something was said that contradicts the teachings of Chazal, who taught that the desire for honor accompanies a person until the very grave, to his final moments. Only when you must speak should you speak, in the manner of "a word in its season."
The Vilna Gaon explains that a person's wisdom stands as strength for him on two occasions. The first is when someone asks him a question and he knows how to answer; they asked me and I knew, they put me to the test and I answered, which gives him a good feeling. The second is matters he knows on his own and learns in their proper time: the halachos of Pesach on Pesach, the halachos of each festival on that festival. In both examples, wisdom aids a person: when he is asked, and when he himself needs that knowledge. He faces a question and finds the answer within himself - he does not need to ask others, for he knows the halachah and knows the proper path. This is "and a word in its season, how good!": when he needs the matter, he knows how to act. In both of these, a person finds joy.
However, the Gra adds, there is something that is needed even out of its season. Seemingly, it makes no sense that before the Three Weeks (Bein HaMetzarim) a person would start learning the halachos of Purim - that is neither the subject nor the relevant topic. Yet it is very possible that a person will study halachos that are not currently relevant to him at all - for example, the laws of pikuach nefesh (saving a life). The Gemara says that one who does not teach the laws of pikuach nefesh is considered like a shedder of blood, for an emergency of pikuach nefesh can arise suddenly; and if a person does not know the halachah, he will go and ask the sage - and it is written that when a sage is asked concerning matters of pikuach nefesh, it is a disgrace for the sage: How is it that you did not teach the people these laws in time? And by the time this person comes and asks whether it is permitted or forbidden on Shabbat, the sick person has already breathed his last. Therefore, the laws of pikuach nefesh are always needed - they are always "in season."
And this is what the Gemara relates in Masechet Shabbat (daf 30a): They asked a question - what is the halachah regarding extinguishing a lamp for a sick person on Shabbat, is it permitted or forbidden? And he began and said: "Where is Solomon, where is your wisdom, where is your understanding?" and began quoting the verse, "For a living dog is better than a dead lion," showing how this seemingly contradicts the words of King David, and so forth - delivering a full page of Aggadah to them. You are asked a practical question in halachah, and you reply off-topic with words of Aggadah?
The Vilna Gaon explains: Where else do we find such a thing in the Talmud, where the Gemara asks a halachic question and the response is given in words of Aggadah? Rather, as we explained, in matters of pikuach nefesh, the one who is asked is considered like a shedder of blood for not having taught them the halachos beforehand. Seeing that they were asking him about the laws of pikuach nefesh, he realized they clearly did not know that pikuach nefesh overrides Shabbat. What did he do? He opened with words of Aggadah, for Aggadah captivates the hearts of the people. The moment he began speaking Aggadah, everyone gathered and listened intently - the sage is teaching Aggadah! And why is Aggadah called by this name? The Pele Yoetz explains: from the term nagid, something that draws forward - Aggadah draws the heart. By opening with Aggadah, he captured the people's attention, and once their ears were receptive, they would absorb the laws of pikuach nefesh thoroughly when he stated them, ensuring they would remember them.
This is "A man has joy by the answer of his mouth" - when a person has an answer ready in his mouth when asked; "and a word in its season, how good!" - what is fundamentally good, namely pikuach nefesh. In this too he will rejoice, for by always knowing what to do, he can save lives in a time of need, without having to run and ask questions while harm is caused to the patient in the meantime.
The Malbim explains: one who has the rules of wisdom ordered - that is, arranged and set - upon his lips, so that the moment he is asked he immediately knows how to respond (and as we have learned several times, "mouth" alludes to wisdom), derives joy from this. Whatever they ask him, he knows immediately and answers immediately.
And when he answers a matter in its proper time, when an answer is needed on the spot and he knows it at once and has a solution - "a word in its season, how good!": how good and beneficial it is that an answer is available at the moment of need. When a problem arises, they immediately ask him what to do, and he promptly provides the solution and states the halachah. This is the ultimate good: to be of benefit when the matter is in its proper time.
And in the precise wording of the verse: when the rules of wisdom are arranged upon his lips, there is "joy for a man" - you have personal joy for yourself, knowing what to do in every situation; yet this is not yet in the category of "good." What enters the category of good? When you do good for others. This is the conclusion of the verse: "and a word in its season, how good!" When others are in need of guidance and you tell them how to act, that is "how good!", for you are benefiting others as well. "By the answer of his mouth," having answers for himself, is a private joy, solely "for a man"; but what is truly good is having timely answers for those who ask him.
אֹרַח חַיִּים לְמַעְלָה לְמַשְׂכִּיל לְמַעַן סוּר מִשְּׁאוֹל מָטָּה׃ (כד) - The path of life leads upward for the wise, so that he may turn away from Sheol below. (24)
Rabbeinu Yonah gives a parable: A person lives in one city, and they tell him, "Come, in another city you can get a better, more beautiful apartment." Does he immediately sell his apartment and go? No. He does not leave the city until he has certainty that he has a place in the other city, and that this place will truly suit him and be good for him.
And now, once he has decided and that is it - he is moving, and he has already bought a house in the other city and is leaving here: would it enter anyone's mind that he would start landscaping a garden in the old house, or doing renovations on it? Not with the intention of selling it, but rather he is moving to another city, and before he leaves, he fusses over this house, brings furniture and appliances into it, and installs air conditioning. What kind of foolishness are you doing? You are moving to another city, you are abandoning this house - and you are investing in a house where you are not going to live, when you are already on your way somewhere else?
This is the explanation of our verse: "The path of life leads upward for the wise" - the wise person's path of life, where does he build? Upward. Would he really invest down here in this world, in a temporary dwelling? As Rav Amnon once put it: Where do you invest, in a shack or in a villa? Would someone invest in a shack for two months when afterwards he is moving to a villa forever? Therefore, "The path of life leads upward for the wise" - where does the wise person live, and where does he invest? Above. "To turn away from She'ol below" - for he knows that by doing so he turns away from the depths below, because everything down here is She'ol, and what will you have left of it? You will leave nothing behind here. Therefore, he is not going to invest endlessly down here; his primary investment is above.
The Vilna Gaon explains that man is called a "walker" (holech), as it is written: "And I will give you walking pathways among these who stand." This is because a person is always required to advance in the service of Hashem. And in the words of the Gaon: Man is called a walker, for he must continually go from level to level, and if he does not ascend upward - he will descend lower and lower, Heaven forbid, for it is impossible to remain at one level.
Hear what the Gaon says: it is impossible to stand still. When you ask a person how he is doing, and he answers, "Same old" - what is your spiritual state? "Same thing, just like two years ago, just like ten years ago." Tell him: do not kid yourself, there is no such thing. If you haven't moved forward - you have inevitably declined. "It is impossible to remain at one level." And we have already mentioned that a person is like someone riding a bicycle uphill: the moment you stop pedaling - you start rolling backward. Therefore, a person must always be in a state of ascent.
And this is "The path of life leads upward": What is the way to attain life? That you are always looking upward, constantly going and ascending and climbing higher and higher, not stopping for a moment. And why? "To turn away from She'ol below" - because if you are not ascending, you cannot possibly remain stationary; you are inevitably descending. There are only two possibilities: either you go up or you go down. And if you wish to turn away from She'ol below, you must constantly inquire and examine: how do I climb higher?
The Malbim explains: The wise person is someone who envisions, contemplates, and discerns that the path of life is always to reach upward, to strive toward the heights. And the opposite of this is one who seeks to descend, which is the path of death. In the world, there are literal "roads of death" - a road carved into a mountainside that claims hundreds of lives each year, where two cars can barely pass one another, and with a slight slip, an entire bus finds itself plunging into a ravine hundreds of meters deep, where anyone who falls has no chance of survival. Israelis have also perished there, may Hashem have mercy. But the real path of death, says the Malbim, leads downward.
And although climbing upward is very difficult - descending downward is the easiest thing of all. It is like the difficulty of building compared to the ease of destroying. How long did it take to build the house? Six months, a year; the contractors worked here for a full year. And how long did it take to demolish the previous house? Half a day. A bulldozer arrived, worked for four hours, tore it down; they brought four dump trucks, loaded everything up - and the job was finished. A house that takes a year to build can be demolished in a moment. The Twin Towers - they took ten years to build, and within half an hour they were destroyed. From this you learn a principle: building is very difficult, destroying is very easy; climbing upward is very difficult and demands effort, toil, and hard work, while going down is effortless.
The Malbim explains this according to the laws of gravitation as well. If you leave an object without applying force, static - does it fly or fall? It falls. Take the breath of life away from a person for a single moment - he immediately collapses. Why? Gravity. The gravitational force constantly pulls a person downward, and if you want to ascend, you must exert a great deal of energy. A helicopter that wants to lift off requires tremendous energy to succeed. In water, naturally, without any movement, you find yourself at the bottom; but keep paddling with your arms and legs continuously - and you stay afloat. Therefore, says the Malbim, know this: going down is easy - it is enough to remain passive, and you will sink; but to rise upward, you must be very active and invest tremendous effort to succeed.
And now, if someone thinks, "I'm only slipping a little," he is not alarmed: "Even if I was inactive, I only slipped a little bit." The verse tells him: Not at all! Understand that if you descend, it is not just a little - you are descending toward She'ol. A person who realizes that descending means She'ol will make every effort to climb upward, and will not settle for mediocrity, but will say to himself: "I must invest everything in order to rise."
And this is the meaning: The maskil, one who reflects with his intellect and understands that the path of life leads upward, walks along the path of life and constantly seeks how to elevate himself - how to add spirituality, another Torah shiur, another mitzvah that until now I have not fulfilled, another act of chesed that until now I have not done. This is the way of one who seeks the path of life. By contrast, sometimes a person does not do very much; once you realize that if I do not act, that itself is Sheol below - that there is no middle state where I did not rise much, but also did not fall - you will act. For if you take no action, you automatically fall; gravity takes control of you. In such a state, a person will surely exert himself and toil to ascend, because he understands that it is not a choice of "either you exert yourself or you stay the same" - there is no such thing; it is Sheol below.
A parable illustrates this: A person whose financial situation is fine, baruch Hashem he has a steady income and money in the bank and lacks for nothing. You ask him why he is not looking for a job, and he answers: "Why do I need a job? In my current situation I can get by without working; I am doing fine." But tell him: "Sir, every day that you do not generate income, the bank deducts ten percent from your deposits - not from your profits, but from the principal you already have." Ah, now he looks at things completely differently. Here it is not static; it is not "I didn't earn, but I stayed the same." Here he will run to work and rush to seek a livelihood, because he understands that within a few months he will be left with nothing. The same applies here: if you understand that when you do not exert yourself with all your might to ascend, you do not simply remain the same, but rather sink to Sheol below - you will strive with all your strength to always walk along the path of life, which only leads upward.
בֵּית גֵּאִים יִסַּח יְהֹוָה וְיַצֵּב גְּבוּל אַלְמָנָה׃ (כה) - Hashem will tear down the house of the arrogant, but He will establish the border of the widow. (25)
What is "the house of the arrogant"? Rabbeinu Yonah explains: They are those who fix in their hearts that their dwelling is in this world, and all their primary thoughts are devoted to settling it, and they give no thought to what follows it, as it is stated, "Their inner thought is that their houses are forever" (Tehillim 49:12). He is simply describing the reality of today. "Yisach" means He will destroy. Who are they? Those who fix in their hearts that their residence is in this world; all they have are physical matters - his home is here, and that is all that interests him. At every meeting he will tell you what he bought, what he added to the house, what renovations he did, what car he upgraded to, what promotion he received at work. All that interests him is material existence, the affairs of this world - "all their primary thoughts are devoted to settling it, and they give no thought to what follows it." He will never tell you what mitzvah he fulfilled today or what shiur he added. "Their inner thought is that their houses are forever" - what occupies his inner thoughts all day? His house, solely physical matters.
Therefore, when he succeeds in achieving status and has a luxurious villa, he boasts about it: "Look, I worked hard and achieved this; see what a villa I have." Yet it does not cross his mind: "Sir, this villa you leave behind here; what have you done for your eternal villa, what have you invested there?" Therefore, such a house of the arrogant - Hashem will tear down; the Holy One, Blessed is He, will destroy his house. Reflect and see how this verse is a direct continuation of the previous verse: "The path of life leads upward for the wise, so that he may turn away from Sheol below." There it spoke of a person who invests in an apartment he is about to leave, instead of investing in the dwelling where he will reside forever. The house of such a person is a house of the arrogant, and Hashem will destroy it.
Rabbeinu Yonah adds: "And know that a person does not reach the trait of absolute arrogance until he removes the Upper World from his heart." The meaning of this is: When does a person reach a state of "I am, and there is none besides me"? Only if he fails to reflect that there is continuation, that there is an Olam Haba (World to Come). When you see the pinnacle of haughtiness and arrogance, it is only because, as far as he is concerned, he has erased the World to Come, and he possesses no sense or awareness whatsoever that an Olam Haba exists.
"He will establish the border of the widow" - on the other hand, Hashem will establish the border of the widow. And who is the widow? The widowed nation, the nation that was destroyed and brought low to the dust, which is the exact opposite of the "house of the arrogant." The house of the arrogant refers to the nations of the world, who pride themselves on their palaces and boast of their settled dominion - yet Hashem will tear it down. Babylon was well-built and magnificent, and what remains of it? Ruins. But the Jewish people, who were like a widow whose home was destroyed and was exiled from her city - "He will establish the border of the widow." On the contrary, Hashem will renew their border, resettle their land, and they will merit to return, "I will build you once again and you shall be built" (Yirmiyahu 31:3), and be redeemed with an eternal redemption.
The Vilna Gaon explains this based on the Gemara in Perek HaRoeh, Masechet Berachot 57b: One who sees the house of Nevuchadnezzar recites, "Blessed is He Who destroyed the house of the wicked Nevuchadnezzar"; and one who sees the houses of Israel in their settled state, as cited there on daf 58b, recites, "Blessed is He Who establishes the border of the widow." And when was this? When Jerusalem was settled during the Second Temple era, all the borders of Israel were also settled, and when you see that Hashem restored their settlement, you recite, "Blessed is He Who establishes the border of the widow." This is what is written here: "Hashem will tear down the house of the arrogant" - who is the arrogant one? Nevuchadnezzar, who became arrogant and said, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High" (Yeshayahu 14:14); Hashem will destroy his house, and one who sees his house in ruins recites the berachah. In contrast, "He will establish the border of the widow" refers to the border of Israel, which, though presently in its destruction and desolation, Hashem will yet renew, and then people recite "Who establishes the border of the widow."
Furthermore: "The house of the arrogant" refers to Edom, as it is written, "Though they build, I will tear down" (Malachi 1:4); and "He will establish the border of the widow" - that in the future He will extend the outskirts of Jerusalem all the way to Damascus. Today we are no longer so surprised: soon there will be nothing left of Damascus. They are in a state of self-destruction, killing one another and doing our work for us. Who could have believed it? We do not need to do anything; these nations strike at themselves and consume themselves, and may Hashem help us so that we will not need to take action, but rather our work will be done through them. And so you see that the border of the Jewish people is destined to expand from the outskirts of Jerusalem to the outskirts of Damascus.
The Vilna Gaon offers yet another novel explanation: What is the numerical value of "ge'im" (גאים, arrogant)? Fifty-four - gimmel and alef are four, yud and mem are fifty, totaling 54. And how many times is Haman mentioned in the Megillah? Fifty-four times - ask all the children who prepare graggers according to the count of Hamans, and they will tell you! "Hashem will tear down the house of the arrogant [ge'im]" - and what happened to the house of Haman? They gave it to Mordechai: "And Esther set Mordechai over the house of Haman" (Esther 8:2). And indeed, Haman himself dismantled his own house, as it is written that he took the beam upon which he intended to hang Mordechai from the ceiling of his own home. "Ge'im" has the numerical value equal to the number of times Haman appears in the Megillah - and him Hashem will uproot and destroy.
Another explanation: "The house of the haughty" refers to the ten sons of Haman. The Vilna Gaon notes that if one counts the letters of the names of the ten sons of Haman, it equals the gematria of "ge'im" (the haughty). Counting them with the kolel (counting the whole as a unit): the names of the ten sons of Haman contain fifty-three letters, and with the kolel, fifty-four - corresponding to the numerical value of נ"ד (54). From this we learn that Hashem will destroy the house of those haughty ones, of those ten sons of Haman.
The Malbim explains that the beginning of the verse depends on its end: if one sees the house of the haughty sitting upon the border of the widow - and why? Because the widow has no one to champion her cause, and this arrogant person went and built himself a mansion, encroaching into her territory at her expense and trespassing on her boundary. The Malbim says: Do not be awed by this, do not be shaken by it, and do not say, "Look at these haughty, wicked people - how can such a thing happen?" Know that the Holy One, blessed be He, will champion the widow's cause, and this house, which is the house of the haughty, Hashem will tear down. "And He will establish the boundary of the widow" - ultimately, Hashem will firmly establish her boundary and expel from there those who encroached upon it. He "executes justice for the oppressed," "relieves the fatherless and widow," and "makes the way of the wicked crooked" - and here, where this is the way of the wicked, Hashem will overturn their way and tear down, meaning destroy, the house of the haughty.
The Malbim adds: This is a cornerstone in the belief in Divine Providence, in a realm where the hand and power of nature do not govern. What is a "pinah" (cornerstone)? A pinah is a foundation, as in "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," or "laying the cornerstone"; likewise, "the cornerstones of the armies" refers to the commanders of the armies, the most prominent figures. Here too, "pinah" means an essential pillar in the belief in Divine Providence: to know that even when one witnesses a person abusing others and acting improperly and haughtily - do not be dismayed; "Hashem will tear down the house of the haughty" - in the end, Hashem will uproot that very house of the haughty.
And we see this with our own eyes: Where is Gaddafi? Where is Mubarak? Where is Assad? Where are all these haughty, arrogant rulers, and what remains of them? And Saddam Hussein - for whoever remembers the terror he struck, what became of him in the end? Dangling from a hangman's noose. Do not be awed by the grandeur of the haughty: "Hashem will tear down the house of the haughty, but He will establish the boundary of the widow."
We have learned three fundamentals here. "A man has joy in the apt answer of his mouth" - while there is joy for someone who knows how to respond and say the right thing, the true measure of speech is not the pleasure derived from it, but its necessity: "and a word in its proper time, how good it is!" And speech that benefits others is greater than private satisfaction. "The path of life leads upward for the wise" - there is no standing still; spiritual gravity drags down anyone who does not actively climb, and therefore the wise person invests in the permanent dwelling above and ascends unceasingly, knowing that the alternative is not "staying the same" but falling to Sheol below. And "Hashem will tear down the house of the haughty, but He will establish the boundary of the widow" - a pillar of faith in Divine Providence: one who erases the World Above from his heart and establishes his permanent home in this world will see his house destroyed; whereas for the lowly widow, who has no one to champion her cause, the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself establishes her boundary and restores her dwelling.