Hidden Cravings Of Ascent

בפסוק כי ירחיב כו' תאוה נפשך

Concerning the pasuk, "When Hashem expands [your border]... and your soul shall crave [to eat meat]" (Devarim 12:20).

The Sfas Emes opens with the pasuk that frames eating meat as a response to the soul's craving once Hashem broadens Bnei Yisrael's borders.

ותאות הגוף לא נזכר

The Torah makes mention of the craving of the soul (nefesh), yet the craving of the body is not mentioned at all.

He observes a precise nuance: the Torah speaks of the nefesh's desire and pointedly omits any mention of the body's desire.

לכן התיר הכתוב בכל אות נפשך תאכל כמ"ש במ"א מזה

Therefore the verse permitted, "With every craving of your soul you may eat meat" — as I have explained elsewhere regarding this matter.

Because the craving in question is rooted in the nefesh, the Torah grants license to eat meat to satisfy "every craving of your soul," a point he develops elsewhere.

וראי' לזה אזהרת הדם רק חזק כו'

A proof to this is the warning concerning blood, "Only be strong [not to eat the blood]" (Devarim 12:23).

He brings support from the adjacent warning to "be strong" against eating blood, which the Torah pairs with this license.

אם כי אין לנו תאוה לדם כלל

For we have no bodily craving whatsoever for blood,

His proof rests on the fact that no person has any natural bodily appetite for blood at all.

מזה הוכחה שהכתוב מדבר מתאות הנפש

and from this it is a proof that the verse is speaking of the craving of the nefesh,

Since the warning cannot be addressing a bodily desire, it must be addressing a craving lodged in the nefesh itself.

שאין אנו יודעין מזו התאוה עדיין

a craving of which we are as yet unaware.

This is a hidden craving, one that a person does not yet recognize within himself.

כי בוודאי לעולם יש ב' הדרכים

For without a doubt the two paths always exist before a person,

He establishes the principle that the two paths, good and its opposite, are forever set before every person.

וכפי שאדם מתעלה ממדרגה למדרגה

and according to the measure by which a person elevates himself from one level to the next,

As a person rises higher, ascending from one madreigah to the next, the test rises with him.

כך נמצא אצלו שם ג"כ מיני תאוות אשר לא טובים המה כמובן:

so too there are found by him there as well kinds of cravings which are not good, as is understood.

At each new level he discovers fresh kinds of cravings that are "not good," subtler challenges that surface only as he climbs.

Summary: The Sfas Emes notices that when the Torah permits eating meat once Hashem expands the borders of Bnei Yisrael, it speaks specifically of the craving of the nefesh and never of the body. He proves this from the accompanying warning to "be strong" against eating blood: since no one has any bodily appetite for blood, the desire the Torah addresses must reside in the nefesh, a craving a person does not yet recognize in himself. From here he draws a broader avodah: the two paths of good and its opposite stand before a person always. As one ascends from madreigah to madreigah, refined cravings that are "not good" reveal themselves at every level, so that the work of the nefesh is never finished but renews itself with each ascent.