Information Wants to be Free

On the plane today I saw an interesting Zohar. Let me share with you the words of the Zohar, and then tell you how I understand them.

הולך רכיל מגלה סוד ונאמן רוח מכסה דבר (משלי י"א י"ג) האי קרא קשיא איש רכיל מבעי ליה למימר, מאי הולך? אלא מאן דלא אתיישב ברוחיה ולא הוי מהימנא ההוא מלה דשמע אזיל בגווי' כחיזרא במיא עד דרמי לי' לבר. מאי טעמא  משום דלית רוחא דקוימא. אבל מאן דרוחיה רוחא דקיומא בי' כתיב ונאמן רוח מכסה דבר

The Zohar quotes a pasuk from  Mishlei which says that a person who wanders about like a peddler reveals secrets, but one with a faithful spirit covers things. The Zohar asks why it is that the Pasuk says that he is wandering. It seems superfluous, because it called him a peddler and peddlers wander. The Zohar explains that the pasuk uses the word הולך, wandering, because someone who is not internally settled cannot be trusted with a secret, anything he hears moves within him like a stick bobbing in water until he finally shares it with someone else. Why? Because he has no spirit with which to establish himself. But with regards to someone who has such a spirit, the pasuk says that one who has a faithful spirit covers things.

I believe that the point of the Zohar is as follows. There are certain things that a person may know that are so intimately connected with his very essence that he cannot and will not verbalize them. ליבא לפומא לא גליא. We have discussed this point in other settings. It follows that whatever a person does reveal is never truly the essence of what is inside himself as that is something that cannot be shared. 

People do enjoy sharing knowledge they have, we are social beings and natural teachers and gossipers and if you share a secret you always want to be sure that the person with whom you share it is someone who can keep it a secret. But for many people the moment you tell them something it is churning within as they have a deep desire to share it with others. The knowledge cannot rest until either one of two things happens. Either the person has the inner tools to make that information a part of themselves to the point where they will no longer share it, or it will be blurted out.

The person who is not אתיישב ברוחיה who is internally unsettled he has no רוח דקיומא he has no way of truly establishing something deep within, and he will be a הולך רכיל the knowledge he has will be moving within him until he finally speaks it. But someone who is a נאמן רוח who has the ability to settle knowledge deep within his essence, will keep that knowledge where it belongs.