Zachor and Shamor unite concealed and revealed Torah

[כבר כתבתי לעיל על] זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד ששמירה הוא הכנה לזכירה והוא שמירת מל"ת שלא לצאת מהגדר להיות נקי ומוכן לקיים המצות.

[I have already written above on] "Remember and Guard in a single utterance" — that "guarding" is a preparation for "remembering," and it is the keeping of the prohibitions (lo sa'aseh), not to step outside the boundary, in order to be clean and ready to fulfill the mitzvos.

Hashem spoke "Zachor" and "Shamor" simultaneously at Sinai. Shamor — the negative commandments — clears away wrongdoing and prepares a person, while Zachor is the active service that follows once one is pure.

ודיבור ה' זכור אחר שלימות בנ"י שהוא בחי' שמור הכנת ישראל.

And Hashem's utterance of "Zachor" comes after the completeness of Bnei Yisrael, which is the aspect of "Shamor," the preparation of Yisrael.

Only once Bnei Yisrael have been made whole through Shamor can the higher level of Zachor take hold.

ואיתא מה שאין הפה יכול לדבר ואוזן לשמוע.

And it is taught: that which the mouth cannot speak and the ear cannot hear.

Chazal describe the revelation at Sinai as something beyond what any mouth could express or any ear could naturally take in.

והלא שמעו בנ"י.

But surely Bnei Yisrael did hear it!

The Sefas Emes raises the obvious question: if the ear cannot hear it, how did Bnei Yisrael in fact hear the Torah at Sinai?

אך שנתבטלו אז לשורש החיות.

Rather, it is that they were then nullified to the root of life-force.

The answer is that at Sinai Bnei Yisrael experienced total bittul, merging into the very source of vitality, and from that place they could perceive what is normally imperceptible.

כמ"ש מו"ז ז"ל על רואים כו' הקולות שהי' למעלה מהתחלקות החושים ע"ש.

As my grandfather (of blessed memory) said regarding "they saw the sounds" — that it was above the division of the senses; see there.

At Sinai the people "saw" sounds, because they had risen above the ordinary separation of the senses into a unified, higher perception.

ובכח התורה הוסר מהם הגשמיות.

And by the power of the Torah their physicality was removed from them.

The Torah's spiritual force stripped away their material limitations, enabling this elevated hearing.

שמה שא"י לשמוע ע"י הטבע הוא.

For that which one cannot hear is by way of nature.

What the ear "cannot hear" is only true within the bounds of nature; once nature's limits are transcended, even that becomes audible.

וכן כל מ"ש ז"ל לשבר האוזן מה שיכול לשמוע ג"כ הפי' שע"י שנתלבשה התורה בלבוש ומשל גשמיי.

And likewise all that Chazal said, "to break the ear with what it is able to hear" — this too means that the Torah was clothed in a garment and a physical parable.

The principle that the Torah speaks "according to what the ear can hear" means it dresses its truths in tangible images and parables that we can grasp.

עי"ז בכח חיות התורה להסיר הגשמיות שיתבטל להתורה.

Through this, the life-force of the Torah has the power to remove the physicality, so that it becomes nullified before the Torah.

Paradoxically, by clothing itself in the physical, the Torah gains the power to dissolve that very physicality and draw it into bittul before itself.

ומה"ט נתלבשה במשלים כאלו.

And for this reason it was clothed in such parables.

This is precisely why the Torah chose to express itself through physical parables — to lift the physical world upward.

וז"ש לשבר האזן הגשמיי כנ"ל.

And this is the meaning of "to break the physical ear," as above.

"Breaking the ear" means shattering the merely physical mode of hearing so that a deeper perception can open.

וממילא יכולין לשמוע גם סוד הגנוז בתורה מה שא"א לשמוע בגשמיות.

And consequently one is able to hear even the hidden secret concealed within the Torah, which cannot be heard physically.

Once the physical ear is transcended, a person can perceive the concealed inner secrets of the Torah that lie beyond material grasp.

וז"ש בדיבור א' נאמרו.

And this is the meaning of "they were said in a single utterance."

Zachor and Shamor being spoken as one utterance expresses the unity of the revealed and the concealed.

שע"י שבתורה מתיחדין ההסתר והגילוי.

For through the Torah the concealment and the revelation become unified.

In the Torah, the hidden dimension and the revealed dimension are joined into one.

דאורייתא סתים וגליא.

For the Torah is "concealed and revealed."

The Zohar teaches that the Torah itself has both a hidden (sasim) and a revealed (galya) aspect, corresponding to Zachor and Shamor.

והוא עצמו בחי' זכור שהוא הפנימיות שנטבע בחיות האדם.

And this itself is the aspect of Zachor, which is the penimiyus (inner dimension) impressed into a person's vitality.

Zachor corresponds to the hidden inner point sealed into the very life-force of a person.

ושמור שהוא השמירה מבחוץ מקום הנגלה בעוה"ז.

And Shamor, which is the guarding from the outside, the place of the revealed in this world.

Shamor corresponds to the outer, revealed sphere — the practical guarding of mitzvos in our physical world.

וע"י הדיבור שהוא התגלות כח הפנימי להיות נוהג הכל עפ"י הפנימיות כמ"ש לעיל פי' דברות.

And through the "utterance" — which is the revelation of the inner power, so that everything is conducted according to the penimiyus — as I explained above the meaning of the "Dibros" (the Commandments).

The "speech" at Sinai is the drawing-out of the inner force so that the outer world becomes governed by the inner point, as the Sefas Emes explained earlier about the Dibros.

עי"ז מתיחדין ויכולין לשמוע ג"כ כנ"ל:

Through this they become unified, and one is able to hear as well, as above.

When the inner and outer are united through the divine utterance, a person can hear even what the physical ear cannot — the concealed secrets of the Torah.

Summary: The Sefas Emes explains that "Zachor and Shamor in one utterance" expresses the Torah's union of the hidden (penimiyus, the inner point) and the revealed (the outward guarding of mitzvos). At Sinai, Bnei Yisrael reached total bittul to the root of life-force, so the Torah's power stripped away their physicality and let them "hear" what no natural ear can hear. The Torah clothes itself in physical parables precisely so that it can dissolve the physical and reveal its concealed secrets.