Proverbs 3: What Is Wisdom? A Dialogue

Son: Dad, I’m confused.

Father: What’s wrong?

Son: I’ve been reading chapter 3 of Proverbs, for fun, obviously.

Father: Have I ever told you about the time that I spent my entire summer vacation reading the book of Job? Best summer ever!

Son: Only like a million times.

Father: What’s confusing you?

Son: What exactly is “wisdom”?

Father: This is awkward… I was waiting until you were a bit older to have “the conversation” about wisdom with you.

Son: Dad, I’m old enough! You should see some of the other books I’ve read!!

Father: Well. Ummm. Wisdom is basically a collection of ideas. Sometimes when a person loves an “idea” a lot, and values it, it can be a really good feeling. But you shouldn’t love all ideas. Not all ideas are good.

Son: How do I know if an idea is good or bad?

Father: Well, if it’s in the Torah, it’s a good idea, if it’s not in the Torah, it’s a bad idea.

Son: I’m even more confused. Why did the author make it sound like wisdom was a very expensive woman?

Father: This is a bit awkward, but that section wasn’t exactly originally from Proverbs, it was referring to an ancient Goddess of Wisdom.

Son: You’ve always told me there is only one God and no goddesses!

Father: Which is true. But other people believed that every concept had its own god and goddess. It was called “polytheism”.

Son: Why did they include this in Proverbs?

Father: Because this idea was an idea that a lot of people had, and there are a few ways to get people to not believe in an idea.

Son: Tell me! What are they?

Father: One way is telling people that the idea is bad. Which may backfire and get more people to like the idea. Some people love bad ideas. Another way is a bit more devious. I’m not sure if I should tell you.

Son: Dad, I’m old enough to hear this.

Father: Sometimes the way to make people stop believing in a bad idea is to pretend that that bad idea was always a good idea.

Son: That makes absolutely no sense.

Father: And that’s what makes it so devious! It’s a type of reverse psychology. You redefine what the bad idea is, using the same words to describe it, but meaning something completely different.

Son: Have you ever done that to me?

Father: Ummm…

Son: OMG, Dad!! When?

Father: Remember when you came home and told us all your friends were allowed to eat junk food whenever they wanted? And you were so angry that we wouldn’t let you?

Son: But then you also let me eat junk food whenever I wanted!

Father: Only after we convinced you that vegetables were junk food. You couldn’t get enough of them!

Son: You mean, you wanted me to eat carrot sticks?

Father: Exactly.

Son: It sounds like I wasn’t very smart.

Father: But you thought you were.