May 2008

Our sages ask, “Who is wise?”

A small group on retreat in the California wine country looked intently at this question.  What is wisdom?  How do we know when we are making wise choices?  Are there any essential components to wisdom?

We began with the sages’ answer to their own question:  “Who is wise?  The one who learns from all people.”  (Pirke Avot 4:1)  Naturally we learn from teachers, from people we respect, from those we recognize as somehow more advanced than ourselves in important ways.  But true wisdom is recognizing that everyone has something to teach us.  A friend, Bob, told me about his supervisor who Bob felt was ineffective in many ways.  Bob eventually stopped complaining about his boss once he realized how much he was learning about how not to be a supervisor. 

Of course we don’t always look for negative things to learn from other people!  Quick, call to mind someone you know.  Anyone.  Hold that person in mind and identify one positive thing you have learned (or could learn) from that person.  You could probably identify many things you have learned from certain people; with other people it is more of a stretch.  That stretch is the path of wisdom.

Our group then turned to Torah for another insight into wisdom.  God selects Betzalel, master craftsman, to oversee the construction of the desert sanctuary.  God says of Betzalel, “…I have filled him with the spirit of God—in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge…”  These three elements—wisdom, understanding and knowledge—are clearly related, and also clearly different (otherwise the Torah would not have listed them separately). One person in our group asserted that knowledge comes first, and hopefully a person then synthesizes knowledge into understanding of a larger whole, and finally uses understanding to make wise choices.  And when a person has a history of wise choices, then we might say she is a person of wisdom.

But what about children?  Can we say a young person is wise, even though she has not lived enough to acquire much knowledge?  Even though her capacity to understand large life issues is not fully developed?  That is, is age a necessary component of wisdom?

Other aspects of wisdom, in my opinion, include: compassion, integrity, generosity, balance and courage.  Perhaps you will add to the list.  Think of the wisest person you know, then consider what qualities make you feel this way about the person. 

Our tradition has a number of other texts about wisdom, but the one that most recently caught my attention is another answer to the question “Who is wise?”  This answer comes from the Talmud:  “One who can see consequences and outcomes.” (Tamid 32a)

Although we cannot always predict the outcome of a decision, it is certainly wise to attempt to do so.  Perhaps this is when knowledge and understanding play an important role. 

And perhaps yet another component of wisdom is to know how to make peace with the consequences and outcomes, whatever they may be.

L’Shalom,
Rabbi Helen