Elevating the Mundane World

האזינו השמים כו' ותשמע הארץ

"Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth" (Devarim 32:1).

The pasuk opens Shiras Ha'azinu by calling upon both heaven and earth. The Sfas Emes will use this pairing as the gateway to his theme of joining the heights above with the world below.

כי התורה שורשה בשמים וכחה להמשיך כל מה שבארץ עד לשמים

For the Torah's root is in the heavens, yet its power is to draw everything that is on earth upward, all the way to the heavens.

Torah originates in the heavens, but its very purpose is to draw the earthly world upward and connect it back to its heavenly source.

וכבר כתבנו במ"א כי ב' בחי' אלו תלוין זה בזה כפי מה שאדם מקשר כל מצוה ותורה בכח השורש כמו כן מתפשטת עד למטה יותר

We have already written elsewhere that these two aspects depend upon one another: to the degree that a person binds every mitzvah and every word of Torah to the power of its root, so too does it spread downward all the more.

There is a reciprocal relationship: the more firmly one anchors a mitzvah in its supernal root, the deeper that mitzvah penetrates and elevates the lower realms.

כי רום מעלה ורום מטה תלוין זה בזה

For the loftiest heights above and the lowest depths below are bound up with one another.

The highest and the lowest are linked, so that ascent above and reach below move together as one.

וכל ענין הפרשה הוא לבאר כי בנ"י צריכין להעלות כל הדברים הגשמיים ותחתונים

The entire theme of this parsha is to explain that Bnei Yisrael must elevate all physical and lower things.

The central message of the parsha is that Bnei Yisrael are charged with lifting up everything physical and lowly.

ולכן אל יפול לב האדם עליו במה שצריך לעסוק בדברים גשמיים ושפלים כי הלא הצור תמים פעלו

Therefore a person's heart should not fall within him over the fact that he must occupy himself with physical and lowly matters, for behold, "the Rock, His work is perfect" (Devarim 32:4).

A person should not become disheartened that his avodah requires dealing with mundane, material matters, since everything Hashem made is perfect and purposeful.

וכמו כן האדם כולל כל הבריאה

And likewise, man contains within himself the entirety of creation.

Just as the world contains all things, a single person is a microcosm containing the whole of creation within himself.

וכ"כ יצב גבולות עמים למספר בנ"י

And so it is written, "He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of Bnei Yisrael" (Devarim 32:8).

The Torah ties the boundaries of the nations to the number of Bnei Yisrael, hinting that the nations' existence corresponds to and is contained within Yisrael.

וכן הוא בפרט שיש בכל איש ישראל אלו ההסתרות שהם מכוחות כל האומות ואיש הישראלי צריך לתקנם

And so it is on the individual level as well, that within every Jew there are these concealments, which stem from the powers of all the nations, and the Jewish man must rectify them.

On a personal level, every individual Jew carries within himself concealments that parallel the spiritual forces of the various nations, and his task is to repair and elevate them.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר כו' יסובבנהו יבוננהו כו'

"He found him in a desert land, and in the howling wasteland; He encircled him, He gave him understanding" (Devarim 32:10).

This pasuk describes Hashem finding Bnei Yisrael in a barren desert and there surrounding them and granting them understanding.

אף שכתוב שבחר בבנ"י מימי קדם חלק ה' עמו כו'

Even though it is written that Hashem chose Bnei Yisrael from days of old, "for Hashem's portion is His people" (Devarim 32:9) -

Although the previous pesukim already state that Hashem chose His people long ago as His cherished portion -

אבל עיקר המציאה הוא בעת צר והסתר מקום חושך אשר איש הישראלי מצפה להתגלות הקדושה בעולם הזה השפל

nevertheless, the essence of the "finding" is at a time of distress and concealment, a place of darkness, where the Jewish man yearns for the revelation of kedushah in this lowly world.

the true "finding" of Hashem happens specifically in times of hardship and darkness, where a Jew longs to reveal kedushah even in this low world.

וזה נקרא ארץ מדבר שאין לו רק הרצון

And this is what is called "a desert land," where he has nothing but the ratzon, the yearning itself.

The "desert land" represents a state in which a person possesses nothing tangible to hold onto except his pure ratzon, his yearning for Hashem.

וכן הוא עבודת האדם בחול וכשבא שבת קודש יסובבנהו בפריסת סוכת שלום

And so it is with a person's avodah during the weekday; and when the holy Shabbos arrives, "He encircles him" by spreading over him the sukkah of peace.

This mirrors a person's weekday avodah in the spiritual desert; when Shabbos comes, Hashem encircles him with the protective sukkah of peace.

יבוננהו בנשמה יתירה שנתוסף דעת לאדם בשבת קודש כמ"ש במ"א גם בכל יום יסובבנהו בטלית וציצית יבוננהו בתפילין

"He gives him understanding" through the neshamah yeseirah, the extra soul, for additional daas is added to a person on the holy Shabbos, as we have written elsewhere; and so too every day, "He encircles him" with the tallis and tzitzis, and "He gives him understanding" with tefillin.

On Shabbos the extra neshamah brings added daas; and each day too, Hashem encircles a person with tallis and tzitzis and grants him understanding through tefillin.

שמצות הללו מאירין לאדם בכל יום בעוה"ז

For these mitzvos illuminate for a person each and every day in this world.

These daily mitzvos serve as a source of illumination that lights up a person's life even within this physical world.

גם אחר ר"ה ויוהכ"פ שאדם נעשה טהור אבל אינו יודע איך למצוא הארת הקדושה בעוה"ז שהיא כמדבר

So too after Rosh Hashanah and Yom HaKippurim, when a person has become pure, yet he does not know how to find the illumination of kedushah in this world, which is like a desert -

Even after the purification of Rosh Hashanah and Yom HaKippurim, a person may still feel lost as to how to access kedushah in a world that feels like a barren desert.

לכן יסובבנהו בסוכה ויבוננהו בלולב שהוא המשכת הדעת

therefore "He encircles him" with the sukkah, and "He gives him understanding" with the lulav, which is the drawing down of daas.

For this reason Hashem provides the sukkah to encircle him and the lulav to grant him understanding, which draws daas down into him.

גם יבוננהו רמז לשמחת תורה כמ"ש רש"י יבוננהו בתורה כו':

"He gives him understanding" is also an allusion to Simchas Torah, as Rashi explains: "He gives him understanding" - through the Torah.

The phrase "He gives him understanding" further hints at Simchas Torah, in line with Rashi's reading that the understanding comes specifically through Torah.

Summary: The Sfas Emes opens Shiras Ha'azinu by noting that the Torah, though rooted in the heavens, is meant to draw the entire earthly world upward to its source, with the heights above and the depths below bound reciprocally to one another. The avodah of Bnei Yisrael is therefore to elevate everything physical and lowly, and a person should never be discouraged by his involvement in mundane matters, for he himself is a microcosm of all creation and carries within him the very concealments that correspond to the nations, which he is tasked to rectify. He explains that Hashem is truly "found" precisely in the desert of distress and darkness, where a Jew is left with nothing but his pure ratzon and yet yearns to reveal kedushah in this lowly world. This weekday state of yearning is then answered: Hashem encircles a person with the sukkah of peace and grants him added daas through the neshamah yeseirah of Shabbos, and likewise through the daily mitzvos of tallis, tzitzis, and tefillin. Finally, after the purification of the Yamim Noraim, the sukkah, the lulav, and the Torah of Simchas Torah draw the illumination of kedushah and daas down into a person even in this world that feels like a barren desert.