Chapter 3, Mishnah 11 - in some versions it is Mishnah 9. We will study only its first half, which is the entire content of Mishnah 11 according to many versions, since in some versions the continuation belongs to the next mishnah. These are the words of the mishnah, taught by Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa:
"Kol she'yiras cheto kodemes lechochmaso - chochmaso miskayemes; vechol shechochmaso kodemes leyiras cheto - ein chochmaso miskayemes" - anyone whose fear of sin comes before his wisdom, his wisdom endures; and anyone whose wisdom comes before his fear of sin, his wisdom does not endure.
Who was Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa?
Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa is one of the holy and famous figures of the Gemara, a worker of wonders. The best known story about him appears in Maseches Berachos (34b): the son of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who was his teacher and the leader of the generation in the first generation of the Tannaim, fell ill. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai turned to Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and asked him to pray for his son's recovery. Rabbi Chanina immersed himself in prayer and prayed without stopping, and his prayers were answered - the son recovered.
The wife of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai wondered about this: "You are the leader of the generation, how is it that you are unable to pray for our son and you need Chanina ben Dosa?" He answered her: "I am like a minister before the king: when the king's door is locked, the minister has to knock and wait his turn, and if the door is locked he cannot enter. It seems that the doors were locked from Heaven in the matter of our son, and I could not enter, even though I am like the viceroy. But Chanina ben Dosa is familiar with the Holy One, blessed be He, like a member of the household: even though the door is closed, he walks in and says, 'Pay no attention to me, I am just taking care of my business.' He has access to the Master of the house, the King, whenever he wishes, for he lives in the house, as it were, and comes and goes as he pleases."
This, then, is Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa: like the manager of the household of the Holy One, blessed be He, constantly in His presence and possessing direct, unmediated access. In Maseches Taanis further stories are brought about his extraordinary deeds, which were literally supernatural, and which stemmed from his tremendous and astonishing faith in the Holy One, blessed be He - a complete faith, free of any doubt, by whose power he was able to bring about the impossible in many ways. And the Gemara says: "The entire world is sustained for the sake of My son Chanina, and My son Chanina makes do with a kav of carobs from one Shabbos eve to the next" - the whole world is supported in his merit, while he himself is satisfied with a few carobs for the entire week.
What does "comes before" mean?
The Bartenura explains that this does not refer to chronological order, and it is not speaking about two stages or two levels. In his words: "The beginning of thought is the end of action" - what comes first in thought is carried out last in practice. This idea, whose source is in the teachings of Kabbalah, also echoes in the hymn Lecha Dodi.
The principle is the motivating force behind a person's desire to learn. If the motivation is the wish to connect to the Holy One, blessed be He, and to bring himself into line with His will - that is fear of sin. It turns out that what drives him is the desire to act properly toward the Holy One, blessed be He, and to be aligned with Him, and out of that he seeks to learn His Torah. Then his learning will endure, for this is a basic rule: when a person learns something that is important to his goals, he remembers it; and when the matter is not important to his goals, he forgets it immediately.
If a person's goal is not to fail in God's will, to live with God, to connect to Him and to be aligned with His will - the Torah will be extremely important to him and it will stay with him. But if that is not his goal, and he learns for the sake of learning and out of curiosity alone, he will learn and forget: the learning is indeed interesting and enjoyable, but there is no particular importance in remembering what was learned. And one does not have to look far to find examples of this.
This is Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa's point: a person must first absorb within himself the desire to be aligned with God's will, and then his learning will take on that added significance, which will see to it that it is naturally retained.
A further explanation - chronological order:
Some understand that this refers to actual chronological precedence, that is, to two stages in a person's development:
First stage: fear of sin and fear of Hashem - focusing on taking Hashem seriously.
Second stage: Torah study and the accumulation of wisdom.
And if things are not done in this order, the wisdom a person accumulates will not endure in his hands.
The simplest illustration of this is in the context of chinuch. When raising a young child, we do not begin with the fine points of the sugyos and the details of how to learn a Gemara. First, we must instill in the young child the importance of knowing that there is a Ribbono shel Olam, that His will is what matters most, that we are here to serve Him, and that He must be taken seriously. Once this has entered the child's heart, he will say on his own: "Now, in the second stage, I will learn what is required of me and I will understand this Torah." And if not, his learning will not endure.