Musar su Proverbi 25:35

The heavens are exalted, and the earth to the valley, and the breadth of the wise in heart is unexplored.

The fifth principle is worry: As he will worry and fear from the punishment of his iniquities. For there are iniquities for which the repentance has the atonement depend upon cleansing afflictions, as it is stated (Psalms 38:19), "I acknowledge my iniquity; I am fearful over my sin." The content of grief is about the past, whereas the content of worry is about the future. And he will also doubly worry - maybe he is falling short in his obligation of repentance with pain, bitterness, fasting and crying. And even if he has multiplied the pain and multiplied the crying, he should crawl and fear - maybe corresponding to this had he multiplied his guilt; so that all of his affliction and having his soul cry in its fast did not fill his measure. And one who examines the greatness of the service to the Creator upon his creatures and that there is no end to the evil of one who rebels against His word [will know that even with] all of what he adds to his service and in the ways of repentance, is it not small? Behold it is like a little in his eyes. And King Solomon, peace be upon him, said (Proverbs 14:16), "A wise man is afraid and turns away from evil." And its explanation is that even though a wise man turns away from evil with all of the efforts of his ability, he should crawl and fear - maybe he did not complete his measure, and he was not careful according to the standard of what needs to be done. And like this is (Proverbs 28:6), "than a rich man whose ways are crooked" - even though he is rich. And likewise did our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, say in Yilamdeinu (Tanchuma, Lech Lecha, 15), "Do not explain [it as] 'A wise man is afraid and turns away from evil'; but rather, 'A wise man turns away from evil and is afraid.'" And the end of the verse (Proverbs 14:16) proves this - "but a fool rushes and is confident." He states abut the traits of a fool, that they are the opposite of the traits of a wise man. For a fool rushes, but is nevertheless confident that iniquity and damage will not come to him. Yet the angry person is given to sins and open to damages, as it is stated (Proverbs 29:22), "A hot-tempered man commits many offenses." And it is [also] stated (Proverbs 25:28), "Like an open city without walls is a man whose temper is uncurbed."

His table and his bed shall be clean and all things that pertain to him shall be clean. His own body or person shall be clean not loathesome and he should be careful to wash his face, hands and feet and all his body at frequent times. As we find that "When Hillel the elder took leave of his disciples they said to him, 'Whither you go?' And he said to them, 'To fulfill a precept!' Then they asked him. 'Which precept is Hillel about to fulfill?' He said to them, 'To bathe in the bathhouse.' They asked, 'Is this a precept?' He said to them, 'Yes! If you consider that the statues of kings which are set up in theatres and circuses are scrubbed and cleaned by the one delegated to this task, and this man receives sustenance for this and is among the honored men of the kingdom, should we who are created in the image of God (Gen. 9:6) have less regard for our bodies?' " (Leviticus Rabbah 34:3).

And he said further: "There is nothing to be gained for himself when a king is arrogant, how much more it is important that other people do not behave so with each other," And he said, "There was once a king, sitting on his kingly throne, who observed his nobles sitting on thrones one higher than the other. So the king said to them, 'How did you dare seat yourselves thus, one above the other without my permission?' The one seated on the highest throne answered, 'The greatness of the pedigree of my family entitles me to sit on a higher place than my companions.' The second one said, 'I deserve my higher throne because of my great wisdom.' The third one answered, 'The humiliation of my soul and my crushed heart have seated me below the others.' Thereupon the king raised him and made him great." And in this connection it is said: "For it is better that it be said to you, 'Come up hither' than that you should be lowered in the presence of the prince" (Prov. 25:7).

But in exercising the quality of humility we ought to shun being submissive and modest before the wicked, and on this subject Scripture has said: "As a troubled fountain and a corrupted spring, so is a righteous man that gives way before the wicked" (Prov. 25:26). And if he has the power he should avenge the wickedness of the wicked, for the honor of God's Name, and add strength to his rebuke against them and stand against them like a roaring lion to save the plundered from the plunderer. And let him teach others the true Service of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and rebuke them with all his might, according to his wisdom — first gently, and, if this does not succeed then he must shame them. He must constantly command them to do good and warn them away from evil, with mouth and tongue, according to his wisdom, and he must hasten to exact what is due to God and not be submissive or humble in this.

The love of sons and daughters: The love of sons and daughters is necessitated by nature, for they are the bone from his bone and flesh from his flesh, and even ???. But one must take care that his love does not overturn boundaries, that he does not make his son suffer and longs for him greatly and gives him extra love. Shlomo has already said in his wisdom (Proverbs 13:24) "One who spares his rod hates his son, but one who loves him rebukes him." And the essence of love is love of the soul, and included in this is love of oneself, for ??? gives merit to the father. As it is written (ibid 29:17): "Punish your son and he will give delicacies to your soul." Therefore, a person should be careful to behave with his son with open rebuke and hidden love, according to what he understands in his youth. "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a youth, a rod of rebuke will distance him from it" (ibid 22:15). But the father should take care not to be cruel to his child and not to hit him and give him a bruise out of anger. Rather he should lead him with gentleness and with mercy he should hit his legs, not on a place where he will sustain a wound like between the eyes. And when he is older, "a rebuke enters deeper into a man of understanding" (ibid 17:10). And it is known (Moed Katan 17a): that he who hits his adult son transgresses because of the sin of putting a stumbling block before a blind person, etc. This does not refer to an actual adult, rather according to the son's understanding and character traits" when he is older and does not accept rebuke, "a soft tongue breaks the bone" (Proverbs 25:15) and he will not be lenient in his own honor so that his reputation will not be ruined. And he [the father] needs to be even more careful with that which our rabbi cautioned (Shabbat 10b): One should not teach his son when he is among other boys, for "jealousy is as difficult as the grave" (Song of Songs 5:6). The principle is: according to the mental ability and character traits of the son is how a father needs to behave with him in a way that he will not sin. If he does sin against him, he should be quick to forgive him so his son will not be punished on account of him, and he should not be exacting with them, and sometimes he should make himself like a deaf person who does not hear and as if he does not see, and sometimes he should submit his will to their will. And this is a major principle for one who wants to bring merit to his soul and the souls of his sons after him.

King Solomon, peace be upon him, also said (Proverbs 25:26-27), “Like a muddied spring, a ruined fountain, is a righteous man fallen before an evildoer. It is not good to eat much honey, but it is honorable to peruse honor.” For when a man muddies a spring with his foot, its waters are temporarily moved; afterwards the water is still and becomes clear, like at the beginning. So is the righteous person: When he is fallen before an evildoer, his level is not lowered and he is not diminished because of it. And if he is temporarily murky - a righteous man falls seven times and rises and [then] returns to his strength and his glory. “It is not good to eat much honey,” but much perusing of the honor of the righteous is an honor for the peruser. For righteous ones are mentioned in the verse above; and the word, “much,” [also] refers to “peruse honor” - as is its function in many places (to refer to two phrases). But the snares found in the honor of evildoers are many and well known. For with their honor, there is a profanation of the Torah and the service [of God]; and it is a sin that destroys from the soul to the flesh.

The sixth section: One who promises his fellow to benefit him, but falsifies his speech and makes his word worthless. Since after he said to benefit him (upon) [with an expression of] a promise, and his fellow’s heart depended on it, he should not profane his promise - as this is the way of falsehood. And it is like a man who broke a covenant, as it is stated (Zephaniah 3:13), “The remnant of Israel shall do no wrong, and speak no falsehood; a deceitful tongue shall not be in their mouths.” And likewise one who says that he will give his fellow a small gift, even though he does not mention any expression of promise. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Bava Metzia 49a) it is because [there is] bad faith with this. As since the gift is small, his fellow counts on it; that he will surely give it. And if it is to a poor person, his evil is great even if the gift was large - for he surely vowed it (since charity is like a vow); and it is stated (Numbers 30:3), “he shall not profane his word.” And likewise one who glorifies himself in public by [announcing that] he will give a gift to someone. And see that he is like one who praises himself about his generosity with this. And this is surely like a promise, so it is not proper that he should go back on his words once he honored himself and boasted about the thing; like the matter that is stated (Proverbs 25:14), “Like clouds and wind - but no rain - is one who boasts of gifts not given.” Its explanation is, just like people are distressed after signs of rain come, but rain does not come; so too is the matter of the man who boasts about a false gift. For that which he boasted about the thing is a sign about the fulfillment of the thing. Hence the man to whom he promised the gift will be distressed when his expectation is disappointed.

And know that when the listener concedes to the evil speech, his lot and measured portion (a scriptural expression [in Jeremiah 13:25], “This shall be your lot, your measured portion”) is with the one who speaks evil speech. For they will surely say, “See, the listeners accepted the thing, and that is a sign that the thing is really true. Even if the listener tilted [his] ear and made himself appear to be listening and believing these words in front of people, this also helps the evil, causes a disgrace to [the subject of the talk], and strengthens the hands of the one who brings his evil speech against people. And King Solomon, peace be upon him, said (Proverbs 25:23), “A north wind tehollel rain, and a raging face, a hidden tongue.” Its explanation is, just like a north wind scatters the clouds and prevents the rain, so does a raging face stop evil speech. For when the speaker sees the face of the listener enraged, he will stop the voice of his raining words. But if he sees that the listener is listening to him, he will not stop his mouth from his lies; and tomorrow will be like today. For he will repeat his stupidity, to always speak false speech; and his tongue will follow the rain of his falsehoods. Tehollel is from the expression challilah (forbid or prevent). And likewise (Numbers 30:3), “he shall not annul (yechal) his word”; and also (Genesis 4:26), “it was then huchal to call,” [which means] it was then prevented.

We have discussed elsewhere that the צדיק is linked to the emanation יסוד, and that this emanation is linked to מלכות through the covenant of circumcision. Noach's position in the world was demonstrated by the fact that he was born circumcised, i.e. without foreskin, according to Avot de Rabbi Nathan 2,8. Our sages say that "he guarded the covenant," and that though he did not succeed in reversing the decline of mankind to the extent of restoring man's stature to what it had been prior to Adam's sin, i.e. to have man clothed in garments of light so that individual immortality would be restored, at least he succeeded in restoring the immortality of the species. The reason that Noach did not succeed beyond this is that he drank afterwards from the vineyard he had planted, something not unlike Adam who had squeezed the juice from the grapes of the tree of knowledge. Actually, when he planted the vineyard (the tree that G–d Himself had planted in גן עדן), Noach had intended to repair the damage done by Adam, but he sinned by indulging in too much wine. Proverbs 25,27: "It is not good to eat too much honey” alludes to that incident^{Author's comment}The author mentions in an annotation that Pardes Rimonim describes the whole subject matter of the vineyard, wine, etc as something that can either be a fountain of spirituality or a source of debauchery, drunkenness. Although Noach strove to regain the יין המשומר, the reservoir of spirituality which Adam had lost by imbibing from what had been forbidden to him, Noach debased himself when he planted that vineyard; the fruit of its wine did not become his כוס ישועות, cup of salvations, but turned out to be the גפן סדום, the vineyard of Sodom, and its grapes turned out to be ענבי רוש and אשכלות מררת למו, "the grapes for them are poison, a bitter growth their clusters" (Deut. 32,32). In short, Noach had drunk the wrong kind of wine..

The Sage said, "If you want your companion to hate you, keep visiting him constantly, and if you want him to love you, visit him after long intervals." And on this subject it is said : "Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house lest he be sated with you and hate you" (Prov. 25:17).

But if he does not act properly he is reckoned among the nesi’im veruach, the “clouds and wind” (Mishlei 25:14). Just as a cloud dissipates and the wind passes by never to return, so too, a communal leader who does not act as a Jewish leader should — by failing to bear the community’s burden or behaving with arrogance — passes from this world abruptly and his descendants are forgotten.

We find that Korach quarrelled with the Priests and the Levites. He was jealous of Elitzafan son of Uzziel having been appointed to the position of prince of the Levites, and of Aaron having been appointed High Priest. The two hundred and fifty men who supported him all violated the principle of trying to usurp the superior positions occupied by others, as we have already explained. This is similar to the Rabbis saying that במופלא ממך אל תדרוש, במכוסה ממך אל תחקור (Chagigah 13), "that which is too difficult for you, do not investigate, and that which is concealed from you do not seek it out."

He who loans money to his companion and the borrower comes to pay him silver by weight, if the lender does not know the accuracy of the scale and the justness of the balance or if he knows everything about the scale, but does not know the properties of silver, then he is very near to being injured in the matter of weight and money, for at times he will refuse the silver and take the dross, or he may take less than the weight which is properly his, for if he takes too light a weight or puts the silver on the heavy side of the scale, through all of these types of ignorance he is bound to make an error. Or even if he is an expert in recognizing silver and in weighing it, if he does not look at it as carefully as he should then it is possible that dross will be mixed in with his silver. But if he is an expert in all things, in weighing, and in recognizing silver and he looks at it as he should, then he will be paid as he should be, with pure silver and complete weight. Therefore, he has compared the "tongue of the righteous" to "the best of silver." For the righteous man must recognize the good and the bad and should know all of the qualities, and he should look and examine them as is proper, and he must exert his body and his wisdom to leave off folly and to take hold of understanding and to remove the mixtures of dross from himself. Then will his soul be purged and purified before God, as it is written: "Take away the dross from the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner" (Prov. 25:4). When the dross is removed then the vessel is purged.

But there are times when silence can be evil, as it is written, "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes" (Prov. 26:5). With respect to words of the Torah, if a person sees that the fools are scorning the words of the wise, he should answer in order to turn them back from their errors so that they do not imagine themselves wise in their eyes. If a man sees another man committing a transgression, he should protest and reprove him. And long ago Solomon said, "A soft answer turneth away wrath" (Prov. 15:1), "and a soft tongue breaketh the bone" (Prov. 25:15). Therefore, a man should accustom himself to speak gently and not harshly. And be careful to guard your tongue like the apple of your eye, for "A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are the snare of his soul" (Prov. 18:7). And it is further written, "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles" (Prov. 21:23). And it is said, "Oh, that ye would altogether hold your peace! And it would be your wisdom" (Job 13:5). And if you are sitting in a group, it is better that they should say to you, "Speak, why are you so silent?" than that you should speak and your words become such a burden to them that they finally say to you, "Be silent!"

In one's sitting: that one's place be among the lowly and not among the prominent. This is likewise stated explicitly in scripture: "Do not glorify yourself before a king, and do not stand in the place of great men; for it is better that he say to you, 'Come up here', than to humble you before a prince..." (Mishlei 25:6-7). Likewise our sages of blessed memory said: "distance two or three places from your [proper] place and sit until you are told 'come forward!', rather than to go up until they tell you 'move back!'" (Vayikra Raba 1:5).

In one's sitting: that one's place be among the lowly and not among the prominent. This is likewise stated explicitly in scripture: "Do not glorify yourself before a king, and do not stand in the place of great men; for it is better that he say to you, 'Come up here', than to humble you before a prince..." (Mishlei 25:6-7). Likewise our sages of blessed memory said: "distance two or three places from your [proper] place and sit until you are told 'come forward!', rather than to go up until they tell you 'move back!'" (Vayikra Raba 1:5).

HATING RABBANUT: Hating Rabbanut (authority over others) and fleeing from honor: This is an explicit Mishna (Avot 1:10): "love work, hate Rabbanut". They further said: "One whose heart is frivolous in handing down rulings is a fool, wicked and arrogant" (Avot 4:7), and "whoever chases after honor, honor flees from him" (Eruvin 13b), and "'Do not go out quickly to quarrel (Riv)' (Mishlei 25:8) - do not run after rulership, Why not? [the verse continues:] 'for what will you do in the end' (ibid), the next day people will put questions to you, and what will you answer them?" (Pesikta Rabati 22:4);

The detriments of this trait are abundance and satiation in the good of this world, similar to what scripture states explicitly: "lest when you have eaten and become sated [and built good houses...] and your heart grows haughty..." (Devarim 8:12-14).

Therefore the pious deemed it good for a man to afflict himself sometimes, in order to put down the evil inclination of arrogance, which grows strong only through abundance, similar to what our sages, of blessed memory, said: "a lion does not roar over a basket of straw but over a basket of meat" (Berachot 32a).

Rabbi Yose of Peki’in left a young son who would not allow anyone else to approach his father’s bed after his death but stood by it himself, weeping over his father. Then the boy began speaking and said, “Master of the Universe! It is written in the Torah, ‘When you happen upon a bird’s nest by the road … you shall surely send away the mother and then take the offspring for yourself’ (Devarim 22:6-7). Master of the Universe, why did you not fulfill this commandment of the Torah? For my father and mother had two children, myself and my younger sister. You should have taken us instead of them in compliance with the Torah’s command! “And should You argue, Master of the Universe, that it is written ‘mother’ and not ‘father,’ in this case my mother has already died and You have already taken her from her offspring. But now you have taken my father, who was out protector, away from his offspring as well. What has become of the law of Your Torah?” When Rabbi Elazar, Rabbi Aba and the companions heard the boy’s words they began weeping. Rabbi Elazar recited the verse, “The height of the Heavens and the depth of the earth and the hearts of kings are unfathomable” (Mishlei 25:3).

On Proverbs 6,32, נואף אשה חסר לב, "anyone who commits adultery with a woman lacks undertanding," the Midrash comments that anyone who accepts the mantle of authority thinking he would benefit therefrom is no better than an adulterer who enjoys the body of a woman. Rabbi Menachem son of Yaakov makes the same point based on Proverbs 25,8, אל תצא לריב מהר, "do not be in a hurry to get involved in a quarrel!" He points out that the word Riv, quarrel, is spelled without the letter Yud and can be read as Rav i.e. Rabbi, or leader. The verse in Proverbs there continues "for what will you do in the end, when your neighbour has shamed you? What will you answer them when they ask you questions on the morrow?" Rabbi Zeyrah tries to prove the point from the third command-ment not to swear a false oath (Exodus 20,7). He reasons that if that verse were to prohibit perjury, the Torah had already written "do not swear falsely in My name!" (Leviticus 19,12). The meaning of the verse in Exodus then must be that a person should not seek to assume office involving authority over people, unless he is fit for such a position. [The commentary is obviously based on the expression תשא, meaning "to elevate," in this case to elevate oneself, לשוא, inappropriately, vaingloriously. Ed.] Rabbi Abahu said, quoting G–d, "I have been called קדוש, holy, and you the Jewish people, have been called "holy." Unless you possess all My attributes, do not seek out positions of authority." Why did we need four different statements purporting to prove the same point? In which respect is one different from the other?

The sin of these spies can be understood, when the Torah reported them as carrying the grapes "במוט בשנים." Every rod looks basically like the letter ו, is a line. When they removed the א that creates the bond between the two ווים, what was left were two disjointed, separate lines, i.e. שניות, or dichotomy. This is what the expression במוט בשנים alludes to. When you remove the letter ו from the word מוט, you are left with מט, i.e. 49. This is like saying that the צדיק, righteous person, has fallen, been ruined, i.e. מט before the רשע, the wicked person. The reason this is so is because the 49 letters in the שמע ישראל and the ברוך שם כבוד have been separated, i.e. their unity has been broken. Most of what I have just outlined was taken from the book באר מים חיים.

I would now like to present to you an insight from the holy mouth of the Ari, z”l (Pri Eitz Chayim, Sha’ar HaPurim, Chapter 6). For we must be aware of the intentions of the wicked Haman, oppressor of the Jews, that led him to give himself over to oppressing Israel specifically in the month of Adar as opposed to any other month of the year. You must know that there are twelve months in the year, which correspond to the twelve permutations of the letters of the name יהו"ה. Each month is governed by one permutation so that the month of Adar is governed by the last one, in which the letters are completely reversed like this: הוה"י. This is a name indicative of judgment. Therefore when Haman mentioned the four-letter Name he specifically mentioned it in reverse, saying, “And all this is not worthwhile to me” — Vekol zeH einenU shoveH lY (Esther 5:13). The final letters of the words of this verse comprise the permutation in which the letters are reversed like this: הוה"י. His intention was to arouse double judgment against Israel. First by mentioning the Name in reverse, and second by mentioning it as an acronym comprised of final letters rather than initial letters. But Hashem in His mercy heard and heeded the prayers of Israel and the righteous Mordechai and Queen Esther, who had been crowned with a royal crown. On her part Esther intended with her words to transform the attribute of judgment into mercy. For this is the way of the righteous — to transform the attribute of judgment into the attribute of mercy. Therefore she mentioned the name in an acronym comprised of initial letters and in proper sequence, saying, “Let the king and Haman come today to the feast” — Yavo Hamelech Vehaman Hayom el hamishteh (Esther 5:4). Her intention in making that feast was to bring about Haman’s downfall, in keeping with the verse, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread” (Mishlei 25:21), and the Holy One Blessed is He gave His approval.