Musar sur Les Proverbes 2:4

4) The verse (Mishlei 2:4): "If you seek it [Torah] as silver… then you will understand the fear of G-d" is well known. And in monetary matters it is well known that if a business opportunity presents itself to a man, by which he can earn five gold pieces, and another opportunity, by which he can earn double, he will certainly choose the second. In our case, too, is it not known that there is no comparison between a few who occupy themselves with a mitzvah and many who do so? As it is written (Vayikra 26:8): "And five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you, ten thousand" (see Rashi there). Therefore (as it concerns our subject) it is known that [in the synagogue] aside from the mitzvah of prayer, we fulfill other commandments of the Torah: a) the positive mitzvah of tefillin, b) the positive mitzvah of reciting the Shema, c) the positive mitzvah of remembering Egypt. If so, if one comes to the synagogue to pray with a minyan, and all fulfill all of these mitzvoth, each mitzvah rises [proportionately] in holiness, which is not the case with one who prays alone.

For is it not written (Mishlei 2:4-5): "If you seek for it as silver, if you search for it as hidden treasure — then you will understand the fear of the L-rd." And it is well known that everyone would prefer having a steady income even with less profit than a chance income with greater profit. How much more so with this ["income" of guarding one's tongue], which is a steady income with great profit. For with this mitzvah one can earn both when he is sitting in his house or when he is in the house of prayer or the house of study, and also when he goes to the market and sees people speaking what they should not be speaking (and distancing himself from them.) As Chazal have said (Kiddushin 39b): "If one sat and did not transgress, he is rewarded as the doer of a mitzvah." In sum: With this mitzvah one can "earn" from the time he rises from his sleep [in the morning] until the time he goes to sleep in the evening, effortlessly, and with great profit. For, for every moment of muzzling his mouth he merits the "secreted light," as Chazal have stated.

"When R. Zmira went to Kfar Ono, he saw pillars of flame rising in the clefts of the mountains of Ararat. Inclining his ear, he heard voices, and an Arab told him: 'Come with me and I will show you wonders hidden from men.' He went with him behind a rock and saw other clefts with flames rising on high and heard other voices, at which the Arab said to him: 'Incline your ear here, etc.' He did so and heard voices saying: 'Woe! Woe!' at which he said: 'This place is certainly one of the places of Gehinnom,' and the Arab left him. In the meantime, he bent down in a different place and saw a man screaming and being taken and placed into a different depth into which he disappeared and was seen no more. At this, he fell into a dream in which he saw that man and asked him: 'Who are you?' He answered: 'I am a sinning Jew, who has not left undone any sins in the world.' R. Zmira: 'What is your name?' The other: 'I do not know. Those sentenced to Gehinnom do not remember their names.' R. Zmira: 'Where do you come from?' The other: 'From upper Galilee. I was a butcher, and because of the many evils I did there, they sentenced "that man" [i.e., me] to three times [of punishment] in the daytime and three times at night.' R. Zmira rose from there and went to upper Galilee, where he heard a child's voice saying (Mishlei 2:40: 'If you seek it as silver, if you search for it as hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the L-rd.' He went to another house of study, where he heard the voice of a different child saying (Zephaniah 2:3): 'Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be concealed' [from His wrath]. He went and sought that wicked man, and questioned a child, who said to him: 'Rebbi, may this and this come upon that man, who did not leave undone any evils or sins in the world. May it be thus with that wicked man and to the nurse who gave suck to him.' R. Zmira: 'Did he have a son in the world?' The child: 'Yes, he left one son, and he is wicked like his father, and he is the child that goes to the slaughterhouse.' He [R. Zmira] sought him out and took him and occupied himself with him in Torah until he had taught him reading, prayer, and Shema, after which he taught him Mishnah, Talmud, halachoth and aggadoth, until he grew very wise — and he is R. Nachum Hapakuli. And why did they call him "Hapakuli"? As it is written (Isaiah 28:7): "paku pliliyah" — [homiletically,] "he released [his father from] the din [of that world]." And many sages of the generation descended from him, who were called "Pakuli." That man [the butcher] came to him in a dream and said to him: 'Rebbi, how much you have comforted me — so may the Holy One Blessed be He comfort you. For from the day that my son knew a single verse, He released me from my din. Once he recited the Shema, they manumitted my din both by day and by night, by one time. Once he read in school, they annulled my din altogether. On the day he grew so wise that they called him "Rabbi" they placed my seat among the tzaddikim in Gan Eden. And every day that a Torah novelty is cited in his name they crown me with the highest crown that the tzaddikim are crowned with. Because of you I have merited all this honor. Happy is the lot of him who leaves a son who toils in Torah in this world!'"

And we shall explain our words in more detail with the help of the Blessed L-rd. As to the contention of the yetzer that the thing [i.e., guarding one's tongue] will not last more than a day or two, let him answer: Even if it were as you say, should one be lax in this? Don't you know that if someone walked on the seashore (be he who he may, even a very rich man; how much more so, a poor one,) and he saw the sea cast up precious stones and pearls, would he be lax in picking them up because he could do so for only a few hours, or, at most, for a single day? This might be so for cheap, worthless things, but not for precious stones and pearls, where each moment that he picks them is worth more than a hundred days of picking paltry things! So, in our case. Do we not know what the GRA has adduced in the name of the Midrash? That for every moment that a man muzzles his mouth [against speaking lashon hara], he merits the secreted light, which no angel or [heavenly] creature can visualize. Observe that the Midrash does not speak of a month or a week or a day or an hour — but a moment! And this is the intent of (Mishlei 2:4): "If you seek it as silver; if you search for it as hidden treasure, etc." A man must conduct himself in seeking the eternal reward as he would in seeking silver and searching for hidden treasure. And this is the intent of the tanna: "Do not distance yourself from a trait that has no end." That is, a man should reckon as a merit and as a "find" for his soul anything that he finds of it [i.e., of the hidden treasure].

If we truly examined the matter, we would discover the truth of this thereby benefiting ourselves and teaching it to others to benefit them also. This is what Shlomo said: "If you will seek it as silver and search for it as buried treasure, then you will understand the fear of G-d" (Mishlei 2:4-5).

If we truly examined the matter, we would discover the truth of this thereby benefiting ourselves and teaching it to others to benefit them also. This is what Shlomo said: "If you will seek it as silver and search for it as buried treasure, then you will understand the fear of G-d" (Mishlei 2:4-5).

It is written in Mishlei (9:10): "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the L-rd." This indicates that the beginning of wisdom for the man who seeks to be wise is to acquire fear of the L-rd. Yet, another verse in Mishlei states (4:7): "The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom." This would seem to indicate that the beginning of all for him who desires to acquire wisdom is to reflect upon wisdom [that is, the wisdom of the Torah]! But, in truth, there is no contradiction. Solomon, may peace be upon him, desired to teach us that both are necessary, that one without the other is not worth anything [(as per the Tanna in Avoth (3:17): "If there is no fear, there is no wisdom; if there is no wisdom, there is no fear")]. That is, if one would seek to place all his toil and reflection upon acquiring fear of the L-rd and think to acquire wisdom afterwards, King Solomon, may peace be upon him, advises us that it is not right to do so. For to acquire fear as befits a Jew, he must seek it as silver, as Scripture states (Mishlei 2:9): "If you seek it as silver, …then you will understand fear of the L-rd." And the seeking of silver is not for one day or one week or one month; but silver is always on his mind. So, the man who wants to acquire fear of the L-rd. He must always reflect upon His greatness and upon the goodness which He confers upon him each day and increase fear of the L-rd in his soul. And if he waits to reflect upon the wisdom of Torah until he becomes a fearer of the L-rd in truth, this will take a long time, so that all of that time that his heart is void of wisdom, his fear is worth nothing. For if there is no wisdom there is no fear, and (Avoth 2:5): "A boor does not fear sin."