Nefesh and ruach paths of avodah

והאספסוף כו' התאוו תאוה כו' אספה לי שבעים איש כו'.

"And the mixed multitude (asafsuf)… felt a craving… Gather to Me seventy men…" (Bamidbar 11:4, 11:16).

The Sefas Emes opens with the episode of the people's craving in the wilderness and Hashem's command to Moshe to gather seventy elders.

פרשנו בהקדם המשנה עשה רצונו כרצונך כדי כו'.

We explained this by first citing the Mishnah: "Make His will like your will, so that…" (Avos 2:4).

He prefaces with the Mishnah in Avos that teaches a person to align his own will with Hashem's will.

ואין מובן מה שיעשה רצונך כרצונו.

And it is not understood — the part that "He will make your will like His will."

The Mishnah's promise that, in return, Hashem will make your will like His own seems puzzling and needs explanation.

בטל רצונך כו'.

"Nullify your will…" (Avos 2:4).

The Mishnah continues with a further, higher level: nullify your own will entirely before His.

ביאור הענין כי האלקים עשה את האדם ישר פי' שלא הי' צריך לחפש עצות והי' מיוחד לעשות רצון בוראו בלבד כמו כל הנבראים שמים וארץ שעושין רצון הבורא.

The explanation of the matter: "God made man upright" (Koheles 7:29) — meaning he had no need to seek out stratagems, and he was solely dedicated to doing his Creator's will, like all created beings, heaven and earth, which do the will of the Creator.

Man was originally created "straight" — without conflicting impulses, naturally devoted to nothing but Hashem's will, just as the rest of creation effortlessly fulfills its purpose.

אך ע"י החטא נתקלקל הדביקות לכן יש עתה רצונות אחרים אשר לא לה' המה.

But through the sin, the deveikus (cleaving) was damaged; therefore there are now other desires that are not for Hashem.

The sin of Adam fractured man's natural attachment to Hashem, introducing competing desires that pull away from Him.

וע"י העבודה לסור מרע יכולין לבוא לרצון אמת.

And through the avodah of "turning away from evil" (sur mei-ra), one can come to the true will.

By the labor of rejecting evil, a person can clear away the foreign desires and recover his authentic will, which is Hashem's will.

ומרע"ה הי' נפרש מעוה"ז לגמרי.

And Moshe Rabbeinu was entirely separated from this world (olam hazeh).

Moshe had completely detached himself from worldly desires, so his will was wholly Hashem's will without struggle.

וכן היו ראוים בנ"י להיות בקבלת התורה רק שגרם החטא ולא הי' להם הדביקות כראוי.

And so too Bnei Yisrael were fit to be at the giving of the Torah, but the sin caused that they did not have the proper deveikus.

At Matan Torah, Bnei Yisrael could have reached Moshe's level of pure attachment, but the lingering effect of sin prevented them from achieving full deveikus.

לכן התאוו תאוה.

Therefore they "felt a craving."

Because their attachment was incomplete, their longing for closeness expressed itself instead as a craving.

פי' לשם שמים שכאשר לא היו יכולין להיות במדריגה עליונה כנ"ל בחי' מרע"ה אספקלריא דנהרא.

That is, for the sake of Heaven — for since they could not be at the upper level mentioned above, the aspect of Moshe Rabbeinu, the "shining glass" (aspaklaria de-nahara).

Their craving actually had a holy root: unable to reach Moshe's elevated, fully transparent perception of the Divine (the "clear glass" through which the prophets saw), they sought connection through a lower channel.

פי' שא"צ לבוא ע"י רצונות אחרים כלל.

That is, one who need not arrive by way of other desires at all.

Moshe's level meant attaining the true will directly, with no need to work through any intermediate desires.

והוא בחי' רוח ונפש כמ"ש בספרים שיש לכל איש ישראל נר"נ.

And this is the aspect of ruach and nefesh, as is written in the sefarim that every Jew has nefesh, ruach, neshamah (naran).

He introduces the framework that each Jew has three levels of soul — nefesh, ruach, and neshamah — to distinguish the two modes of avodah.

ובחי' נפש הוא מדריגה התחתונה שבא בהתפעלות נפש האדם.

And the aspect of nefesh is the lower level, which comes through the arousal of a person's soul-emotion.

The nefesh is the lowest level, where one serves Hashem by stirring up and channeling one's emotional energies.

וזה אינו יכול להיות רק ע"י סור מרע כנ"ל.

And this can come about only through "turning away from evil," as above.

Avodah at the nefesh level requires the work of rejecting evil to purify and redirect those emotions.

ואיש אשר רוח בו הוא בחי' אדם ישר שאינו צריך לעצות אלו.

And "a man in whom there is ruach" (Bamidbar 27:18) is the aspect of the "upright man" who does not need these stratagems.

The higher ruach level — exemplified by Moshe and Yehoshua — is the "straight" person who needs no such corrective measures, since his will is already aligned with Hashem.

ואיתא במד' על אספה לי שבעים איש הבונה בשמים מעלותיו ואגודתו על ארץ יסדה משל בנין העומד על ספינות מקושרות כו' עי"ש.

And it is brought in the Midrash on "Gather to Me seventy men": "He who builds His upper chambers in the heavens, and has founded His band (agudah) upon the earth" (Amos 9:6) — a parable of a building standing upon bound-together ships, etc.; see there.

The Midrash links the gathering of seventy elders to the verse about Hashem's "band" founded on earth, likening it to a structure resting on ships lashed together — needing binding only below, on the unstable "sea" of earthly life.

כי בשמים אין צריכין התקשרות רק למטה בחי' שבעים נפש שהם נגד ע' אומות וכ' רש"י ז"ל שנק' נפש אחת ע"ש פרשת שמות.

For in the heavens no binding is needed; only below — the aspect of the "seventy souls," which correspond to the seventy nations — and Rashi wrote that they are called "one soul," as on Parshas Shemos.

In the upper world there is unity without effort; binding is needed only below. The seventy elders parallel the seventy souls of Yaakov's household (and the seventy nations), and Rashi notes that Yaakov's seventy descendants are called "one soul" — a unity drawn from the higher root.

שבחי' נפש הוא התאספות כל הרצונות למשכם לשמים.

For the aspect of nefesh is the gathering-together of all the desires, to draw them heavenward.

Work at the nefesh level means collecting and binding all of one's scattered earthly desires and drawing them upward toward Heaven.

ומרע"ה לא הי' צריך למדרגה זו והוא בחי' עשה טוב.

And Moshe Rabbeinu did not need this level, and he is the aspect of "do good" (asei tov).

Moshe, already pure, had no need for the gathering-of-desires work; he embodied the higher path of pure positive action.

וז"ש עשה רצונו כרצונך ממש בלי עצות ועי"ז תוכל לקבל ההשפעה הבאה מהשי"ת בלי השתנות כענין המן לחם מן השמים והי' בזכות משה כידוע.

And this is the meaning of "Make His will like your will" — literally, without stratagems — and through this you can receive the influence (hashpa'ah) coming from Hashem without change, like the matter of the mann, "bread from heaven," which came in the merit of Moshe, as is known.

"Make His will like your will" describes the Moshe-level: aligning effortlessly with Hashem's will, so one receives Divine bounty directly and undistorted — as the mann descended pure "from heaven" in Moshe's merit.

אך בנ"י אמרו נפשנו יבשה כו' לכן נאמר אספה לי שבעים איש בחי' תחתונה התקשרות הספינות בחי' סור מרע.

But Bnei Yisrael said, "our soul (nafsheinu) is dried up…" (Bamidbar 11:6); therefore it was said, "Gather to Me seventy men" — the lower aspect, the binding of the ships, the aspect of "turning away from evil."

Since the people complained from the level of nefesh ("our soul is dried up"), they needed the lower path. Hence the seventy elders were gathered — the "binding of the ships," the work of turning from evil that suits the nefesh level.

וז"ש בטל רצונך נגד מל"ת וע"י ביטול רצון יצה"ר יזכה שיבער השי"ת רוח הטומאה וז"ש שיבטל רצון אחרים כו' [וי"ל ואגודתו מלשון גידים ששס"ה ל"ת הם נגד שס"ה גידין כנ"ל] והוא בחי' נפש כנ"ל והבן כ"ז.

And this is the meaning of "Nullify your will" — corresponding to the negative commandments (lo saaseh); and through nullifying the will of the yetzer hara, one merits that Hashem will burn away the spirit of impurity. And this is the meaning of "that He nullify the will of others," etc. [And one may say that "His band (agudah)" is from the language of "sinews" (gidin), for the 365 negative commandments correspond to the 365 sinews, as above.] And this is the aspect of nefesh, as above; understand all this.

"Nullify your will" maps onto the prohibitions: by canceling the yetzer hara's desires, one merits that Hashem himself burns away the spirit of impurity. The wordplay on agudah ("band"/"sinews") connects the 365 negative mitzvos to the 365 sinews — all belonging to the nefesh-level avodah of binding and rejecting evil.

עכ"ז נחשב לחטא כי היו צריכין להאמין בהקב"ה וע"י האמונה היו יכולין להתדבק במדריגת רוח ג"כ כי ע"י אמונה באין לאמת כמ"ש במק"א:

Nevertheless, it was reckoned to them as a sin, for they should have believed in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and through the emunah they would have been able to cleave to the level of ruach as well — for through emunah one arrives at the truth, as written elsewhere.

Despite the holy root of their craving, it was still counted a sin: had they strengthened their emunah, they could have risen even to the higher ruach level rather than settling for the lower path. Faith is the gateway through which one reaches the true, elevated connection.

Summary: Man was created "straight," naturally devoted to Hashem's will, but sin introduced competing desires; recovering the true will now requires the avodah of "turning from evil." The Sefas Emes maps this onto two soul-levels: the lower nefesh, which must gather and bind all scattered desires and reject evil (the "seventy elders," the negative mitzvos, the "ships lashed together"), and the higher ruach of Moshe Rabbeinu — the "upright man" who needs no such measures and receives Hashem's bounty directly and undistorted, like the mann. The people's craving stemmed from being stuck at the nefesh level; yet it was still a sin, because through stronger emunah they could have risen to the level of ruach and the truth itself.