A man of rebukes—A person may return from sin either through rebuke or through suffering. That is, he may be shown by rational argument that his path is not good, and return through the awakening of his intellect. But if he is a man of rebukes—one who argues against and refutes the rational proofs brought to him, opposing them with disputation—then suffering may help him return from fear of punishment. If, however, he also hardens his neck, so that even when suffering comes upon him he does not turn from his wickedness, then he will suddenly be broken, beyond healing. Because he is a man of disputes he will suddenly be broken; yet if he does not harden his neck, this breaking can heal his soul, just as the body is healed by bitter medicines. If he hardens his neck, however, there is no healing.

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, because:

They conduct themselves with righteousness and justice;

The people’s yoke is lightened;

There is tranquility in their palaces;

And the Lord’s blessing rests upon them.

But when a wicked man rules, the people groan, because:

He makes their yoke heavy;

There is neither justice nor righteousness in the country;

And the Lord’s curse is upon their homes.

It says, “When the righteous increase,” but “when a wicked man rules,” because:

The righteous person:

Does not rule by domination, for domination is exercised with a strong hand;

Nor does he lead alone; rather, he takes counsel, and together they guide the people beside still waters. The righteous then increase, whether numerically or in abundance and greatness.

But the wicked person:

Rules with a strong hand;

And he rules alone, for he shows favor to no one.

A man who loves wisdom gladdens his father—If the faculty of love implanted in the soul is used properly, it will be directed toward love of wisdom, goodness, and righteousness. A man who uses love to love wisdom gladdens his father, as it says, “A wise son gladdens a father,” for afterward wisdom will enter his heart and he will become a wise son. But one who uses love to love prostitutes squanders his father’s wealth. Allegorically, if he loves external systems of wisdom—the strange, foreign, and licentious woman mentioned in this book—he will lose the soul’s wealth accumulated from the laws of wisdom. The Sages interpreted “one who associates with prostitutes” as one who says, “This teaching is pleasing and this one is not”; he loses the wealth of Torah. Such a person loves foreign women—external philosophies—and does not accept the laws of wisdom faithfully, but investigates them by his own intellect and decides which are pleasing in his eyes and which are not; he will lose his wealth.

Editing

A king establishes a land through justice, but a man of contributions destroys it—The king and the High Priest established the foundations of justice and righteousness. The king was appointed to establish justice in the land between one person and another, while the High Priest was charged with guarding the House of God, the service of the Lord, and instruction in Torah and mitzvot, thereby establishing righteousness in matters between man and God. When both followed the way of the Lord, they established the land. Yet sometimes the king establishes the land through justice, while the man of contributions destroys it: if the High Priest and the priests under him do not occupy themselves with guiding the people uprightly but only with receiving terumah and becoming wealthy, they destroy what the king builds. Without service of the Lord, faith, and righteousness, justice too cannot stand. Thus it says, “Remove the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.”

A man who flatters his fellow—The Hebrew word translated “his fellow” may be read as “the injustice of his fellow.” If he smooths over his fellow’s injustice with a flattering tongue and tells him it is not an injustice, he spreads a net for his steps, wishing him to continue committing injustice until he is caught in the net. He resembles one who smooths the path along which an animal walks so that it will be caught in his trap. So too, he smooths the rough places of his fellow’s evil spiritual paths so that the man will be trapped in sin and cut off.

In the transgression of an evil man lies a snare—The transgression itself is the snare in which the evil man is caught. Then the righteous man sings and rejoices, because the Lord’s judgments become visible, as it says: “The nations sank into the pit they made… The Lord is known by the judgment He executes; the wicked is snared by the work of his own hands—Higgaion” (Psalms 9:16–17). Then people learn the moral lesson not to do evil.

A righteous man knows the cause of the poor—The righteous person is one who performs deeds of righteousness, and he knows the cause of the poor. There is a difference between a cause and a judgment: a judgment concerns a matter whose legal ruling is clear, whereas a cause consists of the arguments in a matter whose ruling is not clear. Nevertheless, the righteous person knows the proper ruling with certainty, because his engagement in righteous action enables him to recognize which side is right. The wicked person not only fails to know the disputed cause; he does not even understand knowledge. Even a clarified matter, which is called knowledge—the clear judgment—he does not understand, because in his wickedness his path is the reverse of righteousness and justice. Therefore he does not understand even a known judgment.

Men of mockery inflame a city—Through their mockery, scoffers blow up a hot and stormy wind; they spread falsehood, slander, and heartbreak in the city. But the wise, who conduct themselves according to the laws of wisdom, know how to turn away anger. It may also mean that scoffers bring a trap, a snare, and severe judgment upon the city, whereas through the wise the Lord’s anger turns away: they awaken the people to repentance and pray to turn aside the Lord’s wrath and indignation.

When a wise man enters judgment with a fool—The fool is one who casts doubts upon the laws of wisdom and does not believe in them. When a wise man argues with a dullard—one who knows the laws of wisdom but deviates from them because of desire—he becomes angry with him for deliberately sinning against those laws. When he argues with a simple person, who turns from wisdom because he does not understand it, he smiles and shows him a pleasant face until he teaches him the laws of wisdom. But when he argues with a fool, on one side he becomes angry, because even after the fool understands the laws of wisdom he will not accept them, but will continue raising doubts. On the other side he laughs, because the fool does not act deliberately but from doubt, and his doubts cannot be conclusively resolved, since the laws of wisdom do not rest upon demonstrative proofs. Either way, there is no rest: the wise man cannot comfortably settle him upon the path of wisdom. Allegorically, when God seeks to return the fool through repentance, neither punishment nor added goodness will help him, because he remains in doubt and does not believe in reward and punishment at all.

Bloodthirsty men hate the wholehearted, and the upright seek his life—Throughout Scripture, the phrase “seek his life” means seeking to kill him and nowhere denotes love, except apparently here. It is therefore better to explain that bloodthirsty men hate the wholehearted and the upright, and seek his life to kill him. Alternatively, “the upright hate those who seek his life”: bloodthirsty men hate the wholehearted person and seek pretexts to kill him, while the upright hate those who seek his life and take up the cause of the wholehearted.

A dullard releases all his spirit—The spirit is the faculty that raises images upon the heart, and most human images are evil, such as images of pride, jealousy, vengeance, and the like. When the spirit expands, raises these images from the soul’s depths, and storms over the surface of the heart, the activating faculty is aroused to act according to them. The dullard, who deviates from wisdom because of desire, releases all his spirit outward: he places no restraint upon it, but raises its images upon the heart and the surface of the soul and conducts himself according to them—with desire, pride, and every evil trait. The wise man, however, who follows the laws of wisdom, rules his spirit and does not allow it to rise from the depths of the soul to the surface of the heart. Rather, he quiets it behind him: he lowers the spirit that storms upward toward the surface of the soul and the eye of the heart, leaving it behind and below, unseen before him. Through the laws of wisdom, he learns to suppress evil images so that they do not rise upon the heart but remain concealed in the lower abyss of the soul.

If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his servants are wicked—This statement has both an illustration and an allegory. Literally, if a ruler listens to lies, his servants strive to speak lies and slander before him and to destroy many people; they all become wicked. Allegorically, when the ruling heart follows the laws of wisdom, its servants are also righteous: the images of the soul that rise before the heart, man’s ruler, conform to the path of wisdom, and wicked impulses do not stand before it, for he quiets them behind him. But if the ruling heart listens to falsehood, the wicked servants—the evil images—rise up and stand ready to serve it by bringing before it images of desire, hatred, and an evil spirit. This continues the preceding verse, “A dullard releases all his spirit.”

The poor man and the man of deceptions meet; the Lord enlightens the eyes of them both—This contains both an illustration and an allegory, as stated in Midrash Shocher Tov on Psalm 7. Poverty wished to enter Noah’s ark, but Noah did not allow it because it had no mate. On the way it met Falsehood, which was going to the ark, and they married so that each would have a mate. They stipulated that whatever Falsehood produced, Poverty would take. According to this allegory, the poor man, meaning poverty, and the man of intrigues and deceit, meaning falsehood, met and married one another. The essence of the allegory is that neither deserves to endure alone, but together they endure: deception remains so that poverty and destitution may take whatever it gains through deceit. People thereby see and learn that acts of falsehood and deception do not succeed. Thus the poor man and the man of deceptions meet, and through this the Lord enlightens the eyes of them both: their eyes are opened, they cease practicing deceit, and poverty and destitution come to an end. This is the purpose of their meeting, union, and marriage.

A king who judges the poor in truth—The king’s throne is founded upon justice, as it says, “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness.” Sometimes a case is fraudulent and the king must investigate the truth. Then his throne will be established forever, just as truth is among the things that endure eternally.

The rod and rebuke give wisdom—If one strikes a youth with the rod and admonishes him with rational rebuke, this teaches him to accept the laws of wisdom. Rebuke alone does not affect the heart of a youth whose images are evil, as explained above. But a youth left unrestrained, whom no one disciplines, casts off the laws of wisdom and ultimately shames his mother for failing to educate him properly.

When the wicked increase, transgression increases—When wicked people increase, whether in number or in the quality of their greatness and success, transgression likewise increases, for the more numerous and powerful they become, the more they add to their offenses. Yet wickedness has a boundary and darkness an end. When transgression increases until the measure is full, they perish. The righteous will see their downfall: as soon as transgression increases, the righteous already perceive with the eye of their intellect the downfall soon to come, and afterward they see it with their physical eyes.

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest—A father who does not discipline his son will ultimately be hated by him and have no rest from him; the Sages said how grievous it is to have an ill-bred person within one’s home, and the son certainly will not support his father in old age. But if he disciplines him, the son will not only give him rest but also give delights to his soul, for he will follow the laws of wisdom and afterward increase in love and honor toward his parents.

Without vision, a people casts off restraint—When the last of the prophets concluded his prophecy, he said, “Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet,” and, “Remember the Torah of Moses My servant.” So long as prophecy existed in Israel, prophets came on the Lord’s missions to guide the people. But when vision was sealed, they needed to remember the Torah. Thus without vision, a people casts off restraint; then fortunate is one who keeps the Torah, for he attains happiness by observing the Torah, which takes the place of vision and prophecy.

A servant will not be disciplined by words, for though he understands, there is no response—A servant does not accept discipline through words. A free person has a human nature and can be disciplined by moral instruction that teaches him fear of the Lord and His punishment. But the servant’s nature is animal-like: “a whip for the horse and a bridle for the donkey,” not words. Although he is superior to an animal because he understands the matter, nevertheless there is no response: speech does not subdue him, only whip and rod. Allegorically, a person who is like a servant, serving only from fear of punishment, will not submit until punishment actually comes upon him.

Have you seen a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a dullard than for him—The dullard knows the laws of wisdom, but desire leads him astray from them. Nevertheless, there is hope for him: if his desire departs, he may return and recognize what he distorted, for his ideas are fundamentally ordered and he knows the truth. But one who is hasty in his words, decisively speaking error about the Lord and His Providence and disparaging wisdom, has no hope at all.

One who pampers his servant from youth—If a person pampers his servant and does not make him work from youth, because he is still young and lacks strength, in the end he will bring grief: the master will be defrauded by him, for the servant will always remain idle. On the contrary, he must accustom him to labor and service from youth, so that he will be worth the money paid for him. Allegorically, one who pampers the body, which is the soul’s servant, and does not make it labor in Torah and mitzvot from youth will find his hands weakened even when he grows older, for a person must accustom himself to toil from his youth.

An angry man stirs up strife—There is a difference between outward anger and inward wrath: wrath is the inward heat, while anger is its external expression.

One who is outwardly angry but lacks inward wrath, and wishes to harm his fellow, stirs up strife: he seeks legal claims and arguments against his fellow so that he will have a justification for harming him.

But one who possesses inward wrath seeks no pretense of justification at all; rather, he abounds in transgression and commits evil without any legal claim or justice.

A man’s pride will bring him low—One who is proud shows that he does not understand his own worth: he is a fading flower and is accounted as nothing. This very pride brings him low. But one of lowly spirit, who stands at the opposite extreme from pride, will uphold honor. This also operates as reward and punishment, as it says, “Pride precedes destruction,” etc.

One who shares with a thief hates his own soul; he hears the oath and does not report—Although he did not steal personally, but only shared with the thief, because he knows of the theft and does not disclose it, he too hates his own soul. When he hears the oath by which anyone knowing of the theft is adjured and placed under a curse, the oath obligates him to testify; when he does not report it, the curse falls upon him.

The trembling of man sets a snare—Although it said above (Proverbs 28:14), “Fortunate is the man who makes himself fearful always,” trembling denotes sudden panic, and this sets a snare, for it shows that the person does not trust in the Lord.

But one who trusts in the Lord will be raised beyond danger and will not panic, as Hillel said (Berakhot 60a), “I am confident that this cry does not come from my household,” for it says, “He will not fear bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord” (Psalms 112:7).

Many seek the face of a ruler, but a man’s judgment comes from the Lord—When people face a capital judgment before a ruler, they seek his favor so that he will have mercy upon them. They would do better to seek the Lord’s favor, because a man’s judgment comes from the Lord; everything is under His Providence, and He inclines the ruler’s heart as He desires.

An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous—Good hates evil and evil hates good, until the opposite path becomes an abomination to each of them.