Musar su Proverbi 3:19

“Hashem in wisdom has founded the earth; He establishes the Heavens with understanding” (Mishlei 3:19). This verse informs us that wisdom and understanding achieve their principle glory when they give rise to something useful that can serve as a foundation and resource for further development. This is what a wise man should revel in and the understanding man take pride in — the accomplishment through wisdom and understanding of some great and beneficial goal on behalf of his soul. The human soul is carved out from beneath Hashem’s Throne of Glory and instilled into a lowly human body in order that it be adorned with the beautiful ornaments of good deeds and upright ways. Afterwards, it returns to its place when the appointed time comes for it to reside among the souls of the righteous with strength and joy. Regarding such wisdom it was written, “And wisdom grants life to its possessor” (Koheles 7:12).

And the world endures only through Torah, as it is written (Jeremiah 33:25): "If not for My covenant, day and night, the statutes of heaven and earth I would not have ordained." And this is the language of the holy Zohar, Parshath Bereshith 47a: "Everyone who occupies himself with Torah every day will merit having a share in the world to come, and it will be accounted to him as if he had built worlds. For it was through Torah that the world was built and fashioned, as it is written (Mishlei 3:19): 'The L-rd, through wisdom [Torah] founded the earth, etc.' And everyone who occupies himself with it shapes the worlds and sustains them. And come and see: It was with a spirit that the Holy One Blessed be He made the world, and it is with a spirit that it endures, the spirit of those who toil in Torah." And this is the language of Parshath Tzav: " R. Elazar opened and said: (Isaiah 51:16): 'And I have placed My words in your mouth, and with the shadow of My hand have I covered you, etc.' From here we learn that if a man occupies himself with words of Torah and his lips murmur Torah, the Holy One Blessed be He hovers over him and the Shechinah spreads its wings over him. What is more, he causes the world to endure and the Holy One Blessed be He rejoices with him as if the heavens and the earth were planted on that day."

Now that it has been made clear that our intent is to further the service of the Creator, blessed be He, for because of that the world was created, we say that the service of God is an obligation upon us to fulfill, both from Scripture and from reason. From Scripture, we learn that the Creator, blessed be He, created the world for no other reason than for the Torah, as it is said (Jeremiah 33:25), “If My covenant be not with day and night, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.” And it says further (Proverbs 3:19), “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.” And it says further (Proverbs 8:22), “The Lord made me the beginning of His way, the first of His works of old.” We can say that the service of God is an obligation upon us, for the Creator gave the Torah to Israel at Mount Sinai, only as the means to serve Him, as it is said (Exodus 20:17), “God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not.” And it is written (ibid., 3:12), “When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” And it is said (Deuteronomy 6:13), “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; and Him shalt thou serve.” Scripture placed “fear” before “service” to teach that if there is no fear there can be no serving of God. Thus it is said (ibid., 10:12), “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God… .” Now that we know that the world was created only for the sake of the Torah, we also know that the world was created for no other purpose than the service of God. As long as service to God and righteousness stand, the world will stand upon them. As it is said (Proverbs 10:25), “But the righteous is an everlasting foundation.” Since it has been explained that the service of God is what we are obligated to do according to Scripture, we will now explain how it is derived by way of reason. We will say that it is well known that with regard to a mortal king, his kingdom is not firmly established except by the faithful service of his servants. If his servants do not serve him or fear him, then he has no sway over them, and there is no way in which his authority over them can be known. We see that such a king rewards his servants according to their service and their fear of him. If a king of flesh and blood must show his dominion and authority over his servants who are creatures such as he, and who may even be better than he, how much more is it fitting that the dominion of the Creator, blessed be He, should be apparent from our fear of Him. In what way can it be known that He is our Creator and we His servants, and that He endures forever, while we are transitory? How can we make all of this known except by doing His will and by our fear of Him? In this way, we will know what we are and what our lives are.

Know this in truth, that no quality need be joined to the Creator, blessed be He, neither strength, nor life, nor wisdom, nor existence, nor oneness, for He is beyond all of these qualities, and it is not necessary to ascribe any of these qualities concerning Him, except that He compels us to relate two things concerning Him. One, which comes from Scripture, (Proverbs 3:19), “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth,” and similar passages. The second, we must tell of Him, affirming His existence, in order to avoid ascribing to Him all those things which usually accompany something that has no existence. For that which has no existence is a non-entity, having no reality whatever; it has no powers, and nothing, good or bad, can result from it. Therefore, we are obligated to say that He does exist, and thus we say that He is One in order to avoid ascribing to Him all terms of things which usually accompany one who is more than one, for example, plurality or division, relationship, subtraction, and increase, and qualities such as these. Thus it is with every name with which we call Him, for we do not call Him this name because it is fitting and proper for Him, but only to avoid calling Him by those terms the opposite of that name. Now, understand this well.

The doctrine that God cannot be known is connected with the teaching of the negative attributes, which, first found in Mutazilitic theology, was introduced into Jewish philosophical thinking by Bahya Ibn Paquda⁴⁰See Kaufmann: Die Theologie des Bachja ibn Pekudah, p. 73ff. , and is also expressed in our work: No attribute—like life, wisdom, existence, unity—may be ascribed to the Creator. They do not apply to Him and must not be mentioned in reference to Him. If we do so nevertheless, it is because we find it in the Bible e.g., (Prov. 3:19) “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth”. Furthermore, the statement “God exists” really means the exclusion of all the consequences of non-existence, for whatever does not exist has neither power nor effect in any manner. Similarly, “God is One” excludes all consequences of plurality, of separateness, relation, decrease and increase, etc. Whatever we say of God does not really describe Him but wishes to exclude that which would be the consequence of the opposite description.⁴¹III

The construction of the Tabernacle may be compared to the construction of the universe itself of which it is written: ה' בחכמה יסד ארץ, כונן שמים בתבונה, בדעתו תהומות נבקעו, "The Lord founded the earth with wisdom; He established the heavens with understanding. By His knowledge the depths were broken up" (Proverbs 3,19-20). We find a parallel statement when the Torah describes the appointment of Betzalel as the architect in charge of building the Tabernacle. Exodus 31,3 tells us that G–d endowed Betzalel with "a divine spirit of skill, ability, and knowledge in every kind of craft; to make designs for work in gold, silver, and copper, to cut stones, etc." Our sages in Berachot 55 say that Betzalel knew how to combine the letters of the Torah, the method by which the universe had been created by G–d. It follows that the Tabernacle was in effect the creation of a microcosm, a duplication of מעשה בראשית. [except that this creation did not start ex nihilo. Ed.] We expect to come back to this in detail when explaining the פרשיות of ויקהל and פקודי.

The author brings a few more examples of the principle just mentioned. Among them he mentions that the use of the word חכמה in the plural, i.e. חכמות in Proverbs 9,1 alludes to the need to employ our physical as well as our mental faculties when building the "house," i.e. when Betzalel built the Tabernacle.