Why God Gives Wisdom Only to the Wise

Midrash Aggadah Gaster, Exempla no. 40; cf. Kohelet Rabbah 1:7

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 13, 2025

A Roman matrona once posed a sharp question to Rabbi Yose ben Halafta. "Your Bible says, 'He gives wisdom to the wise' (Daniel 2:21). But this makes no sense. A wise person already has wisdom. Should God not rather give wisdom to those who lack it — to the fools — so that they too may learn?"

Rabbi Yose answered her plainly. "Because the wise know what to do with it. They take wisdom and bring it into the schools and the study halls, where it is sharpened and passed on. The foolish would take wisdom and waste it in circuses and amphitheaters — on entertainments that consume the soul and leave nothing behind. God gives water to the field that is already plowed; He does not pour it on stone."

The teaching is not cruel. It is how the Torah understands grace. Wisdom is never given as a random windfall; it is given where a human being has already made a place for it. A mind that studies becomes a vessel. A mind that chases spectacles becomes a sieve.

(From The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster, 1924, no. 40, based on Kohelet Rabbah 1:7.)

Themes

Wisdom Study Torah Rabbis

Biblical References

Daniel 2:21

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