T37 (Tinyana) PNC - The True Tachlis — Serving for His Sake Alone

'Mi-mesim yadcha Hashem, mi-mesim mi-cheled… ani be-tzedek echezeh panecha' (Tehillim 17:14-15). The principle: the only true purpose is to serve and walk in Hashem's ways for His sake — to merit knowing and recognizing Him. That is His will: that we recognize Him. No other intention belongs in avodah. Some serve all their days chasing this-world desires to fill their belly with this-world; others serve to merit the World to Come — and that too is a form of belly-filling, wanting the next world to satisfy them. 'Chelkam ba-chayim u-tzefuncha temalei vitnam' covers both groups: 'their portion in life' (this-world hedonists) and 'tzefuncha' (those who choose the hidden good, World to Come) — both fill their belly. The world-to-come group is wiser, choosing the eternal over the perishing, and serving for the next world is certainly far better; but it is still 'fill the belly.' 'Yisbe'u banim' (they are satisfied with sons) — most people work to leave an inheritance to their children. But one who is not a holy person, who chases desires and leaves money to his children, is like someone covering filth with filth: the wealth of holiness is very lofty, but the wealth of this-world desire is mosros (excess) — what's left after he has filled himself. And children not born in holiness are also literal mosros — they come from coarse drops, the 'putrid drop' (Avos 3), which is why they are called olalim (a word Rashi on Tehillim 8 explains as filth). To leave such children, covered with such wealth, is filth on filth. 'Ve-hinichu yisram le-olaleihem' — they cover the olalim (themselves excess) with mosros (the leftover wealth). But David said: I will not pick from those two groups; only 'ani be-tzedek echezeh panecha' — with all my righteousness I will merit to behold Hashem's face. And the children David desires to leave, his intention is purely for Hashem's sake, to complete the divine image.

Holy children are very lofty. Chazal (Yevamos 63): anyone who does not engage in procreation is as if he diminishes the divine likeness. When a son is born into the world, the tzelem Elokim is born and comes; His image, likeness, and form are completed.

'Esba'ah' — 'I shall be satisfied': the satisfaction of children, the form of 'they are satisfied with sons,' is only 'be-hakitz temunasecha' (Tehillim 17:15) — when I awake, Your likeness. The main satisfaction-from-sons is only what is awakened in this — the divine likeness, the form of tzelem demus tavnis. 'Mi-mesim yadcha Hashem, mi-mesim mi-cheled': there are those who die natural deaths, born with a root moisture and other natural elements that allow a fixed lifespan, sustained until the moisture and vitality are exhausted (mesim mi-cheled). And there are those whom Hashem decrees death upon prematurely as a punishment ('mesim yadcha Hashem'). These are worthy of the World to Come because they died before their time. But those who die mi-cheled are bnei olam ha-zeh, who have no World to Come — they live and are sustained without punishment until they die of the world. David says: from these two groups — bnei olam ha-zeh and bnei olam ha-ba — I do not choose. 'Be-tzedek echezeh panecha' — with all my righteousness I will merit to behold Hashem's face. 'Esba'ah be-hakitz temunasecha' as above. Even so, serving for the World to Come is very good, and leaving merit to one's children is good (a person should not receive all his reward in this world). But the complete tzaddikim, the true lovers of Hashem, like David, choose none of this — neither this world, nor the World to Come, nor leaving their merit to their children — only fulfilling Hashem's will.