Opening from below, gate opened from Above

פתח האהל פתח טוב פתחת כו' איתא בזוה"ק בפרשה זו נודע בשערים בעלה וכי מאן יכול למינדע לי' כו' אלא כל חד לפום שעורין דליבא.

"The opening of the tent" — "A good opening You have opened..." It is brought in the holy Zohar on this parsha: "Her husband is known in the gates" (Mishlei 31:23) — and who is able to know Him?... rather, each one according to the measure of his heart (l'fum shiurin d'liba).

The Zohar teaches that Hashem ("her husband") can be "known" only to the degree each person opens his own heart; the knowledge of Hashem is proportionate to one's inner yearning.

ר"ש אמר שאו שערים ראשיכם כו' וב' הפירושים אמת.

Rabbi Shimon said: "Lift up your heads, O gates..." (Tehillim 24:7); and both interpretations are true.

Rabbi Shimon adds a second view — that the gates are opened from Above — and the Sefas Emes affirms that both readings hold together.

דכתיב פתחי לי אחותי אחז"ל כחודה של מחט ואני אפתח לכם כפתחו של היכל לפום שעורין דלבא זה התעוררות האדם ומה האדם שיבוא אחר המלך רק כחודה של מחט.

For it is written, "Open for Me, My sister" (Shir HaShirim 5:2) — Chazal said: like the point of a needle, "and I will open for you like the opening of a great hall." "According to the measure of the heart" — this is the awakening of the person; and what is a person who comes after the King? Only like the point of a needle.

Man's role is only to make a tiny opening — "like the eye of a needle" — through his own arousal from below; Hashem then responds by opening a vast gateway from Above.

ועל זה נאמר לאדם מערכי לב.

And about this it is said, "To man belong the arrangements of the heart" (Mishlei 16:1).

The initial effort — the "arranging of the heart" — is what is placed in the person's own hands.

וע"ז רומז ברית המעור.

And to this the bris of milah alludes.

The covenant of circumcision hints at this small but essential opening that man must make himself.

וכפי שמירת הברית כך יכול לשער בלב איך לידע להתדבק בהקב"ה וזה הפתח שע"י האדם ולכן נברא ערל ומצווה להימול ע"י האדם וזה הפתח פתח אאע"ה.

And according to one's guarding of the bris, so can he gauge in his heart how to know to cleave to Hashem; and this is the opening that comes through man — therefore he is created uncircumcised (areil) and is commanded to be circumcised by human effort; and this is the opening that Avraham Avinu opened.

By guarding the covenant, a person gains the inner capacity to cleave to Hashem. Man is deliberately born uncircumcised so that he himself must accomplish this opening — the very opening Avraham first made.

ואח"כ עי"ז זכה לברית הלשון הוא מה' מענה לשון והוא השער שנפתח מלמעלה כמ"ש פתחו לי שערי צדק.

And afterward, through this, he merited the covenant of the tongue — which is from Hashem, "the answer of the tongue" (Mishlei 16:1) — and this is the gate that is opened from Above, as it says, "Open for me the gates of righteousness" (Tehillim 118:19).

Once man makes the small opening (bris of milah), Hashem grants the "covenant of the tongue" — speech and revelation — which is the gate opened from Above in response.

וזה השער נפתח ביום השבת בחי' מתנה וזוכין בו לדעת את ה' כמ"ש בשבת לדעת כי אני ה' מקדישכם.

And this gate is opened on the day of Shabbos, the aspect of a gift (matanah), and through it one merits to know Hashem, as it says regarding Shabbos, "to know that I am Hashem who sanctifies you" (Shemos 31:13).

The gate opened from Above is the gift of Shabbos, on which one attains direct knowledge of Hashem.

ובימי המעשה הוא כפום שעורין דלבא בשיעור ומדה וצמצום.

And on the weekdays it is "according to the measure of the heart" — with limitation, measure, and contraction (tzimtzum).

During the workweek, knowledge of Hashem comes only in measured, contracted proportion to one's own effort.

אבל בשבת נפתח שרש המעין.

But on Shabbos the source of the wellspring is opened.

On Shabbos the very root of the spring flows freely, beyond the limits of one's own effort.

נחלה בלי מצרים:

An inheritance without boundaries (nachalah b'li metzarim).

Shabbos is the unbounded portion — knowledge of Hashem flowing without restriction or measure.

Summary: Knowing Hashem comes in two stages that are both true. Man must first make a tiny opening from below — "like the eye of a needle" — through his own awakening, hinted at in the bris of milah that Avraham first performed. In response, Hashem opens a vast gate from Above: the "covenant of the tongue" and ultimately the gift of Shabbos, on which the very source of the wellspring opens and one attains boundless knowledge of Hashem, beyond the measured, contracted knowledge of the weekdays.