ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף משלי 17:27

Was rare. Was withheld,¹It was therefore considered precious and dear [=יָקָר]. as in, "and a man of understanding speaks sparingly ]יֲקר[",²Mishlei 17:27. meaning that who speaks sparingly is an understanding man.

A man of understanding is of a precious spirit (Proverbs 17:27). Let one understand and comprehend, gain insight into the conduct of a people without understanding — how far their ways are from the ways of the Lord, in a generation of perversity that turns the dish upside down and wipes its face, judging good as evil and evil as good, placing the lowly on high, while those rich in wisdom sit in lowliness, calling the scoundrel noble to seat him among the nobles of God’s people, the God of Abraham. And among the Lord’s people, they are divided into sects and groups: some are lovers of money, some are lovers of imaginary honor, some are lovers of pleasurable delights, some are masters of evil speech with every blemish in them. And the lovers of truth among the elevated ones are few and countable, and they are nullified in their minority for the breach is greater than what stands. This one says “I belong to the Lord and holiness is within me,” yet he will not enter the city to sit at the heights of the town. That one calls himself by the name of Israel, saying: I have strived with God and men and prevailed (Genesis 32:29). Another writes his hand to the Lord saying “The light is mine and I created it,” and “my hand is in all wisdoms and who can compare to me in declaring and arranging it.” Yet another says “The world and its fullness are mine,” and “who can sense and who can act besides me in working with silver and gold and in the craftsmanship of the tree of life.” And there are those who grasp this and that, not letting go of either. All these and their like are destroyers of the city — they demolish and do not build. The breach rises before them and the wall of its builders is torn down. The spirit within my belly pressures me, and my heart trembles within me like a coin rattling in a flask, like a bell and pomegranate I cannot contain, and my words are upon my tongue like burning fire saying: “How long will you judge unjustly, placing light for darkness and darkness for light? Will you gouge out people’s eyes to deny what is known? Let the heavens be appalled at this! Has there ever been such a thing, that a nation in exile, turned aside and greatly despised among the nations, does not repent of several well-known abominations that all acknowledge?” And the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed (Hosea 7:1).

SILENCE. Rav: refraining from saying permissible¹¹⁵I.e., neither forbidden things, like gossip, nor things one ought to and must say, like words of Torah. things. Concerning them Solmon said, “even a fool, if he stays silent, will be thought a wise man” (Mishlei 17:28). Since even a fool, should he stay silent, will be thought a wise man, we can infer that anyone who stays silent is wise.¹¹⁶It would be tempting to say that this is a printer's error, as the verse says that even fools who stay silent are considered wise. Not all those who are silent, then, are actually wise! But if we reverse the sentence to read “we can infer that anyone who is wise stays silent,” we are still left with a conclusion that in no way follows from the verse. There is no error here, and Tosafot Yom Tov understands the verse in Proverbs as Meiri does in his commentary there. It is not that a fool will mistakenly be considered a wise man if he remains silent. Rather, though he is a fool, in this respect he will be considered wise: he stays silent when he has nothing substantive to say. So also Ibn Yachya there. Now there is proof that it is a wise thing to remain silent, for then one will not end up offering opinions out of ignorance and looking foolish. Moreover, the verse before this one says “a discerning man spares his words, an understanding one is reticent” (Proverbs 17:27); commenting on this first verse, Proverbs continues “even a fool, etc.” Since the words in the mishna are “a fence for wisdom,” Rav wished to quote a verse that mentions a wise man.

ואם תלכו עמי קרי — Our Rabbis said (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 5 5): this word signifies “irregularly”, “by chance” (מקרה), which is a thing that happens only occasionally; thus this means: if you will follow the commandments irregularly. Menachem explains it as an expression for “refraining”. Similar is, (Proverbs 25:17) “Refrain (הוקר) thy foot [from thy neighbour’s house]”; (Proverbs 17:27) “of a refraining (יקר) spirit”. This meaning approximates to the translation given by Onkelos which is a term denoting “stubbornness” (קושי) — that they harden their hearts so as to refrain from coming near unto Me.