Two covenants of speech and milah as life

בפסוק אני ה"א כמעשה א"מ כו' וכמעשה ארץ כנען כו' לא תעשו כו' אני ה"א.

On the pasuk, "I am Hashem your God; like the deeds of the land of Mitzrayim… and like the deeds of the land of Canaan… you shall not do… I am Hashem your God" (Vayikra 18:2-4).

The Sefas Emes notes that the parsha of the forbidden relations is bracketed at both ends by "I am Hashem your God," and sets out to explain why.

ב"פ אני ה"א.

Twice "I am Hashem your God."

He focuses on the doubling of this declaration, opening and closing the section.

כמ"ש אני אני הוא בעוה"ז ובעוה"ב.

As it says, "I, I am He" (Devarim 32:39) — in this world and in the World to Come.

The doubled "I" hints that Hashem's sovereignty embraces both olam hazeh and olam haba, the beginning and the end.

והרמז כמ"ש אני ראשון ואני אחרון.

And the hint is as it says, "I am first and I am last" (Yeshayahu 44:6).

The two declarations correspond to Hashem as the Rishon (first) and the Acharon (last) — the two poles of all existence.

והשי"ת ייחד שמו עלינו בחי' הראשית והאחרית.

And Hashem Yisbarach attached His Name to us in the aspect of the beginning and the end.

Hashem bound His Name to Klal Yisrael at both ends — the starting point and the final purpose — so that we carry both within us.

והם ב' בריתות ברית הלשון וברית המעור.

And these are two bris-covenants: the bris of the tongue and the bris of milah.

The two "I am Hashem"s correspond to two covenants — the covenant of speech (the tongue) and the covenant of milah — which become the framework for the whole piece.

וע"י יצ"מ זכינו לברית הלשון וקבלת התורה.

And through Yetzias Mitzrayim we merited the bris of the tongue and the receiving of the Torah.

Leaving Mitzrayim, where speech was in galus, opened our mouths for Torah — this is the bris of the tongue, tied to the beginning.

וע"י ברית המעור ירשנו את הארץ כמ"ש לא"א בבשורת הארץ ואתה את בריתי תשמור.

And through the bris of milah we inherited the land, as it was said to Avraham Avinu in the tidings of the land, "and you shall keep My covenant" (Bereishis 17:9).

Milah, the covenant tied to the end and to bearing fruit, is what earned us Eretz Yisrael — the lasting inheritance.

והנה רוב הכריתות הם במאכלות אסורות ובביאות אסורות.

Now, most of the kares-penalties [in the Torah] are connected to forbidden foods and to forbidden relations.

He observes that the severe punishment of kares clusters around these two areas — food (tied to the mouth) and relations (tied to milah).

כי מאחר שנקראו בריתות א"כ החיים תלוי בהם וממילא יש כריתות במי שפוגם בהם.

For since they are called covenants (brisos), then life itself depends on them, and consequently there is kares (a "cutting off") for one who damages them.

Because these two areas are the very covenants of life, harming them severs one from the source of life — hence kares, which literally means being "cut off."

ועליהם נאמר מות וחיים ביד לשון.

And about them it is said, "death and life are in the hand of the tongue" (Mishlei 18:21).

Both covenants hold the power of life and death, which is why this verse about the "tongue" applies to them.

כי גם ברית המעור נק' לשון כידוע.

For the bris of milah, too, is called "lashon" (tongue), as is known.

In the language of the mekubalim, both covenants are referred to as "tongue," so the verse about the tongue addresses them both.

[ויתכן עוד לומר במ"ש ל"ו כריתות בתורה לרמוז על שם ע"ב ועלי' נרמז אני אמית ואחיה חצי' מחי' וחצי' ממית. אלא שאין לי עסק בנסתרות]

[And one might further say, regarding the statement that there are thirty-six kares-cases in the Torah, that they hint to the Name of seventy-two; and upon it is hinted "I put to death and I bring to life" (Devarim 32:39) — half of it gives life and half of it brings death. But I have no dealing with hidden matters.]

In a bracketed aside the Sefas Emes notes a kabbalistic allusion (thirty-six being half of seventy-two), corresponding to the verse "I put to death and bring to life," but he humbly declines to delve into nistar.

ולכן בשרצים כ' המעלה אתכם מא"מ שהוא ברית הלשון.

Therefore, regarding [the prohibition of] creeping creatures it is written, "[I am Hashem] who brings you up from the land of Mitzrayim" (Vayikra 11:45), which corresponds to the bris of the tongue.

The laws of forbidden foods are sealed with "who brings you up from Mitzrayim" because food connects to the mouth — the covenant of speech that we gained at Yetzias Mitzrayim.

וכאן בעריות כתי' כמעשה ארץ כנען כו' לא תעשו שירושת הארץ תלוי בברית המעור.

And here, regarding the forbidden relations, it is written, "like the deeds of the land of Canaan… you shall not do," because the inheritance of the land depends on the bris of milah.

The laws of arayos are framed by the land of Canaan because possessing the land hinges on the covenant of milah, the dimension of these mitzvos.

וב' אלו הם בחי' ראשית ואחרית.

And these two are the aspect of beginning and end.

The covenant of speech is the "beginning" and the covenant of milah is the "end" — the two poles again.

כמו תחילת גידול האדם כשמתחיל לדבר.

Like the beginning of a person's growth, when he begins to speak.

Speech marks the dawn of a child's development — the "beginning," corresponding to the bris of the tongue.

והאחרית והתכלית להיות מוליד ומשאיר פירות תחתיו.

And the end and ultimate purpose is to give birth and to leave fruits after him.

The culmination of a person's life is to bear and leave behind progeny — the "end," corresponding to the bris of milah.

כמו כן הוא בפנימיות.

So too it is in the penimiyus (inner dimension).

What is true physically — speech at the start, offspring at the end — mirrors a spiritual reality within the soul.

והנה כתי' אשר יעשה אותם האדם וחי בהם.

Now it is written, "which a person shall do, and live by them" (Vayikra 18:5).

He now turns to the famous promise that one who keeps the mitzvos "shall live by them."

ואחז"ל בעוה"ב וכן בתרגום בחיי עלמא.

And Chazal expounded: "in the World to Come"; and so too in the Targum, "in life eternal."

Chazal and the Targum read "and live by them" as referring to eternal life in olam haba, not merely this world.

והפי' כי המצות הם מיוחדים לאברי האדם והנפש פושטת צורה ולובשת צורה וע"י המצות מכין האדם לנפשו מלבוש וחלוקא דרבנן בעוה"ב.

And the meaning is: the mitzvos correspond to the limbs of a person, and the soul "removes one form and dons another," and through the mitzvos a person prepares for his soul a garment — the "chaluka derabanan" (the garment of the righteous) — in the World to Come.

Each mitzvah, bound to a limb, weaves a spiritual garment for the neshamah. When the soul sheds its physical body, it dons the radiant garment that the mitzvos prepared for it in the next world.

ז"ש וחי בהם שיתלבש החיות אח"כ בהם ממש.

This is the meaning of "and live by them" — that the life-force will later be clothed literally within them.

"Live by them" means the soul's vitality will eventually be enclothed in the very mitzvos one performed.

אך פשט הכ' וחי בהם משמע גם עתה.

However, the plain sense of the verse, "and live by them," implies even now [in this world].

The Sefas Emes does not abandon the simple reading: "live by them" must also speak of life right now.

והענין הוא כי האדם יש לו שורש למעלה וחלק הנשמה שלמעלה גם עתה מתלבשת במעשה המצות שאדם מקיים בעוה"ז.

And the matter is: a person has a root Above, and the portion of his neshamah that is on high becomes clothed — even now — in the mitzvah-acts that a person performs in this world.

Every Jew has a higher root in the upper worlds. Even in olam hazeh, that supernal part of the neshamah is drawn down and enclothed in his mitzvos, so the mitzvah connects him to his living root.

ז"ש ז"ל ומחי' נפשו שנק' נר.

This is what Chazal said, "and gives life to his soul," which is called a "ner" (lamp).

The neshamah is called a lamp ("the soul of man is the lamp of Hashem"), and the mitzvah feeds that flame with life from its supernal root.

ואיתא כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעוה"ב.

And it is taught, "All of Yisrael have a portion in the World to Come" (Sanhedrin 90a).

He now examines the precise wording of this well-known mishnah.

ולא אמרו יהי' להם חלק רק יש לו.

And they did not say "they will have a portion," but rather "they have [a portion]" [in the present].

The mishnah uses the present tense — "have," not "will have" — implying the portion in olam haba is something a Jew possesses already now.

כי טעם עוה"ב לבנ"י משום שנאמר חלק ה' עמו.

For the reason Bnei Yisrael have the World to Come is because it is said, "the portion of Hashem is His people" (Devarim 32:9).

The Jew's share in the next world flows from the fact that Klal Yisrael are themselves Hashem's "portion" — bound up in Him.

והקב"ה הי' הוה ויהי' הכל אחדות א' ובזה יש לכל ישראל חלק.

And the Holy One — "was, is, and will be" — is all one unity, and in this every Jew has a portion.

Because Hashem transcends time as a single, seamless unity, the Jew who is bound to Him already partakes of the "future" world in the present — past, present and future are one in Him.

ומי שזוכה לקיים מצוה כראוי יוכל להרגיש הארה משורש המצוה ונשמתו שלמעלה.

And one who merits to fulfill a mitzvah properly is able to feel an illumination from the root of the mitzvah and from his neshamah on high.

When a mitzvah is done with full intent, a person can actually sense a glow descending from its supernal source and from his own higher soul.

וע"ז מתפללין ויהי נועם ה' עלינו כו'.

And about this we daven, "May the pleasantness of Hashem our God be upon us" (Tehillim 90:17).

This tefillah is a request to feel that very illumination — the "no'am Hashem" — resting upon us through our deeds.

ומעין זה בש"ק שזוכין לנשמה יתירה כיון שהשבת הוא מעין עוה"ב יורד בו הארה מנשמה שהיא מבחי' עוה"ב כנ"ל:

And a taste of this is on Shabbos Kodesh, when we merit the neshamah yeseirah (additional soul) — since Shabbos is a taste of the World to Come, an illumination descends within it from the soul that is of the aspect of olam haba, as above.

Shabbos, "a taste of the World to Come," lets that supernal light shine in the form of the extra neshamah — a weekly foretaste of the olam haba portion that every Jew already holds.

Summary: The double "I am Hashem your God" framing the arayos parsha corresponds to Hashem as first and last, and to the two life-covenants of speech (gained at Yetzias Mitzrayim, tied to the beginning) and milah (which won us the land, tied to the end). These are the covenants on which life depends, so violating them brings kares. Through the mitzvos a Jew weaves a garment for his neshamah and draws down its supernal root even now — for Klal Yisrael, as "Hashem's portion," already possess a share in the timeless olam haba, tasted each Shabbos through the neshamah yeseirah.