Reasons of mitzvos as the inner Torah

במדרש מגיד דבריו כו' חקיו ומשפטיו לישראל משל כו' לבנו נותן מתוך פיו כו'.

In the Midrash: "He tells His words... His statutes and His judgments to Yisrael" (Tehillim 147:19) — a parable... to his son he gives from out of his own mouth, etc.

The Midrash compares Hashem giving His mishpatim to Yisrael to a father who feeds his beloved son directly from his own mouth — an image of unique intimacy and closeness.

פשוט כוונת המדרש לפרש.

The plain intent of the Midrash is to explain:

The Sefas Emes first offers the straightforward reading of the Midrash before turning to its inner meaning.

משפטיו של הקב"ה אשר בחר לעצמו.

The judgments (mishpatim) of the Holy One, blessed be He, which He chose for Himself —

The mishpatim are not merely rules for people; they are Hashem's own ways, the conduct He selected as His.

בדרך זה מנהיג את בניו.

— in this same way He guides His children.

The very ways Hashem conducts Himself become the path along which He leads His children, Bnei Yisrael.

כמ"ש אשר קדשנו במצותיו במצות אשר השי"ת עושה אותם.

As we say: "Who sanctified us with His mitzvos" — with the mitzvos that Hashem Himself performs.

When we bless Hashem for "His mitzvos," we mean mitzvos that He Himself keeps; by giving them to us He shares His own conduct with us.

אך פנימיות הענין דהמשפטים נאמרו אחר הדיברות כי הדיברות הם הנהגות הש"י כמלך הגוזר על עמו ומשפטים הם טעמי המצות כי הם עפ"י שכל התחתונים ג"כ.

But the inner dimension (penimiyus) of the matter is that the mishpatim were given after the Dibros (the Ten Commandments), because the Dibros are the conduct of Hashem as a king who decrees upon his people, while the mishpatim are the reasons of the mitzvos — for they accord with the understanding of those below as well.

The Aseres HaDibros come as royal decrees, accepted on pure authority. The mishpatim that follow are the rationales behind the mitzvos — laws that human intellect can also grasp and affirm.

ואא"ז מו"ר ז"ל פי' מ"ש רש"י תשים לפניהם כשולחן הערוך כו' למה נאמר זה דוקא אצל המשפטים.

And my grandfather, my teacher and master, of blessed memory, explained what Rashi says — "you shall set before them like a set table" — why this is stated specifically by the mishpatim.

The Sefas Emes quotes his grandfather, asking why Rashi's image of the Torah "set like a prepared table" appears precisely at the mishpatim and not elsewhere.

אך כי לאשר שכל האנושי משיג המשפטים לזאת צריכין חיזוק אמונה לזה.

But because human intellect grasps the mishpatim, for this very reason one needs a strengthening of emunah (faith) here.

Precisely because the mishpatim make sense to us, there is a spiritual danger: we might keep them because they are logical rather than because Hashem commanded them. So davka here emunah must be reinforced.

לידע כי אעפ"כ הם רק רצונו של הקב"ה כמ"ש המשפט לאלקים הוא.

To know that, even so, they are only the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written: "For the judgment is God's" (Devarim 1:17).

However reasonable a law may seem, a Jew must remember that its true ground is ratzon Hashem — the judgment belongs to Hashem, not to human logic.

ופי' עפ"י הפסוק אתה כוננת מישרים שגם מה שנראה זה דרך ישר.

And he explained it by means of the verse "You established uprightness" (Tehillim 99:4) — that even that which appears to be the upright, straight path —

Even those laws that strike us as plainly "right" and just are only "right" because Hashem established them as such.

הוא ע"י שכן רצונו של הקב"ה לכך יש עליו חן והכל מעידין על ישרו.

— it is because such is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He; therefore it bears a grace (chein) upon it, and all testify to its uprightness.

The "rightness" we sense in a just law is a divinely placed grace. Hashem's will is what makes it appear upright to everyone, so the universal recognition of its justice is really testimony to His will.

ולכן צריך להיות השכל בטל אל הציווי של הקב"ה כנ"ל.

Therefore the intellect must be nullified (battel) to the command of the Holy One, blessed be He, as above.

Even where reason agrees, a Jew's mind must remain subordinate to Hashem's command — the logic serves the mitzvah, not the reverse.

ונראה שלכך עלה ע"ד משה רבינו ע"ה שלא להגיד לבנ"י הטעמים כי ירא שעי"ז יהיו מחוסרי אמונה כנ"ל והקב"ה הבטיחו כי מוכנים בני ישראל לקבל הטעמים ושידעו שהכל מהקב"ה הוא כנ"ל.

And it appears that for this reason it arose in Moshe Rabbeinu's mind not to tell Bnei Yisrael the reasons, for he feared that through this they would become lacking in emunah, as above; but the Holy One, blessed be He, assured him that Bnei Yisrael are prepared to receive the reasons and yet still know that everything is from the Holy One, blessed be He, as above.

Moshe initially considered withholding the rationales, worried they would lead people to rely on logic instead of faith. Hashem promised him that Bnei Yisrael were spiritually ready to grasp the reasons while still recognizing that the whole Torah flows from Him.

ובנ"י זכו לזה ע"י קבלת הדיברות שהקדימו נעשה לנשמע.

And Bnei Yisrael merited this through their acceptance of the Dibros, where they placed "we will do" before "we will hear" (na'aseh before nishma).

By proclaiming "na'aseh v'nishma" — committing to do before understanding — Bnei Yisrael earned the right to also grasp the reasons safely.

ופי' זה שהי' חביב בעיניהם יותר לעשות רצונו ית' מנשמע שהוא השגת הטעמים כנ"ל.

And the meaning of this is that it was more beloved in their eyes to do His will than to "hear," which refers to comprehending the reasons, as above.

Na'aseh (doing) was dearer to them than nishma (understanding the rationale). Because the deed of fulfilling Hashem's will came first in their hearts, the reasons posed no threat to their emunah.

לכן זכו להשיג הטעמים ג"כ כנ"ל.

Therefore they merited to grasp the reasons as well, as above.

Having put doing first, they could now safely be entrusted with the deeper understanding too.

וכלל הדברים כי המשפטים הם פנימיות הדיברות כי הטעמים יותר פנימים מגוף המצות.

And the principle of the matter is that the mishpatim are the penimiyus (inner dimension) of the Dibros, for the reasons are more inward than the body of the mitzvos themselves.

The mishpatim are not a lower tier than the Ten Commandments but their inner core: the reason of a mitzvah lies deeper than its external form.

וז"ש מגיד דבריו מקודם ואח"כ משפטיו כנ"ל.

And this is the meaning of "He tells His words" first, and afterward "His judgments," as above.

The verse's order — first "His words" (the Dibros) and then "His judgments" (the mishpatim) — reflects moving from the outer decree to its inner reasons.

ופי' אשר תשים לפניהם כי הקב"ה נתן לבני ישראל אשר גם לדבריהם יהי' להם כח זה שעפ"י דבריהם יהי' נמשך החן והטעמים כמו דבריו של הקב"ה שנאמר אתה כוננת מישרים כנ"ל.

And the meaning of "which you shall set before them" is that the Holy One, blessed be He, granted to Bnei Yisrael that even to their own words there should be this power — that through their words the grace and the reasons should be drawn down, just like the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is said "You established uprightness," as above.

"Asher tasim lifneihem" hints that Hashem empowered Bnei Yisrael themselves: the rulings the Sages would derive carry the same divine grace and reason-giving power as Hashem's own words. Their words too can "establish uprightness."

וזה ענין תורה שבע"פ שבני ישראל זוכין לחדש דברים שנחצבו לפניו ב"ה וז"ש אשר תשים לפניהם שיהי' בכחם להמשיך משפטי השי"ת והבן:

And this is the matter of the Oral Torah (Torah she-be'al peh), in which Bnei Yisrael merit to originate novel teachings (chiddushim) that were hewn out before Him, blessed be He; and this is "which you shall set before them" — that it should be in their power to draw down the judgments of Hashem; and understand this.

This is the secret of Torah she-be'al peh: the chiddushim of Bnei Yisrael were already "quarried" before Hashem, so when they innovate Torah they are channeling His own mishpatim. The phrase "set before them" entrusts the people with the power to draw Hashem's judgments into the world.

Summary: The mishpatim are the penimiyus — the inner reasons — of the Ten Commandments, more inward than the mitzvos' outer form. Precisely because human intellect can grasp them, emunah must be strengthened, for their true ground is ratzon Hashem; the "grace" and rightness we sense in a just law come only because Hashem willed it. By saying na'aseh before nishma, Bnei Yisrael earned the right to understand the reasons without losing their faith, and were further empowered so that their own Torah she-be'al peh chiddushim carry that same divine grace — "set before them" the power to draw down Hashem's mishpatim.