Musar sobre Provérbios 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!'"