Torah as the form that shapes creation

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר כו'.

"He found him in a desert land..." (Devarim 32:10).

The pasuk describes how Hashem found Bnei Yisrael in the wilderness — the Sefas Emes will read this as the moment before Torah gave form to the world.

יצרנהו כאישון עינו.

"He guarded him as the pupil of His eye" (Devarim 32:10).

Hashem's hashgachah surrounds Yisrael as carefully as the eye is protected — a phrase the Sefas Emes will unpack as both outer and inner protection.

כי קודם קבלת התורה נק' ב' אלפים תוהו.

For before the receiving of the Torah, [the era] is called "the two thousand years of tohu (chaos)."

Until Matan Torah the world was in a formless, chaotic state — tohu, without the shaping order that Torah would bring.

וקבלת התורה הוא ציור העולם.

And the receiving of the Torah is the "form" of the world.

Torah is what gives creation its tzurah — its defining shape and meaning — lifting the world out of chaos.

יסובבנהו יבוננהו הוא מלבר ומלגאו.

"He encircled him, He gave him understanding" (Devarim 32:10) — this is from without and from within.

"Encircling" is Hashem's surrounding providence from the outside (milbar), while "giving understanding" is His indwelling presence from within (milgav).

יצרנהו לשון צורה כאישון עינו הוא השגחת השי"ת שהוא מלבר דכל עלמין ומלגאו דכל עלמין.

"He guarded him" (yitzrenhu) is a term of "form" (tzurah); "as the pupil of His eye" is the hashgachah of Hashem, which is from without all worlds and from within all worlds.

Reading yitzrenhu as tzurah, the pasuk teaches that Hashem's providence both encompasses all worlds from beyond and fills them from within — sovev kol almin and memale kol almin.

כמו כן צר צורת בני ישראל להיות הם הצורה של החומר שהוא כלל הבריאה.

So too He formed the "form" of Bnei Yisrael, that they should be the form of the matter that is the whole of creation.

Bnei Yisrael are the tzurah — the formative soul — of the entire physical creation, which is the "matter" awaiting form.

ואיתא באברהם לך לך להודיע טבעך בעולם פרשנו שם שהוא הצורה כמו הציור של המטבע כו'.

And it is brought regarding Avraham, "Lech lecha" — "to make your nature (tiv'cha) known in the world" — which we explained there to mean the "form," like the image stamped on a coin (matbe'a).

Avraham was to impress his "form" upon the world the way a coin bears a stamped image — a wordplay on tiv'cha (your nature) and matbe'a (coin), both rooted in "stamping a form."

וז"ש ז"ל צורתו של יעקב חקוקה תחת כסה"כ והבן ז"ש וחיי עולם נטע בתוכנו:

And this is what Chazal said, that the form of Yaakov is engraved beneath the Kisei HaKavod (Throne of Glory); understand from this what is said, "and eternal life He planted within us."

Yaakov's "form" engraved beneath the Throne is the root-form of Yisrael; through it Hashem planted "eternal life" — the Torah — within the people.

עוד פי' וחיי עולם על עוה"ב כי עוה"ז נק' חיי שעה.

A further explanation: "eternal life" (chayei olam) refers to the World to Come, for this world is called "fleeting life" (chayei sha'ah).

The "eternal life" planted within us also points to olam haba — the lasting life — in contrast to the temporary life of this world.

וכמ"ש חז"ל כי מעבירות הרשעים נעשה הגיהנם כמו כן ממצות ומעש"ט של הצדיקים נעשה הגן עדן ועוה"ב:

And as Chazal said, that from the sins of the wicked Gehinnom is formed, so too from the mitzvos and good deeds of the tzaddikim Gan Eden and the World to Come are formed.

Just as transgression literally builds Gehinnom, the mitzvos and ma'asim tovim of the tzaddikim build Gan Eden — a person fashions his own eternal world through his deeds.

יפתח לבנו בתורתו.

"May He open our hearts through His Torah."

The Sefas Emes turns to the familiar tefillah, asking that Torah be the means by which our hearts are opened.

פי' שהתורה הוא המפתח לפתוח בו לבות בנ"י והשי"ת יפתח לבנו בזה המפתח:

The explanation: the Torah is the "key" with which to open the hearts of Bnei Yisrael, and Hashem will open our hearts with this key.

Torah is the mafte'ach — the key — to the inner heart; we ask that Hashem use that very key to unlock our penimiyus.

Summary: Torah is the tzurah that gives form to a world that was tohu before Matan Torah. Hashem's hashgachah surrounds and fills all worlds, and He fashioned Bnei Yisrael as the "form" of all creation — their root engraved beneath the Throne of Glory. Through Torah, mitzvos, and good deeds a person builds his own eternal life, and we ask Hashem to use the Torah as the key that opens our hearts.