Shabbos Torah Inner Light
בפסוק יפתח ה"א לך כו' את השמים כו'
On the verse, "Hashem your God will open for you... the heavens..." (Devarim 28:12).
The Sfas Emes opens with the verse in our parsha describing Hashem opening His good treasury, the heavens, to bestow blessing.
דכ' השמים ש' לה' והארץ נתן לב"א
For it is written, "The heavens are heavens for Hashem, but the earth He gave to the children of man" (Tehillim 115:16).
He pairs this with Tehillim, which distinguishes between the heavens that belong to Hashem and the earth given over to mankind.
כי גם בטבע נסתר חכמתו ית' כמ"ש כולם בחכמה עשית
For even within nature His wisdom, may He be blessed, is hidden, as it is written, "You made them all with wisdom" (Tehillim 104:24).
He explains that even in the natural order Hashem's wisdom is concealed, since all of creation was fashioned with that wisdom.
וע"ז כ' ה' יתן חכמה
And concerning this it is written, "Hashem grants wisdom" (Mishlei 2:6).
This concealed wisdom embedded in nature is what the verse means when it says Hashem grants wisdom into the world.
אבל מפיו דעת ותבונה היא בחי' התורה שנק' שמים
But "from His mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Mishlei 2:6) — this is the aspect of the Torah, which is called "heavens."
But there is a higher tier — "knowledge and understanding from His mouth" — which corresponds to the Torah and is called "heavens," the realm that is Hashem's own.
והיא הנהגה פנימיות שלא נתגלה בעולם רק לבנ"י
And this is an inner mode of conduct that was not revealed in the world except to Bnei Yisrael.
This is a hidden, inner mode of Divine conduct that Hashem revealed only to Bnei Yisrael and not to the world at large.
וכמ"ש במד' המשל בא בנו ונתן לו פרוסה מתוך פיו
And as the Midrash says with the parable: his son came, and he gave him a morsel from his own mouth.
He brings the Midrashic parable of a father who feeds his beloved son a morsel directly from his own mouth, illustrating this intimate giving.
והיא אות השבת שנתן לנו השי"ת כי בימי המעשה ההנהגה ע"פ התלבשות הטבע כמו שהי' בכל יום מעשה חדשה
And this is the sign of Shabbos, which Hashem, may He be blessed, gave to us — for during the weekdays the conduct is by way of the garbing of nature, just as each day there was a new act of creation.
He identifies this intimate gift with Shabbos: the weekdays operate through nature garbed over the Divine word, mirroring the daily acts of creation.
והגם שהי' במאמרו ית' רק שנתלבש במעשה
And although it came about through His utterance, may He be blessed, it was nonetheless garbed within an act of creation.
Even though weekday creation came forth from Hashem's utterance, that utterance was clothed and hidden within physical acts of making.
לכן כ' והארץ נתן בתוספת ו' כי וודאי יש בארץ ג"כ המשכה כמ"ש ה' בחכמה יסד ארץ
Therefore it is written, "but the earth He gave (venasan)," with an added vav, for surely within the earth as well there is a drawing-down of holiness, as it is written, "Hashem founded the earth with wisdom" (Mishlei 3:19).
He reads the extra vav in "venasan" (He gave) as a hint that even the earth carries a drawing-down of holiness, since Hashem founded the earth with wisdom too.
אבל בשבת לא הי' רק ויברך ויקדש
But on Shabbos there was nothing other than "He blessed and He sanctified" (Bereishis 2:3).
Shabbos, by contrast, involved no act of making — only blessing and sanctification, the unclothed inner light.
ולכן אומרים פורס סוכת שלום עלינו והיא ממש כמאמרם ז"ל פרוסה מתוך פיו כביכול
And therefore we say "He spreads the shelter (sukkah) of peace over us," and this is literally like the words of our Sages, of blessed memory, "a morsel from His mouth," as it were.
The phrase in the Friday-night tefillah, "He spreads the sukkah of peace," is literally the Midrash's "morsel from His mouth" — the direct, intimate Shabbos gift.
והכל ע"י התורה כמ"ש אוצרו הטוב ואין טוב אלא תורה
And all of this is by way of the Torah, as it is written, "His good treasury" (Devarim 28:12) — and there is no "good" other than Torah.
All of this intimate bestowal flows through the Torah, for the verse's "good treasury" is none other than Torah, the only true good.
כדכ' לקח טוב נתתי לכם פי' שבנ"י מקבלין הכל בכח התורה והיא טוב בלי פסולת
As it is written, "I have given you a good teaching" (Mishlei 4:2) — the meaning being that Bnei Yisrael receive everything through the power of the Torah, which is good without any dross.
Citing Mishlei's "good teaching," he explains that Bnei Yisrael draw down everything through the Torah, which is pure good with no admixture of dross.
שאחר החטא נתערב טוב ורע בעולם
For after the sin, good and evil became intermingled in the world.
He notes that since the sin of Adam, good and evil have been mixed together throughout the world.
אבל בנ"י בכח התורה זוכין לאוצרו הטוב:
But Bnei Yisrael, through the power of the Torah, merit His good treasury.
Bnei Yisrael, however, by clinging to the power of the Torah, reach Hashem's good treasury, the unmixed pure good.
Summary: The Sfas Emes draws on the verse describing Hashem opening His good treasury of the heavens, together with "the heavens are for Hashem and the earth He gave to man." He distinguishes two modes of Divine conduct: the wisdom hidden within nature, which governs the weekdays through the Divine word garbed in physical acts of creation, and the higher inner light of Torah, called "heavens," which Hashem reveals intimately only to Bnei Yisrael. This intimate giving is the gift of Shabbos, likened to a father feeding his son a morsel straight from his mouth — for Shabbos involves no act of making, only blessing and sanctification, the unclothed inner light expressed in "He spreads the sukkah of peace." The channel for this entire bestowal is the Torah, the "good treasury" and the only true good, free of any dross. While after the sin good and evil became intermingled in the world, Bnei Yisrael, through the power of the Torah, merit to reach Hashem's pure and good treasury.