The Bread Does Not Go to the Wise

“The race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the strong, nor does bread go to the wise.” You know this feeling, my dear young friend. You sit and look around you: at your study partner, at your neighbor, at the “big name” everyone looks up to. And something inside you whispers: “They know. I’m not there yet.” So you open another book. You write down another subject to learn. You tell yourself: a little more, one more month, once my foundation is stronger, then I’ll start. And so the time goes by. And you are always “getting ready.” Who Gets the Bread? The Bible says: “Acting without knowledge is not good, and one who rushes ahead will stumble.” We know that. But the Book of Ecclesiastes also says the very opposite: “Bread does not go to the wise.” The one who says this is King Solomon, the wisest of all men. It is precisely he who says it. And the precise wording is stunning. The “bread” stands for success, fulfillment and completing your mission. It is not promised to the wise. It is not promised to those who know the most. It goes to those in “the race,” as the verse continues: to those who run, to those who do, to those who take the strength in their hands and put it into action. Think about it. If success depended on wisdom, King Solomon would have blessed us: “Improve your knowledge.” But he said something completely different: the bread goes to those who act. The Hiding Place Now let’s be honest. You are not looking for another book because you want to be wiser. You are looking for another book because another book is safe. Another course is safe. Another class is safe. It makes you feel productive without making you produce anything. And you call it “humility.” You say, “Who am I?” These are the words of Moses. You say, “My family is the weakest in my tribe, and I am the youngest.” These are the words of Gideon. You say, “I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” These are the words of the prophet Jeremiah. But notice what Hashem does with each one of them. He does not accept the excuse. He turns down their humility. He says: “Go.” “Arise.” “You will go wherever I send you.” This is because there is a difference between true humility and something else. True humility says: “I am small, so I lean on Hashem and act as His emissary.” False humility says: “I am small, so I stay where I am.” This is how Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi describes it in the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought. The first kind is closeness to Hashem. The second kind, deep down, is arrogance. It is the fear that people will see I am not good enough. The “poor soul” Rabbi Schneur Zalman speaks of there is not someone poor in spirituality. He is someone who uses his feeling of smallness as a shelter. The Bible says of King Saul, on the day he was chosen to be king: “Look, he is hiding among the baggage.” Saul is hiding. That is not humility. He is afraid. The Courage to Act In one of his letters in the Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman writes that the thought “I am not worthy” can be a trick of the evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong. It wants to bring a person down into heavy sadness and idleness, and it dresses all this up as lowliness. Our Sages knew it too: “Study is not the main thing. Action is.” Listen. This essay is not against Torah study. Heaven forbid. It is against using study as an excuse. As a hiding place. As a way to never reach the moment when you will have to take responsibility for the talent Hashem gave you. Because here is the great new idea: Hashem does not need you to be a genius. He gave you a certain talent, a certain strength, a certain leaning. He also gave you a certain mission that only you can fulfill. The real inner work is not to get someone else’s talent. The real inner work is holy strength: the courage to act with what you have. The great Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov writes that even someone who does not know how to learn at all can still do the main work of his life. As the verse says: “I will sing to Hashem with whatever I still have.” With what is left to him. With what he has. Bread does not go to the wise, to the ones who only collect wisdom. The bread goes to those who act.