Mishlei 2:12: Torah Saves One From Both Obvious and Deceptive Evil

Good morning ribbosam, Pasuk Yud Beis. להצילך מדרך רע מאיש מדבר תהפוכות. Continuing with the protective effect of Torah.

להצילך מדרך רע בסטרא אחרא הוא גם כן דכורא ונוקבא.

Just as in the end of Pasuk Yud Aleph, the Gaon introduced us to the two modes of d'chura u'nukva, zachar u'nekeivah. The daled in Aramaic often will just correspond to the zayin in lashon hakodesh and it's basically the same shoresh, the same word otherwise with the aleph ending. In Hebrew it's melech and in Aramaic it's malka. D'chura u'nukva. So just as in Pasuk Yud Aleph, we encountered these two modalities with d'chura representing what's mispashet yoser. Zachar represents what is mispashet, what spreads, and nukva, nekeivah what's more internal. So the yetzer hara also functions in both of those modalities. והם סוד תאווני וכעסני. So recall that earlier we also were introduced to the fact that there's sort of there's two types of yetzer hara. There's the yetzer hara of ta'avah and then there's the yetzer hara of ka'as. The ka'as being that which corresponds to zachar, it's something that overflows, right? That something that can't be contained. והם סוד תאווני וכעסני. V'hatov... I don't know, it's written in a very challenging way. I'm not sure why it's written this way. But והטוב הוא גרוע מן הרע. So what in the world does that mean והטוב הוא גרוע מן הרע? But it's clear in context that what it means is that ra that masquerades as tov is worse than ra that doesn't posture, than ra that presents itself for what it is. And that's what it means,

והטוב הוא גרוע מן הרע כמו שנאמר טוב כעס משחוק.

What do you mean tov ka'as mis'chok? Tov ka'as which you see it for what it is. There's nothing deceptive about it. There's nothing misleading about it. כי על ידי הטוב של הסטרא אחרא. Again, sitra achra literally translates as hatzad ha'acher, the other side, but what it means is in terms of ra or tumah. כי על ידי הטוב של הסטרא אחרא האדם מפתה. When bad masquerades as good, when ra masquerades as tov, so then a person can easily be persuaded, can easily be misled. And each one nechelak lishnayim בתאווני וכן בכעסני. By both of these, each of them subdivides, each of these two types of yetzer hara subdivide. Again, I think in the sense that it can either be open in terms of what it is and what it represents or it can be camouflaged under a veneer of tov, by a veneer of tov. דהיינו בכעסני הוא רע ומרמה. So ra again means the pure evil in the sense that there's no facade of good. Mah she'ein ken the mirmah, again deceit, deceit is when there's posturing to be something different than what actually is the case. And the ra, now the biur is elaborating. והרע הוא הרע בעצם ופיו ולבו שוין לרע. The person doesn't again is not posturing, he's not trying to put up a... a facade of tov. U'mirmah, however, הוא שמדבר טוב, the person min hasafah u'lachutz, the person externally seems to be promoting good, but in reality v'libo choshev l'hara. והוא נקרא שפתי חלקות. That's what it means a smooth talker, right? That basically our idiom of smooth talker comes from that phrase in Tehillim. דוגמת השפתים שהן נחלקות, meaning the lips can separate, right? So the lips separate in the sense that it's not piv v'libo shavin. There's no there's no unity between piv v'libo that in that a person is mouthing and saying one thing but really he intends and he's thinking and he's plotting something else and that sort of represented metaphorically by the fact that the two lips obviously don't have to remain closed. The lips open meaning there's a divergence which represents the divergence between piv v'libo. Ken nechlak piv. V'ze she'ne'emar that that's what it means in Tehillim again it's the pasuk in Tehillim which inspires our daily tefillah at the end of the Shmoneh Esrei: נצור לשונך מרע ושפתיך מדבר מרמה. So when we talk about ra, so we attribute it to lashon. And when we talk about mirmah we attribute it to the sfatayim. Why? Ki hara again there's no facade. There's no facade. פיו ולבו כאחד לרע. V'hu dugmas halashon, right? The tongue doesn't split, the tongue is one, there's no it doesn't set there are no two halves that separate as is the case with the upper and lower lip.

פיו ולבו כאחד לרע והוא דוגמת הלשון. לכן כתיב לשונך מרע.

V'hamidaber mirmah piv chaluk milibo. The person who speaks deceitfully so what he's thinking inwardly what he's plotting is very different than the sweet talk that he engages in. hu dugmas hasfatayim. So that's represented metaphorically by the lips and again with the fact that the upper and lower lips can separate. לכן כתיב ושפתיך מדבר מרמה. Circling back to our pasuk: וזהו להצילך מדרך רע. That Torah saves us from both the again the ra of piv v'libo shavin as well as the mirmah. וזהו להצילך מדרך רע shehu hara befo'al ופיו ולבו שווין לרע. ולכך אמר מדרך רע she'darko l'hara tamid. The ra is associated with derech meaning it's a consistent pattern, it's a consistent approach, there's no inconsistency in the sense of there being this divergence between piv v'libo. And then additionally Torah will also save a person me'ish midaber tapuchos. What does that mean? Hu hamidameh she'midaber heipech libo. This is the person who postures who feigns and again he speaks in a way which is very different than what he intends that on the one hand שדובר שלום עם רעהו, no outwardly he promotes harmony but the truth is v'ra b'levavo. U'l'chach amar kan midaber tapuchos. A person who is saying things that are inverted כי הוא מדבר דברי תהפוכות ויועץ עצות רעות. Okay so we'll stop here for the Mishlei b'li neder im yirtzeh Hashem we'll resume at 11:30 with Avos karev. Everyone have a very good productive morning everyone should be well be safe b'ezras Hashem.