Mitzvos as the offspring of tzaddikim

במדרש ורש"י פרי צדיק עץ חיים שתולדותיהן של צדיקים מצות ומעש"ט.

In the Midrash and Rashi: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life" (Mishlei 11:30) — for the offspring of tzaddikim are mitzvos and good deeds.

The Sefas Emes opens with the teaching that the true "children" a tzaddik produces are his mitzvos and maasim tovim (good deeds); these are his real progeny, a tree of life that endures.

הענין דכ' נר מצוה וכ' נר ה' נשמת אדם.

The matter is as it is written: "A mitzvah is a lamp" (Mishlei 6:23), and it is written: "The lamp of Hashem is the soul of man" (Mishlei 20:27).

Two pesukim each speak of a "lamp" — one calls the mitzvah a lamp, the other calls the neshamah of a person a lamp. The Sefas Emes will draw a parallel between how a soul gives life to a body and how a tzaddik gives bodily form to a mitzvah.

וכמו שאדם נעשה שותף בולד הנולד.

And just as a person becomes a partner in the child that is born,

In the formation of a child, the human parents are partners together with Hashem.

ונוצר הגוף בכח אב ואם והקב"ה נותן נשמה וחיות להגוף ותולדות האדם הוא הכלי שיהי' מקום להלביש חיות הנשמה.

The body is formed by the power of father and mother, and the Holy One gives the soul and life-force to the body; the offspring of man is the vessel that becomes a place to clothe the vitality of the neshamah.

The parents provide only the physical "vessel" — the body — while Hashem infuses the neshamah and chiyus (life-force). The body exists in order to house and give expression to the soul's life.

כן ממש מצות ומעש"ט הם אורות עליונים רק הצדיקים שעושין המצות הם מלבישים האורות בעשי' גשמיות וע"ז כתיב ועשיתם אותם דרשו חז"ל (אתם) מעלה אני עליכם כאלו עשיתם את המצוה כו' כי המה שותפים ממש בהמצוה כנ"ל.

So too, precisely, mitzvos and good deeds are supernal lights; it is only that the tzaddikim who perform the mitzvos clothe those lights in physical action. About this it is written: "And you shall do them [va'asisem osam]" (Vayikra), and Chazal expounded — read it as "osem" [you] — "I consider it as though you made the mitzvah [made yourselves]," for they are truly partners in the mitzvah, as above.

A mitzvah in its root is a pure supernal light. When a Yid performs it physically, he is clothing that infinite light in a garment of action — exactly as the body clothes the soul. That is why Chazal read "you shall do them" as if a person "makes himself," because the one who performs the mitzvah is a genuine partner with Hashem in bringing that light into the world.

וזה הענין שקבלו עליהם בנ"י אשר דבר ה' נעשה להלביש דבר ה' בעשי' ונק' עושי דברו.

This is the matter that Bnei Yisrael accepted upon themselves — "that which Hashem has spoken, we will do" — to clothe the word of Hashem in deed, and they are called "those who do His word" (Tehillim 103:20).

By saying "na'aseh" (we will do), Bnei Yisrael took on the role of giving the word of Hashem a garment of action in this world; this is why they are called the "doers of His word."

וז"ש שהצדיקים מקיימין העולם שנברא בעשרה מאמרות כמ"ש אמו"ז ז"ל שהעולם נק' ע"ש ההעלם ע"ש.

And this is what is meant when it is said that the tzaddikim sustain the world that was created with ten utterances — as my grandfather, of blessed memory, said, that the world (olam) is so called on account of concealment (he'elem); see there.

The very word olam (world) hints at he'elem (hiddenness): the world by its nature conceals the Divine. Citing his grandfather (the Chiddushei HaRim), the Sefas Emes explains that tzaddikim "sustain" this hidden world by revealing the life within it.

והצדיקים מקיימין החיות בתוך העולם.

And the tzaddikim sustain the life-force within the world.

Tzaddikim uphold the world by drawing out and revealing the hidden chiyus — the Divine vitality — concealed inside creation.

וכן התורה שהיא נעלמה מעיני כל.

And so too the Torah, which is hidden from the eyes of all (cf. Iyov 28:21).

Just as the Divine life-force is concealed in the world, so the inner light of the Torah is hidden from ordinary sight.

וע"י בני ישראל מתלבשים הארות התורה בכל המקומות:

And through Bnei Yisrael, the illuminations of the Torah become clothed in all places.

It is Bnei Yisrael, through their mitzvos and learning, who clothe the hidden lights of Torah in physical reality, revealing them throughout the world.

Summary: The true offspring of a tzaddik are his mitzvos and good deeds. Just as parents form a body to house a neshamah that Hashem provides, so a Yid performing a mitzvah clothes a supernal light in physical action, becoming a real partner with Hashem. This is the avodah of Bnei Yisrael — to sustain the concealed world (olam from he'elem) and to clothe the hidden lights of Torah in every place.