Bittul Through Self Diminishment

ולא יראה בך כו' חז"ל פי' לא יראה לך בטל בלבך כו'

Regarding the pasuk "and let Him not see anything unseemly among you" (Devarim 23:15), Chazal expounded: "Let there not be seen in you" — that nothing in your heart should be void or empty before Hashem.

The Sfas Emes reads Chazal's derashah on the pasuk as a warning against inner emptiness — that a person's heart should never be void of Hashem.

וכן י"ל כשלא יראה בך בעצמך שלא יהי' חשוב בעיני האדם וכשנמאס בעיניו נתבטל כנ"ל:

And one may likewise explain it thus: when there will be nothing apparent in you in your own eyes — that a person should not be of importance in his own estimation — and when he becomes lowly and as nothing in his own eyes, he attains bittul, as explained above.

He extends the teaching to mean that a person should not regard himself as significant; precisely when he holds himself as nothing of importance does he reach true bittul before the Ribono shel Olam.

Summary: The Sfas Emes takes the pasuk "and let Him not see anything unseemly among you" and, following Chazal's reading of "let there not be seen in you," turns it into a lesson about the inner state of a person. The first thrust is that one's heart must never be empty or void of Hashem. The second, complementary thrust is that a person should not view himself as important or weighty in his own eyes. Rather, precisely when he holds himself as lowly and as nothing of consequence, he arrives at genuine bittul before the Ribono shel Olam. The two readings together teach that emptiness toward Hashem is the flaw, while emptiness of self-importance is the very avodah.