{"id":8352,"date":"2025-11-16T23:52:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T23:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.kabbalah.info\/?post_type=book&p=8352"},"modified":"2026-01-25T13:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:39:38","slug":"the-wisdom-of-israel-compared-to-external-wisdoms-18","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/www.kabbalah.info\/en\/the-wisdom-of-israel-compared-to-external-wisdoms-18\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of Israel Compared to External Wisdoms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Standard by which to Evaluate a Wisdom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The value of any wisdom in the world is according to the purpose that it yields. This is the goal to which all the scrutinies aim. Therefore, a wisdom without some purpose is inconceivable except for infants playing games, since to pass the time they come and this is their purpose, according to their value. For this reason, a wisdom is not evaluated by keenness and proficiency, but according to the merit of the purpose that it yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You therefore find that any external wisdom is only for the purpose of corporeality, which is sure to be gone today or tomorrow. In that case, it is sufficient for the subject to be as the predicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the wisdom has many advantages over these subjects, for wherever it is, it is nonetheless a spiritual object, but we have already said that it is evaluated by the purpose, which is its persistence for eternity. If the purpose is transitory and fleeting, it is lost along with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we have a standard by which to gauge the significance of the wisdom of Israel compared to an external wisdom. It concerns only the understanding of the ways of the Creator over His creations and adhering to Him. It follows that the very essence of this wisdom relies on the Creator. And because the importance of the Creator compared to His creations, which He has created, is inconceivable, the merit of the wisdom of Israel compared over external wisdoms is also inconceivable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the very essence of our wisdom is ever valid and eternal, our entire wisdom will also remain eternal. And because it concerns being favored and approaching the Creator, which is the finest goal that can be perceived, one who engages in it, and certainly one who is rewarded with it, is the finest among the speaking species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fools Have No Desire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fools have no desire. Therefore, the house of Israel are few, as our sages have written, \u201cA thousand people commence with the Bible [Torah], a hundred with the Mishnah, ten with the Talmud, and one of them comes out (to teach).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw the children of the ascent, and they are few.\u201d There are many reasons for it, but the main one is that all who begin with it wish to taste it in full, and the smallest of the measures of those fools is to at least know the righteousness of His guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a sort of a duty to know, and it can be made known, according to the spirit of the fool. But \u201cWhat shall we do to our sister in the day when she is spoken for\u201d? After all, our wisdom can be interpreted in every way, except for the language of the stomach, for the subjects of this wisdom do not need the language of the stomach. This is what we wanted to clarify, and we shall clarify it in a separate essay, for it is the beginning of the confusion and its end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You Shall Live a Sorrowful Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go and see, and you will find that there is one prerequisite to every wisdom, even to external wisdoms: \u201cLive a sorrowful life.\u201d It is a well-known thing that anyone who has merited the title \u201csage\u201d disparages every worldly pleasure. According to the measure of the abstention that one\u2019s soul chooses to tolerate due to the affliction of pursuing the wisdom, to that very extent does one find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we should ask one question regarding all the sages in the world together: Every love emerges from one\u2019s own flesh and self, and returns to one\u2019s own self and flesh. Thus, how do all the sages fail in loving wisdom, whose beginning and end is nothing but the labor of the flesh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, any experienced person knows that the greatest of all the world\u2019s imaginable pleasures is to win people\u2019s favor. Obtaining this coveted thing is worth making every effort and worldly concession. This is the magnet to which the finest in every generation are drawn, and for which they trivialize the whole of the worldly life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, each wisdom comes with its own terminology, whose progenitors had established and by which they explained their wishes. That language is a mediator\u2014close to the wisdom itself and close to the ones engaging in it\u2014since there is a great advantage to it in that it uses few words to explain many things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Carriers of the Wisdom of Truth, and the Carriers of an External Wisdom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the merit of the wisdom of truth, it is evident that the prerequisite that applies to any wisdom applies to it, as well: to disparage worldly life. But in addition to that is the need to disparage the collective magnet\u2014winning people\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An external sage disparages worldly life in order to be saved from wasting one\u2019s precious time on obtaining it. Such is the case with all the fools\u2014due to their fondness of worldly life, they waste their time on it. The sage is saved from them like a fugitive due to his choice to ridicule worldly life. In return for this, he will obtain wisdom during that same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this you can deduce regarding the sages of truth, that as long as they do not disparage the collective magnet\u2014winning people\u2019s favor\u2014they are not at all ready to obtain this wisdom. That person will waste his time on winning people\u2019s favor and will be as the fools who waste their time on worldly life. Such a person\u2019s heart is not free to achieve a pure and clean wisdom, and is unfit to win the Creator\u2019s favor, and this is simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you can understand why our wisdom was undesirable to ordinary people, and why they do not regard it even as an inferior wisdom. They are mistaken because of the different subjects, for the whole purpose of external wisdom is to win people\u2019s favor. Therefore, they exert to cloak their wisdom with a superficial garment that even the fools will accept, since they are the majority, and they are the ones who make every famous person known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concealing the Wisdom of Truth from the Fools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the sages of truth had no interest in showing part of the wisdom to an extent that the fools will accept, since there is no need for these fools. I wish to say that even if the sages of the generation strove to educate them about the truth so they would accept it, still, not because of this will they commence with the Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fool has no desire unless by the revealing of his heart and matters that are close to him, namely that relate to worldly pleasures. I have already explained that the fool does not remain in folly due to his loathing of the wisdom, but due to his nearness to people\u2019s delights, for his whole life will not suffice to satisfy half his wishes. For this reason, he has no time for wisdom, even if he likes it, and even if the sages, who are famous in external wisdoms, were regarded as fools and worldly compared to this wisdom due to their nearness to winning people\u2019s favor, which in relation to this wisdom is tantamount to worldly lusts and bodily satiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Sages Did Not Disclose Development from the Wisdom of Truth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of it, our sages did not disclose to the fools any development from the wisdom of truth, for it is a great offense, as our sages said, \u201cAs one is commanded to say what is heard, one is also commanded not to say what is not heard.\u201d It is also written in The Zohar<\/em> in many places: \u201cWoe if I tell; woe if I do not tell. If I tell, the unworthy will know how to serve their master,\u201d etc. Because of the importance of the wisdom\u2014to avoid needlessly making it empty words in the mouths of the fools, as those who are fed by the passion of their hearts will not be nourished by the brightness of the Shechina<\/em> [Divinity] for certain, as our sages said, \u201cAll whose heart is proud,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the reason why each time the wicked kingship spreads over the generation, our holy Torah is promptly sentenced to be burned, as has happened to us several times, even in our generation. It was so because they loathed the wisdom of His uniqueness, which is always sour in the eyes of the fools, as I have explained that they do not find any purpose in it by which to satisfy their foul lusts. On the contrary, they are robbed because of it, for they cannot enjoy, and they do not enjoy incest in public\u2014the only thing that pacifies their hearts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Standard by which to Evaluate a Wisdom The value of any wisdom in the world is according to the 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