Wit about Wisdom: The Wise Man

I had an unsettling experience a few days before Pesach. Tired and sleepy, I ducked into a seforim store for a short break between chores. My eyes scanned the new arrivals and stopped at the new edition of Mivchar Peninim, a book about Wisdom. It is a beautiful edition in two volumes with various commentaries and a great introduction. But that is not the first thing I felt.

What I felt was a thought that cut across me, a thought that was so painful and poignant, so violent and bitter, that it caught my breath. "Who needs wisdom? In our society there is no wisdom, there is only technical knowledge. ...the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded(Koheles9:1)." That I thought this, disturbed me. It was, revealing – of something. I sat down and mulled and analyzed it. Then I got up and bought the work.

No, wisdom is not technical knowledge. Wisdom is not psychology and it is not organizational behavior and it is not management, or negotiation, or solely an understanding of how people work. No, the world is wrong, and, yes, there is such a thing as Wisdom! Wisdom is important in Judaism. It is mentioned, under the name Chochma, 222 times in the Tanach.

Therefore, to make amends, I started a new series  on Mivchar Peninim. I decided to read through this work and pick out selected sayings that speak to us, even in our improverished time, or at least, that speak to me and hopefully will speak to you.

Here we go.

The Gate of Wisdom, 22.

"A man is wise as long as he seeks wisdom, but when he thinks that he has gained it, he is a fool."

It is a paradox. Wisdom is an ideal that no one can ever approach. The process of seeking wisdom is what makes one wise. Wisdom is not technical knowledge; instead it is partly humility, partly longing, and partly self-knowledge. Wisdom to R. Shlomo Gabirol, the author of this book, could never be fully attained, because it is, in its nature divine. That is how the neoplatonic author of the Fons Vitae (Fountain of Life) would naturally perceive wisdom. Hence, anyone who thinks he has attained it, is truly foolish.

I am not sure that Aristotle would agree. In fact, I think that Aristotle might define wisdom as technical knowledge.  In in his Meta[hysics, he defined wisdom as the understanding of causes, i.e. knowing why things are a certain way, which is deeper than merely knowing that things are a certain way, but not exactly something that surmounts knowledge.

But even if we do not subscribe to a Neoplatonic vision, wisdom cannot be completely attained because there is no end to the depth of humility and because no man can fully know himself. These are major components of wisdom – and in some measure, man will always remain, to himself, a mysterious creature. This is because at the core of men is a divine soul, which is beyond comprehension.

Rabbeinu Bachya writes in Shmos 6:3 that a fool does not begrudge a wise person, for the fool thinks that he, the fool, misses nothing. He thinks that he is already wise. This is why Chazal say, "a person is not jealous except the wise men of a wise men, a strong man of the strongman, wealthy men of a wealthy man.(A"Z 55a) ". Only the wise person can admire and be jealous of another wise person. A foolish person thinks he is already wise, and does not even recognize his deficiencies. The wise men and other hand knows that the recognition of where he lacks, is in itself a part of his wisdom.

In this manner, "The beginning of wisdom is fear of Hashem(Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10)". As Hashem is Divine, so is wisdom Divine. This is why philosophers are called so in Greek, because they love wisdom, not because they have wisdom. In exactly the same way, talmidei chachamim are students of the wise and they are not called wise(Pri Megadim, Introduction to Orach Chaim).

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