Daily Renewal Through Diligence

במדרש לשקוד על דלתותי ב' דלתות

The Midrash, on the verse "to be diligent at My doors" (Mishlei 8:34), notes that the word for "doors" is in the plural — two doors.

The Midrash draws attention to the plural form "doors" in the verse, signaling that there are two distinct avenues of avodah a person must guard.

הוא בחי' עובדא ומילולא שצריכין לעבוד בכל יום לתקן בחי' חיצוניות ופנימיות העולם

These two doors represent the dimensions of deed and speech, the two modes of avodah through which a person must labor each and every day, in order to refine both the outer and the inner dimensions of the world.

These two doors are deed and speech, the daily work of refining both the world's external surface and its inner core.

והנה כ' דלתותי יום יום

Now, the verse writes "diligent at My doors day by day" (Mishlei 8:34).

The Sfas Emes points to the additional words "day by day," which invite a further layer of meaning.

ויתכן לפרש כי יום יום הם הדלתות

It is possible to explain that the very "days" themselves are these doors.

He suggests that the "days" themselves are the doors referred to in the verse.

כאשר חכמים הגידו שס"ה ימים נגד שס"ה ל"ת וכל יום מזהיר לאדם כו' ע"ש

This accords with what Chazal taught, that the three hundred sixty-five days of the year correspond to the three hundred sixty-five negative commandments, and that every single day issues its own warning to a person, and so forth — see there.

He brings the teaching that the days of the year match the negative commandments, with each day delivering its own message and warning to a person.

והוא בחי' שס"ה גידים הממשיכין חיות לכל הקומה והקב"ה מחדש בכל יום מ"ב

This corresponds to the dimension of the three hundred sixty-five sinews that draw vitality to the entire structure of the body, and to the way the Holy One, Blessed is He, renews each day, by means of the forty-two-letter Name.

Just as the body has three hundred sixty-five sinews channeling life into the whole frame, so each day channels fresh divine vitality, renewed through the forty-two-letter Name.

ומחדש משמע דרך חדש בכל יום

And the term "renews" implies that a new path is opened up each and every day.

The word "renews" teaches that every day brings a genuinely new pathway of avodah.

וכ"כ הפותח בכל יום דלתות שערי מזרח והם בחי' אורות משונות זו מזו

So too we say in tefillah, "He Who opens each day the doors of the gates of the east" — these are dimensions of lights that differ one from another.

Our daily tefillah praises Hashem for opening the gates of the east each day, and these openings are different lights, each one unique.

ויתכן לפרש יוצר אור מלשון צורה שבכל יום מאיר באופן וציור אחר רק שצריך האדם לחפש בכל יום ההתחדשות שנמצא תמיד

It is possible to explain "Who fashions light" (Yotzer Ohr) from the language of "form" (tzurah) — that each day Hashem shines in a different manner and a different form; only that a person must search out, on each day, the renewal that is always present.

Reading "Yotzer Ohr" as related to "form," each day's light arrives in a distinct shape, and a person's task is to seek out the renewal that is always there to be found.

ודרך רמז אמרנו בפ' אשרי כו' שומע לי לשקוד

And by way of hint we said on the parashah of "Ashrei," and so forth, "one who listens to Me, to be diligent" (Mishlei 8:34).

By way of remez, the Sfas Emes connects the call to "listen" and be "diligent" to a deeper teaching about the days of the year.

ע"פ מ"ש חז"ל בפסוק מקל שקד שבא הפורענות במהירות כזמן הוצאת שקדים כ"א יום מי"ז בתמוז עד ט' באב

This is based on what Chazal said on the verse "a staff of an almond tree" (Yirmiyahu 1:11), that the calamity came with the same swiftness as the time it takes for almonds to come forth — twenty-one days — corresponding to the span from the seventeenth of Tammuz until Tisha B'Av.

Chazal taught that the destruction's swiftness mirrored the twenty-one days an almond takes to sprout — the span from the seventeenth of Tammuz to Tisha B'Av.

א"כ בוודאי מכ"ש שנגמר הישועה הבאה משמים בכ"א יום והם מר"ה עד הו"ר

If so, then surely all the more so the yeshuah that comes from Shamayim is completed in twenty-one days — and these are the days from Rosh Hashanah until Hoshana Rabbah.

Measure for measure, if calamity comes in twenty-one days, then the salvation from Heaven surely arrives in twenty-one days too — from Rosh Hashanah through Hoshana Rabbah.

ובאלה הימים יש לשקוד על דלתות התורה ועבודה

And during these days one must be diligent at the doors of Torah and avodah.

These twenty-one days are precisely the time to be diligent at the doors of Torah and avodah.

שומע לי בר"ה לשמוע קול שופר והיא התעוררות שבא משמים באלה הימים:

"One who listens to Me" — on Rosh Hashanah, to hear the sound of the shofar, which is an awakening that comes from Shamayim during these days.

"Listening" begins on Rosh Hashanah with hearing the shofar, which awakens a person to the heavenly arousal flowing during this season.

Summary: The Sfas Emes builds on the Midrash's reading of "to be diligent at My doors," where the plural "doors" points to the twin avenues of deed and speech through which a person refines the outer and inner dimensions of the world. He then reads the "days" themselves as those doors: each of the three hundred sixty-five days of the year, like the three hundred sixty-five sinews of the body, channels a fresh measure of divine vitality, renewed daily through the forty-two-letter Name, so that every day Hashem shines a uniquely formed light that a person must actively seek out. By way of remez he links this to Chazal's teaching that just as the churban arrived with the swiftness of an almond's twenty-one-day sprouting — from the seventeenth of Tammuz to Tisha B'Av — so too, measure for measure, the yeshuah from Shamayim is completed in the twenty-one days from Rosh Hashanah to Hoshana Rabbah. During these days one must be diligent at the doors of Torah and avodah, beginning with "listening" on Rosh Hashanah to the sound of the shofar, which carries the heavenly awakening of the season.