Moreshet Shaul: Connection between Talmid Chacham and Am Ha’aretz | Various Rabbis | Beit Midrash

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The gemara (Sanhedrin 52b) says: "What does a talmid chacham (Torah scholar) seem like in the eyes of an am ha’aretz (ignorant and/or weakly religious person)? Initially, he appears to him as a flask of gold. Once they speak together, he appears to be like a flask of silver. Once the talmid chacham benefits monetarily from him, he appears to be like a flask of pottery, which, once it breaks, can no longer be used."
There are few and weak connections and mutual relationships that can develop between a talmid chacham and an am ha’aretz. Their "meeting area" is small because of the lack of overlap in their spiritual lives, which is the main part of a person’s life. They are two distinct types of people, with disparate spiritual approaches and aspirations. Therefore, one will not understand the other or be sensitive to questions that agitate the other’s heart.
The am ha’aretz recognizes that the talmid chacham is different from him. He feels the talmid chacham’s superiority and the grandeur that surrounds his spiritual greatness and is attacked by a feeling of deficiency in his surroundings. However, when external circumstances put the two into ongoing connections, and he starts to view all of the specific elements of the talmid chacham’s life as an individual, the am ha’aretz loses his perspective. Since the am ha’aretz appreciates natural phenomena that everyone who lives under the sun experiences, he becomes very aware of the mundane elements of everyone’s lives, including great people.
As this happens, the am ha’aretz loses sight of the special characteristics of people of lofty spirit because he lacks the necessary spiritual connection and sensitivity. The elements of the talmid chacham’s persona that he grasps are those that are shared by all. The am ha’aretz then concludes that only from a distance does the talmid chacham seems like a giant, and that he was in awe of him by mistake, as the great person is really like everyone else. If along with this psychological process, the am ha’artez also gives benefit to the talmid chacham from his resources, he will see his own "greatness," and the talmid chacham will be downgraded to the level of a "flask of pottery," which is useless after being broken.
The am ha’aretz does not realize that it his blindness that prevents him from seeing the greatness of the man in his midst. Actually, the greater a person is, the more he develops the "strings" that tie him to every person with a spirit within him. The truly great person draws from the storehouse of his counterpart’s spirit, including the "wellsprings" of one who is unaware he possesses them. About such a person, the Rabbis said, "Who is wise? He who learns from every person" (Avot 4:1).
When we refer to a talmid chacham, we mean the talmid (student) of a chacham (scholar); the talmid chacham’s teacher is the true scholar. Who is the teacher of the chacham? Everyone! Just like a student is intellectually sustained by his teacher, the teacher draws life inspiration from his students, as the Rabbis said: "… and [I learned] more from my students than from anyone else" (Ta’anit 7).
A person’s greatness enables him to draw more "life-giving water from an abandoned, muddy wellspring." This is the secret tool of wisdom.