Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Kawikaan 25:3

From a rational, investigative point of view, the appearance of the two letters ת in our word where they appear as if facing one another, suggest that heaven and earth are in opposition to each other, the first letter ת referring to heaven, the second to earth. This concept is found in Proverbs 25, 3 where Solomon wrote השמים לרום והארץ לעומק. “As the heavens in their height, so the earth in its depth.” In order to ensure that we do not remain with the thought that earth is inferior to heaven by definition, the Torah reverses the order in which the names heaven and earth appear in the very next line by writing ארץ ושמים, in that order. All phenomena in the universe are the product of the same Creator; one part is not inferior or superior to the other. Heaven “faces” earth, i.e. is oriented towards earth, and earth faces heaven, i.e. is oriented towards heaven. It is even possible that this was what G-d had meant to tell Moses when He answered his question in Exodus 3,13-14 concerning which name of G-d he should mention to the Israelites when identifying himself as G-d’s messenger. At that time G-d described Himself as אהיה אשר אהיה, ”I shall be (remain) who I am.” He meant: “I will always respond in kind to whatever you (the Jewish people) will do. If you will give charity, as you are directed to by the Torah in Deut. 15,8, פתוח תפתח את ידך, ‘be sure to open your hand (to the needy),’ I shall distribute charity, as is written in Deut. 28,12 יפתח לך ה' את אוצרו הטוב, ‘G-d will open for you His good treasure.’”

AND HIS HANDS WERE ‘EMUNAH’. This means that they remained steadily uplifted. The usage of the word is similar to the expressions: ‘va’amanah’ (And a sure) ordinance concerning the singers, as every day required;⁴⁶⁵Nehemiah 11:23. And yet for all this we make ‘amanah’ (a sure) covenant,⁴⁶⁶Ibid., 10:1. meaning a provision “fixed” by covenant. Similarly, a peg fastened in a place ‘ne’eman’⁴⁶⁷Isaiah 22:23. means [sure and] strong.
By way of the Truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], Moses lifted his ten fingers to the height of heaven⁴⁶⁸See Proverbs 25:3. in order to allude to the ten emanations and to cleave firmly to Him Who fights for Israel.⁴⁶⁹Deuteronomy 3:22, For the Eternal your G-d, He it is that fighteth for you. Here is explained the matter of uplifting of hands during the blessing of the priests, and its secret.⁴⁷⁰By uplifting their ten fingers, which allude to the ten emanations, the priests point to the Most High One Whose beneficence is brought down through them to the world by the priestly benediction (L’vush Ha’orah explaining the Ricanti, who quotes the language of Ramban).

Knowledge of G’d by means of the deeds He has performed is absolutely possible even though knowledge of G’d’s essence is beyond our ability to comprehend. Concerning this latter knowledge (or attempt at knowing) Solomon said in Proverbs 25,2: “it is the glory of G’d to conceal a matter.” Seeing that acquiring this kind of knowledge about G’d cannot commence, as do other disciplines, with one’s seeing the object of one’s research and thereby trying to assess its constituent parts, the Torah used the term והשבות, something describing an end result, when discussing our study of theology-related subjects.
We find that the prophet Elijah, after having experienced several manifestations of G’d’s attributes, discovered (with the help of G’d) that he had been wrong when at the first such manifestation he had thought that he had “seen” or “experienced” the essence of G’d (Kings I 19,11-12). We have been warned in the Sefer Yetzirah (1,8) בלום פיך מלדבר ולבך מלהרר, “restrain your mouth from speaking and your heart from even contemplating.”
Moses uses the word לבבך for “your heart” in our verse whereas the author of the Sefer Yetzirah uses the word לבך. Moses refers to two contradictory urges which each try to dominate our heart. One is called “the good urge,” (urge to do good) the other “the evil urge.” Moses urges us that if perchance the “evil urge” tries to make us deviate from the true path of Torah, suggesting hat there are at least two domains in the universe which compete with one another for supremacy, we are to use the “good urge” to resist such temptations and to tell the evil urge that there is only one domain. This is also why the verse ends with the words אין עוד, “there is no one else.”
The expression השבת הלב, means that the subject matter is one that requires intensive study and considerable knowledge before one embarks on examining it. Isaiah 44,18 referred to people who fail to come properly equipped for such research when he said: “they have no wit or judgment, their eyes are besmeared, and they see not.” The lesson that Moses wants us to appreciate is that the Lord is also the G’d of nature, the captain of the universe; the word בשמים refers to the planets; the word ממעל refers to the celestial spheres, the habitat of the angels, the words על הארץ refer to our terrestrial earth; the word מתחת, refers to all that is hidden in the depths of the oceans or the bowels of the earth. All of this is summarized by Solomon when he says in Proverbs 25,3: “like the heavens in their height, like the earth in its depth.” The word אין עוד includes all the various layers of the universe, i.e. there are none which Moses had not already included in our verse.