When knowing stuff is not enough

Pirkei Avot is full of references to the chacham, the person who is wise. We even have a couple of working definitions to help us identify someone who is one. At Avot 4:1 Ben Zoma teaches that the chacham is the person who learns from everyone, while at 5:9 an anonymous Mishnah gives us a check-list to help us distinguish a chacham from a boorish clod.  But is that enough? It is quite possible to learn from everyone but not learn anything of value, and whether a person is a chacham or a boorish clod turns out to be as much a matter of having good manners as anything else.

In his Avot leBanim R' Chaim Druckman, drawing on R’ Naftali Hertz Wiesel’s Gan Na’ul and the Malbim’s commentary on 2 Samuel, argues that there is a further requirement for a chacham: such a person must deploy wisdom for the purposes of good, not evil. On this basis, by keeping the company of such people—and ideally inviting them into one’s home (Avot 1:4)—their good deeds and careful speech can influence people, little by little, to develop the right attitude to life, and the behaviour to go with it, even if they never learned or even heard a word of Torah from them.

This leads to an interesting point to ponder. Can a person be a chacham in terms of possessing an abundance of common sense and emotional intelligence even if that person has no Torah learning? One can certainly learn from such people and can improve oneself by keeping their company. However, if we take it as axiomatic that it is only through the study and practice of the Torah that a Jew can properly acquire and cultivate the perfection of his or her character, it appears that more is required.

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As a footnote, not everyone is familiar with the term “emotional intelligence” and, among those people who know it, not everyone understands it in quite the same way. A good starting point is the handy definition offered on Wikipedia:

… the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they're telling you, and realize how your emotions affect other people. There are five elements that define emotional Intelligence: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social Skills.

Does this have anything to do with Torah Judaism? Arguably, yes. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks discusses its place when contrasting the roles of priest and prophet. Citing Rav Soloveitchik, Rabbi Sacks writes:

The priest thinks in terms of universal rules that are eternally valid. The prophet is attuned to the particularities of a given situation and the relationships between those involved. The prophet has emotional intelligence. He or she … reads the mood of the moment and how it relates to longstanding relationships. The prophet hears the silent cry of the oppressed, and the incipient anger of Heaven. Without the law of the priest, Judaism would have no structure or continuity. But without the emotional intelligence of the prophet, it would become, as Rav Soloveitchik said, soulless, dry and insensitive [quote taken from “Emotional Intelligence” in Rabbi Sacks’ Covenant and Conversation series, here].

More recently, R' Dr Mordechai Schiffman ("What Makes Excellence -- Character or Intelligence?", here) has this to say:

Throughout the 20th century, the predominant view in psychology was that the most essential factor for success in school was intellectual abilities. Starting in the 1990s, this idea was challenged, with many arguing that other factors, such as emotional intelligence, personality traits, and motivation, play a predominant role in school achievement. This is a fairly contentious issue and the field is far from reaching a consensus on which is more important..., but it is safe to say that everyone agrees that all of these factors can contribute to success.

Is this sort of intelligence something that can be communicated to others so that they may learn from it? If the answer is “yes”, we may with justification describe someone who possesses it as a chacham.