MINING OUR MINDS: Exploring the Nature of Wisdom – with Rabbi Michael Skobac – Jews for Judaisms

[Music] so eight years ago Israeli Professor Uval Noah Harari published his highly acclaimed book called sapiens which became an international bestseller the book is subtitled a brief history of mankind humans are referred to in science texts as Homo sapiens this means that like other primates such as apes and gorillas and baboons and orangutangs chimpan disease Etc we humans are of the hominid genus and sapiens refers to our having intellect so we are you could say the intellectual ape if you will what exactly is this intellect that defines our humanity and how can it be cultivated these are the questions that I hope to explore this evening it's interesting that in our world that Harbors tremendous antipathy toward the Jewish people with a wide range of commonly held negative stereotypes you will never hear people saying you know I hate those Jewish people because they're so stupid and ignorant it could be that one of the few things Jews are respected for is their intelligence and this is not shocking when we remember that even though Jews make up less than 2% less than 2/10 of 1% of the world's population yet we've garnered 24% of Nobel prizes there's a story that in the 19th century an elderly Jew was traveling on the Trans Siberian railroad when an officer from the Zars Army sat down opposite him they traveled for a while in silence when suddenly the offic off grabbed a Jew by the lapels and said tell me how is it that you Jews are so much brighter than everyone else well the Jew replied after a moment of silence it's because of the Herring that we eat Herring really do you have any on you sure and the Jew took out a full jar of Herring and the officer said how much do you want for that 30 rubles the Jew said now back then this was a huge sum of money so they exchanged the money for the jar of Herring and the officer immediately took a bite and suddenly he stopped hey this is no big deal I can buy this stuff back in Moscow for just a few copics you see the Jew said it's working already so as we explore this topic we learn that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom the old quip goes that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit wisdom is realizing that you don't put it into a fruit [Music] salad we actually find these kinds of distinctions in Jewish literature as well when describing the construction of the Tabernacle that was built in the desert after The Exodus from Egypt the Bible repeatedly describes the people involved in the project as being wiseheart now one could describe people as having wisdom and being wise but this is not necessarily the same as being wiseheart is there a difference so the midash says to Lamentations the book of Lamentations the midash Raba there in Chapter 2 says that if someone tells you there is wisdom among the nations of the world you can believe them but if they tell you that there is Torah among the nations of the world don't believe it wisdom is intellect La wisdom of the heart refers not simply to intellectual attainment But it includes emotional refinement maturity and character development raw knowledge raw knowledge is only useful when it's possessed by people with with wisdom of the heart the tomwood states in tractate kulin 133a that whoever teaches Torah to a person of unfit character that person is likened to someone who worships Idols there's something antithetical between Torah simply as information and data and not having the proper vest to contain it the tomwood in tracted bbia 885a explains that the first temple in Jerusalem was destroyed because people did not recite a blessing prior to their study of the Torah they studied Torah but they only saw Torah as knowledge as information as data and not as something Godly this kind of wisdom can be destructive the sages teach in the tomwood tractate Y 72b that if a person is worthy then the Torah becomes a potion of Life a su but if the person is not worthy the Torah itself can become a potion of death in the talmud tractate Shabbat 31a rabab bar Runa says every person who possesses knowledge and Torah learning but without the fear of God without a profound awe and reverence of God that person is like a Treasurer who is entrusted with the inner keys to the treasury but doesn't have the outer Keys they'll never be able to enter that's what we encounter when we see someone that has knowledge but not a fear of God rabay Yan proclaimed woe to him who has no Courtyard but makes off fence for it Ruda said the Holy One blessed is he created the world only so that people will be AED by him God created the world so that people will have fear of Heaven as the verse says in Ecclesiastes 3:4 God has done it so that men should fear him so we see there's a big difference between knowledge and wisdom it's not the same thing knowledge is available to virtually anyone knowledge can be available to virtually anyone but wisdom is only available to those with a deep respect for God to those who place ultimate truth before personal truth Joseph is the first person in the Bible to be called wise and he understood that whatever Insight that he had came from God after hearing Pharaoh recount his unusual dreams and then ask Joseph to interpret them because he has heard that Joseph has this ability to interpret dreams Joseph responds in Genesis 41: 16 this is beyond me it is God who will respond and the Prophet Jeremiah Echoes this in chapter 9: 22 to 23 the prophet says thus says the almighty let not the wise man glorify himself with his wisdom for only with this may one glorify himself contemplating and knowing me so just having smarts and just having knowledge by itself is nothing to be proud of what a person can feel good about is if their knowledge and their wisdom leads to an understanding of God and is connected to God in the Holy Temple it's interesting the light and illumination that came from the manora the candal labra that light symbolized wisdom now we know that people living west of the land of Israel like us here in Canada anyone in North America so we Face East when we pray toward the location of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem the talmud in tractate Basra 25b says that if you want to become wise you should slightly Orient yourself to face South mean you're going to face East when you pray but tilt your head a little bit maybe your body a little bit to the South why the reason for this is that in the Holy Temple the manora the Candelabra was positioned in the southern part in the south of the Holy Temple so we have this symbol of wisdom of intelligence of knowledge the holy manora and its Radiance but what's interesting is that even though Moses was the greatest Prophet who will ever live Moses could not understand God's instructions on how to construct the manura the Tama tells us in tractate Shabbat 22b that God had to show him visually what it looked like the instructions the verbal instructions by themselves were not enough Moses didn't grasp it he had had to be shown what it looked like the mid says it was a manura of fire and this midrashic teaching is actually reflected in the text of scripture itself because when describing the construction of the manora in Exodus 25 the end of the chapter verse verse 40 says see God says to him see look and make according to the form according to the diagram that you were shown on the mountain it's amazing that we're being told here that Moses was shown something he was shown what the manora was supposed to look like the point I'm trying to make is that true wisdom is never independent of God real wisdom is divine knowledge so here we have the symbol of wisdom and knowledge and yet this the the greatest Prophet was not able to on his own understand the instructions for constructing it until God had to show him literally what it looked like so how do we attain wisdom so the T would in tractate brot 55A has a very intriguing teaching RAB yanan said the Holy One blessed is he only grants wisdom to those who have wisdom and we see this in the Book of Daniel in chapter 2: 21 which says he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who know how to read season and the tal here continues by quoting who lived in the west now the talud is the Babylonian talud the west of Babylon is Israel so he is a Israeli scholar who lived in Israel and he said that we learned this idea that God only gives wisdom to those who have wisdom he said that we learn it from the book of Exodus 31:6 where the Torah said says I have endowed the heart of every wiseheart person with wisdom who does God give wisdom to those who are already wiseheart so this is the teaching a very famous teaching from the talud tra 55A and the problem here is obvious if God only endows WIS hearted people with wisdom from where do they get the initial dose of wisdom so they could get more wisdom it seems like a catch 22 so a number of different answers have been offered to this problem the most well-known answer is suggested by Rim ofan the main prot the main student of the great gaon of vilna He suggests this approach both in his magnum opus called a nees as well in his in his commentary to P aote called Ru and he says that the initial wisdom that seed that we have to have in order for God to give us more wisdom he says the initial wisdom that we can cultivate on our own is the fear of God a profound awe respect and reverence for the almighty and if you have that you have enough fear of God that's enough wisdom to allow God to give you more because this fear of God forms an airtight receptacle in which God's wisdom can then be contained and preserved King David writes about this in Psalm 111:10 Hashem the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God the fear of God is the prerequisite to being able to have wisdom and Solomon his son says essentially the same thing in the Book of Proverbs in Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom he switches it around basically but the same idea and in Proverbs 9:10 he says exactly the same thing the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God and we find the same idea in the book of EO the book of EO where job says in chapter 28: 28 the fear of God is wisdom so the problem again was that if God only gives wisdom to those who have wisdom where did they get the initial wisdom from they get it from their fear of God which is itself wisdom and then becomes the foundation upon which God will then Grant further wisdom in the third chapter of P aote chapters of the fathers Rabbi elazar Ben aaria says if there is no fear of God there's no wisdom again repeating this idea that in order to have wisdom there has to be first a foundation ofat Hashem fear awe reverence respect for God the ability to cultivate and generate fear of God according to our sages is actually the only thing that is entirely in our control the teaches in 33a everything is under the control of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven the only thing that I can do on my own accord is cultivate and generate from within me a fear of God so that's the first approach to our dilemma if God only grants wisdom to the wise how do we get the original dose of wisdom to which God can then add wisdom we're able to get that by developing the fear of God which is again the beginning of wisdom another approach to our question was taken by Ritz the famed mash the spiritual director if you will of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem writes that the almighty imbus people with wisdom who have a passionate thirst and desire for it all you need to get it going is a desire for it a thirst for it and if you have that desire then God will give you wisdom the best example of this is from the wisest person who ever lived King Solomon when Solomon became the king of Israel at the tender age of 12 Years God came to him in a dream that is recounted in the first book of Kings chapter 3 and in the dream God says to Solomon request what I should give to you basically ask whatever you want and Solomon says that he's been crowned to rule in place of his father David his father David is no longer alive Solomon is now the king but but he says I'm young and I don't really know how to properly lead the people and Solomon feels challenged with the prospect of leading this great nation he says it's huge what a large Nation it is so many people so what does he ask for Solomon asks that God grant him an understanding heart so that he'll be able to judge God God's people that's what this 12-year-old child asks for please give me an understanding heart so I may be able to judge your people and God was very pleased with this request and said to Solomon because you have requested this and you have not requested Length of days and have not requested riches and have not requested the life of your enemies but you have requested understanding to comprehend Justice behold I have acted in accordance with your words Behold I have given you a wise and understanding heart such that there has never been anyone like you before nor will anyone like you ever arise furthermore God said even that which you did not request I have granted to you even riches and honor all of your days so God gives wisdom to those who seek wisdom because this itself shows that they are wise they may not have the wisdom yet but you are demonstrating a level of wisdom simply by wanting it Desiring it and that's what the talmud means by saying that God grants wisdom to the wise meaning that those people who understand the value of wisdom and because they understand the value of wisdom they desire it these people are considered sufficiently wise for God to invest in them the midrash to Ecclesiastes the midrash to sa coet that was written by King Solomon tells a story of a noble woman who asked RAB Yosi Bara what is meant by the saying that God gives wisdom to those who are wise she said wouldn't it make more sense for God to give wisdom to those who are not wise don't they need it much more so Abasi said to her my daughter if two people one who is poor and one who is Rich should come to you to borrow money to whom would you lend who would you lend the money to and she answered him I would lend it to the rich man and he asked her why why would you lend it to the rich man and not the poor man so she said well if he has a loss he'll still have money to pay me back but if a poor person has a loss where would he get the money to pay me so rasi said to her let your ears hear what your mouth is saying if the Holy One blessed is he would have given wisdom to the foolish they would squander it and waste it so he gives wisdom to the wise so that instead of sitting in the theaters and in unclean places they will sit in the synagogues and in the houses of study God sees wisdom as an important investment and God seeks to imbue wisdom in those that he knows will use it wisely these are the people who are motivated by a desire for wisdom because they appreciate its importance remember Moshe akman known as ranan or nman is writing in the 13th century in his commentary to the Book of Exodus 35: 21 he notes that none of the Jews who were freed from slavery in Egypt ever had an opportunity to learn the artistic skills that were needed to build the Tabernacle in the desert and its vessels so how were they able to do it how are these former slaves able to engage in engineering and architecture and and designing clothing and the vessels very complicated craftsmanship how are they able to do it so the ranan explains that they had a burning desire and determination to participate in building this holy Sanctuary for God they were moved to volunteer as the Torah describes them their hearts were lifted up their hearts were lifted up in this project and because of this desire God filled their hearts with the knowledge and the skills they would need to construct the Tabernacle and its vessels and the garments for the priests this is the prerequisite for wisdom and a motivation for wisdom a desire for wisdom there's a story about a famous artist who was once asked if your entire Studio were to be engulfed in flames and all of your masterpieces were endangered and you could save only one thing what would it be and the artist replied I would save the fire because much more important than the paintings was the passion to create so we actually reflect this recognition of the vital nature of wisdom and our desire for it by making it the very first thing that we ask for in our daily prayers we make 13 requests of God in the formal prayer recited every weekday morning afternoon and evening we ask for personal needs and we ask for communal needs but the very first thing that we seek is knowledge understanding and intelligence the talmud in tractate in the darim 41A says that if you have wisdom you have everything if you lack wisdom nothing else you have really matters our intellect is our most fundamental and precious possession no person is really considered truly poor unless they are poor in intellect recognizing the true worth of wisdom and Desiring it will have God respond by granting it to us that is the second approach to our problem of how does a person get the initial wisdom for God to be able to grant them further wisdom there's a third approach to our question which sees wisdom itself as something that is already implanted in our hearts and is latent within us Ru Bak pakuda writes in the introdu to his classicos duties of the heart that wisdom is embedded in us and it's part of our nature like water hidden in the depths of the earth and he writes that the man of understanding will always search for it to the best of his abilities until he uncovers it reveals it and draws it out like one would do to get it water hidden in the depths of the earth if we are motivated we can excavate this treasure that's latent within us otherwise it will be lost this is similar to a seed if you hoe and plow and water and till whatever you need to do the seed will grow otherwise it will rot we are intrinsically wiseheart people but we're often unaware of our potential God invests us with a spirit of wisdom but we have to draw it out our sages teach in tractate Milla 6B if a person says they toiled didn't find don't believe them and if they say they didn't toil but they found also don't believe them but if they say that I've have toiled and I found you can believe them the sages here are saying that it's impossible to acquire wisdom without working and toiling but wisdom is not a result of the toiling it's not that a produces B you have to toil but the wisdom does not come as a result of the toiling if the person toils and demonstrates their desire God will grant them wisdom and they will find it that's why the Talon uses the word that they toiled and they found it when it uses the word find it's almost serendipitous it's it's not a a direct result I toiled and then oh look I found it God will grant them wisdom and they will find it as a gift the mid tanum says this is like a person who comes to buy wine or oil from a merchant if the merchant is experienced he will sniff their container before filling it if he smells it previously contained wine so he'll fill it with wine and if it smells like oil he'll fill it with oil so too God rewards the one who has worked to develop their natural intellectual faculties we have these as part of who we are already and if we work at them and strive and cultivate God will then reward our efforts by granting us wisdom Torah literature is replete with guidance on how to acquire wisdom how to maintain it and ultimately how to increase it the biblical books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes authored by King Solomon are Treasure troes of inspiration and guidance an entire talmudic tractate pav vote chapters of the fathers has a significant amount of material devoted to helping us gain clarity as we seek to develop our intellects and increase our wisdom and Torah knowledge we've already seen from this work the importance of fearing God another theme is the critical role played by humility there are numerous teachings in per aote about the role that humility plays in developing our wisdom one is from Rabbi AKA in the third chapter of P he says a protective fence for wisdom is silence the person that is humble is able to listen not have to talk all the time and that humility allows them to learn probably the most well-known of these teachings on humility is the beginning of the fourth chapter of pavot a teaching by Ben zoma and he asks rhetorically who is the wise person and he answers the one who learns from everyone now obviously to have the attitude in life that there is something that everyone on the planet can teach me no matter who I meet each one of them has something they can teach me that person has to have a foundation of humility I'm going to conclude tonight's presentation with a few stories that illustrate wisdom in action the first story is about a young man named Benjamin who just finished attending a Yeshiva High School Isa is where people study the Torah and he was at a high school where that's what they did they study Torah and he wanted to continue studying in the Yeshiva to advance in his study of talmud and Jewish law however his parents were insisting that he go and study at a university so Benjamin went to speak with RAB mosha Feinstein for advice of mosha Feinstein was the greatest forbi sage in probably the second half of the 20th century and rosha said he'd like Benjamin's father to come in to discuss the matter so his father reluctantly traveled to lower Manhattan where mosha Feinstein lived in the Lowry side and the father came to meet with reinstein and he told the R the following he said I am a mathematician and I want my son to enter the same field I want my son to become a mathematician like me and he said I understand Rabbi that you would prefer that he remain in Yeshiva I understand that but this fellow said our sages teach and now he's quoting the Talma to the rabbi our sages teach that there are three Partners in the creation of a person the father the mother and God Rabbi you represent God's perspective here but both my wife and I want our son to attend University next year and the Torah said to follow the majority sir mosha smiled and said to this professor of mathematics or this mathematician he said I believe your arithmetic is wrong think of the partnership of the father the mother and God think of it as having nine Parts three parts belong belong to God three belong to you and three belong to your wife because again for each of your you and your wife there were three partners that created you so he said I'm afraid that you've overlooked the fact that onethird of your share and onethird of your wife's share belong to God since he was a partner in your creation so if you add those two parts to God's three parts then God has five parts out of nine while you and your wife remain only with four parts out of the nine parts and if the majority rules then God gets his way and your son should remain in Yeshiva this mathematician was so impressed with refin Stein's wisdom and Brilliant logic that he agreed to keep his son Benjamin in Yeshiva the following year a second story is about a secular University Professor from the land of Israel and he wrote a he wrote a book about his Memoirs and in this book he writes about waiting to board a flight one day in the airport in Rome so this professor is in Rome and he's can even taking a flight from Rome and he notices in the airport he's waiting for the flight he notices a Jewish man a religious Jewish man who is sitting nearby and he looks familiar this this this older man and finally the professor realized who it was this is a obviously a famous religious personality probably his picture appeared in Israeli newspapers and so the professor realized it was Ros schlomo kahanan the famed pavich arov so the professor said that you know it felt nice seeing a fellow Jew here far away from home and although he said in Israel I probably would never go over and say hello he went over and introduced himself to the to the rabbi he walked over extended his hand he said Shalom Alim and the rabbi shook his hand but the professor was bareheaded wasn't clear who he was and the rabbi asked if he was Jewish and the professor said yes I'm Jewish and the rabbi wrapped his arms around the professor and gave him a very warm hug the professor felt a little bit uncomfortable and he said if the RV would only know what kind of Sinner I am he wouldn't hug and kiss me this is what he says to ranan he says I'm not sure you would be hugging and kissing me if you knew what kind of Sinner I was at that point ranan embraced him once again and said if you would only know how much God loves you you despite the fact that you're a sinner you wouldn't sin so much and in the professor's Memoirs he wrote that he didn't completely turn his life around after this encounter but he writes that he began putting more thought into his life and he tried to start improving his life in different ways God helps people to say the right thing when they need to say something special I sometimes experience this when I'm doing counseling I sometimes will say something to a person or to a couple and I to myself I shake my head and I say did I just say that I I I I say that's not me I would never have said a thing like like that and I realize where it probably came from I realize that no that wasn't what I would normally say I realized that God gave me those words and I believe that God gave ranan the right words to say to this professor in the Book of Psalms 41:2 King David writes praiseworthy is the one who acts cleverly with the needy masal who was wise and clever with the poor with the needy one of my favorite stories I've told this many times is about the satma rebi satar rebbi was a Pious and holy cidic rebi he lived in Williamsburg Brooklyn and was known for being very generous hisum would give him a tremendous amount of money which he distributed very generously and there's a story about an his Israeli man who was not cdic but he needed money desperately his wife was having an emergency surgery and he was desperate and he figured you know I'm not hidic the rebi doesn't know me but I'm going to try I'm going to go to the rebi and see if I can get some help and he comes to the rebi and he describes his situation that his wife needs surgery and the rebi asks him how much do you need and he says you know it would be great if you can give me $10,000 so the rebi directed his assistant to write this man a check for $9700 and the assistant gives it to the fellow and he's he's overjoyed and after he leaves the assist the assistant asked the satar rebi this man came in asking for $10,000 and you give him 9700 why don't you just give him the 10,000 so the rebi said listen if he came in asking for 10,000 and I gave him 10,000 he would leave here kicking himself that he didn't ask for more that's why I didn't give him every penny this is someone who in his dealing with people that are in need know how to do it they do it with wisdom and with intelligence one last story The Great cidic Master of Na of rupit said once that no one ever got the better of him except for a little girl he said he came once to the small Hamlet called zabov where there were just 10 adult males the whole little town that's all they had 10 adult males and this town boasted that they had both a synagogue and a cemetery so nauli encountered a little girl and he said to her I don't understand he said if you have a synagogue for which you need a minion you need 10 adult males to be able to pray so then why do you have a cemetery because if one of the men dies they will be no minion you won't be able to pray so why do you need a cemetery and if you have a cemetery and someone dies what's the point of having the synagogue so without any hesitation she answered the cemetery is only for those Outsiders who happen to be passing through our town and that's how a little girl got the better of R Nai of ruptions [Music] [Music]