Why Wisdom Cries Out in the Street and the Houses of Study

"If you walk in My statutes" and so forth (Leviticus 26:3). This is what Scripture says: "Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the squares she raises her voice" (Proverbs 1:20). Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman asked Rabbi Jonathan ben Elazar, who was standing in the marketplace. He said to him: Teach me one chapter. He said to him: Go to the house of study, and I will teach you there. He said to him: My teacher, did you not teach me, "Wisdom cries aloud in the street"? He said to him: You do not know how to read, and you do not know how to recite. What is the meaning of "Wisdom cries aloud in the street"? In the outer place of the Torah. The pearl — where is it sold? In its outer place. So too the Torah — in its outer place it was spoken. What is the meaning of "in the squares"? In the place where they make room for her. And where do they make room for her? In the synagogues and in the houses of study. Therefore it is said, "in the squares she raises her voice."