KING SOLOMON’S WISDOM

How to Gain Knowledge of God

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Moses asked God to teach him His honor, meaning Moses wished to know God’s distinct nature. But God replied, “Man cannot know Me while alive” (Exod. 33:20). Although we cannot know God’s essence, we can learn God’s will. King Solomon taught us how to gain knowledge of God’s will. 

As our prophets’ messages are from God, we must expect great wisdom and dismiss anything less as our misunderstanding. Each of Proverb’s verses has 2 messages, both revealing brilliant gems. So don’t be satisfied with explaining only half the verse. 

King Solomon opens chapter 2 of Proverbs as follows:

My son, if you accept my words and store my commands. 

If you incline your ear to wisdom and turn your heart to understanding.

If you would call to understanding and give your voice discernment. 

If you seek it like silver and search for it like buried treasures.

Then you will understand the fear of God and the knowledge of God you will find. 

For God grants wisdom, from His lips emanate knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:1-6)

Let’s decipher each verse one by one…

My son, if you accept my words and store my commands 

What is the difference between words and commands? Words refer to advice, but not necessarily demanding action. That is what “command” means: a required performance. Why is performance required in addition to hearing and agreeing with King Solomon's advice? It is only when one truly values something, when he is convinced of its truth, that he acts out that conviction. A person can praise the merits of charity, but if he never gives charity, this reflects his lack of conviction in its value. And this is what King Solomon desires for others: to attain perfection which demands the application of truths and ideals in action.

What is the additional lesson that one must “store” those commands? This refers to a continual lifestyle, as opposed to a one-time action. A person can listen to King Solomon and he can also follow his command, but do it just once. But without a lifetime commitment to those commands, again this reflects a lack of conviction. When one truly sees a truth, his conviction now changes his path in life so he repeats the value for the rest of his days. He stores up that truth with him.

If you incline your ear to wisdom and turn your heart to understanding

“Inclining” towards one activity over another displays a “preferred” interest. The depth, brilliance and multitude of ideas encapsulated in a single Torah verse or thought demand undivided attention to unravel it, and to precisely define it. If one’s inclination is divided among varied interests, the full energy and focus demanded to uncover God’s wisdom is not available, and so, one will forfeit what he potentially would have discovered: “Not all who increase in business become wise” (Avos 2:5).

Next, one must “turn his heart to understanding,” because the newly discovered wisdom is only the tip of the iceberg. God’s wisdom is not simple, or only surface deep. God actually formulated His wisdom (Rishonim) in a manner accessible to man and angels. And this formulation is that one idea leads to further ideas. At the base of a mountain, one sees only the top of that mountain. As he climbs and arrives at the top, from there he can see other mountain tops, unseen before. So too, one first learns the concept of kindness. His first notion is to be good to all people all the time. But then he must learn what “goodness” is…it’s not always generosity. At times, goodness means depriving another, if that forces his growth of independence. But prior to teaching forced independence, one must previously know what generosity is, in order to apply or withhold generosity to help others become independent. As a general rule, one must first learn a main concept before applying it to individual cases. Wisdom has many layers.

New ideas are enlightening and naturally pleasurable. Additionally, the expansion of wisdom from one new idea which leads to others is part of the appeal of wisdom. Man experiences pleasure when expending all his energies in thought, which is fully satisfying. In other areas like physical desires, one can expend limited energy until he is either frustrated or in pain, like overeating. But such frustration does not exist in thought which allows continued engagement in wisdom, providing great satisfaction. Frustrated release of energy does not exist in thought, making it free of frustration and pleasurable.

If you would only call to understanding and give your voice to discernment

But one must be proactive in his studies. Passivity will not yield great discoveries, as King Solomon said, “The learning that I studied with anger is what stood with me” (Koheles 2:9). Learning requires anger, meaning great intensity. We are referring to God's wisdom which is deep, subtle and extensive, and is only found when the mind is keen and perseveres. Therefore, one must be proactive and not merely responsive. Gaining wisdom demands one initiates the search which sets the mind in a totally different framework than merely responding to questions that cross his path. The active mind is functioning in a completely different manner than the passive mind, which is not in the “exploring” mode. The proactive mind awakens those tools of thought such as comparison, equality, differentiating, induction and deduction…all necessary for weighing one idea against the other and discerning.

But calling or searching out wisdom is insufficient, one must also “give his voice to discernment,” referring to articulating one’s thoughts. If one cannot articulate a thought, it means the idea is not clear to him. Man thinks in language, and as a specific idea is perceived, it has a precise formulation unique from any other idea. To know that idea clearly means man must be able describe it precisely. That is “giving voice” to wisdom. 

If you seek it like silver and search for it as for buried treasures

God’s wisdom is brilliant, it’s responsible for the universe and all its myriads of intricate systems, from the cosmos to human life and the design of the soul. Torah is no different. One must dismiss mediocrity and seek out answers to questions that are as precious as silver. When one successfully discovers a true new principle, the principle’s novelty and uniqueness astounds man. If the idea isn’t beautiful to the mind, its truth is questionable. When Rabbi Israel Chait would give a lecture (shiur), and then uncover a new concept, and his students would then start asking him side questions, Rabbi Chait would then say, “Let’s first take a moment to enjoy this idea.” Rabbi Chait expressed that state of enjoying the novelty of a newly discovered concept that was refreshing and unique. It was deeply enjoyable. Rabbi Chait once said, 

There is an argument among the scientists: “How should knowledge of man proceed: Should we follow the beauty of arguments? Or should we concentrate more on practical experiments and forget about the appreciation of ideas, [for] is that really part of the mind?” The greatest scientists in the world debate this. Judaism casts its vote for the appreciation of ideas. If there is no beauty to an idea, you might as well abandon it; it’s worthless. (“Pirkei Avos 5” pg. 455). 

The reason King Solomon cites both silver and buried treasures is because there are two types of searches for wisdom. In one case, of person can have intuition of where the answer lies, like somebody digging in a silver mine knows he seeks silver. Similarly, a person can be searching for the reason why people who chase money are never satisfied with money. His intuition tells them that the answer lies in human psychology and not in economics, he knows the area of “dissatisfaction” is a psychological phenomenon. But sometimes a person has a question and does not have a direction. This is similar to a person who knows there's something valuable in the sunken ship, but the treasure has no identity yet. King Solomon says in both cases one must have the expectation of greatness when he's looking for God's wisdom. Be it silver or buried treasure, what he is expecting is something abundantly valuable. Expecting greatness as one should expect in Torah, he will dismiss mediocre answers.

Then you will understand the fear of God and the knowledge of God you will find

One's search for wisdom must ultimately end in an appreciation of God, in grasping the purpose for the newly discovered reality. For without knowing the purpose of existence in any given subject, one fails to truly understand it. Rabbi Chait once compared the knowledge of the human cell known by both a scientist and by Moses. He asked who has the greater knowledge of the cell. One might think it is the scientist who spends decades studying the human body with various instruments, whereas Moses could not have had such knowledge. But the scientist did not understand the “purpose” of human life in order to actually know the ultimate purpose of the human cell; he only knew the “function” of the cell. Therefore Moses had the greater knowledge because although he had less scientific knowledge of the cell, he understood its purpose: that every part of the human body has an ultimate purpose of contributing to man’s one goal of gaining knowledge of God. This means that truly understanding something means you understand its purpose, not simply how it functions like a scientist might know. 

For God grants wisdom, from His lips emanate knowledge and understanding

King Solomon now explains why such great effort is required to understand wisdom. It's because all wisdom is God's creation—“it is God who grants wisdom”—and with such brilliance behind such wisdom, it is no easy matter to know anything at all. 

He further ads that it is “God’s lips” from where knowledge emanates. This is a metaphor referring to Torah which are God’s precisely and perfectly articulated words. King Solomon points to another important concept here. When man studies nature, it is human language that forms the deductions and laws he discovers. However, Torah is a level far above human formulation of nature because it is God's language, not man’s. So we are closer to reality when we study God’s articulated words which are perfect. In contrast, human discoveries are imperfect formulations. This concept is repeated in Psalm 19 were King David compares the natural world to the Torah and he says “God’s Torah is perfect.” He does not mean the natural world is flawed, since it is God's creation. But King David refers to the same concept that his son King Solomon enunciates: Torah contains the perfection of embodying God’s articulations, while human-formulated natural law lack that perfection. 

Summary

King Solomon teaches that wisdom must be lived out through consistent action, not merely admired in theory, since conviction is proven by deeds. True pursuit of wisdom requires full focus, progression from basic to deeper concepts, and appreciation of its layered nature. Study must be proactive, intense, and articulated clearly, as unclear speech reflects unclear thought. One must value wisdom as precious treasure, approaching it with high expectations and delight in its beauty rather than settling for mediocrity. All wisdom must lead to understanding God’s purpose of existence. Torah offers a perfect approach as God’s perfect articulation surpasses human discovery in clarity and truth.

King Solomon teaches that true wisdom—pursued with focus, action, clarity, and delight—ultimately reveals God’s purpose and knowledge, surpassing all human understanding.