parshaמפרשי הפרשה

כלי יקר — ראה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים ואת הטוב

The verse pairs 'החיים ואת הטוב' — life and good — in that order. But shouldn't *good* come first, since *doing* good is what *earns* life? Why is life mentioned before good?

ואם תאמר למה לא הקדים הטוב שהרי על ידי מעשה הטוב יזכה לחיים? תשובה לדבר שבא להזהירו שלא יבקש לעשות הטוב בעיני ה' כדי שיחיה אלא יחיה כדי שיעשה טוב, שלא יבקש חיים גופני כי אם יבקש החיים כדי שיוכל לעבוד בימי חייו את בוראו, כמו שנאמר 'מי האיש החפץ חיים אוהב ימים לראות טוב'.

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כלי יקר

כלי יקר על דברים ל׳:ט״ו

Kli Yakar on Deuteronomy 30:15

Nitzavim

Q — The verse pairs 'החיים ואת הטוב' — life and good — in that order. But shouldn't *good* come first, since *doing* good is what *earns* life? Why is life mentioned before good?

A — Kli Yakar reads the word order as a precise warning against instrumentalizing morality. If good came first, one might infer: 'I do good *in order to* live.' Life would become the goal and good the means. By putting life first, the Torah inverts the relationship: 'יחיה כדי שיעשה טוב' — live in order to do good, not do good in order to live. Tehillim 34:13 makes the same point: 'מי האיש החפץ חיים אוהב ימים לראות טוב' — the one who wants life loves days *so as to see good*. And the parsha's final verse closes the loop: 'לאהבה את ה' אלהיך... כי הוא חייך' — Hashem isn't *for* life, He *is* life's purpose. The verse's order is its theology.

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