Each Jew's unique tikkun must enter Klal Yisrael

במד' בחקותי. חשבתי דרכי כו' והיו רגלי מביאות אותי כו'.

In the Midrash on Bechukosai: "I considered my ways... and my feet would bring me..." (Tehillim 119:59).

The Sefas Emes opens with the Midrash that links our parsha to David HaMelech's words: he reflected on his ways, yet found that his feet kept carrying him to the houses of study and prayer.

ופי' אא"ז ז"ל ע"פ המשנה אם אין אני לי כו' שיש לכל איש ישראל דבר מיוחד שאין אחר [*יכול] לתקנו רק הוא.

And my grandfather, of blessed memory, explained it through the Mishnah "If I am not for myself, who is for me?" (Avos 1:14) — that every individual Jew has a unique matter that no one else can rectify but he alone.

In the name of the Chiddushei HaRim: each Jew has a particular task or tikkun in the world that is his and his alone — a portion of avodah that no other person can accomplish in his place. This is "if I am not for myself, who is for me?"

וכמו כן לכל שעה דבר מיוחד שא"י לתקנו רק בשעה זו.

And likewise, every hour has a unique matter that cannot be rectified except in that very hour.

Just as each person has his own task, so too each moment carries its own irreplaceable opportunity — a tikkun bound to that specific time and no other.

וזהו אם לא עכשיו אימתי.

And this is "if not now, when?" (Avos 1:14).

Because each hour's task can only be fulfilled then, the Mishnah warns: if you let this moment pass, that particular avodah is lost — "if not now, when?"

אעפ"כ אחר תיקון הפרטים צריך להכניסו בכלל.

Nevertheless, after the rectification of the particulars, one must bring it into the klal (the collective whole).

Yet personal, individual avodah is not the final goal. Once a person has accomplished his private tikkun, he must fold it into the larger whole — connecting his particular service to Klal Yisrael.

וז"ש וכשאני לעצמי מה אני.

And this is "and when I am for myself, what am I?" (Avos 1:14).

The continuation of the Mishnah teaches the other side: a person who remains only "for himself," isolated in his private avodah, is incomplete — "what am I?" His work must join the klal to have its full worth.

וז"ש אחר שהי' מחשב בפרט למקום פלוני אני הולך אח"כ היו רגלי מביאות לבתי כנסיות שהוא הכלל עכ"ל.

And this is the meaning: after David reckoned in particular, "to such-and-such place I am going," afterward "my feet would bring me" to the synagogues, which are the klal — so end his words.

David first considered his individual path ("I considered my ways"), attending to his personal avodah. But then his feet carried him to the batei knesios — the gathering places of the community — for the private tikkun must culminate in entering the klal. Thus ends the Chiddushei HaRim's explanation.

ולהוסיף ביאור הענין לפסוק בחקותי תלכו.

And to add further explanation to the matter, on the pasuk "If you walk in My chukim" (Vayikra 26:3).

The Sefas Emes now develops the theme in connection with the opening verse of the parsha, "im b'chukosai teileichu."

כמ"ש במד' בחקותי הם חקות שהבורא ית' מקיים אותם כו' ע"ש.

As the Midrash says: "in My chukim" — these are the statutes that the Creator Himself fulfills, etc.; see there.

The Midrash teaches that the chukim of the Torah are decrees that Hashem Himself, as it were, keeps — they are rooted in the supernal "conduct" of the Divine, not merely in human practice.

והענין הוא כי המצות הם רמזים תלוין באורות עליונים וע"י המצוה במעשה גשמי יכול לעלות מדרגה אחר מדרגה עד שיהי' לו התקשרות לשורש המצוה.

The matter is that the mitzvos are hints suspended upon supernal lights, and through performing the mitzvah by a physical act one can ascend from level to level until he attains a binding to the root of the mitzvah.

Every mitzvah is the lower "tip" of a chain of spiritual lights reaching into the upper worlds. By doing the mitzvah in this physical world, a person sets off an ascent — rung by rung — until his act becomes joined to the supernal root from which the mitzvah descends.

וע"ז איתא מצוה גוררת מצוה.

About this it is taught: "one mitzvah draws another mitzvah" (Avos 4:2).

The Sefas Emes reinterprets this maxim: it is not only that doing one mitzvah leads a person to another, but that within a single mitzvah one is drawn upward through successive levels.

פי' בכל מצוה יש מדרגות רבות עד מצות ה' ממש.

The explanation: within every mitzvah there are many levels, up to the actual "mitzvah of Hashem."

Each mitzvah contains a whole ladder of inner rungs, ascending until one reaches "mitzvas Hashem mamash" — the mitzvah as it exists in its Divine source.

וז"ש ואשיבה רגלי אל עדותיך דייקא.

And this is the precise meaning of "and I returned my feet to Your testimonies" (Tehillim 119:59).

David's wording — "I returned my feet to Your testimonies" — captures this ascent: his lowly "feet," his physical deeds, were drawn back up to the Divine "testimonies," the supernal root of the mitzvos.

שהגם שבתחלה חשבתי דרכי. מ"מ המצוה מסייעת עד שבא אל מצות ה'.

For although at first "I considered my ways," nevertheless the mitzvah assists until one arrives at the "mitzvah of Hashem."

Even though a person begins with his own calculations and human starting point ("I considered my ways"), the mitzvah itself carries him forward, lifting him until he reaches the Divine root of that mitzvah.

והיו רגלי מביאות כו'.

"And my feet would bring me..." (Tehillim 119:59).

The verse continues that his feet "brought" him — he was carried along by a power beyond his own initiative.

פי' אף שאינו בכח האדם.

The explanation: even though it is not within the power of man.

This ascent to the root of the mitzvah is not something a person can achieve by his own strength alone; he is "brought" there by a higher assistance.

לכן איתא אם אין אני לי מי לי.

Therefore it is taught: "if I am not for myself, who is for me?"

Yet a person must still begin — he must make the first move. "If I am not for myself" — if I do not initiate, no help will come.

כי אדם צריך לפתוח ראשון ואח"כ המעש"ט מרוממים את האדם מדרגה אחר מדרגה כנ"ל.

For a person must open first, and afterward the maasim tovim (good deeds) elevate the person from level to level, as above.

The human role is to "open the door" — to take the first step. Once he does, his good deeds themselves lift him upward from rung to rung, an elevation that is then granted from Above.

וזה ג"כ בכלל.

And this too applies to the klal (the collective).

The same principle of "first the person opens, then he is elevated" operates not only in private avodah but also in joining the collective whole.

וכשאני לעצמי מה אני כי בלתי סייעתא דשמיא א"א לתקן הכל.

"And when I am for myself, what am I?" — for without siyata d'Shmaya (Heavenly assistance) it is impossible to rectify everything.

Relying on oneself alone — "for myself" — accomplishes little, because no person can complete the full tikkun without help from Heaven. One's own efforts must be met by Divine aid.

וז"ש אם אין הקב"ה עוזרו כו'.

And this is what is said: "were it not that the Holy One, blessed is He, helps him..." (Kiddushin 30b).

Chazal teach that a person's yetzer hara would overpower him daily were Hashem not to help him. So too here: human initiative alone cannot prevail without Divine assistance.

רק ע"י התחלת עבודת האדם.

Only through the beginning of a person's avodah.

The Heavenly help is contingent on the person making the start — the initial effort of his own avodah opens the channel for it.

המעשים מקרבים אותו עד שמכניס עצמו בכלל ישראל ובשורש המצות ובכלל ישראל יש השראת כח השכינה כנ"ל:

The deeds bring him near until he enters himself into Klal Yisrael and into the root of the mitzvos, and within Klal Yisrael there is the resting of the power of the Shechinah, as above.

Once a person begins, his deeds carry him forward until he is absorbed into Klal Yisrael and into the supernal root of the mitzvos. And it is precisely within the klal that the Shechinah rests — so the individual's avodah reaches its fulfillment only when it is joined to the whole of Bnei Yisrael.

Summary: Every Jew and every hour has a unique tikkun that no one else and no other moment can accomplish ("if not now, when?"); yet private avodah must culminate in the klal. Each mitzvah is the lower tip of supernal lights, and by doing it physically a person ascends rung by rung to its Divine root — but only if he "opens" first, after which his deeds and siyata d'Shmaya carry him until he enters Klal Yisrael, where the Shechinah rests.