The Inner Point of Space, Time, and Soul

בפסוק הארץ אשר אתה שוכב כו' אמרו חז"ל קיפל הקב"ה כל ארץ ישראל תחתיו.

On the verse: "The land upon which you are lying [I will give to you and to your offspring]" (Bereishis 28:13) — Chazal said that the Holy One, Blessed is He, folded up all of Eretz Yisrael beneath him (Yaakov).

Chazal teach that Hashem compressed the entire Land of Israel under the sleeping Yaakov, so that the whole land lay in that one spot.

כבר כתבנו במקומות רבים כי יש בעולם שנה נפש נקודה פנימיות הכולל הכל כמ"ש בכל המקום אשר אזכיר את שמי והוא ביהמ"ק שכולל כל המקומות לכן נקרא כל המקום.

We have already written in many places that within "olam, shanah, nefesh" (the dimensions of space, time, and soul) there is an inner point (nekudah penimius) that includes everything — as it is written: "in every place (kol ha'makom) where I cause My Name to be mentioned" (Shemos 20:21) — and this is the Bais Hamikdash, which includes all places; therefore it is called "kol ha'makom" (the whole place).

In each of the three dimensions of creation there is a central inner point that contains the whole. In space, that point is the Bais Hamikdash — called "the whole place" because every location is gathered within it.

שכל המקומות נקפלין תחת זה המקום.

For all places are folded up beneath this place.

The Mikdash is the point of space into which every other place is "folded" — just as Eretz Yisrael was folded beneath Yaakov.

ואיתא בפסוק וייצר את האדם עפר מן האדמה כינם עפרו מכל הד' רוחות ד"א ממקום שנאמר מזבח אדמה ע"ש ברש"י וב' הפירושים אחד הם כי זה העפר כולל כל האדמה.

And it is brought regarding the verse "And He formed the man, dust from the ground" (Bereishis 2:7): He gathered his dust from all four directions; another explanation — from the place of which it is said "an altar of earth (mizbach adamah)" — see there in Rashi. And the two explanations are one, for this dust includes all the earth.

Rashi gives two views of where Adam's dust came from — from all four corners of the world, or from the site of the mizbe'ach. The Sefas Emes reconciles them: the dust of the altar already contains all the earth, since the Mikdash is the inner point that includes every place.

ויעקב שופרי' דאדם הראשון לכן כ' ויפגע במקום שפגע באותו המקום השייך לו ולא כ' באיזה מקום לפי שזה המקום כולל כל המקומות כנ"ל.

And Yaakov was of the "beauty (shufrei) of Adam HaRishon"; therefore it is written "and he encountered the place (va'yifga ba'makom)" — that he encountered that place which belonged to him — and it does not write "a certain place," because this place includes all places, as above.

Since Yaakov shared in the radiance of Adam, the all-inclusive place (the future site of the Mikdash) belonged to him. Hence the verse says "the place," definite and singular — the one place that contains them all.

וכמו כן בנפש יעקב כולל כל הנפשות כמו אדם הראשון רק ביעקב נתברר נפשות הטובים בלבד.

And likewise in the dimension of soul (nefesh): Yaakov includes all souls, like Adam HaRishon — except that in Yaakov only the good souls were clarified (nisbareru).

Yaakov is also the inner point of the soul-dimension. Like Adam he contains all souls, but whereas Adam included a mixture, in Yaakov only the refined, good souls remained — his "bed was complete."

וכמו כן בזמן השבת כולל כל ששת ימי המעשה כמ"ש במ"א מזה:

And likewise in the dimension of time, Shabbos includes all six days of the working week, as we have written elsewhere about this.

The third dimension is time, and there the all-inclusive inner point is Shabbos, which gathers and contains all six weekdays — completing the parallel of space, soul, and time.

Summary: The Sefas Emes teaches that each of the three dimensions of creation — space (olam), time (shanah), and soul (nefesh) — has an inner all-inclusive point. In space it is the Bais Hamikdash ("the whole place"), into which all places are folded — as Eretz Yisrael was folded beneath Yaakov, who, sharing Adam's radiance, encountered "the place" that belonged to him. In soul it is Yaakov, who contains all the refined souls, and in time it is Shabbos, which contains all six days. Yaakov stands at the inner point of all three.