Shabbos elevates the physical to its root

במדרש אל מול פני משל למלך כו' והטמין כלי הדיוטות כו'.

In the Midrash on "toward the face [of the menorah]" (Bamidbar 8:2): a parable of a king... who hid away precious vessels and used common vessels, etc.

The Sefas Emes opens with a Midrash that likens the menorah's lighting to a king who sets aside his finer vessels and chooses instead to use simple, ordinary ones. He will explain why Hashem, so to speak, favors the "common vessels" — this lowly physical world.

הענין כמ"ש בראשית ירא שבת בשת.

The matter is as it is said: "Bereishis" — fear (yirah) — Shabbos — shame (boshes).

The Sefas Emes alludes to a teaching that the word "Bereishis" contains the letters of "yarei Shabbos boshes" — "one who fears Shabbos, shame" — hinting at a connection between Shabbos, the root of Creation, and a healthy sense of shame before Hashem.

פי' ע"י שמעלין הכל אל הראשית והשורש שזה בחי' שבת מזה צריך להיות חל הבושה על אדם במה שיודע שכל מעשיו מתעלין עד השורש.

The meaning is: through elevating everything to the "reishis" (beginning) and the root — which is the aspect of Shabbos — from this, shame should come upon a person, in that he knows that all his deeds are elevated up to the root.

When a person lifts all his actions back to their source — the "reishis," the dimension of Shabbos — he should be filled with a holy shame (boshes), realizing that every single one of his deeds rises up and is exposed at its supernal root before Hashem.

וע"י שבנ"י שומרין השבת זוכין להעלות כל מעשיהם אל השורש.

And through Bnei Yisrael's keeping of Shabbos, they merit to elevate all their deeds to the root.

The very act of being shomer Shabbos gives Bnei Yisrael the power to raise all of their weekday deeds up to their spiritual source.

וכביכול הקב"ה מניח העליונים ומשתמש בכלי הדיוטות כענין שכ' בזוה"ק ויקהל ע"פ ביני ובין בני ישראל אות הוא שהרוח היורד בש"ק מתהנה מסעודת שבת בצד אחד ובצד א' מרוחניות.

And, as it were, Hashem leaves aside the upper ones and makes use of the "common vessels," as is brought in the Zohar HaKadosh, Parshas Vayakhel, on the verse "Between Me and Bnei Yisrael it is a sign" (Shemos 31:17): that the spirit which descends on Shabbos Kodesh derives pleasure from the Shabbos meal on one side, and on the other side from spirituality.

This is the parable of the king using common vessels: Hashem, so to speak, sets aside the lofty supernal worlds and "uses" the physical world of Bnei Yisrael. The Zohar teaches that the extra spirit resting on a Jew on Shabbos takes pleasure both from the physical Shabbos meal and from the spiritual delight — body and soul together.

נמצא מתעלה גם הגשמיות בש"ק להתדבק בשורש הרוחניות.

It emerges that even the physical is elevated on Shabbos Kodesh, to cleave to the root of spirituality.

The result is that on Shabbos even the gashmius — the physical pleasures and deeds — are raised up and bound to their spiritual root, so that the material itself becomes a vehicle of deveikus.

וזה הרמז ששת הנרות המאירין מול האמצעי שהוא יום שבת קודש כמ"ש במ"א:

And this is the hint of the six lamps that shine toward the central one, which is the day of Shabbos Kodesh, as explained elsewhere.

The menorah's six outer lamps all turn to face the central lamp — corresponding to the six weekdays that all face and draw their light from Shabbos. The central lamp is Shabbos Kodesh, the source toward which all the workdays are elevated and to which they cleave.

Summary: The Sefas Emes reads the Midrash of the king who uses "common vessels" as Hashem's choice to set aside the lofty supernal worlds and dwell within the physical world of Bnei Yisrael. Through keeping Shabbos — the "reishis," the root of Creation — a Jew elevates all his deeds to their source, and from the awareness that everything he does rises up and is exposed at the root comes a holy sense of shame (boshes). On Shabbos even the physical, like the pleasure of the Shabbos meal, is raised to cleave to its spiritual root. This is the menorah's six lamps turning toward the central one: the six weekdays all face Shabbos Kodesh, drawing their light from and ascending to that root.