Teshuvah regrasps the Tree of Life

כתיב ועתה פי ישלח ידו ולקח גם מעץ החיים.

It is written: "And now, lest he send forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life" (Bereishis 3:22).

After the cheit of Adam HaRishon, Hashem was concerned that man might still reach for the Eitz HaChaim. The Sefas Emes reads this not only as a warning but as a hint to man's enduring potential to reconnect to the source of life.

כי שורש של האדם הי' בגן עדן כמ"ש וישם שם את האדם.

For the root of man was in Gan Eden, as it says: "And He placed there the man."

The true origin and shoresh (root) of every person lies in Gan Eden, in closeness to Hashem.

אך ע"י החטא נגרש משם.

But through the cheit (sin) he was banished from there.

The sin did not change man's root; it only exiled him from a place that still remains his.

ובכח התשובה יכולין לאחוז בעץ החיים.

And through the power of teshuvah one is able to grasp the Tree of Life once again.

Teshuvah is the road back to that original closeness — it lets a person take hold of the Eitz HaChaim from which he was driven out.

ועתה הוא בחי' תשובה.

And "now" alludes to the aspect of teshuvah.

The word "ve'atah" ("and now") signals the moment of return — the present is always the doorway to teshuvah.

ישלח ידו הוא הכח ומקומו.

"He sends forth his hand" — this is the power, and its place.

Reaching out the hand represents the renewed strength to lay hold of the Tree of Life, and the time and setting where that strength belongs.

והוא עשרת ימי התשובה.

And this is the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah (the Ten Days of Repentance).

These ten days are the appointed "place" in time when man may stretch out his hand toward the Eitz HaChaim.

ידו. יוד.

"His hand" (yado) — the letter yud.

The word "yad" hints at the numerical value of ten (the yud), corresponding to the Ten Days of Teshuvah.

ובאברהם אע"ה כתיב וישלח אברהם את ידו שמסר נפשו בזה הנסיון ונתעלה למעלה מן הטבע ונתאחז בעץ החיים.

And regarding Avraham Avinu it is written: "And Avraham sent forth his hand" (at the Akeidah) — for he gave over his very soul in this nisayon (trial), rose above nature, and became attached to the Tree of Life.

The same phrase, "sending forth the hand," that warned of danger by Adam becomes, by Avraham, the very act of mesirus nefesh that lifts a person beyond the natural order and binds him to the source of life.

וכ' והאלקים נסה את אברהם.

And it is written: "And Hashem tested Avraham" (Bereishis 22:1).

The Akeidah is introduced as a nisayon — but the Sefas Emes will now uncover the deeper meaning of that word.

דרשו חז"ל הרים אותו.

Chazal expounded: "nisah oso" — He lifted him up.

The word "nisah" is read from the root meaning "to raise" — the test was, in truth, an elevation.

והוא שנתעלה לצאת מן הטבע כענין שכ' ביוסף וינס ויצא החוצה.

And this means that he was elevated to break free of nature, similar to what is written of Yosef: "and he fled and went outside."

Just as Yosef "went outside" — beyond the pull of his physical surroundings — Avraham went outside the bounds of the natural world through his test.

זה הרמז נסה את אברהם.

This is the hint of "He tested Avraham."

The nisayon is precisely this lifting of Avraham above nature.

ואעפ"י שמקודם ג"כ כ' ויוצא אותו החוצה למעלה מכיפת הרקיע.

And although earlier, too, it is written: "And He took him outside" — above the dome of the heavens.

Avraham had already once been raised above nature when Hashem took him "outside" to count the stars, lifting him beyond the celestial sphere.

אבל עכשיו נתעלה אברהם אע"ה בכח עצמותו.

But now Avraham Avinu was elevated by the power of his own essence.

The earlier elevation came as a gift from Above; at the Akeidah Avraham rose by his own inner strength and mesirus nefesh.

וזהו פי' הנסיון כמ"ש במד' נתת ליריאיך נס להתנוסס.

And this is the meaning of "nisayon," as the Midrash says on the verse: "You have given those who fear You a banner (nes) to be raised high" (Tehillim 60:6).

A nisayon is a "nes" — a banner that is lifted up. The test is the means by which a person is raised aloft.

פי' בעצמו.

Meaning: by his own self.

The banner is raised by the person's own power — the elevation is self-generated through his avodah.

ולכן כתיב אח"כ אברהם אברהם שנעשה שלם ונתדבק בשורש אברהם שלמעלה.

Therefore it is afterward written "Avraham, Avraham" — for he became complete and cleaved to the supernal root of "Avraham" Above.

The doubled name signals that the earthly Avraham now fully matched and joined with his root in the upper worlds.

שאמרו האבות הן הן המרכבה.

As they said: "The Avos themselves are the Merkavah (the Divine Chariot)."

The Avos became a vessel that carries the Shechinah — their entire being was a vehicle for ratzon Hashem.

ולכן כ' ג"כ בי נשבעתי נאום ה'.

Therefore it is also written: "By Myself I have sworn, says Hashem" (Bereishis 22:16).

Because Avraham reached his supernal root, the bracha that followed was sealed with a Divine oath drawn from the highest source.

כי ברך אברכך והרבה ארבה.

"For I will surely bless you and surely multiply you."

The promise of blessing and increase flows directly from Avraham's elevation at the Akeidah.

לשונות כפולים.

These are doubled expressions.

"Barech avarech'cha" and "harbah arbeh" repeat the verb — and the Sefas Emes finds meaning in this doubling.

שהבטיח לו שיהיו זרעו מבורכים מעולם העליון.

For He promised him that his offspring would be blessed from the upper world.

The doubled blessing reaches all the way to the highest world, the same place to which Avraham himself had ascended.

כמו שנתעלה אברהם כך יתמשכו בניו אחריו.

Just as Avraham was elevated, so too would his children be drawn after him.

The spiritual rise of Avraham becomes an inheritance — his descendants are pulled upward in his wake.

שיהי' להם התדבקות בעוה"ב.

So that they would have an attachment to the World to Come.

Avraham's elevation grants Klal Yisrael an enduring deveikus (attachment) to the eternal world.

כמ"ש בזוה"ק בי נשבעתי נאום ה' מבחי' עתיקא.

As the Zohar HaKadosh says: "By Myself I have sworn, says Hashem" — from the aspect of Atika (the most concealed, highest level).

The oath is rooted in the loftiest, most hidden plane of the Divine, beyond ordinary measure.

והוא שורש הי"ג מדות.

And this is the root of the Thirteen Middos (Attributes of Mercy).

That highest level, Atika, is the source from which the Thirteen Attributes of Rachamim flow.

ה' ה'.

"Hashem, Hashem" (the opening of the Thirteen Attributes).

The doubled Divine Name at the start of the Thirteen Middos mirrors the pattern of elevation.

כמו אברהם אברהם.

Just like "Avraham, Avraham."

The doubling of the Name parallels the doubling of Avraham's name — the lower aspect joined to its supernal root.

מדה במדה וכבר כתבתי במ"א כי ע"י היראה שנק' חכמה כמ"ש הן יראת ה' היא חכמה יכולין לכנוס לאלה השערים שע"ז כתיב החכמה תעוז לחכם מעשרה שליטים אשר היו בעיר.

Measure for measure. And I have already written elsewhere that through yirah (fear of Heaven), which is called chochmah — as it says, "Behold, yiras Hashem, that is wisdom" (Iyov 28:28) — one can enter these gates, concerning which it is written, "Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers who were in the city" (Koheles 7:19).

Yiras Shomayim is itself a form of chochmah, and it is the key that opens these supernal gates. The "ten rulers" hint at the ten days of return, and wisdom — yirah — gives a person mastery over them.

בחי' עשרת ימי תשובה שנק' ימי קדם.

This is the aspect of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, which are called the "days of old" (yemei kedem).

The "ten rulers" correspond to the Ten Days of Teshuvah, days that reach back to man's primordial root in Gan Eden.

וכ"כ באברהם עתה ידעתי כי ירא אלקים אתה.

And so too it is written regarding Avraham: "Now I know that you are a God-fearing man" (Bereishis 22:12).

It was specifically Avraham's yirah, revealed at the Akeidah, that brought about his great elevation.

וזהו בחי' ר"ה.

And this is the aspect of Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah is the day of yirah and of taking hold once more of the root of life.

ראש לעשרת ימי תשובה.

The head of the Ten Days of Teshuvah.

Rosh Hashanah stands at the head of these ten days, opening the gateway of return.

ויש ללמוד ק"ו מאדה"ר ע"י חטא אחד הביא המות לכל באי עולם.

And one can learn a kal vachomer (an a fortiori inference) from Adam HaRishon: through one sin he brought death to all who come into the world.

If a single act of one man could bring death to all of humanity, how much greater is the power of good.

מדה טובה המרובה אברהם אע"ה וכל האבות שמסרו נפשם על קדושת המקום.

The measure of good, which is greater — Avraham Avinu and all the Avos, who gave over their souls for the sanctity of Hashem (Makom).

Since the middah of reward and good always exceeds that of punishment, the mesirus nefesh of the Avos has an even more far-reaching effect than Adam's single sin.

מביאים חיים לכל הבוחר בדרכיהם:

They bring life to all who choose to follow in their ways.

The self-sacrifice of the Avos draws life — attachment to the Eitz HaChaim — for every Jew who walks their path, especially during the Ten Days of Teshuvah.

Summary: Adam's cheit exiled man from his root in Gan Eden, yet through teshuvah — concentrated in the Ten Days from Rosh Hashanah — a person can again grasp the Tree of Life. Avraham at the Akeidah turned the very "sending forth of the hand" into an act of mesirus nefesh that lifted him above nature to his supernal root, and that elevation, greater than Adam's fall, draws life onto all his descendants who follow the path of the Avos.