Toil Before Spiritual Rest

במדרש ואל תדברו גבוהות כו'

In the Midrash: "And do not speak so haughtily (al tedabru gevohah)" and so forth.

The Sfas Emes opens with the Midrash's warning against speaking with haughtiness, which he will tie to the danger of spiritual pride.

דכתיב נותן לפניכם היום בו"ק

As it is written, "He sets before you this day" the blessing and the curse (Devarim 11:26).

He anchors this in the pasuk where Moshe Rabbeinu sets the blessing and curse before Bnei Yisrael, presenting a choice.

פי' שבכל עת וזמן יש ב' הדרכים לפני האדם

The meaning is that at every moment and time there are two paths before a person.

He reads the pasuk as a constant truth: at every moment a person faces two possible paths, good and evil.

כמ"ש בספרי משל לזקן שעומד על פרשת דרכים ומזהיר זה הדרך תחילתו קוצים וסופו מישור כו'

As is brought in the Sifrei: a parable of an elder standing at a crossroads who warns, "This path — its beginning is thorns, but its end is level ground," and so forth.

The Sifrei's parable of the elder at the crossroads illustrates that the right path may begin with hardship but ends in ease.

נמצא הצדיק ג"כ עומד תמיד באמצעיות ב' הדרכים ימין ושמאל

It emerges that the tzaddik likewise stands always in the middle, between the two paths — right and left.

Therefore even the tzaddik is never past the choice; he too stands perpetually between right and left.

וז"ש הגדול מחבירו יצרו גדול כו'

And this is the meaning of "whoever is greater than his fellow, his yetzer is greater than his" and so forth.

He cites the Gemara that the greater a person is, the greater his yetzer hara — growth brings a fiercer challenge.

ואמרו חכמים לעתיד לבא הקב"ה מביא יצה"ר ושוחטו צדיקים נדמה להם כהר ובוכין איך יכלנו להלחם בו

And the Chachamim said: In the future to come, the Holy One, Blessed is He, brings the yetzer hara and slaughters it. To the tzaddikim it appears like a mountain, and they weep, "How were we able to wage war against it?"

In the future, the yetzer hara is shown to the tzaddikim as a towering mountain, and they marvel that they overcame something so vast.

ורשעים נדמה להם כחוט השערה ובוכין איך לא יכלנו לכבוש חוט שערה כזה

And to the resha'im it appears like a thread of hair, and they weep, "How were we unable to subdue a thread of hair such as this?"

To the resha'im that same yetzer looks tiny, like a hair, and they weep that they could not conquer something so small.

והענין כי לעולם יש רק חוט השערה

And the matter is that in truth there is always only a thread of hair.

The Sfas Emes resolves the seeming contradiction: the yetzer is in fact never more than a single thread of hair at any one moment.

והצדיקים שגוברים עליו פוגעין אח"כ בחוט השערה אחרת וכן לעולם עד שמתרבה ונעשה כהר

And the tzaddikim who prevail over it then encounter another thread of hair, and so it continues forever, until it multiplies and becomes like a mountain.

But the tzaddik who beats one challenge immediately meets the next, and the accumulated victories pile up into a mountain over a lifetime.

אבל זה הרשע הנשאר עומד

But this rasha who remained standing in place —

The rasha, by contrast, never advances; he stays frozen at the very first small test.

הרי הוא עומד בחוט השערה אחת

behold, he is standing at the one same thread of hair.

So for him it remains only one thread of hair, never growing because he never moves forward.

וזה ענין הצדיקים אין להם מנוחה כו'

And this is the matter of "the tzaddikim have no rest" and so forth.

This explains why the tzaddikim have no rest in this world — each level conquered opens a new challenge.

וז"ש שלא יתגאה האדם בהיותו נתעלה באיזה מדרגה

And this is the meaning that a person must not become haughty when he is elevated to some lofty level,

Hence a person should never grow proud upon reaching a high spiritual level.

כי גם שם יש לפניו שני הדרכים כנ"ל

for even there, there are the two paths before him, as explained above.

Because at that new height too the same two paths reappear before him, demanding a fresh choice.

אמנם עי"ז מרויחין הצדיקים הברכה בהיותם מניחין דרך הרע ובוחרים בדרך הטוב

However, through this the tzaddikim gain the blessing, in that they forsake the path of evil and choose the path of good.

Yet precisely through repeatedly rejecting evil and choosing good, the tzaddikim earn the blessing.

והוא השכר שלעתיד

And that is the reward of the future to come.

That earned blessing is the very reward stored up for Olam Haba.

וכן בש"ק מעין עוה"ב שנק' יום מנוחה

And likewise on the holy Shabbos, which is a foretaste of Olam Haba, it is called the day of rest (menuchah).

Shabbos, a taste of Olam Haba, is likewise called the day of rest.

ומנוחה הוא רק אחר היגיעה

And menuchah comes only after the toil.

And true rest can only come after labor has preceded it.

וכפי היגיעה בימי המעשה ובעוה"ז

And according to the toil during the weekdays of labor and in this world,

The measure of one's toil during the weekday and in this world determines

כן המנוחה בש"ק ובעוה"ב

so is the rest on the holy Shabbos and in Olam Haba.

the measure of one's rest on Shabbos and in Olam Haba.

והאמת כי מנוחת הצדיק בשבת היא אות ועדות למנוחתו בעוה"ב

And the truth is that the tzaddik's rest on Shabbos is a sign and a testimony to his rest in Olam Haba.

The tzaddik's rest on Shabbos thus serves as a living sign and proof of the rest awaiting him in Olam Haba.

וע"ז הענין אמרו יגעתי ומצאתי

And concerning this matter they said, "I toiled and I found" (Megillah 6b).

This is the meaning of Chazal's statement "I toiled and I found."

יגעתי בחול ומצאתי בשבת

I toiled on the weekday and I found on Shabbos.

The toil belongs to the weekday, and the finding — the rest and reward — belongs to Shabbos.

כי כן יסד המלך שאין השכר בעת המעשה הטובה

For so the King established, that the reward does not come at the time of the good deed itself.

Hashem arranged the world so that reward is deliberately withheld at the moment of the good deed itself.

אמנם בעבור היגיעה זוכה אח"כ בזמן המנוחה אז תשלומין של היגיעה בזמן המוכן ליגיעה ועבודה בכלל ובפרט:

Rather, on account of the toil one merits afterward, at the time of rest — that is the payment for the toil — at the time prepared for toil and avodah, both in general and in particular.

Instead, the toil earns its payment afterward, in the time set aside for rest, which is the fulfillment of the avodah, both generally and in every detail.

Summary: The Sfas Emes teaches that at every moment a person stands at a crossroads between two paths, good and evil, and that even a tzaddik is never freed from this choice. He resolves the famous aggadah in which the yetzer hara appears as a mountain to tzaddikim and a mere hair to resha'im: in truth the yetzer is never more than a single thread of hair, but the tzaddik who conquers one challenge meets another and another, so his lifetime of victories accumulates into a mountain, while the rasha stays frozen at the first small test. This is why the tzaddikim have no rest and why a person must never grow proud at any level — for each new height presents the same two paths anew. Yet through constantly forsaking evil and choosing good, the tzaddikim earn the blessing that is the reward of Olam Haba, foretasted in the rest of Shabbos. Just as menuchah comes only after toil, so "I toiled on the weekday and I found on Shabbos" — for Hashem established that reward comes not at the moment of the deed but afterward, in the prepared time of rest.