All is One. All else is superfluous.
While the temporal consequences of the spiritual unity that binds His universe are fully grasped by no one, some of us, tender reader, grasp more than our fair share.
Recognition precedes alleviation of all forms of mortal poverty - save one, for to recognize a dearth of wisdom is to acquire it.
Wisdom is man's understanding of the mechanics by which the temporal realm abides. Ever since the beginning of time temporal phenomena feed themselves by mechanics of unyielding cause and increasingly variable effect, for time itself implies an existence relegated to a realm - outside the bounds, but forever faintly aware, of the unified essence from which it came - that is, in a word, mortal.
Understanding the mechanics of the temporal realm is a result of grasping - by the grace of those eternal, sacred, and absolute yet eroding, manifested, and meager memories man possesses by birth - how it came to be. All mortal experience is an ongoing consequence of the singular act of disobedience, which irrevocably exiled mankind from divine provenance, severing his ties to his Maker and forging the very realm of time itself.
Distance from the source of wisdom renders poverty thereof; hence, lack of wisdom most distinguishes this age from all those preceding it. This is as it has always been, as the erosion wrought by time is intrinsic by definition.
Man is dragged, screaming ferociously, pleading desperately through time. It is only by his unwitting adoption of emotionally soothing and socially congealing platitudes and traditions that his shrieks are muffled to his self. Seeing not past but into these constructs - and sufficiently so to realize the essential basis upon which their very character must have once been forged - is to understand the source of wisdom: thinking congruently with the symptom of the divine, the cause for which all mortals aspire, and the effect towards which all works strive: order.
Every poor sop, of course, thinks congruently with order - but how much so?
To the skeptic all social distinctions delineate men by degree and not by kind, but man is nothing but a brute except in relation to others. Divine imperative eventually trumps human observation every time and man - despite what might be the most well informed sort of hope - does possess a spirit and is no brute. It does not make sense, tender reader, but man cannot rely only on himself. Any such proposed path to understanding - let alone wisdom! - is doomed to failure by its very articulation. But time is a sadistic master, for no other path even can be pronounced by mere mortals - but only understood.
In the crude present men must face this particular paradox of life (and there are many others) rather more directly and to act well without (or, more properly put, with less) inherited self-definition requires at once more discipline and daring.
In superior, foregoing ages men more often inherited their identities, knew who in relation to others they were - and they did not need to think about it because they assumed it. But, again, the effects of time are unkind to its captives. The further time progresses the less favor pure wisdom can curry in relation to mere worth.
And so the poor's man wisdom is despised. It is despised, tender reader; it is despised! This has never been more true - and will only become more so.
I have offered wisdom - truth, even - as a poor man. I will not provide such charity as a rich man and he who understands why such provision is charity needs no explanation as to why.
סייג לחכמה, שתיקה
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