The Avos' yearning planted within us

בפסוק כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה בניו כו' לעשות צדקה ומשפט.

On the verse, "For I have known him, so that he will command his children... to do tzedakah and mishpat" (Bereishis 18:19).

The Sefas Emes opens on the verse describing Avraham's mission to transmit righteousness and justice to his descendants.

אמו"ז ז"ל פירש שנתן הקב"ה ידיעה ודביקות כל כך שיצוה בניו אחריו.

My grandfather, of blessed memory, explained that Hakadosh Baruch Hu granted [Avraham] such knowledge and dveikus that he would command his children after him.

The Chiddushei HaRim explains "ki yedativ" as Hashem implanting in Avraham a level of knowing and clinging to Hashem so powerful that it would pass on to his children after him.

ופי' למען כפשוטו כי האבות הכינו דעת לכל בני ישראל ודפח"ח.

And he explained "so that" according to its plain sense — for the Avos prepared da'as for all of Bnei Yisrael; and these are beautiful words of Torah.

"Lema'an" is read straightforwardly: Hashem knew Avraham in order that the Avos would establish a reservoir of da'as for all their descendants — words the Sefas Emes praises as a beautiful teaching.

ובאמת זה תכלית שלימות בנ"י שיתמשכו אחר לב האבות כדכתיב והשיב לב אבות על בנים ולב בנים על אבותם ואז יהי' הגאולה במהרה בימינו.

And in truth this is the ultimate perfection of Bnei Yisrael — that they be drawn after the heart of the Avos, as it is written, "and he shall turn the heart of fathers to sons and the heart of sons to their fathers" (Malachi 3:24) — and then the geulah will come speedily in our days.

The completeness of Bnei Yisrael is to align their hearts with the Avos' single-hearted devotion; this mutual turning of hearts of fathers and sons is the very condition the navi sets for the final redemption.

כי האבות היה להם רק לב אחד לאביהם שבשמים ולא הסיחו דעת מאהבת ודביקות הבורא אפילו שעה אחת וכשישראל זוכין מאיר בהם כח האבות.

For the Avos had but one heart, devoted to their Father in Heaven, and did not divert their attention from love of and dveikus to the Creator even for a single moment; and when Yisrael merit, the power of the Avos shines within them.

The Avos possessed a wholly undivided heart, never interrupting their love and attachment to Hashem; this unbroken devotion is a koach planted in their descendants that shines forth whenever Yisrael are worthy.

ובגלות נסתר זה הכח בנפשות בני ישראל.

And in galus this power is concealed within the souls of Bnei Yisrael.

Exile does not destroy this inherited koach but hides it; it lies dormant within Jewish souls, waiting to be reawakened.

וז"ש ותרא את עני אבותינו במצרים.

And this is the meaning of "And You saw the affliction of our fathers in Mitzrayim."

The Sefas Emes rereads this phrase from the Haggadah's "Bikkurim" passage not merely as the suffering of the generation in Egypt, but as something concerning the Avos.

ואיתא בגמרא אין קורין אבות אלא לשלשה.

And it is taught in the Gemara: one calls "Avos" only the three.

The Gemara (Berachos 16b) establishes that the term "Avos" (Patriarchs) is reserved for Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov alone — a key the Sefas Emes will now apply.

וגם אבותינו דרשו על האבות בפסוק וירעו לנו מצרים ולאבותינו מכאן שהאבות מצטערין בקבר הגם דיש לפרש הפסוק על הדורות שהיו במצרים לא רצו חז"ל לפרש כן כי כלל ישראל קורין אבותינו רק לאבות השלשה.

And "our fathers" too they expounded as referring to the Avos, in the verse "and the Egyptians did evil to us and to our fathers" — from here, that the Avos are pained in the grave; for although the verse could be explained as referring to the generations that were in Mitzrayim, Chazal did not wish to explain it so, since the community of Yisrael calls "our fathers" only the three Avos.

Chazal deliberately read "our fathers" in this pasuk as the three Avos, deriving that the Avos themselves feel pain in the grave over their children's suffering — choosing this reading precisely because, by the rule just cited, "Avoseinu" properly denotes only the three Patriarchs.

ולכן יתכן לפרש עני אבותינו פי' כח האבות בנפשות בנ"י הי' בעניות ושפלות שאותו התשוקה שנטעו האבות בבנ"י לא האיר בהם כראוי.

Therefore it is fitting to explain "the affliction of our fathers" to mean: the power of the Avos within the souls of Bnei Yisrael was in a state of poverty and lowliness, for that yearning which the Avos planted in Bnei Yisrael did not shine within them as it should.

"Oni Avoseinu" thus describes the impoverished, diminished state of the Avos' koach within the people — the planted yearning for Hashem lay obscured and unable to shine forth properly in the darkness of Egypt.

[ומסיים הכתוב ואת זעקתם שמעת על ים סוף ששם התחיל קצת להאיר כח האבות כדאיתא תפסו אומנות אבותם ע"ש]

[And the verse concludes, "and You heard their cry at the Yam Suf" — for there the power of the Avos began somewhat to shine, as it is taught, "they seized the craft of their fathers"; see there.]

At the Sea, the dormant koach of the Avos began to reawaken: the Midrash that Yisrael "seized the craft of their fathers" (i.e., turned to tefillah and faith) shows the inherited yearning starting to illuminate them again.

וזה בחי' ג' תפלות שתקנו האבות עבודה שבלב זו תפלה ותקנו ג' זמנים להיות מתעורר התשוקה בלבות בני ישראל להתדבק בהקב"ה שזה תכלית התפלה.

And this is the aspect of the three tefillos that the Avos instituted — "the avodah of the heart, this is tefillah" — and they fixed three times so that the yearning to cling to Hakadosh Baruch Hu would be aroused in the hearts of Bnei Yisrael, for this is the purpose of tefillah.

The three daily tefillos instituted by the Avos are the very mechanism for reawakening their planted yearning: as "avodah she'b'lev," tefillah's whole purpose is to arouse in every Jew's heart the longing for dveikus that the Avos embedded within him.

וזהו אשר יצוה כו' לעשות צדקה ומשפט תקונים שנעשים בכל יום ע"י עבודה בתפלה וע"ז איתא חייב אדם לומר מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי אברהם יצחק ויעקב פירוש למעשה אבותי שנטעו בי.

And this is "that he will command... to do tzedakah and mishpat" — rectifications accomplished each day through the avodah of tefillah; and concerning this it is taught, "a person is obligated to say, when will my deeds reach the deeds of my fathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov" — meaning, the "deeds of my fathers" that they planted within me.

The "tzedakah and mishpat" Avraham commands are the daily tikkunim achieved through tefillah. The obligation to ask "when will my deeds reach those of my fathers" (Tanna d'Vei Eliyahu) is reread: not to imitate the Avos from outside, but to actualize "the deeds of my fathers planted within me" — the latent koach they implanted in my own soul.

שיזכה להתעוררות התשוקה הגנוזה בנפשות בנ"י בכח האבות ועל זה מבקשין ה"א כו' אבותינו שמרה זאת לעולם ליצר מחשבות לבב עמך והכן לבבם אליך:

That one should merit the awakening of the yearning hidden within the souls of Bnei Yisrael by the power of the Avos; and concerning this we pray, "Hashem our God... [and God of] our fathers, keep this forever as the inclination of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and direct their hearts toward You" (Divrei HaYamim I 29:18).

The goal is to awaken that hidden yearning rooted in the Avos' koach; and so we daven that Hashem preserve this very longing forever as the inclination of His people's hearts and "direct their hearts" toward Him — realizing the inheritance of the Avos.

Summary: The Avos possessed a single, undivided heart that never ceased clinging to Hashem, and "ki yedativ" means Hashem implanted this koach of yearning and dveikus into all their descendants. In galus this power lies concealed and impoverished — the meaning of "the affliction of our fathers" — yet it is reawakened through the three daily tefillos the Avos instituted, the avodah of the heart that arouses the hidden longing. Our true avodah is not to imitate the Avos externally but to actualize the deeds and yearning they planted within our own souls.