Uprooting Evil Completely

בפסוק אבד תאבדון

On the verse, "You shall surely destroy" (Devarim 12:2).

The Sfas Emes opens with the verse commanding Bnei Yisrael to thoroughly destroy avodah zarah in Eretz Yisrael.

לעוקר ע"ז שצריך לשרש אחרי'

This refers to one who uproots avodah zarah, who must root out after it completely.

The doubled language "surely destroy" teaches that one must not merely remove avodah zarah on the surface but dig out its very roots.

כבר כ' במ"א מזה רק בשביל מה שנתחדש בו

I have already written about this elsewhere; here I will add only that which is newly understood in it.

He notes he has discussed this verse before and will now focus only on a new insight.

סמיכות הפסוק ל"ת כן לה' אלקיכם ופירש"י שלא יגרמו העוונות לחרבן בהמ"ק

The juxtaposition of this verse to that which follows, "You shall not do so to Hashem your God" (Devarim 12:4), upon which Rashi explains that one's sins should not bring about the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.

Rashi connects this verse to the following one, warning that failure here leads to the sins that ultimately cause the Beis HaMikdash to be destroyed.

והענין הוא כי אם הי' מקוים כראוי אבד תאבדון

The matter is as follows: had Bnei Yisrael fulfilled "You shall surely destroy" as it ought to have been fulfilled,

He explains that proper fulfillment of the command to destroy evil would have changed everything.

והיו משרשין אחר כל ע"ז לעקור כל שורש ע"ז לא היו באין אח"כ לידי ירידה

And had they rooted out after every form of avodah zarah, to uproot every root of avodah zarah, they would not have come afterward to a state of spiritual decline.

Had Bnei Yisrael uprooted avodah zarah completely, they would never have fallen into later spiritual decline.

ולא הי' חרב בהמ"ק

And the Beis HaMikdash would not have been destroyed.

As a direct consequence, the Beis HaMikdash itself would never have been destroyed.

כי כפי הקיום סור מרע בשלימות

For according to the measure of one's fulfilling "Turn away from evil" in completeness,

The principle is that the completeness of "turning away from evil" determines what follows.

כך יוכל אח"כ להיות ועשה טוב

So can he afterward come to "And do good" (Tehillim 34:15).

Only one who fully removes evil is then able to truly accomplish "and do good."

וכן הוא ללמוד לכל פרט

And so too is this a lesson for every individual.

This same lesson, which applies to the klal, applies equally to each individual.

כי כפי הנהגות הכלל כך הפרט

For just as the conduct of the klal is, so is that of the individual.

The conduct of the entire people mirrors and is mirrored by the conduct of the single person.

וכבר כ' פי' לשרש אחרי' לעשות לשם שמים

And I have already written that the meaning of "to root out after it" is to act for the sake of Heaven.

He recalls his earlier teaching that uprooting avodah zarah "after it" means doing so purely for the sake of Heaven.

כמו במצוה

Just as with a mitzvah,

Just as a mitzvah must be performed with the proper intention for Hashem,

כן בסור מרע צריך להיות הכוונה לעקור שורש הרע למעלה

So too with "Turn away from evil" the intention must be to uproot the root of evil Above,

So too removing evil requires the intention to uproot evil at its spiritual source Above, not merely its outward form.

לשם ה':

For the sake of Hashem.

All of this avodah must ultimately be directed toward Hashem alone.

Summary: The Sfas Emes expounds the doubled language of "You shall surely destroy" as a command to uproot avodah zarah at its very root, not merely on the surface. Following Rashi's juxtaposition, he explains that had Bnei Yisrael fulfilled this completely, they would never have descended into the later sins that brought about the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash. The underlying principle is that the completeness of "turn away from evil" determines one's ability to truly accomplish "and do good," and this holds true for both the klal and each individual alike. Just as a mitzvah demands proper intention for the sake of Heaven, so too the removal of evil must be done with the kavanah to uproot the root of evil Above, purely for the sake of Hashem.