Daily Renewal Of Choice
ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום בו"ק
"Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom" — "See, I set before you today" — blessing and curse (Devarim 11:26).
The pasuk opens with "See, I set before you today" both blessing and curse, framing the whole piece around the word "today."
היום הוא בכל יום כדאיתא מחדש בטובו בכל יום
"Today" means every single day, as we say in the blessings, "He renews in His goodness each day continually" the work of Creation.
"Today" is not a one-time event but a daily reality: Hashem renews the act of Creation every single day, so the choice is always fresh.
רק אחר החטא יש תערובות טו"ר
Only after the sin of the Eitz HaDaas did there come to be an admixture of good and evil.
Before Adam ate from the Eitz HaDaas, good and evil were distinct; only afterward did they become mixed together within the world.
לכן יורד זה לעומת זה כמ"ש ביום טובה הי' בטוב וביום ר' ראה
Therefore, this is set opposite that, as it is written, "On the day of good, be in good, and on the day of evil, see" (Koheles 7:14).
Because of that mixture, good and evil now come paired and opposite each other, as the pasuk in Koheles describes good days and bad days set against one another.
וזה שאמר להם מרע"ה כי אם היו נשארים הלוחות ראשונות הי' רק טוב
This is what Moshe Rabbeinu was telling Bnei Yisrael — that had the first Luchos remained, there would have been only good.
Moshe Rabbeinu was teaching that if the first Luchos had not been shattered, the world would have contained only good, with no curse at all.
ועכשיו יש בו"ק
But now there is blessing and curse together.
In the present reality, after the sin, blessing and curse exist side by side.
והי' בשוה
And it would have been in equal balance.
Had things stayed as before, good and evil would have stood in perfect equal balance.
ועתה בעונותינו אמרו חז"ל בכל יום קללתו מרובה בו'
Now, however, because of our sins, Chazal said that "each day its curse is greater than the previous day's" (Sotah 49a).
But because of our sins, Chazal teach that the evil keeps intensifying, each day's curse exceeding the day before's.
אמת כי עכ"ז עיקר ההתחדשות [*יש] (שיש) בכל יום
It is true that even so, the essential renewal is present each and every day.
Despite this decline, the core point stands: a genuine renewal of goodness arrives every single day.
רק ממילא יש ג"כ שטן והתנגדות להארה היורדת בכל יום
Yet as a matter of course there is also a Satan and an opposition to the illumination that descends each day.
Because that fresh illumination descends daily, it automatically draws an opposing force — a Satan — that resists it.
וכן בלב האדם בפרט אחז"ל בכל יום יצרו מתגבר עליו
And so too within the heart of man in particular, Chazal said, "each day a person's yetzer hara overpowers him" (Kiddushin 30b).
This same dynamic plays out inside a person's heart: the yetzer hara renews its assault every day.
והיתכן שלא יהי' התגברות הזאת ליצ"ט בכפלים
And how could it be that this very overpowering would not be present for the yetzer tov in double measure?
If the yetzer hara is constantly strengthening, it must be that the yetzer tov is given an even greater strengthening to match and exceed it.
רק ע"י שניתן כח חדש ורוח טהרה בכל יום לכל איש ישראל המיחלים אליו ית' ממילא כמ"ש ז"ל הגדול מחבירו יצרו גדול ממנו
Rather, by means of the fresh strength and spirit of purity that is given each day to every Jew who places his hope in Hashem Yisbarach, automatically — as Chazal said, "one who is greater than his fellow, his yetzer is greater than his" —
Each day Hashem grants new strength and a spirit of purity to every Jew who hopes in Him; the rule that "the greater the person, the greater his yetzer" shows the two grow in tandem.
כן היצה"ר מתגבר בכל יום
so too the yetzer hara grows stronger each day.
Restating the principle: as the daily illumination grows, the yetzer hara grows alongside it.
לכן צריך כ"א לקבל עמ"ש בכל יום ויום
Therefore, every person must accept upon himself the yoke of Heaven each and every day.
Since this battle renews daily, a person's response must also renew daily by accepting the yoke of Heaven afresh each day.
וכתי' טוב לגבר כו' עול בנעוריו
And it is written, "It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth" (Eichah 3:27).
The pasuk in Eichah praises bearing the yoke "in one's youth," which the Sfas Emes will now unpack.
הפי' לתת ראשית הכח להש"י
The meaning is to give the first of one's strength to Hashem Yisbarach.
Bearing the yoke means dedicating the very first and best of one's strength to Hashem.
והוא כולל ראשית הזמן היינו ימי הנעורים
And this includes the first of one's time, namely the days of one's youth.
On one level "youth" refers to the first of one's lifetime — dedicating one's young years to Hashem.
וגם בכל יום ממש משננער האדם
And also, literally each day, from when a person rouses himself awake.
On a deeper level it applies to every single day: the "youth" of each day is the moment a person first wakes and rouses himself.
וכן בכלל ישראל דורות הראשונים האבות ודור המדבר שהקדימו נעשה לנשמע והקבלה שקיבלו עליהם עודנו מקיים אחריתנו בדורות השפלים
And so too regarding Klal Yisrael as a whole — the earlier generations, the Avos and the dor hamidbar, who placed "na'aseh" before "nishma," and the acceptance that they took upon themselves still sustains us, their descendants, in these lowly generations.
The principle scales up to the whole nation: the Avos and the generation of the desert dedicated their "first" by saying na'aseh before nishma, and that original acceptance still sustains even our lowly later generations.
ובכח הראשית הזאת הי' להם חיזוק גם אחר החטא כמ"ש במד' תנחומא המשל שנתפשר הרב עם עבד הנאמן ע"ש
And by the strength of this "first" they had reinforcement even after the sin, as is brought in the Midrash Tanchuma in the parable of the master who made a settlement with his faithful servant — see there.
That foundational "first" gave them lasting strength even after they sinned, illustrated by the Tanchuma's parable of a master settling with his loyal servant.
וזה שהראה לנו מרע"ה כי נותן לפניהם בו"ק
This is what Moshe Rabbeinu showed us, that He sets before them blessing and curse.
Returning to the pasuk, Moshe Rabbeinu showed us that Hashem deliberately sets blessing and curse before us together.
שהגם שנולד הקללה
For although the curse has been born,
Even though the curse now exists as a reality in the world,
עכ"ז יש לנו עוד כח ע"י התורה לבחור בטוב
even so we still have the strength, by means of the Torah, to choose the good.
we are still empowered, through the Torah, to actively choose the good.
כמ"ש במד' הטובה יתירה שאמר לנו לבחור בטוב הוא יתרון הכח שיש להיצר טוב
As is brought in the Midrash, the extra goodness that He told us to choose the good is the advantage of strength that the yetzer tov possesses.
The Midrash teaches that Hashem's instruction to choose the good is itself an added gift of strength, granting the yetzer tov an advantage over the yetzer hara.
ואיתא כי לא רצה הקב"ה לברוא העולם בא' רק בב' שהיא לשון ברכה ע"ש
And it is brought that the Holy One, Blessed is He, did not wish to create the world with the letter aleph, but rather with the letter beis, which is the language of berachah — see there.
Chazal teach that Hashem created the world with the letter beis rather than aleph because beis begins the word berachah, blessing.
והלא התורה התחילה באנכי
Yet the Torah began with "Anochi" — with an aleph!
Yet the Torah itself opens with "Anochi" — which begins with an aleph, raising an apparent difficulty.
היינו שהתורה יש לה תוספות כח להיות יורדת ומסייעה בכל אלה המקומות ולתקן הכל כמ"ש אין עבירה מכבה תורה:
This means that the Torah has an additional strength to descend and to assist in all these places and to repair everything, as it is said, "a sin does not extinguish Torah" (Sotah 21a).
The resolution: the Torah carries an extra power that descends into all the flawed "aleph" places to assist and repair them, for as Chazal say, no sin can extinguish the Torah's force.
Summary: The Sfas Emes builds on the word "today" in "See, I set before you today" to teach that the choice between blessing and curse is renewed every single day, just as Hashem renews Creation daily. Since the sin of the Eitz HaDaas mixed good and evil, the daily illumination of goodness automatically draws an opposing yetzer hara that grows stronger each day — but precisely for that reason Hashem grants every Jew who hopes in Him a correspondingly greater strength and spirit of purity each day, the way "the greater the person, the greater his yetzer." The avodah, therefore, is to accept the yoke of Heaven afresh each day, dedicating the "first" of one's strength and time to Hashem — both in one's youth and at the start of each day — just as the Avos and the dor hamidbar dedicated their "first" with na'aseh before nishma, an acceptance that still sustains us. Above all, even though the curse now exists, the Torah empowers Bnei Yisrael to choose the good, for the Torah carries an extra strength — beginning with "Anochi" — that descends into every flawed place to repair it, since no sin can extinguish the Torah.