Revealing the Hidden Point

קרוב אליך כו' בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו

"For it is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it" (Devarim 30:14).

The Torah testifies that the avodah of Hashem is not distant or beyond reach — it is right alongside a person, accessible through his speech and his heart.

פי' שיכול האדם לעשותו קרוב

The meaning is that a person has the ability to make it close to him.

The Sfas Emes reads "close to you" not as a given fact but as a capacity: every person holds the power to draw this closeness near to himself.

ובמדרש הוציא דבר מתוך פיך כי הש"י נטע בכל איש ישראל נקודה גנוזה בלב והאדם צריך רק להוציאו מכח אל הפועל

And in the Midrash: "Bring forth a matter from within your mouth" — for Hashem implanted within every Jew a hidden point in the heart, and a person needs only to bring it forth from potential into actuality.

Drawing on the Midrash, he explains that Hashem planted a concealed point of kedushah in the heart of every Jew, so that avodah is not about creating something new but about revealing and actualizing what already lies dormant within.

וז"ש יגעתי ומצאתי תאמין היינו שמייגע עצמו למצוא הנקודה בלבו וע"י שמכניס כל כחותיו במעשה דיבור ומחשבה והוא נגד נפש רוח ונשמה וז"ש בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו:

And this is what they meant by "I toiled and I found — believe it" (Megillah 6b), namely, that a person exerts himself to find the point within his heart; and through investing all his faculties into action, speech, and thought — which correspond to nefesh, ruach, and neshamah — and this is what is meant by "in your mouth and in your heart, to do it."

The Gemara's principle that toil leads to finding teaches that the labor is the search for that inner point, and by harnessing one's action, speech, and thought — paralleling nefesh, ruach, and neshamah — one fulfills the verse's call to do it "in your mouth and in your heart."

Summary: The Sfas Emes expounds the verse "For it is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it," reading it as a statement of a person's capacity: every Jew has the power to bring the avodah of Hashem near to himself. He explains, based on the Midrash, that Hashem implanted a hidden point of kedushah in the heart of every Jew, so that one's task is not to invent something foreign but to draw that point from potential into actuality. The Gemara's teaching that "I toiled and I found" reflects this labor — the exertion to uncover the concealed point within the heart. This is accomplished by channeling all of one's faculties of action, speech, and thought, which correspond to nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, thereby fulfilling the verse's words "in your mouth and in your heart, to do it."