Sefer Mishlei’s Jargon-Filled Introduction (Mishlei 1:1-6)

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Artwork: Secret Rendezvous, by Manuel Castañón

Sefer Mishlei’s Jargon-Filled Introduction (Mishlei 1:1-6)

The introduction of Sefer Mishlei (the Book of Proverbs) poses a unique difficulty for the beginner. To experience it yourself, read this:

The mashalim (proverbs, examples, allegories) of Shlomo, son of Dovid, king of Israel: la’daas (to know) chochmah (wisdom) and mussar (discipline), le’havin (to understand) statements of binah (understanding); lakachas (to take) mussar haskel (intelligent discipline), tzedek (righteousness), and mishpat (justice), and meisharim (uprightness); to give ormah (cunning) to pesaim (simpletons), to a naar (youth) daas (knowledge) and mezimah (scheming); a chacham (wise man) will hear and increase lekach (learning), and a navon (man of understanding) will acquire tachbulos (strategies); le’havin (to understand) mashal (parable) and melitzah (allegory), the words of the chachamim (wise) and their chidos (riddles).

The difficulty is that these pesukim are chock-full of Mishleic jargon! How is the beginner supposed to know what these terms mean? It is tempting to answer: “by making recourse to the commentators, who explain what each term means,” but that answer is problematic for several reasons. It is a stretch to assume that Shlomo ha’Melech intended for his words to only be understandable with the aid of commentaries, especially considering his explicit statement that this book is intended not only for a chacham (wise man) and a navon (man of understanding), but also for a pesi (simpleton) and a naar (youth). Furthermore, if you read through the commentaries, you’ll quickly see that there is no consensus on what these terms mean. Each commentator has his own set of definitions. How is the beginner to know on whom to rely? This also raises the question: How did the commentators, themselves, arrive at their own definitions? Presumably, by learning through the rest of the book to see how Shlomo uses these terms. But if these commentators were only able to decipher his terminology by learning through the entire book, then we’re back at square one: What does Shlomo expect the reader to do with this opening paragraph? Skip it, read the rest of the book, and then start from the beginning again? Unlikely.

Therefore, I would like to suggest that Shlomo’s intent was not for the novice to fully understand or precisely define these terms at this early stage of learning, but merely to identify them as desirable objectives and to be motivated on that basis to learn Mishlei as a means of achieving these objectives – despite not knowing exactly what they mean. For example, the average reader will not be able to define chochmah, but they’ll likely have an intuitive notion of what chochmah is and will know that it is a valuable asset. Tzedek and mishpat can be quite difficult to define – as Socrates demonstrated – yet, everyone knows that they are virtues. The beginner may not know exactly what type of tachbulos (strategies) are being promised, but he knows that having strategies is better than not having them, and if even a navon can learn strategies from this book, then it must be worth learning!

There is no other book of Tanach which explicitly states its goals from the get-go. Shlomo begins this way in order to convey to his readers that unlike the other books of Tanach, which contain a mix of theoretical and practical knowledge, Sefer Mishlei is primarily a practical book, and these are its practical objectives. As his readers make their way through the book, these explicitly stated objectives at the beginning will serve as beacons or goalposts which guide their learning, prompting them to search for chochmah, mussar, tzedek, ormah, etc. in every pasuk. Although they’ll begin with the most rudimentary grasp of these terms, their definitions will become clearer and clearer the more Mishlei they learn. Eventually, they’ll be able to develop working definitions of the terminology (as can be seen, for example, in my 2017 article The Mishleic Spectrum: A Glossary of Mishlei Personalities, which needs to be updated). Ultimately, they’ll formulate their own opinions, just as the commentators did.

And if this challenge proves too difficult, they may enlist the help of their teachers – whether living teachers or commentaries – and rely on their definitions as “training wheels” until they begin to form their own views.

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