Elevating Physical Desire Through Torah

בפסוק כי ירחיב כו' תאוה נפשך לאכול בשר בכל אות נפשך תאכל בשר

Regarding the pasuk: "When Hashem will broaden your boundary... and your soul will desire to eat meat, you may eat meat to your soul's full desire" (Devarim 12:20).

The Sfas Emes opens with the pasuk that permits eating meat once Hashem broadens one's borders, citing the soul's desire as the trigger for permission.

ורש"י כ' למדך ד"א שלא לאכול בשר רק מתוך רחבת ידים ועושר

Rashi explains that the Torah here teaches a proper mode of conduct (derech eretz) — that a person should eat meat only out of an expanded means and wealth.

Rashi reads this as a lesson in proper conduct: meat should be eaten from a place of plenty, not from craving alone.

דכל מה שכופל הפסוק בכל אות נפשך בכל אות נפשך וכי התיר הכ' למלאות התאוה

For the pasuk repeats "to your soul's desire" — "to your soul's full desire" — and we must ask: did the Torah truly permit a person simply to indulge his appetite?

He flags the doubled phrase "to your soul's desire," asking whether the Torah is really endorsing the satisfaction of physical appetite.

אכן אין ריבוי אחר ריבוי בתורה אלא למעט

But in truth, an amplification following an amplification in the Torah comes only to limit and restrict.

He invokes the rule that a repeated amplification in the Torah actually serves to restrict, not to expand permission.

כי באמת כל תאוה יש לה שורש בנפש אך תאות הגוף מכסה על תאות הנפש שלא יהי' ניכר העיקר

For in reality every craving has its root in the neshamah; only that the desire of the body covers over the desire of the neshamah, so that the essential point is not recognizable.

His foundational point: every craving originates in the neshamah, but bodily desire masks this spiritual root.

ואיתא בשם הבעש"ט בפסוק רעבים גם צמאים נפשם בהם תתעטף ופי' למה ברא הקב"ה להיות לאדם רעבון וצמאון לאלה הדברים רק שיש בהם ניצוצות השייכים אל הנפש כו'

And it is brought in the name of the Baal Shem Tov on the pasuk "hungry and also thirsty, their soul grew faint within them" (Tehillim 107:5) — he explains: why did the Holy One, Blessed is He, create within a person a hunger and thirst for these physical things? Only because there are sparks of kedushah within them that belong to the neshamah.

He cites the Baal Shem Tov that Hashem implanted hunger and thirst in man so that he would draw out the holy sparks embedded in physical things.

וזה פ' נפשם בהם תתעטף כי עיקר רצון הנפש מעוטף ומכוסה ומלובש ברעבון וצמאון של הגוף

And this is the meaning of "their soul is enwrapped within them" — for the essential will of the neshamah is wrapped, covered, and clothed within the hunger and thirst of the body.

The verse "their soul is enwrapped" teaches that the neshamah's true will lies hidden and clothed inside the body's hunger and thirst.

ולכן לעתיד כתי' לא רעב ללחם ולא צמא למים כ"א לשמוע כו' דברי ה'

Therefore, regarding the future it is written: "not a hunger for bread nor a thirst for water, but rather to hear... the words of Hashem" (Amos 8:11).

In the future, the prophet describes a hunger not for bread but for Hashem's word, signaling a shift in what man craves.

כי יתגלה רעבון וצמאון העיקר הגנוז ולכן יתבטל רעבון וצמאון הגשמיי

For then the hunger and thirst — the essence that lies hidden — will be revealed, and therefore the physical hunger and thirst will be nullified.

Then the hidden spiritual hunger will surface and the merely physical hunger will fall away.

כי הנה האלקים עשה האדם ישר

For behold, "the Almighty made man upright" (Koheles 7:29).

He grounds this in the truth that Hashem created man fundamentally upright and good.

והגם כי יש גם ליצה"ר חלק באדם שאור שבעיסה

And although the yetzer hara too has a portion within a person — the "leaven in the dough" —

He concedes the yetzer hara has a share in man, likened to the leaven that sours the dough.

מ"מ אם האדם בר דעת ואינו נשתנה ומקבל כל בחי' שבו את שלו

nevertheless, if a person is a person of understanding (bar daas) and does not become altered, and each faculty within him receives what is properly its own,

Yet a person of true understanding who stays steady lets each inner faculty take only its rightful portion.

ממילא משהו הבא אל הגוף ויצה"ר בטל וטפל אל הנפש

then automatically the small measure that comes to the body and the yetzer hara becomes nullified and subordinate to the neshamah.

When that balance holds, the small bodily intake and the yetzer hara become subordinate to the neshamah.

וזה עצמו הפי' בכל אות נפשך דייקא להיות התאוה בנפש וגוף

And this itself is the meaning of "to your soul's desire" — precisely — that the craving should be in the neshamah and the body together,

This is the precise meaning of "to your soul's desire": the craving must engage neshamah and body together.

ולא יבטל הגוף תשוקת הנפש

and the body should not nullify the yearning of the neshamah.

The condition is that the body must not override or silence the neshamah's yearning.

ובזה עצמו מתמעט תאות הגוף

And through this very thing the desire of the body is diminished.

Precisely this proper ordering shrinks and diminishes the body's raw desire.

אבל כשגובר תאות הגוף הרי אינו בכל אות נפשך

But when the desire of the body prevails, then it is no longer "to your soul's desire."

Conversely, when bodily desire dominates, it no longer qualifies as "to your soul's desire."

וזהו הריבוי אחר ריבוי למעט תאות הגוף כנ"ל

And this is the amplification following an amplification that comes to limit the desire of the body, as explained above.

Thus the doubled amplification limits bodily desire, as the Sfas Emes has explained.

ובאמת אין זוכין לזה רק כי ירחיב ה' כו' גבולך וכמ"ש במד' העמדת במרחב רגלי ולכן אחז"ל אין ע"ה רשאי לאכול בשר

And in truth one merits this only "when Hashem will broaden... your boundary," and as the Midrash says (on "You have set my feet in a broad place" — Tehillim 31:9), and therefore Chazal said that an am haaretz is not permitted to eat meat.

One reaches this state only through Hashem broadening one's borders; hence Chazal forbade meat to an unlearned person.

דאין לך בן חורין אלא העוסק בתורה ואז יש לו חירות שאין הנפש מתאסר בתאות הגוף

For "there is no free man except one who occupies himself with Torah" (Avos 6:2), and then he has freedom — that the neshamah is not imprisoned within the desire of the body.

True freedom belongs to one immersed in Torah, whose neshamah is not held captive by the body's cravings.

וזה נק' רחבת ידים ועושר

And this is what is called "expanded means and wealth."

This inner freedom is what "expanded means and wealth" actually refers to.

כי אין עני אלא מתורה ומצות

For "there is no poor man except one who lacks Torah and mitzvos."

Real poverty, he notes, is a lack of Torah and mitzvos, not a lack of money.

ופי' רחבת ידים כדאיתא בזוה"ק בפסוק אשר תמצא ידך לעשות בכחך פי' בכח הנשמה ע"ש

And the meaning of "expanded means" is as is brought in the Zohar HaKadosh on the pasuk "whatever your hand finds to do, with your strength" (Koheles 9:10) — he explains: with the strength of the neshamah; see there.

He decodes "expanded means" via the Zohar's reading of "with your strength" as the strength of the neshamah.

כי יד הוא הכח להיות הנשמה ונפש שולטת באדם

For the "hand" (yad) is the strength by which the neshamah and the soul rule over the person.

The "hand" symbolizes the power through which the neshamah governs the whole person.

לכן בשבת שנק' רחובות ובו יש כח הנשמה יתירה מצוה לאכול בשר ולשתות יין

Therefore on Shabbos, which is called "broad places" (rechovos), and on which there is the strength of the additional neshamah (neshamah yeseirah), it is a mitzvah to eat meat and to drink wine.

On Shabbos, called "broad places" and graced with the neshamah yeseirah, eating meat and drinking wine becomes a mitzvah.

ובס' זאת זכרון פי' ע"ד רמז כצבי וכאיל תאכלנו כי הצבי ישן בעין א' ועין א' מביט תמיד לאחוריו

And in the sefer Zos Zikaron he explains by way of hint on "like a deer and like a hart you shall eat it" (Devarim 12:22) — for the deer sleeps with one eye while the other eye always looks behind it.

He closes with the Zos Zikaron's image of the deer that sleeps with one eye watching behind it.

כן בשעת אכילה צריכין שלא לשכוח תורת ה' ולזכור בכל פעם עבודת ה' ע"ש:

So too at the time of eating one must not forget the Torah of Hashem, and must remember at every moment the avodah of Hashem; see there.

The lesson: while eating, one must keep one eye on Hashem's Torah and never lose sight of avodas Hashem.

Summary: The Sfas Emes addresses the pasuk permitting meat once Hashem broadens a person's borders, and the doubled phrase "to your soul's desire." Drawing on the rule that a repeated amplification comes to limit, and on the Baal Shem Tov's teaching that hunger and thirst exist to draw out the holy sparks hidden within physical things, he explains that every craving truly originates in the neshamah, only masked by the body. The Torah's intent is that eating engage neshamah and body together, so that bodily desire stays subordinate and is thereby diminished — never overriding the neshamah's yearning. One merits this only through the freedom of Torah, which is the real "expanded means and wealth," since true poverty is a lack of Torah and mitzvos. Shabbos, called "broad places" and bearing the neshamah yeseirah, is the prime time for this elevated eating, and like the ever-watchful deer, a person must never forget the avodah of Hashem even while he eats.