Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Kawikaan 3:5

בטח אל ה' בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשען, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insights” (Proverbs 3,5).

It appears to me that when we keep in mind these comments of the author of חובת הלבבות, we can better appreciate why Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3,5: בטח אל ה' בכל לבך, “trust towards G’d with all your heart,” instead of writing בטח בה' בכל לבך, “trust in G’d with all your heart.” He wanted to alert us that a person who truly puts his faith in G’d is someone whose thoughts are oriented only towards G’d. Another example of such a construction is found in Psalms 25,15 עיני תמיד אל ה', “my eyes are ever toward G’d.” We have already mentioned that Elijah was a prime example of someone who did not try and survive by looking for logical means to do so, but that he took refuge in a place where there was no possible chance to find food and that he relied on G’d to provide it for him in His own way. This is the highest level of trust in G’d.

Rabbi Nehorai said: go as a [voluntary] exile to a place of Torah and say not that it will come after you, for [it is] your fellow [student]s who will make it permanent in your hand and “and lean not upon your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Rabbi Nehorai teaches that one should leave one’s home and search out someone with whom to learn Torah for one cannot learn Torah on one’s own. Torah study is best done in the company of others, with a “hevruta” and with a teacher. Remember that since the Oral Torah was not yet written down at this point, learning Torah on one’s own was next to impossible. If one was lucky and wealthy he might have had a copy of the written Torah, but the Mishnah and all of the other compositions of the rabbis did not yet exist and even when they were compiled, they were learned orally. Although in our day we have books and one can learn Torah without a hevruta, it is still far more effective to learn with a hevruta. Furthermore, one cannot really begin to learn Talmud without a teacher, someone to explain how to read the Talmud and understand what the arguments mean. Rabbi Nehorai emphasizes that a person should not wait for a teacher to come to him. He must go out and even go into exile in order to find a teacher. Perhaps in the word “exile” Rabbi Nehorai hints that one may even leave the land of Israel to go study Torah. In general exile from the land of Israel was seen as a punishment and it was forbidden for a person to initiate such an exile. However, if exile is for the sake of Torah, it is permitted, and even under some circumstances, encouraged.