Receiving Abundance Without Falling

והותירך ה' לטובה כו'

"And Hashem will leave you over for good, etc." (Devarim 28:11).

The Sfas Emes opens with the verse promising that Hashem will leave a person over "for good," and proceeds to ask what it means to be left over for good.

פי' שלא יבא האדם ע"י רוב טובה לנפילה ח"ו ע"י התנשאות וכדומה רק שיהי' נשאר כמו שהי' מקודם

The explanation is that a person should not come, through an abundance of good, to a downfall, chas v'shalom, by way of self-exaltation and the like; rather he should remain just as he was beforehand.

When a person is showered with material abundance, the danger is that the very good will lead him to arrogance and a spiritual fall; to be "left over for good" means to stay exactly as humble and steady as he was before the bounty came.

עוד ע"י גבוה יותר שאף שיתן הש"י רוב השפעת שכל ובינה אל ישכח האדם מכל צורכי הגוף וישאר בעוה"ז לקשר הארת הנשמה גם בגוף והבן:

There is yet a still loftier level: that even when Hashem grants an abundance of the bestowal of intellect and understanding, a person should not forget all the needs of the body, but should remain in this world in order to bind the illumination of the neshamah within the body as well — and understand this.

On an even higher plane, the same caution applies to spiritual abundance: even when Hashem floods a person with wisdom and understanding, he must not abandon the body and its needs, but must stay grounded in this world so that the light of the neshamah can be drawn down and bound into the body itself.

Summary: Commenting on the verse "And Hashem will leave you over for good," the Sfas Emes teaches that the true blessing of abundance is being able to receive it while remaining unchanged. On the material level, a person must not let an abundance of good lift him into self-exaltation and thereby cause his downfall, chas v'shalom; he should remain exactly as he was beforehand. The Sfas Emes then points to an even loftier application: even when Hashem bestows an overflow of intellect and understanding, a person must not forget the needs of the body. Rather, he should stay anchored in this world so that the illumination of the neshamah is bound into the body as well, making the body itself a vessel for that light.