Musar zu Mischlej 13:7

It is written in Mishlei (13:7): "There are those who enrich themselves and have nothing, etc." It is known that Mishlei consists of analogies (meshalim). [In the above instance, the analogy is as follows:] Just as in monetary matters, it is possible for one to heap up riches, and yet, when it comes to the accounting, he may find that the great profits in his business are offset by many damages, so that when one is set against the other, he is seen to be left with nothing— so, in matters of eternity, it is possible for a man always to do mitzvoth and good deeds and yet to have an evil nature, which prompts him to slander his fellows. A man like this, when he comes to the higher world, will find that he has nothing, that all of the vines and plants that he planted in Gan Eden through his deeds have been covered with thorns and nettles, and the vines below are not visible, as it is written (Ibid. 24:31): "I passed by the field of a lazy man, and by the vineyard of a man lacking a heart, etc." That is, there are two types of people: one is too lazy to acquire Torah and good deeds for his soul. This is [what is intended by] "the field of a lazy man," one who did not learn, or who forgot through his laziness; and the second lacks a heart. He has Torah and good deeds, but his heart lacks concern for them [to see to it] that they endure. About the first, Solomon writes (Ibid. 24:30): "and, behold, it was all grown over with thorns"; i.e., instead of beautiful words of Torah there grew thorns and briers of idle speech. And, about the second, (Ibid.): "nettles had covered its face." In our context this is understood as meaning that every word of Torah and holiness that he had spoken and that could have produced "glorious fruit, holy to the L-rd," was covered and overlaid from above with the spirit of uncleanliness of his forbidden speech.

He must also root out thorns and briers from his vineyard. That is, people to whom he has caused a loss with his tongue or whom he has shamed or grieved. He must conciliate them with his mouth, and he must also confess before the L-rd for having transgressed His will as stated in the Torah. For all sins between man and his neighbor are also sins between man and his Maker, as is well known. And even if he spoke against them not to their face and his words had no effect, in any event, he must repent before the L-rd, and thus the thorns will be removed from his vineyard, as will the spirit of uncleanliness that covered its face (see Part One, The Gate of Torah, where we expanded on this.) [The end of the (opening) verse (Mishlei 13:7): "and [there are] those who impoverish themselves and have great wealth": It is known that if one repents out of love [of the L-rd], all of the sins that he committed in the beginning become merits for him; so that it emerges that the more he had sinned in the beginning and had become impoverished, the wealthier he becomes afterwards. This can be understood according to its plain meaning: One who repents out of love is certainly embittered over each sin he has committed, and grieves over how his heart could have permitted him to transgress the will of the Creator, who gives life to all of the creation in His lovingkindness and His goodness. As a result, his sin is uprooted from the beginning, and he fulfills thereby the positive commandment of repentance. It emerges, then, that for every sin he committed in the beginning, there is now in its place the positive mitzvah of teshuvah.]