Finding the Inner Wellspring
פי הבאר נברא בע"ש בה"ש
The mouth of the well was created on Erev Shabbos at twilight, among the things brought into being in those final moments before the first Shabbos.
The opening cites the tradition that the well's mouth was among the special things created in the final twilight before the first Shabbos, marking it as something fundamental and bound up with Shabbos.
דכתיב שתה מים מבורך ונוזלים מתוך בארך
As it is written, "Drink water from your own cistern, and flowing waters from the midst of your own well" (Mishlei 5:15).
A pasuk from Mishlei is brought as the framework: a person should draw his spiritual sustenance from sources that are his own — both stored water and flowing water — hinting at two modes of avodah.
בור הוא מים מכונסין ובאר הוא מעין נובע
A bor (cistern) is gathered, standing water, whereas a be'er (well) is a spring that wells up of itself.
The Sfas Emes distinguishes two kinds of water-source: standing, gathered water versus a living spring, a distinction he will apply to two modes of serving Hashem.
ובכל איש ישראל יש נקודה חיות דכתי' ויפח באפיו כו'
And within every individual of Bnei Yisrael there is a point of life-force, as it is written, "and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Bereishis 2:7).
Every individual of Bnei Yisrael carries a hidden point of Divine life-force, rooted in the pasuk describing how Hashem breathed the breath of life into the first man.
רק האדם צריך למצוא זאת הנקודה
Only that a person must seek out and find this point.
This inner point is present in everyone but concealed, so the task is to seek it out and uncover it.
והוא עבודת האדם להמשיך כל המעשים אחר זאת הנקודה
And this is the avodah (spiritual labor) of a person: to draw all of his deeds after this inner point.
Once found, the avodah is to align all of one's actions so that they flow after and express this inner point of life.
וזה שתה מים מבורך והיא העבודה בימי המעשה
And this is the meaning of "Drink water from your own cistern" — this is the avodah performed during the weekdays of toil.
The "cistern" of the pasuk corresponds to the weekday avodah: effortful and drawn from one's own gathered reserves of kedushah during the days of toil.
ובש"ק ונוזלים מתוך בארך שנפתח המעין ובא אור חדש והיא נשמה יתירה
And on the holy Shabbos, "flowing waters from the midst of your own well" — for the spring is opened and a new light comes, and this is the neshamah yeseirah (the additional soul of Shabbos).
Shabbos corresponds to the "flowing well": the inner spring bursts open and fresh light arrives, experienced as the neshamah yeseirah that each Jew receives on Shabbos.
באר חפרוה שרים הם הצדיקים שהם שרים לבם ברשותם
"A well that the princes dug" (Bamidbar 21:18) — these are the tzaddikim, who are "princes" in that their heart is under their own command and mastery.
Turning to the Torah's well-song, the "princes" who dug the well are the tzaddikim, called princes because they have full mastery over their own hearts and desires.
כרוה נדיבי עם חפירה הוא למצוא מעין נובע וכרי' הוא להוסיף עומק
"that the nobles of the people quarried" — the digging (chafirah) is to find the welling spring, and the quarrying (kriyah) is to add still greater depth.
The pasuk's two verbs are distinguished: chafirah means uncovering the spring in the first place, while kriyah means deepening it further — two stages of spiritual discovery.
כי למצוא התחדשות הוא על ידי הצדיקים ואח"כ יכולין כל אחד למצוא יותר ע"י הנדיבות והתשוקה שיש בכל איש ישראל
For to find this renewal is by means of the tzaddikim, and afterward each individual is able to find still more, by means of the noble-heartedness and the yearning that exists within every individual of Bnei Yisrael.
The breakthrough of renewal is first opened by the tzaddikim, and only then can each individual draw still deeper from it, powered by the noble-heartedness and longing latent in every Jew.
במחוקק כי כל רצון עושה רושם וחקיקה בלב וצריכין להתחזק לבטוח בה'
"with the lawgiver" (b'mechokeik) — for every act of ratzon (will) leaves an impression and an engraving (chakikah) upon the heart, and one must strengthen oneself to trust in Hashem.
The word "lawgiver" hints at chakikah, engraving: every genuine ratzon leaves a lasting mark on the heart, so one must reinforce that ratzon with bitachon in Hashem.
שבדרך שרוצין לילך מוליכין
For along the path that a person wishes to walk, he is led and brought.
A guiding principle: a person is led along whatever path he sincerely wishes to travel, so a true ratzon itself draws down Heavenly assistance.
ולכן מי שיש לו רצון אמת צריך לבטוח בהש"ת שיעזור לו וזהו במשענותם
And therefore one who has a true ratzon must trust in Hashem Yisbarach that He will help him; and this is the meaning of "with their staffs" (b'mishanosam, from the word for support and reliance).
Therefore one with a true inner ratzon must rely on Hashem Yisbarach to help him bring it about; the word "staffs" is read as leaning and reliance upon that Divine support.
וממדבר מתנה מדבר היא הנהגה שמנהג האדם כל מעשיו אחר נקודה רצון הנ"ל בימי המעשה עי"ז זוכה בשבת למתנה דאיתא מתנה טובה בבית גנזי הוא ש"ק והגניזה הוא בימי המעשה כי המעשה הכנה לשבת והם ב' מדריגות טהרה וקדושה כמ"ש בזוה"ק טהרה היא מסטרא דטמא שרואין להיות טהור ומנוקה שלא להתלכלך במעשים שמביאין טומאה והוא ע"י ביטול להאחדות כמ"ש מי יתן טהור מטמא לא אחד
"and from the wilderness, a gift" (Bamidbar 21:18) — midbar (wilderness) signifies hanhagah (conduct), that a person conducts all of his deeds in accordance with the aforementioned point of ratzon during the weekdays of toil, and through this he merits on Shabbos to a "gift," as is brought, "I have a goodly gift in My treasure-house" — this is the holy Shabbos, and the storing-away of it is during the weekdays of toil, for the weekday labor is the preparation for Shabbos; and these are two levels, taharah (purity) and kedushah (holiness), as the Zohar HaKadosh writes, that taharah comes from the side of the tamei (impure), for one looks to be tahor and cleansed so as not to be soiled by deeds that bring tumah (impurity), and this is by means of bittul (self-nullification) to the Oneness, as it is written, "Who can produce a tahor thing from a tamei one? Is it not the One?" (Iyov 14:4).
The "wilderness" represents disciplined self-conduct on the weekdays — ordering all one's deeds after the inner point of ratzon — which earns the "gift" of Shabbos that Chazal call the goodly gift in Hashem's treasure-house, and the Sfas Emes then unfolds two levels: taharah (the weekday work of staying clean from tumah through bittul to Hashem's Oneness) and kedushah (Shabbos), citing the Zohar HaKadosh and Iyov that only the One can extract the tahor from the tamei.
שהשי"ת ברא בעולם טומאה וטהרה כדי לראות שאין דבר נפרד
For Hashem Yisbarach created in the world both tumah and taharah in order to make manifest that there is nothing that is separate from Him.
Hashem Yisbarach deliberately created both tumah and taharah in the world precisely to demonstrate that nothing exists as a separate, independent reality apart from Him.
כיון שע"י הביטול חוזרין להיות טהור והוא ראי' על אחדותו ית'
Since by means of bittul one returns to being tahor, and this is a proof of His Oneness, Yisbarach.
Because bittul restores a person to taharah, that very return serves as living proof of Hashem's absolute Oneness, showing that the tumah had no independent existence.
והיא עבודה
And this is an avodah.
This restoration to taharah through bittul is itself the avodah being described.
ובשבת כתיב ויקדש אותו שמתחדש החיות בכל דבר מעולם העליון כנ"ל פי הבאר:
And concerning Shabbos it is written, "and He sanctified it" (Bereishis 2:3), for the life-force is renewed in every thing from the upper world, as explained above regarding "the mouth of the well."
Shabbos, by contrast, is marked by "and He sanctified it," in which the life-force of every thing is renewed from the upper world — bringing the piece full circle back to the mouth of the well, the renewed wellspring created at the dawn of time.
Summary: This piece builds an extended meditation on water as the image of the inner Divine life-force, the "point" of the breath of life that Hashem placed in every individual of Bnei Yisrael. Reading the pasuk "Drink water from your own cistern, and flowing waters from your own well," the Sfas Emes maps the standing cistern onto the weekday avodah, where one labors to find and follow this inner point, and the flowing well onto Shabbos, when the spring bursts open and a new light arrives as the neshamah yeseirah. He then weaves in the Torah's well-song: the tzaddikim, masters of their own hearts, first dig and open the spring through chafirah, after which every Jew, through noble-heartedness and yearning, can deepen it further through kriyah, for a person is led along whatever path he truly wills and so must join his ratzon to bitachon in Hashem's help. Finally he distinguishes two attainments — the weekday avodah of taharah through bittul to Hashem's Oneness, which makes manifest that nothing stands separate from Him, and the Shabbos gift of kedushah, in which the life-force of all things is renewed from the upper world, returning to the mouth of the well created at the world's first twilight.