잠언 10:8의 인용 해설

WITH ALL THY HEART. In the opinion of the Midrash²²⁵Sifre, Va’ethchanan 32; Berachoth 54 a: “With all thy heart — with both your impulses, the good impulse and the evil impulse.” the heart mentioned here is the power of desire, similar to the expressions: Thou hast given him his heart’s desire;²²⁶Psalms 21:3. lust not after her beauty in thy heart.²²⁷Proverbs 6:25. If so, with all thy soul denotes the intellectual [capacity rather than the sensual capacity of the] soul. Similarly, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life²²⁸I Samuel 25:29. [refers to the rational soul which is immortal]. And according to our Rabbis, who in the Talmud²²⁹Berachoth 54 a: “And with all thy soul — even if He take away thy soul,” i.e., even at the sacrifice of your life. derived from this [phrase] that one must submit to death and not violate [the Law, the expanded expression] “with all thy soul” is supplementary,²³⁰For, since thy soul by itself indicates that you must suffer martyrdom rather than deny the Law, the question arises, what is signified by the additional word all [‘all’ thy soul], since you cannot speak of half a life? Ramban will offer two answers. for since he said with ‘all’ thy heart … and with ‘all’ thy might [where the intent is to exclude the serving of G-d with only part of the heart’s capacity, or with only part of one’s might or belongings], he also said with ‘all’ thy soul [meaning “your very life,” despite the obvious fact that the command to give “all” rather than “part” of his life is incongruous]. The meaning thereof is that you love Him as your very life, giving up your life with love [for His sake whenever the Law requires you to do so].²³¹See Vol. II, pp. 301-302. Or [another explanation of the word all may be] that suffering or [the loss of body] organs are referred to as “part of the soul,” while martyrdom [death] is termed with ‘all’ thy soul. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “thy soul means the desire, like: enough ‘k’nafshecha’ (at thine own) pleasure;²³²Further, 23:25. the full soul loatheth a honey-comb;²³³Proverbs 27:7. deliver me not over ‘b’nefesh’ (unto the desire of) mine adversaries.²³⁴Psalms 27:12. With all thy heart refers to knowledge, this being a surname for the rational spirit since [the heart] is its first resting place, and similarly it is stated, The wise in heart will receive commandments. ”²³⁵Proverbs 10:8. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s interpretation of the expression with all thy heart appears likely from that which he stated, And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart.²³⁶Verse 6. This shows that with all thy ‘heart’ refers to the rational soul, for in that case it is possible to say that these words shall be upon your “heart” meaning your rational soul. But if we are to interpret with all thy ‘heart’ as referring to the desires, as explained earlier, then how can it be said that these words shall be upon your “heart” or your desires?

Solomon told us in this verse that a person cannot be considered as righteous until he has walked in integrity when serving the Lord. What is this “integrity” which Solomon talks about here? It means that one performs G-d’s commandments because of love and reverence for Him, not because one hopes to benefit by this in the eyes of one’s peers and by attaining honour in their eyes. It is appropriate for man to perform good and kind deeds to the best of his ability without bragging about them. In fact he should endeavour to refrain from even mentioning that he has perfomed such deeds. Anyone who does tell about this and claims credit for such good deeds is actually considered as a sinner. If one does claim credit for such good deeds this is liable to result in two kinds of negative fallout. 1) Firstly, he enhances his own standing compared to others in the eyes of those who believe him when he tells them about his deeds of piety. 2) He puts to shame and embarasses those who have been the recipients of his kindness. It is the mark of a righteous person who walks in integrity with his G-d that he does not boast about his virtues and the good deeds he has performed. Such a person is described as איש אמונים, “a man of true integrity.” Solomon connects the verse we have quoted with the one immediately prior to it in which he said רב אדם יקרא איש חסדו, , ואיש אמונים מי ימצא”he calls most people ‘true friend,” but who can find a loyal man?” In mentioning איש אמונים, “a loyal man,” Solomon took his cue from Proverbs 11,13 where such a “loyal” person is described as ונאמן רוח מכסה דבר, “a faithful spirit keeps his confidence.” In fact, Solomon discusses the same theme also in another context (Proverbs 10,8) where he said חכם לב יקח מצות, ואויל שפתים ילבט, “the wise in heart will accept the commandments, whereas the one who speaks foolishly will be afflicted.” What Solomon meant was that the person who is truly wise gets hold of G-d’s commandments with his hands and performs them without speaking about this with his lips. The foolish persion is the exact reverse of the wise man. Not only does he not endeavour to perform the commandments which he has a chance to perform, but even when he violates the commandments he makes a point of talking about this. This is why is referred to primarily as a ”fool.” So we are faced with two totally opposite behaviour patterns. The one type of person hides the fact that he actually does perform G-d’s commandments, whereas the other person makes a point of broadcasting the fact that he does not. Concerning the latter type of individual Solomon says ילבט, meaning he will become troubled by his words. The word ילבט is found in Hoseah 4,14 where it means “he will fail.” Yonathan ben Uziel translates the word as וסכלא בשפוושיה מתאחד “and the fool will become enmeshed by his own words.”
As to the second half of the verse in Proverbs 20,7 which we quoted in our introduction, אשרי בניו אחריו, “happy are the children who come after him,” Solomon refers to the ability of parents to confer merits on their children after them. This is analogous to G-d saying in Exodus 20,6 ועושה חסד לאלפים, that “He (G-d) will perform kindness to thousands of generations of descendants of the righteous.” This is applicable in the event that their ancestors performed the commandments from a sense of love for G-d, whereas a different statement in Deut 7,10 in which G-d is portrayed as extending such kindness to one thousand generations refers to ancestors who performed G-d’s commandments only out of a sense of awe and fear of the consequences if they would fail to do so. The basis for this interpretation is the fact that the word לאוהביו “to those who love Him,” is written next to the words לאלפים, “for thousands of generations,” whereas the word s לאלף דור “for one thousand generations” appears next to the words ומשלם לשונאיו “and He repays those who hate Him“ in Deut.7,10. Solomon has explained this in a similar fashion in Proverbs 14,26 where he said: ביראת ה' מבטח עז ולבניו יהיה מחסה, “through his reverence for G-d man has a fortress; his children will have a place of refuge.” In other words: “the accumulated merits of the fathers are a source of benefit for their children in the eyes of G-d.”
It is entirely possible that the opening verses in our portion are intended to praise Noach in three stages, each stage being superior to the preceding one. The Torah mentions last that Noach “walked with G-d.” This virtue of walking with G-d is a very great virtue indeed, a virtue which is superior to what is called תמימות, “perfection.” The virtue תמימות, on the other hand, is superior to the virtue described as צדיק; the Torah reports that Noach had attained these three levels of moral achievements progressively until he had qualified for the description את האלוקים התהלך נח, “Noach walked with G-d.”

All this can best be explained by reference to Berachot 18 where we are told that the wicked are referred to as dead even while they are still physically alive. The reason for this is that the power of evil, which is another word for the power of death already clings to the wicked. I have mentioned repeatedly that the name people are known by is the name of their soul. G'd placed a variety of "names" on earth as the Talmud in Berachot 7 says about Psalms 46,9: ראו מפעלות ה׳ אשר שם שמות בארץ, "come and see what the Lord has done, He has wrought desolation on earth." The Talmud suggests that we do not read the word shamot in that verse with the vowel patach but with the vowel tzeyreh so that the meaning of the word desolation is changed to "names." When a human being sins his soul becomes tarnished or injured in that the evil he did clings to it. This is the real meaning of Proverbs 10,8 that the "name" of the wicked will rot, i.e. his soul will rot. This explains an enigmatic story in the Talmud Yuma 83 where Rabbi Meir is described as examining people's names and thereby arriving at conclusions about their character. When he and his colleagues arrived at a certain inn they asked the innkeeper his name. Rabbi Meir concluded after hearing the man's name that he was a wicked person. In our situation, a Jew who sleeps with a Midianite woman causes his soul to become tarnished; this is what the Torah means when it describes the name of the Israelite as being מכה, struck by a fatal blemish even before Pinchas had a chance to inflict bodily death upon him. The words אשר הכה, teach that for all practical purposes the man had already been fatally injured prior to Pinchas stabbing him. When the Torah wanted to tell us about what happened to Zimri's soul, it wrote: "and the name of the man who had been struck etc." The idea is that from the moment he committed his abominable act his soul had already sustained a fatal injury. The reason the Torah emphasises: "Israelite," is to tell us that a Jewish soul could not survive an act of such a wilfully committed abomination. As to the physical killing of Zimri's body, the Torah refers to this by the words אשר הכה, "who was struck." The reason the Torah wrote אשר הכה את המדינית, "he who was struck down with the Midianite woman," was to inform us that the soul of the Jewish man was struck down because of his intimate association with the Midianite woman." The act of sleeping with her constituted a fatal blow to his soul.