Uprooting Evil Without End

גם פרשנו הפסוק ע"פ מ"ש רש"י אבד ואחר כך תאבדון שצריך לשרש אחרי'

We also explained the pasuk according to what Rashi writes on "You shall destroy, and afterward you shall utterly destroy" — that one must root out after it.

Rashi reads the doubled language of "destroy... utterly destroy" as a command to pull out idolatry by its very roots and keep going after it.

כי כמו שכח הקדושה ועבודת האדם אין לו שיעור

For just as the power of kedushah and the avodah of a person has no fixed limit,

The capacity of holiness and a person's avodah is boundless, with no ceiling on how far it can grow.

כמו כן זה לעומת זה עשה כו'

so too "this corresponding to that Hashem made" (Koheles 7:14) — the opposing force is correspondingly without limit as well.

Since Hashem made the world in balance, the opposing force of evil is correspondingly limitless too, matching the limitless power of kedushah.

וכפי מה שאדם מתחיל לבער הרע שבקרבו נולד לו תמיד מיני התנגדות אל עבודת הבורא באופנים שונים

And according to how a person begins to burn out the evil within him, there is constantly born for him new forms of opposition to the avodah of the Borei in various ways.

As a person starts to burn away the evil inside himself, fresh resistance to serving Hashem keeps arising in ever-new forms.

ובכל עת ניתן לפניו מחדש ב' הדרכים ברכה וקללה

And at every moment the two paths are set before him anew — the blessing and the curse.

At each new moment a person is freshly presented with the same two choices — the path of blessing and the path of curse.

אמנם באמת היא הבטחה ג"כ אבד ואח"כ תאבדון

But in truth this is also a promise: "You shall destroy, and afterward you shall utterly destroy."

Beneath the command lies a promise: the very words "destroy, and afterward utterly destroy" assure that the destruction will ultimately be completed.

שבסוף יהיו זוכין לאבד לגמרי כל מיני עבודות זרות אותן האנשים אשר התחילו גם עתה לאבד את היצה"ר

That in the end those very people who have already now begun to destroy the yetzer hara will merit to utterly destroy every kind of avodah zarah completely.

Those who begin the work of uprooting the yetzer hara now are promised that they will eventually wipe out every trace of avodah zarah entirely.

אף כי א"י לגמור עתה הכל

Even though it is impossible to finish everything now,

Even though no one can finish the entire task in the present,

יהיו מקוים לעתיד בעזרת הבורא ית':

they will have hope for the future, with the help of the Borei Yisbarach.

the effort plants a hope that, with Hashem's help, it will be brought to completion in the future.

Summary: The Sfas Emes builds on Rashi's reading of the doubled phrase "destroy, and afterward you shall utterly destroy" as a directive to root out evil and keep pursuing it. Just as the power of kedushah and a person's avodah is without limit, so too the opposing force of evil is correspondingly limitless, so that each step a person takes in burning out the evil within him gives rise to fresh forms of resistance to serving Hashem, and at every moment the two paths of blessing and curse are set before him anew. Yet the very same doubled language is also a promise: those who begin now to destroy the yetzer hara are assured that they will ultimately uproot every kind of avodah zarah completely. Even though the work cannot be finished in the present, the one who labors at it plants a lasting hope that, with the help of the Borei Yisbarach, it will be brought to its completion in the future.