If You Are Wise, You Are Wise for Yourself

"If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; and if you scoff, you alone shall bear it" (Proverbs 9:12). A parable: to two people, one rich and one poor. Each day the rich one would say to the poor one, "How much property I have, how much silver and gold I have, how many gardens and orchards I have." And the poor one would answer him and say, "Even though you have all this wealth, I get no benefit from it; everything you have acquired, you have acquired for yourself." So the Holy One, blessed be He, answers the sages and says to them, "My children, even though you have acquired wisdom, you have acquired it for yourselves"; therefore it is said, "If you are wise, you are wise for yourself." Rabbi Eliezer used to expound: "If you are wise, you are wise for yourself" -- if you have become wise in Torah, do you suppose you are bringing joy to the Holy One, blessed be He, who gave you the wisdom?! As it is said, "If you are wise, you are wise for yourself" -- not for the One who gave you the wisdom! "And if you scoff, you alone shall bear it": if you have built yourself up with words of scoffing, you alone shall bear it, and not others. Another interpretation of "If you are wise": this is said to disciples of the sages. There we learned in a Mishnah (Mishnah Avot 4:10): "If you have toiled in Torah, He has much reward to give you; and if you have idled from the Torah, there are many idle things set against you."