וְהִנֵּ֣ה מִן־הַיְאֹ֗ר עֹלֹת֙ שֶׁ֣בַע פָּר֔וֹת יְפ֥וֹת מַרְאֶ֖ה וּבְרִיאֹ֣ת בָּשָׂ֑ר וַתִּרְעֶ֖ינָה בָּאָֽחוּ׃
И вот, вышли из реки семь коров, благодатных и толстых; и они питались тростниковой травой.
Rabbeinu Bahya
In this verse Solomon compared the Torah to bread and wine, seeing that bread and wine are the principal sources of food for the body. Similarly, Torah and wisdom are the principal sources of nourishment for the soul. The reason why Solomon commences with the expression לכו, and did not say בואו, “come,” is to teach that a person has to follow wisdom, i.e. go out in search of it and after the people who teach it. We find this verb used in this connection also in Proverbs 13,20: הולך את חכמים יחכם, “he who walks with scholars will himself become wise.” The expression is unusual as we would have expected the author to say: “he who sits with the scholars will become wise.” The only reason that in both instances Solomon used the verb הולך to describe how one is to relate to the scholars in order to benefit from their wisdom is to teach that one has to actively go after the wisdom which comes out of the mouth of the Torah scholars. One needs to denigrate oneself vis-a-vis the scholars; as a result one will absorb wisdom.
It is also possible that the reason for the use of the word לכו by Solomon is a hint that even if one has to travel a long way from one’s home in order to acquire this wisdom one should do so. The message is that it is worth while to travel to distant countries in order to hear and study “My bread,” i.e. Torah. The same thought is echoed by Isaiah 55,3 who quotes the Lord as saying: “incline your ear and come to Me, hearken and you shall be revived.” G’d (The prophet) did not say: בואו אלי, “come to Me,” as man sometimes has to travel to distant places in order to study Torah.
The words לכו לחמו בלחמי, may be perceived as “go to one another those who are anxious to eat of My bread.” it is a warning to remove jealousy and envy from one’s heart and that the scholars should not project an image of superiority which would prevent them from going to colleagues of equal stature. Most certainly they should not be arrogant enough to refrain from going to scholars who are of still greater stature. Wisdom increases through the interchange of ideas among equals. Our sages in Makkot 10 used the verse in Jeremiah 50,36: חרב אל הבדים ונואלו (concerning people who avoid studying in large groups) to illustrate this thought by understanding these words to mean “a sword against the loners!” The prophet condemns the people who want to study in solitary meditation only. Not only do these people not increase their knowledge by doing so, but they are even apt to become foolish, i.e. arrive at faulty conclusions. In the verse quoted from Jeremiah, we have the word נואלו and we have a similar word in Numbers 12,11 i.e. אשר נואלנו, where it means: “we have acted foolishly.” The message is clear.
Concerning the words: “drink from My wine;” the letter ב in the word בלחמי in the first half of the verse appears superfluous. Why then did Solomon write it? Similarly, the letter ב in the word ביין also appears unnecessary. Actually, the letter ב in both instances means the same as in Genesis 41,2 where Ibn Ezra understands the letter ב in ותרענה באחו as not part of the word אחו. I believe that whereas when one drinks wine it is only healthy in diluted form, and damaging if drunk in its full strength, so that the word בלחמי and ביין could be understood as warning not to eat or drink all of the bread and the wine, the word מסכתי, “what I (G’d) have mixed” is to teach that when it comes to Torah and the performance of its commandments, all of them are to be studied and performed in undiluted form.
This simile contains yet another lesson which is worth mentioning. If someone spends a lot of time engaged in the pursuit of his livelihood, i.e. the needs of his body, and travels abroad in order to secure himself such a sound economic existence, even though he should have concentrated the major part of his energies amassing Torah knowledge, i.e. food for his soul, he errs, seeing that when one spends all kinds of energy on the amassing of Torah knowledge a measure of success is guaranteed, whereas the energy spent on the amassing of material wealth does not always result in success. Solomon encourages the pursuit of food for the soul more so than the pursuit of physical food for the body. He makes this plain in Proverbs 2, 4-5: “if you seek it (Torah) as silver, and search for it as for treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and will find knowledge of G’d.”
Every single commandment may be perceived of as “soul-food;” it provides the kind of nourishment which the soul will imbibe in the future when it is exposed to the brilliance of G’d’s Shechinah in עולם הבא, the world to come. If one is able to perform commandments and good deeds locally, his reward is most certainly substantial; imagine how much more will be his reward if he travels far and wide in order to fulfill some of the commandments of the Torah! The reason is that he also receives a reward for the distance traveled and the effort and fatigue involved. We find proof of this when the eagerness to fulfill a commandment is described by the Torah (Exodus 12,28) as “they went and they did.” Similarly, the Torah describes Moses’ leaving the camp of the Levites in order to go to the camp of the Israelites in these terms. He could have waited for the Israelites to come to him and take leave of him. In fact, although they had all been assembled around him to listen to the rebukes, and he could easily have said his good byes then, he waited till each one of them had returned to his tent, and only then
It is also possible that the reason for the use of the word לכו by Solomon is a hint that even if one has to travel a long way from one’s home in order to acquire this wisdom one should do so. The message is that it is worth while to travel to distant countries in order to hear and study “My bread,” i.e. Torah. The same thought is echoed by Isaiah 55,3 who quotes the Lord as saying: “incline your ear and come to Me, hearken and you shall be revived.” G’d (The prophet) did not say: בואו אלי, “come to Me,” as man sometimes has to travel to distant places in order to study Torah.
The words לכו לחמו בלחמי, may be perceived as “go to one another those who are anxious to eat of My bread.” it is a warning to remove jealousy and envy from one’s heart and that the scholars should not project an image of superiority which would prevent them from going to colleagues of equal stature. Most certainly they should not be arrogant enough to refrain from going to scholars who are of still greater stature. Wisdom increases through the interchange of ideas among equals. Our sages in Makkot 10 used the verse in Jeremiah 50,36: חרב אל הבדים ונואלו (concerning people who avoid studying in large groups) to illustrate this thought by understanding these words to mean “a sword against the loners!” The prophet condemns the people who want to study in solitary meditation only. Not only do these people not increase their knowledge by doing so, but they are even apt to become foolish, i.e. arrive at faulty conclusions. In the verse quoted from Jeremiah, we have the word נואלו and we have a similar word in Numbers 12,11 i.e. אשר נואלנו, where it means: “we have acted foolishly.” The message is clear.
Concerning the words: “drink from My wine;” the letter ב in the word בלחמי in the first half of the verse appears superfluous. Why then did Solomon write it? Similarly, the letter ב in the word ביין also appears unnecessary. Actually, the letter ב in both instances means the same as in Genesis 41,2 where Ibn Ezra understands the letter ב in ותרענה באחו as not part of the word אחו. I believe that whereas when one drinks wine it is only healthy in diluted form, and damaging if drunk in its full strength, so that the word בלחמי and ביין could be understood as warning not to eat or drink all of the bread and the wine, the word מסכתי, “what I (G’d) have mixed” is to teach that when it comes to Torah and the performance of its commandments, all of them are to be studied and performed in undiluted form.
This simile contains yet another lesson which is worth mentioning. If someone spends a lot of time engaged in the pursuit of his livelihood, i.e. the needs of his body, and travels abroad in order to secure himself such a sound economic existence, even though he should have concentrated the major part of his energies amassing Torah knowledge, i.e. food for his soul, he errs, seeing that when one spends all kinds of energy on the amassing of Torah knowledge a measure of success is guaranteed, whereas the energy spent on the amassing of material wealth does not always result in success. Solomon encourages the pursuit of food for the soul more so than the pursuit of physical food for the body. He makes this plain in Proverbs 2, 4-5: “if you seek it (Torah) as silver, and search for it as for treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and will find knowledge of G’d.”
Every single commandment may be perceived of as “soul-food;” it provides the kind of nourishment which the soul will imbibe in the future when it is exposed to the brilliance of G’d’s Shechinah in עולם הבא, the world to come. If one is able to perform commandments and good deeds locally, his reward is most certainly substantial; imagine how much more will be his reward if he travels far and wide in order to fulfill some of the commandments of the Torah! The reason is that he also receives a reward for the distance traveled and the effort and fatigue involved. We find proof of this when the eagerness to fulfill a commandment is described by the Torah (Exodus 12,28) as “they went and they did.” Similarly, the Torah describes Moses’ leaving the camp of the Levites in order to go to the camp of the Israelites in these terms. He could have waited for the Israelites to come to him and take leave of him. In fact, although they had all been assembled around him to listen to the rebukes, and he could easily have said his good byes then, he waited till each one of them had returned to his tent, and only then
Ibn Ezra
“Void” (tohu) – The Ga’on [Rav Sa’adiah] said that [this word] is from “deep” (tehom), but that is not possible, since the mem of tehom is a root letter, like the mem of hadom. Now in Sefer Yetzira: “tohu - this [refers to] the green line”, and bohu - this [refers to] MEFULAM stones”. What’s correct is as the Aramaic translator has said, and likewise with “the howling, desolate tohu Deuteronomy 32:10, and likewise, “after tohu” Samuel I 12:21 – without substance.
Ibn Ezra
“And confused” – "The brother of", and the vav in place of the hey, like the vav in [the word] vayishtachu (“and he bowed”) Genesis 18:2, “and they pastured amongst he reeds (achu)” Genesis 41:2. The meaning is [as follows:] The creation of the firmament and the dry land was not in a area to be settled, since it was covered with water, and thus G-d placed its generative power to be beneath the water. Now don’t be surprised by the vav of veha’aretz (“and the earth’), for its meaning is like the feh in Arabic and like “and a mist” v’ed would rise up from the earth” Genesis 2:6, for Moshe did not speak about the World to Come, which is the world of the angels, but rather of this transitory world. And those who explain that the heavens in the first verse are really the heavenly heavens, what will they do [here] with the earth? Behold, complete proofs, for reasonable people, that there is only earth. Now it is expounded that there were seven earths is [actually] that the earth is divided into seven and the Temple was in the center of the settled region, for it was distant from the center of the earth.
Rashi
For though he flourish among the marshes Heb. כִּי הוּא בֵּין אַחִים יַפְרִיא. Jonathan renders: For they are called sons, but they increased corrupt deeds. אַחִים An expression of an evil thing. Comp. (Ezekiel 21:20) “Woe! (אָח) It is made for a blade.” Also (ibid. 6:11) “And say, ‘Woe!’ (אָח) to all the... abominations.” יַפְרִיא An expression similar to (Deut. 29:17) פֹּרֶה רֹאשׁ וְלַעֲנָה, that hears (פֹּרַה) hemlock and wormwood.” But I say that אַחִים is an expression similar to (Gen. 41:2) “And they grazed in the marsh (בָּאָחוּ).”
Rashi
For though he flourish among the marshes Heb. יַפְרִיא. Blossoms and grows in the marsh. Among the marshes, among those growing in the marshes, which always flourish. And, since He compares him to a marsh, He says: An east wind shall come... and his spring shall dry up. Another explanation: For he decreased among the brothers, i.e., Jeroboam. He was a son who decreased the brotherhood [other versions: the heritage] of Israel. Through him, they were divided into two kingdoms. Decreased יַפְרִיע. An expression similar to (Gen. 16:12) “One who decreases men (פֶּרֶא אָדָם) .”