Mishlei Perek 3

Hello everyone. Welcome to NachDaily, covering the entire Tanach one perek at time. Today we’re discussing Mishlei, perek gimmel.

While most of Mishlei is about working on our character traits, this perek opens with the idea of” tikkun divrey hasechel, fixing our minds and purifying our thoughts.” This is really the essence of wisdom. When we let go of our personal agendas, fully recognizing the true Source of the power of the mind, we rid ourselves of contaminated thoughts and allow a higher level of thinking which comes straight from Hashem.

This is the essence of what prophecy was. A prophet’s thoughts were directly linked to Hashem. This heightened their levels of consciousness and awareness of the Divine. They would rise higher and higher until God actually spoke through them, leaving an impression in their minds via the power of thought.

Shlomo again speaks as if to a child, warning it not to forget Hashem’s Torah. The Torah must be the guiding light in one’s life “Ki orech yamim ushnos chayim v’shalom yosefu lach - because it will add to your length of days, and years of life and peace.”

Rashi and the Metsudos explain that the Torah will lengthen your years because the merit of its study will advocate for you by defending you in the next world.

Rebbe Nachman explains that sometimes a person lives a long life in this world, but only merits “short days” in the next world because he didn’t spend his time accumulating the spiritual wealth of Torah, tefilah, and mitzvos. Conversely, a person may live a very short life on this world, but merit to long days in the next. His short days here were so filled with mitzvos that when he reaches the next world, he will see how much he merited.

This is why we give a person a bracha to have arichas yamim, long days, referring to long days in the World to Come basking in the blissful light of Hashem.

Moving on, the perek urges a person to “trust in God with all your heart” and not to rely on your own personal thinking.

Here we have the famous passuk of “b’chol drachecha da’ayhu, v’Hu yishar orchosecha - Know Him in all your ways and He will smooth your path.”

In the Gemarah in Brachos 63A, Bar Kappara says that this verse encapsulates all the main ideas of the Torah. Know Him in all your ways – even in the mundane. No matter where you are in life, you can know God.

The perek continues to explain that we should honor God with our wealth. We shouldn’t try to avoid His rebuke because ultimately our suffering is good for us. It is compared to a father rebuking a son for the child’s benefit.

Shlomo continues to express and praise the value of wisdom. Any bit of wisdom that we attain should make us happy. Wisdom is more precious than silver, gold and pearls. The Torah’s ways are pleasant and peaceful. It is like an eitz chaim, tree of life, for those who hold onto it.

Hashem founded the earth with wisdom and made the heavens with understanding. It is very important to not be distracted from seeking the wisdom of the Torah. It is so easy to lose sight of it and be bogged down by life, but the answer isn’t to just be resigned and feel discouraged. By trying to deeply understand the value of what we’re doing, we’ll sleep better, be less fearful, and merit Divine protection.

The rest of the perek urges a person to not only seek wisdom, but to act according to its dictates and do good in the eyes of Hashem. We should not be jealous of those who seem to be succeeding even though they’re really twisted and evil people. Certainly, Hashem will punish them and give each what they deserve. We can never lose by walking with humility.

Stay tuned to the next episode of NachDaily. Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.