Purifying heart and tongue toward Sinai

איתא בזוה"ק דבעי לנטרא דכיא עילאה דמטי עלי' בההיא ליליא דשבועות ע"ש.

It is brought in the Zohar HaKadosh that one must guard the supernal purity that comes upon him on that night of Shavuos — see there.

On the night of Shavuos a person receives an elevated taharah (purity) from Above, and the Zohar teaches that he must take care to preserve it.

דכתיב לב טהור ברא כו' ורוח נכון חדש בקרבי.

As it is written: "Create for me a pure heart… and renew within me a steadfast spirit" (Tehillim 51:12).

Dovid HaMelech's plea expresses two stages — first a pure heart, then a renewed and steadfast spirit — which the Sefas Emes maps onto the avodah of this season.

ולכן יש מקודם ימי הספירה לזכות לטהרה והוא על ידי הכנת האדם כמ"ש וספרתם לכם והבא לטהר מסייעין אותו שהיא גמר הטהרה שבא מהשמים כמ"ש וספרה לה כו' ואחר תטהר.

Therefore there are first the days of Sefirah, to merit purity — and this comes about through a person's own preparation, as it says "And you shall count for yourselves," and "one who comes to purify himself is helped" — which is the completion of the purity that comes from Heaven, as it says "and she shall count for herself… and afterward she shall be purified."

Sefiras HaOmer is the season of self-preparation: man does his part by "counting," and Hashem completes the taharah from Above. The Sefas Emes links the "counting" of the Omer to the "counting" a person performs to reach a state of taharah, where the final purification is granted from Heaven.

ואחר הטהרה רוח נכון חדש הוא יום הביכורים.

And after the purity, "renew a steadfast spirit" — this is Yom HaBikkurim (Shavuos).

Once the heart has been purified through Sefirah, Shavuos brings the second stage: a renewed, steadfast spirit, corresponding to the giving of the Torah.

וכתיב לאדם מערכי לב ומה' מענה לשון.

And it is written: "To man belong the arrangements of the heart, but from Hashem comes the answer of the tongue" (Mishlei 16:1).

Man's part is the inner preparation of the heart; the gift of speech and answer — the Torah itself — comes from Hashem.

ובימי הספירה בחי' מערכי לב לבנ"י שנקראו אדם ומה' מענה לשון התורה מן השמים.

And during the days of Sefirah is the aspect of "the arrangements of the heart" for Bnei Yisrael, who are called "adam" — while "from Hashem comes the answer of the tongue," the Torah from Heaven.

Sefirah is Bnei Yisrael's "arranging of the heart," their own preparation; the Torah given on Shavuos is the "answer of the tongue" that comes as a gift from Hashem.

ואיתא בזוה"ק כי חודש סיון שנקרא תאומים רומז על פה ולשון ע"ש פרשת יתרו.

And it is brought in the Zohar HaKadosh that the month of Sivan, called Gemini (Teumim, "twins"), alludes to the mouth and the tongue — see there, in Parashas Yisro.

The "twins" of Sivan are the pair of mouth and tongue, two faculties that join together in the avodah of this month.

דמתחברים כחדא.

For they join together as one.

Mouth and tongue — speech of the body and speech of the soul — become unified, like twins acting in concert.

ועל ב' אלו נאמר כל פה לך יודה וכל לשון לך תשבע.

And regarding these two it is said: "Every mouth shall give thanks to You, and every tongue shall swear to You."

The two faculties have two distinct avodos — the mouth offers hoda'ah (thanksgiving) and the tongue swears an oath of loyalty.

והפה נתקן בחג הפסח פה סח.

And the mouth was rectified on Pesach — "Pe-sach," a mouth that speaks.

The name "Pesach" is read as "peh sach," a speaking mouth: it is the festival on which the faculty of the mouth was repaired, as we recount the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim.

והוא תיקון הראשון שהיא בהשתתפות הגוף.

And this is the first rectification, which involves the participation of the body.

The tikkun of the mouth is the earlier, more external stage, accomplished together with the physical body.

לכן כתיב לך יודה.

Therefore it is written "shall give thanks to You" (regarding the mouth).

The mouth's avodah is hoda'ah — thanksgiving — which is the language fitting to the body's tikkun.

הודאה הוא מצד דבר המתנגד.

Hoda'ah (acknowledgment) arises from the side of something that opposes.

"Hoda'ah" carries the sense of conceding — it emerges when one submits something that had stood in opposition. (The Hebrew "modeh" can mean both "thank" and "concede.")

כי הגוף מלמטה נעשה כפוף (על) [*אל] הנפש וזה החירות בפסח.

For the body below becomes subdued to the soul — and this is the freedom of Pesach.

The cheirus (freedom) of Pesach is the body bowing and submitting to the neshamah; the physical, which had opposed, now concedes to the spiritual.

אח"כ כל לשון לך תשבע בשבועות שהוא דביקות הנפש בשורש.

Afterward, "every tongue shall swear to You" — on Shavuos, which is the cleaving of the soul to its root.

The second, higher tikkun is that of the tongue, accomplished on Shavuos: the deveikus (attachment) of the neshamah to its source in Hashem.

וזה השבועה שנשבעין ועומדין מהר סיני שעל שם זה נקרא שבועות:

And this is the oath that we are sworn and bound by from Har Sinai — for which reason it is called Shavuos (related to shevuah, "oath").

The name Shavuos itself contains the word for "oath": at Sinai Bnei Yisrael entered an eternal oath of loyalty to Hashem, the deepest bond of the tongue cleaving to its root.

Summary: The road to Shavuos unfolds in two stages mirroring "create for me a pure heart… renew a steadfast spirit": Sefiras HaOmer is man's own preparation, the "arrangements of the heart," while the Torah on Shavuos is the "answer of the tongue" given from Heaven. The twin faculties of Sivan — mouth and tongue — were each rectified, the mouth on Pesach through hoda'ah and the body's submission to the soul, and the tongue on Shavuos through the soul's deveikus to its root and the eternal oath taken at Har Sinai.