לְהַקְשִׁ֣יב לַֽחָכְמָ֣ה אָזְנֶ֑ךָ תַּטֶּ֥ה לִ֝בְּךָ֗ לַתְּבוּנָֽה׃
upang ikiling mo ang iyong tainga sa karunungan, at ihilig mo ang iyong puso sa pang-unawa;
Radak
Hearken unto the voice of my cry: – Make thine ear attentive, for the verb (הקשׁיבה) is transitive. And so it is written (Prov. 2:2): “to incline (להקשׁיב) thine ear unto wisdom”; “Thou wilt make attentive thine ear” (Ps. 10:17). The word is connected with (the prepositions) ל, אל, and ב; and sometimes it is (used) without any connecting letter (at all), as ואשׁמע הקשבתי, “I hearkened and heard” (Jer. 8:6); מי הקשׁיב דברו, “Who hath hearkened to his word?” (ibid, 23:17).
Rabbeinu Bahya
Solomon urges us here to tune in to words of Torah and to tune out to extraneous matters. This is the deeper meaning of the words הט אזנך, “incline your ear.” He uses a similar phrase in Proverbs 2,2 where the words תטה לבך also mean to turn one’s attention away from other matters in order to acquire the requisite תבונה, discernment, insight. Solomon called the commandments דברים ואמרים, warning that neither must the text be forgotten nor the essence, the actual commandment. They must not be forgotten. The words אל יליזו מעיניך refer to forgetting the text of the Torah; even if you have urgent matters to attend to we must always remember these commandments described as הדברים בין עיניך in Exodus 13,9. The reason the Torah commanded us to wear the phylacteries on our forehead is to make it harder to forget these commandments.
When saying שמרם בתוך לבבך, “guard them inside your heart,” this refers not so much to the text of the commandments as to their essence. Something buried inside a person’s heart and constantly guarded is not subject to being forgotten. This is why we must guard Torah text as well as essence in our hearts so that we are not in danger of forgetting them. Solomon provides a reason why he considers this so essential, namely that Torah essence is equivalent to life itself for all those who have once found them. Torah (text) and the commandments between them are healing for both body and soul. Solomon has touched on that subject already earlier in Proverbs 3, 22 when he said: ”they will give life to your spirit and grace to your throat.” When Solomon used the word לגרגותיך in that verse, meaning “for your throat,” he meant that when you (also) observe the words of Torah which you express with your mouth, they will then be an adornment for you. In the words of our sages: Torah words are effective when the one who speaks about them also is known as keeping them, i.e. נאה דורש נאה מקיים (compare Chagigah 14). Solomon also says (Proverbs 4,13) נצריה כי היא חייך, “guard her well” for she is your life.
Seeing that our Torah is the fruit, i.e. the product of the attribute of חכמה, wisdom of the celestial world, of which it is written in Kohelet 7,12: החכמה תחיה בעליה, “the wisdom revives those who possess it,” this is why Solomon says in our opening verse that “it is life-giving for those who find it.” The plural of חיים הם, is an allusion to Jeremiah 2,13 who quotes G’d as saying that the Jewish people have forsaken Him Who is מקור מים חיים the source of “living” waters. Moses himself refers to this phenomenon in Deut. 4,4 where he attributed the people’s being alive to ואתם הדבקים בה’ חיים כולכם השיום, “you are all fully alive this day because you have cleaved to the Lord your G’d, i.e. His Torah, the wisdom He revealed to you.”
Solomon is very specific in describing for whom the words of Torah constitute life, saying “for the ones who have found them.” By adding this rider he makes it plain that not every person is likely to find words of Torah. The reason that not everyone finds words of Torah is because not everyone searches for them. Those who have not found words of Torah would have found them if only they had wanted to find them, if only they had looked for them. This is what Solomon said in Proverbs 2,4-5: “If you seek it as silver, and search for it as for treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and will find knowledge of G’d.”
Our sages in Eiruvin 54 comment on the word למוצאיהם, “for those who find them,” by slightly changing the spelling to למוציאיהם בפה “for those who express these words of Torah as wisdom with their mouth.” The moral reason is that it is not enough to possess knowledge of G’d and to keep it to oneself; one has to spread this knowledge, talk about it. In fact, these words of Torah have to be שגורים בפה, fluent in one’s mouth, one must have quotations from the Torah constantly at one’s command. Concerning these two additional facets of Torah Solomon said in Proverbs 22,18: “it is pleasant if you store them within you, so that they will be ever ready on our lips.”
As to the meaning of the words ולכל בשרו מרפא, “that the words of Torah will be a therapy for one’s whole flesh,” it is customary for a physician to give a patient a certain drug and to feed it to him in his food or drink so that it will heal the sickness of a particular organ of the body. Very often such treatment has a negative side effect for parts of the body which were not afflicted by the disease. The great advantage of Torah as therapy is that it applies to all parts of the body and that Torah’s therapy does not produce negative side effects in any part of the patient.
Solomon also teaches in this verse that not only the body but also the soul benefits therapeutically from Torah. Moses underlines that by saying in 6,24 לטוב לנו כל הימים, “to be good for us for all time.” The word כל in that verse clearly is a reference to the hereafter. The words לחיותנו כיום הזה on the other hand, refer to life in this world. This also explains the division of the commandments into what we called מצות מושכלות and מצות מקובלות. The former are designed to help our bodies while we are on terrestrial earth, whereas the other are primarily of benefit to the soul, all their demonstrable benefit being reserved for the hereafter. David referred to this division, i.e. that the מצות מושכלות are of immediate benefit to our bodies in this world, when he said גם עבדך נזהר בהם בשמרם עקב רב, “Your servant pays them heed; in obeying them there is much reward.” The word עקב meaning reward occurs both in connection with מצות מושכלות and with מצות מקובלות. It occurs in connection with חקים, the commandments which defy our reason. Nonetheless, David says in Psalms 119,33: ”Teach me O Lord the way of Your statutes, I will observe them עקב.” We have a similar verse in Psalms 119,112. In both instances David means that one of the reasons that prompts him to carefully observe the laws known as חקים is the reward which will accrue for their observance, ultimately, עקב. This “reward” is concealed at this time but David describes it as מה רב טובך “how great is Your goodness,” (Psalms 31,20) a reference to the greatness of the reward. Hence the term עקב רב for describing great reward for the observance of the social laws, מצות מושכלות the social laws, משפטים as we know from the following verse:
When saying שמרם בתוך לבבך, “guard them inside your heart,” this refers not so much to the text of the commandments as to their essence. Something buried inside a person’s heart and constantly guarded is not subject to being forgotten. This is why we must guard Torah text as well as essence in our hearts so that we are not in danger of forgetting them. Solomon provides a reason why he considers this so essential, namely that Torah essence is equivalent to life itself for all those who have once found them. Torah (text) and the commandments between them are healing for both body and soul. Solomon has touched on that subject already earlier in Proverbs 3, 22 when he said: ”they will give life to your spirit and grace to your throat.” When Solomon used the word לגרגותיך in that verse, meaning “for your throat,” he meant that when you (also) observe the words of Torah which you express with your mouth, they will then be an adornment for you. In the words of our sages: Torah words are effective when the one who speaks about them also is known as keeping them, i.e. נאה דורש נאה מקיים (compare Chagigah 14). Solomon also says (Proverbs 4,13) נצריה כי היא חייך, “guard her well” for she is your life.
Seeing that our Torah is the fruit, i.e. the product of the attribute of חכמה, wisdom of the celestial world, of which it is written in Kohelet 7,12: החכמה תחיה בעליה, “the wisdom revives those who possess it,” this is why Solomon says in our opening verse that “it is life-giving for those who find it.” The plural of חיים הם, is an allusion to Jeremiah 2,13 who quotes G’d as saying that the Jewish people have forsaken Him Who is מקור מים חיים the source of “living” waters. Moses himself refers to this phenomenon in Deut. 4,4 where he attributed the people’s being alive to ואתם הדבקים בה’ חיים כולכם השיום, “you are all fully alive this day because you have cleaved to the Lord your G’d, i.e. His Torah, the wisdom He revealed to you.”
Solomon is very specific in describing for whom the words of Torah constitute life, saying “for the ones who have found them.” By adding this rider he makes it plain that not every person is likely to find words of Torah. The reason that not everyone finds words of Torah is because not everyone searches for them. Those who have not found words of Torah would have found them if only they had wanted to find them, if only they had looked for them. This is what Solomon said in Proverbs 2,4-5: “If you seek it as silver, and search for it as for treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and will find knowledge of G’d.”
Our sages in Eiruvin 54 comment on the word למוצאיהם, “for those who find them,” by slightly changing the spelling to למוציאיהם בפה “for those who express these words of Torah as wisdom with their mouth.” The moral reason is that it is not enough to possess knowledge of G’d and to keep it to oneself; one has to spread this knowledge, talk about it. In fact, these words of Torah have to be שגורים בפה, fluent in one’s mouth, one must have quotations from the Torah constantly at one’s command. Concerning these two additional facets of Torah Solomon said in Proverbs 22,18: “it is pleasant if you store them within you, so that they will be ever ready on our lips.”
As to the meaning of the words ולכל בשרו מרפא, “that the words of Torah will be a therapy for one’s whole flesh,” it is customary for a physician to give a patient a certain drug and to feed it to him in his food or drink so that it will heal the sickness of a particular organ of the body. Very often such treatment has a negative side effect for parts of the body which were not afflicted by the disease. The great advantage of Torah as therapy is that it applies to all parts of the body and that Torah’s therapy does not produce negative side effects in any part of the patient.
Solomon also teaches in this verse that not only the body but also the soul benefits therapeutically from Torah. Moses underlines that by saying in 6,24 לטוב לנו כל הימים, “to be good for us for all time.” The word כל in that verse clearly is a reference to the hereafter. The words לחיותנו כיום הזה on the other hand, refer to life in this world. This also explains the division of the commandments into what we called מצות מושכלות and מצות מקובלות. The former are designed to help our bodies while we are on terrestrial earth, whereas the other are primarily of benefit to the soul, all their demonstrable benefit being reserved for the hereafter. David referred to this division, i.e. that the מצות מושכלות are of immediate benefit to our bodies in this world, when he said גם עבדך נזהר בהם בשמרם עקב רב, “Your servant pays them heed; in obeying them there is much reward.” The word עקב meaning reward occurs both in connection with מצות מושכלות and with מצות מקובלות. It occurs in connection with חקים, the commandments which defy our reason. Nonetheless, David says in Psalms 119,33: ”Teach me O Lord the way of Your statutes, I will observe them עקב.” We have a similar verse in Psalms 119,112. In both instances David means that one of the reasons that prompts him to carefully observe the laws known as חקים is the reward which will accrue for their observance, ultimately, עקב. This “reward” is concealed at this time but David describes it as מה רב טובך “how great is Your goodness,” (Psalms 31,20) a reference to the greatness of the reward. Hence the term עקב רב for describing great reward for the observance of the social laws, מצות מושכלות the social laws, משפטים as we know from the following verse:
Rashi
who has set his whole heart So it is explained in the Baraitha of Rabbi Eleazar the son of Rabbi Jose the Galilean which commences: Wherever you find the words of Rabbi Eleazar the son of Rabbi Jose the Galilean in Aggadah, listen attentively, as it is said (Prov. 2:2): “To make your ear attentive to wisdom” of the thirty-two methods by which the Aggadah is expounded, and this is one of them:. If the sequence was separated, e.g. this one: The good Lord will atone for anyone who has set his whole heart to seek God to perform His Passover sacrifice, to offer up his sacrifice—even though they did not offer it with the purity of sacred things, for they had not purified themselves; the entire Judah had purified themselves because they were near Jerusalem, and they could cleanse themselves and consecrate themselves and return to Jerusalem, but many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun were not so much to blame in the matter, because the matter was far away for them through letters, and they did not have time to wait and to delay their coming until they consecrated themselves. They therefore came and were not purified. And because it was not their fault, therefore atone for them. Similarly, (Isa. 35:1f.): “Desert and wasteland shall rejoice over them, etc.”: the sequence is separated.