Humility Earns Torah's Gift

וממדבר מתנה

"And from the wilderness, a gift" (Bamidbar 21:18).

The piece opens with the pasuk from the journeyings of Bnei Yisrael that pairs "the wilderness" with "a gift," which serves as the springboard for the entire teaching.

בגמ' מי שמשים עצמו כמדבר התורה ניתנה לו במתנה ואח"כ נחליאל כו' ואם מתנשא מבמות הגיא שהקב"ה משפילו כו'

In the Gemara: whoever makes himself like a wilderness — hefker (ownerless and open to all) — the Torah is given to him as a gift; and afterward "Nachaliel," and so forth; but if he exalts himself, then "from Bamos, the valley" (Bamidbar 21:19-20) — for the Holy One, Blessed is He, brings him low, and so forth.

It cites the Gemara's reading that humility — making oneself hefker like the open wilderness — earns the Torah as a free gift, which then leads upward to higher levels, whereas haughtiness leads to a downfall, since the Ribono shel Olam brings the proud low.

וקשה זה הסיום למה נאמר תוך השירה

Now this conclusion is difficult: why is it stated within the shirah (the song)?

The Sfas Emes raises his question: this whole sequence of rise and fall seems out of place embedded inside the shirah of the well, and he asks why the Torah placed it there.

אכן יראה שבנ"י הלכו כל אלה המדריגות שע"י שמסרו נפשם להקב"ה ניתן להם התורה במתנה וממתנה נחליאל פי' שע"י זו המתנה מתחזק כח האדם בעצמו ג"כ וזה נחלי אל שניתוסף כח האדם ועי"ז מתנשא וכמעט א"א שלא יבוא לידי התנשאות כלל

Indeed, it appears that Bnei Yisrael passed through all of these levels: because they gave over their lives with mesiras nefesh to the Holy One, Blessed is He, the Torah was given to them as a gift; and "from the gift, Nachaliel" — the meaning being that through this gift the strength of the person himself is likewise fortified, and this is "Nachaliel," the "streams of Hashem" (nachalei Kel), for the person's own koach is increased; and through this he comes to be exalted — and it is almost impossible that he not come to some measure of self-exaltation (hisnasus) at all.

He answers that Bnei Yisrael actually lived out these stages: their mesiras nefesh won them the Torah as a gift, and that gift in turn strengthened their own inner koach (the "streams of Hashem"), which almost inevitably brings a person to some degree of self-exaltation.

אך ומבמות הגיא שאחר החטא נאמר הורד עדיך ואח"כ חזרו בתשובה ולכן אמרו אח"כ השירה שהוא תהלוכות בנ"י מראש עד סוף והתיקון שבא אחר הירידה הוא טוב מאוד שא"א לקלקל עוד כענין במקום שבע"ת עומדין כו' לכן י"ל שלא נכתב מרע"ה בשירה זו כי הוא לא חטא ונאמר עליו עניו מאוד כו' והבן

But "and from Bamos, the valley": for after the cheit (the sin of the Eigel) it was said "remove your ornament from upon you" (Shemos 33:5), and afterward they returned in teshuvah — and therefore they recited this shirah afterward, for it traces the journeyings of Bnei Yisrael from beginning to end; and the tikkun (rectification) that comes after the descent is exceedingly good, such that it can no longer be spoiled, in the manner of "in the place where baalei teshuvah stand," and so forth (Berachos 34b); therefore one may say that Moshe Rabbeinu was not written into this shirah, for he did not sin, and of him it is said "exceedingly humble" (Bamidbar 12:3) — and understand this.

The descent — "from Bamos, the valley" — corresponds to the cheit ha'Eigel and the loss of their crowns, followed by teshuvah; because a tikkun achieved after falling is even more secure than original righteousness, the shirah traces the full arc of Bnei Yisrael, and Moshe Rabbeinu, who never sinned and was exceedingly humble, is fittingly absent from a shirah built around fall and recovery.

ובשם הרב מפרשיסחא ז"ל ע"פ משפיל גאים ומגבי' שפלים שמשפיל הגאים כדי להגביהם אח"כ בהיותם שפלים כנ"ל:

And in the name of the Rebbe of Peshischa, of blessed memory, on the pasuk "He brings low the haughty and raises up the lowly": that He brings low the haughty in order to raise them up afterward, when they are in their state of lowliness, as explained above.

He closes with a teaching from the Rebbe of Peshischa: Hashem deliberately brings the haughty low not to crush them but so that He can later elevate them precisely from within their humbled, lowly state.

Summary: Building on the pasuk "and from the wilderness, a gift," the Sfas Emes traces a spiritual arc hidden in the shirah of the well: humility wins the Torah as a free gift, which strengthens a person's inner koach and almost unavoidably breeds some hisnasus (self-exaltation), after which Hashem brings the haughty low. He reads this sequence as the actual history of Bnei Yisrael — Sinai, the gift of Torah, the empowerment that led to pride, the cheit ha'Eigel and the stripping away of their crowns, and finally teshuvah. The key insight is that the tikkun reached after a descent is firmer and greater than unblemished righteousness, in the spirit of "in the place where baalei teshuvah stand," which is why the shirah narrates the whole journey of Bnei Yisrael through fall and recovery. Moshe Rabbeinu, who never sinned and was exceedingly humble, is therefore not included in this particular shirah. The piece ends with the Peshischa Rebbe's teaching that Hashem brings the haughty low precisely in order to raise them up afterward from their state of lowliness.