Revealing Your Torah Portion
במדרש הפותח והחותם בתורה מברך לפני' ולאחרי' כו'
In the Midrash: the one who opens the Torah reading and the one who concludes it recites the blessing before it and the blessing after it.
The Midrash teaches that the same person who begins the Torah reading with its opening blessing also closes it with the concluding blessing. The Sfas Emes will build his whole piece around this theme of opening and concluding.
דכ' כי קרוב אליך כו' בפיך ובלבבך קאי על כל איש ישראל שיש לו חלק בתורה כמ"ש ותן חלקינו בתורתך
For it is written, "For it is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Devarim 30:14) — this refers to every individual of Bnei Yisrael, who possesses a portion in the Torah, as we say in tefillah, "And grant us our portion in Your Torah."
The pasuk says the Torah is near to every person, in his mouth and his heart. This means each individual of Bnei Yisrael has his own personal portion in the Torah, which we ask Hashem to grant us in our tefillah.
ואותו נקודה השייכית אליו אין יכול אחר לפתוח רק הוא
And that very point which belongs to him, no other person is able to "open" — only he himself can.
Each person's unique point in the Torah can only be revealed by him. No one else can "open" that particular share.
בפיך הוא ק"ש וכל תלמוד תורה שנכלל בק"ש כמ"ש הקורא ק"ש מקיים והגית כו'
"In your mouth" refers to Krias Shema, and all Talmud Torah is included within Krias Shema, as Chazal said that one who recites Krias Shema fulfills the mitzvah of "And you shall meditate upon it" (Yehoshua 1:8).
"In your mouth" points to Krias Shema, and since reciting Shema fulfills the obligation to toil in Torah, all Torah study is contained within it.
ובלבבך זו תפלה עבודה שבלב
And "in your heart" — this is tefillah, the avodah of the heart.
"In your heart" refers to tefillah, which Chazal call the service of the heart, the avodah done internally.
וגם הם רמז לברית הלשון וברית המעור וב' אלו הם הפותח והחותם
And these two also allude to the bris of the tongue and the bris of circumcision, and these two are the "one who opens" and the "one who concludes."
Beyond their plain meaning, mouth and heart hint at the bris of the tongue (holy speech) and the bris of milah. These two correspond to the one who opens and the one who concludes the reading.
כי כחן של ישראל בפה לפתוח הפנימיות שיש בכל דבר
For the strength of Bnei Yisrael lies in the mouth — to open up the inner dimension that is present within every thing.
The power Hashem gave Bnei Yisrael is to use the mouth to draw out and reveal the hidden inner holiness contained in everything in creation.
והחותם הוא אות ברית קודש
And the "one who concludes" is the os, the sign of the holy bris.
The "one who concludes" corresponds to the bris milah, which is called the os, the sign of the holy covenant sealed in the flesh.
וכ' ד' מדרגות לא נפלאת ולא רחוקה לא בשמים ולא מעבר לים
And it is written there four levels: "it is not hidden" and "it is not far off," "it is not in the heavens" and "it is not across the sea" (Devarim 30:11-13).
The Torah describes four expressions of how close the Torah is: not hidden, not far, not in heaven, not across the sea. The Sfas Emes treats these as four distinct levels.
והם נגד ד' אותיות שם הקדוש
And these correspond to the four letters of the holy Shem.
These four expressions parallel the four letters of Hashem's holy Name.
וכל אלו הד' מדרגות בכח איש ישראל לעורר ע"י דיבור מעשה ומחשבה שהם בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו:
And all of these four levels are within the power of every individual of Bnei Yisrael to awaken — by means of speech, action, and thought, which are alluded to in "in your mouth and in your heart, to do it" (Devarim 30:14).
Every individual of Bnei Yisrael has the power to awaken all four of these levels through speech, action, and thought — the faculties hinted at in the words "in your mouth and in your heart, to do it."
Summary: Building on the Midrash that the same person opens and concludes the Torah reading with its blessings, the Sfas Emes explains that the pasuk "For it is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart" teaches that every individual of Bnei Yisrael has his own personal portion in the Torah, which only he can reveal. "In your mouth" alludes to Krias Shema, which contains all of Talmud Torah, while "in your heart" alludes to tefillah, the avodah of the heart; together they also hint at the bris of the tongue and the bris of milah, which are the "opener" and the "concluder." The power of Bnei Yisrael is to use the mouth to draw out the hidden inner kedushah within all things, while the bris milah is the os that seals it. The Torah's four expressions of nearness — not hidden, not far, not in heaven, not across the sea — correspond to the four letters of Hashem's holy Name. Through speech, action, and thought, every Jew has the ability to awaken all four of these levels and bring the Torah's closeness into actual avodah.