Divine Wisdom Versus Profane Wisdom 2

The perfection to which we aspire is a true knowledge of God. But the only way to attain this knowledge is by receiving the wisdom of God, which is the Torah. Hence Rebbe Nachman strongly warned his followers against studying the profane, manmade wisdom that our Sages refer to as “external wisdom” – studies such as secular science and philosophy. (Nedarim 62a) Such studies do not bring a person to perfection; even worse, they can interfere with his ability to acquire the wisdom of God.

 

Rebbe Nachman applies the name, “Pharaoh’s daughter” (bas Pharaoh) to such studies. This is based on the story of how Shlomo Hamelech (King Solomon) erred when he married a large number of “foreign” wives (I Melachim: 11:1-13). These were the daughters of non-Jewish kings; although they all converted to Judaism, they exerted a negative influence on Shlomo Hemelch that eventually had disastrous consequences for his kingdom, and for all of Jewish history. Pharaoh’s daughter was the first and foremost of these “foreign” wives. Our Sages tell us that when Shlomo married her, the angel Gavriel came down and stuck a reed into the ocean. This led to the formation of a sandbank which grew into a new body of land, and that was the land on which the city of Rome was eventually built (Sanhedrin 21b). Thus Shlomo’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter was one of the causes of the present exile. Since the act of knowing is a kind of “marriage” or union between the knower and the knowledge, Rebbe Nachman views Shlomo’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter as an archetype for the involvement of the Jewish intellect with profane, non-Jewish knowledge.

           

 

Rebbe Nachman says that the name “Pharaoh’s daughter” hints at the deficiencies and dangers of profane knowledge. Rebbe Nachman calls these forms of knowledge “Pharaoh’s daughter,” for the Talmud says that young girls usually have less settled minds than boys (Menachot 110a, on the verse, “Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from a distant land” <Yeshayahu 43:6>. “Afar” refers to the Babylonian exile, where the Jews were more settled in mind. “Distant land” refers to the other exiles, where the Jew were more troubled and confused), whereas the word “Pharaoh” is related to the root para’ah, which means to “interfere”, “to disturb,” or “to reject.” This suggests that secular wisdom, in its very essence, involves a king of disruption in the process of acquiring true wisdom, the Divine wisdom. In other words, there is something intrinsically negative about secular knowledge. Its underlying attitude towards the Divine wisdom is negative, and thus it has a negative influence on our efforts to reach perfection, since true perfection is the acquisition of God’s wisdom.

           

Some people waste years of their lives chasing after secular wisdom, and in the end, they have nothing of spiritual value to show for their efforts. What a pity for every minute they took away the pursuit of true wisdom, from Torah study and prayer – for these are activities that lead to an immense, eternal reward.

 

 

In the same section of Likutey Moharan, Rebbe Nachman goes on to explain that external wisdom is not only harmful to the intellect, but also promotes the development of negative character traits. He begins with the idea that the Hebrew word kaneh (“reed” or “stick”) alludes to wisdom. Divine wisdom can be called a “reed,” as suggested by the verse: “Kenei chochmah” (Mishlei 4:7). Although the simple meaning of the verse is, “Acquire (kenei) for yourself wisdom,” it can also be read: “Wisdom is a reed (kaneh).” And just as there is a “reed” that we ought to acquire (the wisdom of holiness), there is also a “reed” that we ought to reject, as suggested by the verse, “Ge’ar chayat kaneh – “Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds…” (Tehillim 68:31). The “reed” we must reject is the wisdom of unholiness, which our Sages refer to as external wisdom. (One reason these studies are referred to as “external wisdom” is that they only provide an accurate description of the external aspects of the universe, while they either ignore or misrepresent its inner spirituality.)

           

The play on words here reflects a deep idea. The emotional attributes of the soul are directed and controlled by the intellectual attributes, of which the first is wisdom (Chochmah). The faculty of wisdom receives a spiritual light that is higher than intellect, and then it channels this light, in a measured way, to the intellectual and emotional attributes. Since the word kaneh means a reed, and a reed looks like a hollow tube or a channel, and since it can also mean a kanei midah, a measuring stick, it accurately reflects the role of wisdom in the development and regulation of the emotions.

           

In every Jewish soul there is a “piece of Godliness”; according to Rebbe Nachman, this is found within the faculty of wisdom within the soul. When a Jew studies the Godly wisdom of the Torah and internalizes it, he strengthens and reveals his connection to that “piece of Godliness,” which is the very source of his being. Teshuvah is also a return to our source in God’s wisdom, as Rebbe Nachman mentions at the very beginning of this section of Likutey Moharan.

 

When, on the other hand, a Jew studies profane, secular wisdom, he may draw down spiritual energies that are not from the side of holiness – and these energies may lead to the development of character traits that are also not from the side of holiness. In Rebbe Nachman’s words:

           

 

Godly wisdom leads a person towards Godliness. It has no connection at all to character traits such as selfishness, anger, envy, or depression. When a person fills his mind with Godly wisdom, his negative character traits will automatically be eliminated, since they receive no energy from his intellect.

 

On the other hand, if a person has a “reed” of external wisdom “stuck” within his intellect, his negative character traits will “stick” to that “reed,” and each bad trait will attract others. The negative traits in his personality will gain strength because the wisdom of unholiness channels energy to the midot of unholiness. It doesn’t matter whether the external wisdom came from something he studied by himself, or whether it was present in his soul from the time when Adam sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. In either case, the “reed” of external knowledge in his Godly intellect can provide an “island” in which negative character traits and tendencies are transformed into “cultural norms” and even “philosophical ideals.”

 

 

(Excerpt from The Scent of Gan Eden, by Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, Keren Ohr Publications. Used with author’s permission.)