잠언 9:12의 Chasidut

I heard directly from the Admor (the Isbitzer Rebbe), that he noticed scholars of his own generation who had believed that they had devised an original Torah innovation, and were later disappointed to find that it had already been written down somewhere in the tradition. I myself will not let a word of Torah pass my lips until I have seen its source in writing. The Zohar states (Vayeitse, 163a): Rabbi Elazar opened and said (Mishlei 9:12), “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, and if you have scorned, you alone shall bear your sin.” “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself,” woe is to the wicked of the world, who do not know and do not see the words of the Torah! And when they look into it, since they have no sense, it seems to them as if the words of Torah are empty and of no use. This is all because such people are devoid of consciousness and understanding … every word written in the Torah is mare precious than pearls, there is nothing in the world equal in value to a single word of the Torah! And when the closed-hearted fools see the words of the Torah, it is not enough that they do not know, but they say that the words are blemished and useless. Woe to them, when the time comes for the Holy One, blessed be He, to render judgment for the disgrace of the Torah, and meets out punishment for those who rebelled against their Master. We find that the Torah says, “it is not an empty thing for you,” and if it is empty, the emptiness comes from you. For the Torah is filled with all manner of precious gems and pearls … and how could one say that it is empty? King Shlomo said, “If you are wise, then you are wise for yourself,” because if one has been clever in the Torah, the fact remains that it is still impossible to add so much as one letter to the Torah. “And if you have scorned, you shall bear your sin,” because the honor and praise of the Torah has not been reduced whatsoever, the scorn is only upon the scoffer, and remains with him to cause him to disinherit this world and the next. It is clear from the Zohar that the two matters are one. One who boasts to himself and claims that he can add words of Torah that he did not receive as a tradition, is equated as one who derides the Torah, for he does not take the Torah seriously. [This does not include one who gives an insightful explanation into the words of the sages, if he received it from his Rav then it is accepted as being authentic. We assume that his Rav received an authentic tradition and trusted source. This is as we find in the Zohar (Vayeishev, 192a), “One who looks into that which he learned from his Rav, and looks at it with this wisdom, can then further add to it in the same spirit.” The point being, only when he looks into the words of his Rav. Similarly, the Zohar says of Eliyahu and Elisha (Vayeitse, 154a), “from here we learn that through the revealed, man arrives at the hidden.” This means, that if he understands the revealed matters deeply he will then see the hidden knowledge concealed within. And still it is improper to invent teachings that lack a trusted source and strong foundation.]