Judging the Heart's Gates

שופטים כו' בכל שעריך

"Judges... in all your gates" (Devarim 16:18).

The piece opens with the verse commanding the appointment of judges in all your gates, taken as the springboard for the whole teaching.

פי' מו"ז ז"ל כי הם שיעורין דליבא

My grandfather and teacher, may his memory be a blessing, explained that these are the "measures of the heart."

The Sfas Emes cites his grandfather, the Chiddushei HaRim, who read "gates" as the inner gauges or openings of the heart.

שידע האדם שכל השערים הנפתחין בלבו

A person must know that all the gates that open within his heart

Every person must recognize that the openings that arise in his heart are not random.

הם אשר ה"א נותן כו' ע"ש

are what "Hashem your God gives you" — see there.

They are placed there by Hashem, as the verse itself indicates.

וי"ל עוד באופן הנ"ל

And one may add a further interpretation along the same lines as above.

He now offers an additional layer of explanation building on his grandfather's words.

כי השערים בלב הם התפעלות הרוח ונפש שבלב

For the gates within the heart are the stirrings of the spirit and soul that reside in the heart.

The "gates" of the heart are the emotional stirrings of the spirit and soul located within it.

כי בכל פעולה והרגשה נק' שער שנפתח בלב האדם

For with every action and every feeling, a gate is said to open within a person's heart.

Each deed and each feeling is itself a gate that opens within the person.

ויש מ"ט פנים טהור ומ"ט פנים טמא והם הכחות ומחשבות מיצ"ט ויצה"ר

And there are forty-nine faces of purity and forty-nine faces of impurity, and these are the powers and thoughts that come from the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara.

Every such opening has two possible faces — forty-nine of purity and forty-nine of impurity — corresponding to the impulses of the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara.

וצריכין שופט שיהי' האדם שופט כל תנועה ופתיחת הלב אם לטוב הוא

And one needs a judge — that a person should judge every movement and opening of the heart, to determine whether it is for the good.

Because of this, a person needs an inner judge to evaluate every movement of his heart and decide whether it is good.

ושערים אלו בלב באין מנ' שערי בינה [כמ"ש ובה הלב מבין] וכשמבטל אדם עצמו להשורש והוא שער הנ' ושם נמצא הבירור בין טוב לרע שהעירוב בא אחר התפשטות בלב האדם

And these gates in the heart come from the fifty gates of binah (as it is written, "and with it the heart understands"); and when a person nullifies himself to the root, that is the fiftieth gate, and there is found the clarification between good and evil — for the admixture only comes after the spreading out within a person's heart.

These heart-openings derive from the fifty gates of binah; by nullifying himself to his root, a person reaches the fiftieth gate, where good and evil can be clearly sorted out, since the confusion only sets in once the impulse spreads through the heart.

וז"ש אשר ה"א נותן

And this is the meaning of "that Hashem your God gives you" —

This is why the verse stresses that these gates are what Hashem gives.

שעי"ז יוכל לשפוט צדק באותן השערים

for through this a person is able to judge righteously within those gates.

It is precisely Hashem's gift that empowers a person to render a true judgment over his inner stirrings.

וכ' פותח שער לדופקי בתשובה כי כל השערים אלו בלב הם דופקים לשוב למקורם והיא בחי' תשובה כנ"ל

And it is written, "He opens a gate for those who knock in teshuvah," for all these gates in the heart are knocking to return to their source, and this is the aspect of teshuvah, as above.

The verse about Hashem opening a gate for those who knock in teshuvah is applied here: the heart's gates are themselves knocking to return to their source, which is the essence of teshuvah.

וכתי' כי יפלא ממך כו'

And it is written, "When a matter is too wondrous for you..." (Devarim 17:8).

He brings the next verse, about a matter too wondrous to decide, as the continuation of the theme.

שכשאין האדם יודע להכריע דברי ריבות בשעריך כנ"ל

That when a person does not know how to decide matters of dispute within "your gates," as above —

This refers to when a person cannot resolve the inner conflict within his own gates.

העצה וקמת ועלית כו'

the counsel is "then you shall arise and go up..." (Devarim 17:8).

The Torah's remedy is to arise and go up, which the Sfas Emes reads as a spiritual ascent.

פי' שיבטל עצמו לעשות רק רצון עליון אשר יבחר ה' ומבטיח הפ' ובאת אל הכהנים הלוים פי' בחסד עליון יוכל האדם להתדבק בחי החיים ע"י הביטול וזה הכהנים הלוים

Meaning, that he should nullify himself to do only the supernal will that Hashem chooses; and the verse promises, "and you shall come to the Kohanim, the Levi'im" — meaning, through supernal kindness a person is able to cleave to the living God, the life of all life, by means of bittul, and this is "the Kohanim, the Levi'im."

He explains this as nullifying oneself to seek only Hashem's will; through supernal kindness, this bittul lets a person cleave to the source of all life, hinted at by "the Kohanim, the Levi'im."

וכשנתדבק בשורשו נמשך חיות חדש ויוכל לברר האמת והצדק

And when he becomes attached to his root, a fresh vitality is drawn forth, and he is able to clarify the truth and the righteousness.

Once attached to his root, fresh vitality flows into him, enabling him to discern truth and righteousness.

וכתי' לא תכיר פנים פירש"י אפי' בשעת הטענות שלא יהי' רך לזה וקשה לזה

And it is written, "You shall not recognize faces" (Devarim 16:19); Rashi explains: even at the time of the arguments, that he should not be soft toward this one and harsh toward that one.

The verse forbidding recognition of faces, per Rashi, demands evenhandedness during the arguments themselves.

פי' כמ"ש חז"ל עשה רצונו כרצונך לקבל טענות היצ"ט כמו של היצה"ר

The meaning is as Chazal said, "Make His will like your will" — to accept the arguments of the yetzer tov just as one accepts those of the yetzer hara.

The Sfas Emes applies this inwardly, citing Chazal's "make His will like your will": one must give the yetzer tov's claims as fair a hearing as the yetzer hara's.

וכשאין לו נגיעה יכיר האמת והצדק:

And when a person has no personal bias, he will recognize the truth and the righteousness.

When a person is free of personal bias, he will be able to recognize the truth and the righteousness.

Summary: The Sfas Emes, building on the Chiddushei HaRim, reads "Judges in all your gates" as a directive about the inner life: the "gates" are the stirrings of the heart, and every deed and feeling opens a gate that bears either a face of purity or of impurity, flowing from the yetzer tov or the yetzer hara. A person must therefore appoint an inner judge to weigh each movement of his heart, and this discernment is itself a gift from Hashem, rooted in the fifty gates of binah; only by nullifying himself to his root does a person reach the clarity where good and evil can be cleanly separated. When the inner conflict is too wondrous to resolve, the counsel of "you shall arise and go up" is to nullify oneself entirely to Hashem's will, through which supernal kindness lets him cleave to the source of all life and draw down fresh vitality to clarify the truth. Finally, just as a judge must not recognize faces, a person must give the yetzer tov's arguments as fair a hearing as the yetzer hara's; only when he is free of personal bias can he recognize the truth and the righteousness.