Lovesick yearning released by milah and Shabbos

ברש"י מן המדרש והגמרא וירא אליו לבקר את החולה.

In Rashi, from the Midrash and Gemara: "And He appeared to him" (Bereishis 18:1) — to visit the sick.

The Sefas Emes begins with Rashi's teaching that Hashem appeared to Avraham after his bris milah to be mevaker cholim (visit the sick).

דכתיב חולת אהבה אני שכנסת ישראל יש להם אהבה והשתוקקת להתדבק בהקב"ה כמ"ש במדרש צדיק כתמר יפרח מה תמר יש לה תאוה כך צדיקים תאותן להקב"ה.

As it is written, "I am lovesick" (Shir HaShirim 2:5) — for Knesses Yisrael has love and longing to cleave to the Holy One, as the Midrash says on "A tzaddik will flourish like a date-palm" (Tehillim 92:13): just as the palm has desire, so too the tzaddikim's desire is for the Holy One.

The "sickness" being visited is the sickness of love — the soul's burning yearning to attach itself to Hashem, like the palm tree that "desires" its mate.

כי הנפש והרוח מתאוין אל השורש רק שהם אסורין בגוף ועל ידי המילה והסרת הערלה.

For the nefesh and ruach long for their source, except that they are imprisoned in the body; and through the milah and the removal of the orlah.

The soul-powers naturally crave their root, but the body confines them; the bris milah begins to release that confinement.

גובר תאות הנפש והרוח.

The desire of the nefesh and ruach grows stronger.

Removing the orlah lets the inner longing of the soul break through and intensify.

ובאמת ציור הגוף כציור הנפש כמ"ש חז"ל אין צור כאלקינו אין צייר כאלקינו וכמו בגוף התאוה והתשוקה בזה האבר כן הוא בפנימיות.

And in truth the form of the body parallels the form of the soul, as Chazal said, "There is no Rock (tzur) like our God" — read it "there is no Artist (tzayar) like our God" (Berachos 10a); and just as in the body the desire and longing is in this organ, so it is in the inner dimension.

Hashem, the supreme Artist, fashioned the body to mirror the soul; the physical place of desire corresponds to a deeper, inner point of yearning.

ולכן צדיק כתמר יפרח כי הנר"נ באמת חפצים לעלות ככל עלול המשתוקק אל עילתו רק כשהערלה מכסה הגוף גובר ואין הרשעים יודעין כלל שהם במאסר הגוף.

Therefore "a tzaddik will flourish like a date-palm," for the nefesh-ruach-neshamah truly wish to ascend, like every effect that yearns toward its cause; only that when the orlah covers the body it prevails, and the resha'im do not realize at all that they are in the prison of the body.

The soul yearns upward toward its Source as naturally as an effect strains toward its cause; but the orlah dulls this, so much so that the wicked do not even sense that they are imprisoned.

ואחר המילה נעשה האדם בריה חדשה ומרגיש שהוא תוך המאסר ונעשה חולת אהבה.

And after the milah a person becomes a new creature and feels that he is within the prison, and becomes lovesick.

The bris transforms a person; now he senses the body's confinement and is filled with the lovesick yearning to reach Hashem.

וכן הוא בשבת קודש דמתעברית סט"א ומתגלה הארת הנר"נ וזהו בחי' נפש יתירה שהרצון והשתוקקת הנפש מתגלה בשבת קדש כמ"ש ויכלו לשון חמדה והשתוקקת וינפש וי אבדה נפש שבימי המעשה נאבד אותו התשוקה והרצון כמו מילה בנפש כן שבת בזמן:

And so it is on Shabbos Kodesh, when the sitra achra is removed and the illumination of the nefesh-ruach-neshamah is revealed; this is the aspect of the neshamah yeseirah (extra soul), that the will and longing of the soul is revealed on Shabbos Kodesh — as it says "vayechulu" (Bereishis 2:1), a term of yearning and longing, and "vayinafash" (Shemos 31:17), "woe, the soul is lost," for during the weekdays that longing and will is lost; just as milah is to the soul, so is Shabbos to time.

Shabbos does for time what milah does for the body: it strips away the sitra achra and reveals the soul's hidden yearning. The neshamah yeseirah is precisely this disclosure of longing, lost amid the weekday's mundane labor.

Summary: Avraham's "lovesickness" after the bris is the soul's longing to cleave to Hashem — a yearning that the body's orlah normally conceals. Milah makes a person a new creation who feels the body's prison and burns to ascend to his Source. Shabbos accomplishes the same release within time, revealing the neshamah yeseirah and the soul's hidden desire for Hashem.