A Chacham Foresees the Consequences of His Actions
Based on this concept—that a person can determine the genuine nature and origins of his actions based on their consequences—we can shed some light on Chazal’s statement (Tamid 32a): "איזהו חכם הרואה את הנולד"—who is a wise man? He who sees a future development—i.e., he foresees the consequences of his actions. The true “chacham” outwits and is cleverer than the yetzer hara, who is called a fool (Koheles 4, 13): "מלך זקן וכסיל"—an old and foolish king. The yetzer hara traps a Jew by disguising an aveirah as a mitzvah; a Jew who outwits the yetzer hara deserves to be called a “chacham”—a wise man.
This is the implication of their eloquent statement: “Who is a chacham?” Who deserves to be praised for his wisdom used to determine whether the deed he is performing is a mitzvah or an aveirah? "הרואה את הנולד"—the person who foresees the consequences resulting from his deed to discern retroactively whether it was a mitzvah or not.
