29:1 - "If an ill person stiffens his neck"

אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת מַקְשֶׁה-עֹרֶף -- פֶּתַע יִשָּׁבֵר וְאֵין מַרְפֵּא

"If an ill person stiffens his neck, he will suddenly be broken and there will be no remedy" (29:1)

Questions/Problems:

The plain pshat of the term "אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת" is "man of rebuke," which means "a man who is deserving of rebuke" or "a man who is repeatedly rebuked." According to this translation, this is a general pasuk about someone who stubbornly refuses to heed rebuke. As a result of his stubbornness, reality will eventually catch up to him, and he will suffer harsh consequences. That would be the general approach; you can work out the details of this approach on your own, if you'd like.

However, there are several problems with this approach:

1. The phrase "and there will be no remedy" seems out of place. I can understand "suddenly broken," but what does refuah (healing) have to do with not listening to rebuke? Sure, you can always take this as a metaphor, but that's a last resort. Is there a literal interpretation of marpeh here?
2. Even if you take marpeh literally, then the statement "and there will be no remedy" is not necessarily true. What about teshuvah? We know that teshuvah is as relevant to character defects as it is to particular chataim, as the Rambam explains in Hilchos Teshuvah Perek 7:3. Sure, maybe there are some character defects that can't be remedied if you allow them to fester for too long, but this pasuk seems to be stating a general principle - not referring to a limited type of case.

Solution:

In my opinion, this is why the Meiri translates the pasuk in radically different way: "If an ill person stiffens his neck, he will suddenly be broken and there will be no remedy." This translation is based on the phrase "וְהוּכַח בְּמַכְאוֹב עַל-מִשְׁכָּבוֹ" which means "he is afflicted with pain upon his bed" (Iyov 33:19).

According to the Meiri, the pasuk is dealing with a person who "stiffens his neck" and stubbornly refuses to give proper attention to a symptom, medical condition, or illness. By choosing to persist in his obstinacy, he is taking a major risk of allowing his condition to worsen and spread until he is "suddenly broken" and forced to go to the doctor. By that time, it might be too late; "there will be no remedy."

Most of us have either experienced this ourselves, or heard about cases where this has happened to others. In this age of cancer-awareness, we are particularly aware of the potentially lethal consequences of ignoring mysterious symptoms.

The main question we must ask in order to understand the idea of this pasuk is: Why do people ignore symptoms? Symptoms are the body's warning signs. They signify when something is wrong. Why do we "stiffen our necks" and refuse to heed these warnings?

Idea:

Think back on the last time you experienced a strange symptom but decided not to do anything about it, and I believe you'll find you were operating under at least one of these two, unstated premises: (1) "This probably isn't anything serious; there's nothing wrong with me," and (2) "I don't need to see a doctor; It'll go away on it's own."

The first premise is built upon an underlying belief that your default state is health. Thus, you feel that any deviation from the norm must be a fluke - an anomaly, a blip on the radar, an accidental glitch. This premise is clearly irrational. Who says that your default state is health? Perhaps you are genetically predisposed to a certain disease? Perhaps you live or work in an environment where you are prone to be afflicted by a certain condition? Maybe your diet or health regimen (or lack thereof) was setting you up for this malady?

The second premise follows logically from the first irrational premise. If the problem is just a fluke, then it must go away on its own. And if it'll go away on its own, why go through the stress and expense of seeing a doctor?

These two premises might work for a while, but if the problem persists or worsens, then the psyche will make recourse to another desperate belief: If I ignore it, then maybe it'll go away. This is one more step removed from the prior stage. In the prior stage, you acknowledge that the problem is there, but you minimize its severity. In this stage, you acknowledge its severity, but you convince yourself that if you pretend it doesn't exist, then it will cease to exist. Is there a greater denial of reality than this? You are essentially saying: "If I don't acknowledge its existence, then it doesn't exist."

Perhaps the aforementioned premises correspond to the two consequences spelled out in the pasuk. The ish tochachos doesn't really think this isn't really a problem. Consequently, "he will be suddenly be broken" - i.e. the problem will cripple him, and then he will be forced to acknowledge that it's a problem. The ish tochachos refuses to see a doctor because he believes that the problem will go away on its own. Consequently, "there will be no remedy" - i.e. by the time he finally wants a remedy, it'll be too late.

Incidentally, this is a good example of what Ken calls "the ironic twist" or middah kneged middah: the fool suffers the very fate he tried to avoid as a consequence of his foolish attempt to avoid it.

The dynamics in this pasuk are illustrated in a broader way in Mishlei 1:20-33:

Chochmah sings out in the streets; it gives forth its voice in the squares. It cries out at the head of noisy throngs, at the entrances of gates, in the city, it speaks its words: How long, O pesaim, will you love pesi? Scoffers covet mockery for themselves, and fools hate knowledge. Return to my rebuke! Behold, I will express my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. But because I have called you and you refused; because I stretched forth my hand and no one listened; and you rejected my every counsel, and desired not my reproof, I, too, will laugh at your misfortune and mock when your dread arrives. When your fear arrives as sudden darkness, and misfortune comes like a storm; when affliction and oppression come upon you, then they will call me, but I will not answer; they will search for me, but they will not find me. because they hated knowledge and did not choose fear of Hashem, they did not desire my counsel, they spurned all my reproof. They will eat the fruit of their way and will be sated with their own schemes. For the tranquility of the pesaim will kill them, and the contentment of fools will destroy them. But he who listens to me will dwell securely, and will be undisturbed by fear of evil.