דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אִישׁ אִישׁ כִּי־תִשְׂטֶה אִשְׁתּוֹ וּמָעֲלָה בוֹ מָעַל

 (במדבר ה:יב)

“Speak to Bnei Yisroel and say to them: Should any man’s wife deviate and be unfaithful with him,” (Bamidbar 5:21).

In Mishlei (14:24), it is written: “Aterres chachamim oshram—the crown of the wise is their wealth,” “Eevelles keseelim eevelles—the foolishness of the ignorant is foolishness.” The Metzudos Dovid explains the reason, “the crown of the wise is their wealth,” is that wise people are honored because they use their wealth to help others through acts of chesed and tzedakah. It’s not merely their money that earns them honor, but the good deeds they do with it.

However, Zera Shimshon asks: What is the meaning of the end of this pasuk, the foolishness of the ignorant is foolishness? This seems redundant, as it states the obvious: foolishness is inherently foolish! What deeper lesson could this be teaching us?

Because of this redundancy, Zera Shimshon explains that this whole pasuk, both the first half and the second half, is not speaking about a wise person and an ignorant one in general but specifically about how a wise person and an ignorant man relate to the mitzvah of giving terumos and maasros to a Kohen. The first phrase is referring to someone who is wise and, therefore, gives terumah to the Kohen. The second part of the pasuk is speaking of a person who foolishly doesn’t follow the rules the Torah sets in how and when to give terumos and maasros.

How is this?

First, a few sources: It is written in Gemara Shabbos (119a) that a person who separates maaser from his produce will become wealthy (the word “maaser” and the Hebrew word for “wealthy—ashir”—share the same root, ayin, shin-raish).

The next source is Gemara Berachos (63a), which states that one of the consequences for a person who employs different methods to circumvent his obligation to bring terumos and maasros to a Kohen, is that the man will suspect his wife of being unfaithful with someone, warn her and she will ignore the warning. He will then be forced to come before a Kohen to determine if they can stay married or not. In other words, this person tried to avoid meeting with a Kohen, and, in the end, he was forced to go to the Kohen in a very unpleasant way.

The third source, Gemara Sotah (3a), derives from the pasuk, “Eesh eesh key sisteh eeshtow—A man whose wife deviated from the modest way … ” that a person doesn’t commit an aveira until a foolish spirit enters him. (The root of the word, “shoteh—fool,” and “sisteh—deviates from the proper path,” share the same root.)

In light of these introductions, Zera Shimshon explains the first half of the pasuk, “Ateres chachamim oshram—the crown of the wise is their wealth,” refers to someone who was wise and heeded the Torah’s advice to properly give terumos and maasros. The result of this is that Hashem rewarded him with wealth. This wealth is like a crown on this wise man’s head because it shows that he acted just like a very smart investor who doesn’t just look at the present, sometimes subpar performance of a company, but deeply analyzes different factors to eventually make huge profits. In the same way, this man also realizes that even though on a superficial level by giving terumah, he is losing about 30% of his crops, he looked deeper and realized that if Hashem commanded to give so much away, to the Kohen, the Levi and the poor man—this is the proper thing to do.

The second half of the pasuk, “Eevelles keseelim eevelles—the foolishness of the ignorant is foolishness,” doesn’t simply mean that person A’s foolishness is their own foolishness—this is obvious and doesn’t need to be stated. Rather, it refers to the foolishness of two different people—a husband and a wife—with one causing the other. Specifically, the husband foolishly didn’t listen to the Torah and tried to avoid meeting with a Kohen and this caused, as we saw in the Gemara above, his wife acted foolishly, making her husband suspicious of her behavior which forced him to bring the matter before a Kohen to clarify through the sotah process.

A side note: We shouldn’t make the mistake and think that the husband is solely responsible for his wife’s improper behavior, and that she is simply a victim and guiltless. Everyone is responsible for their actions, regardless of how they got there. Furthermore, while the husband eventually faced the Kohen whom he tried to avoid, the woman’s punishment for her actions is much worse. Chazal only means to say that the husband also deserves punishment for not giving terumos and maasros to the Kohen.

What an important lesson the Zera Shimshon is teaching us in this dvar Torah. There are many situations where we think we are smarter than Hashem and act in ways that aren’t exactly what we should do. For instance, a person has something to do in the city early in the morning, so he skips davening in shul that day, only to find himself stuck in a traffic jam. Or, in the winter, a woman spends a little too much time in the kitchen on Erev Shabbos to back a cake to adorn the Shabbos table. In the end, the cake burned and she had to send someone to the supermarket to buy a packaged one—something that she tried so hard to avoid.

We have to learn from the Zera Shimshon that we need to be wise and realize that even though on the surface something doesn’t look too good, we have to rely on the fact that, ultimately, Hashem controls everything in the world and in our life, so we should strive to do exactly what Hashem asks of us. By doing so, you will see great hatzlacha!

(Adapted from Zera Shimshon, parshas Naso, derush No. 3)

This week’s divrei Torah is being sponsored by Dovid Yaakov ben Chana. In the merit of his sponsorship, Hashem should speedily grant him and his mother, Chana bas Rivka, prosperity and good health.