Opening Torah Through Yiras Shamayim

במדרש הפותח והחותם כו' מצוה אתם עושין על עולמי כו'

The Midrash that begins and concludes [the Torah reading] etc.: "You perform a mitzvah upon My world" etc.

The Sfas Emes opens with a Midrash teaching that when a Jew expounds Torah, he performs a mitzvah upon Hashem's world itself.

פי' שאין ביכולת שום ברי' לפתוח בתורה רק בנ"י כמ"ש ונעלמה מעיני כ"ח כו' ולבנ"י הוא קרוב

The meaning is that no creature has the ability to open with [words of] Torah except for Bnei Yisrael, as it is written, "It has been hidden from the eyes of all living" (Iyov 28:21) etc., but for Bnei Yisrael it is close.

Only Bnei Yisrael, and no other creature, have the capacity to 'open' the Torah and draw out its meaning; for everyone else the Torah's wisdom remains hidden.

ולא עוד אלא שגם בבנ"י מיוחד חלק בתורה לכל איש ישראל שאין אחר יכול לפתוח רק הוא

And not only that, but even within Bnei Yisrael every single Jew has a particular portion in the Torah that is unique to him, such that no one else is able to open it up except for him.

He sharpens this: each individual Jew has his own unique portion in Torah, an insight that only he can unlock.

ובראשונים מצינו כן במדרשים ובזוה"ק שפתח כל א' מהם דרך באותו פסוק ואותו תיבה בתורה

And among the early ones we find this in the Midrashim and in the Zohar HaKadosh, that each one of them opened up a new path of insight in that very verse and that very word of the Torah.

He brings proof from the early Sages and the Zohar, where different masters each opened up a fresh path of meaning in the very same verse and word.

אכן יש להאמין שגם לפשוטי בנ"י יש לכ"א חלק

However, one must believe that even among the simple folk of Bnei Yisrael, each and every one has a portion.

He insists this is not only for great scholars — even the simplest Jew possesses his own personal share in Torah.

וג"ז נכלל ברמז הפסוק לא בשמים היא שלא ניתנה תורה רק לאישי אלקים רק גם לפשוטי אנשים

And this too is included in the hint of the verse, "It is not in heaven" (Devarim 30:12) — that the Torah was given not only to men of Hashem [the spiritually exalted], but also to simple people.

He reads the verse 'It is not in heaven' as a hint that Torah was entrusted not only to spiritual giants but to ordinary people as well.

וע"ז צריכין לברך מקודם עסק התורה לזכור כי מתנה גדולה ניתן לנו מהשי"ת שיהי' לנו יכולת לפתוח בתורה

And concerning this we must recite a blessing before the engagement in Torah, in order to remember that a great gift was given to us by Hashem Yisbarach, that we should have the ability to open up [the wellsprings of] Torah.

Therefore we make a blessing before learning Torah, to remind ourselves what a tremendous gift it is that Hashem grants us the power to open the Torah.

והחותם הוא שכיון שיש כח לאיש ישראל לפתוח אור התורה ע"כ צריך לשמור עצמו מאוד שלא יתפשט על ידו הארת התורה למקום שא"צ

And the conclusion is that, since a Jew has the power to open up the light of the Torah, he must therefore guard himself very much that the illumination of the Torah not spread through him to a place where it does not belong.

But the flip side: since a Jew can release the Torah's light, he bears responsibility to guard it from spilling out into improper places.

והם ב' הבחי' דחילו ורחימו שצריכין להשתתף אותם לכל מצוה ולכל עסק התורה

And these are the two aspects of fear (dechilu) and love (rechimu), which one must join together to every mitzvah and to every engagement in Torah.

These two demands correspond to fear and love, both of which must accompany every mitzvah and every act of Torah study.

שע"י בחי' אהבה וחשק זוכין לפתיחת התורה

For through the aspect of love and yearning one merits the opening up of the Torah,

Love and yearning are what give a person the ability to open up the Torah in the first place.

וע"י בחי' היראה זוכין לשמירת הארת התורה כנ"ל

and through the aspect of fear one merits the guarding of the illumination of the Torah, as explained above.

Fear, or yiras Shamayim, is what enables a person to properly guard and contain the Torah's illumination.

וזה העיקר כאשר חכמים הגידו וי למאן דל"ל דרתא ותרעא לדרתא עביד

And this is the essential thing, as the Chachamim said: "Woe to the one who has no courtyard, yet makes a gateway for a courtyard" (Zohar; based on Vayikra Rabbah on the principle of yiras Shamayim) —

He cites the Sages' image of a fool who builds a gateway but has no courtyard behind it — meaning Torah without yiras Shamayim is a doorway leading to nothing.

שהתורה היא רק פתיחה לקבל ע"י יראת שמים

for the Torah is only an opening, [a gateway] to be received through yiras Shamayim.

The Torah itself is only the gateway; the actual 'courtyard' to be entered and received is yiras Shamayim.

כאשר תיקנו בנוסח התפלה יפתח לבנו בתורתו וישם בלבנו אהבתו ויראתו:

[This is] just as they established in the formulation of the tefillah: "May He open our hearts in His Torah, and place in our hearts His love and His fear."

He concludes by tying it to the tefillah that asks Hashem both to open our hearts in His Torah (love) and to place His fear within us (guarding).

Summary: The Sfas Emes teaches that every Jew, no matter how simple, possesses a unique personal portion in the Torah and the singular ability to 'open' an insight that no one else can unlock — a power no other creature in creation enjoys. This is why we recite a blessing before learning, recognizing the immense gift Hashem has given us in granting us access to the Torah's light. Yet with this power comes a corresponding duty: to guard that illumination so it does not spread into places where it does not belong. These two avodos correspond to love (rechimu), which opens the Torah, and fear (dechilu), which guards it, and both must accompany every mitzvah and every act of learning. He concludes that yiras Shamayim is the true 'courtyard,' while Torah is the gateway to it — as we daven that Hashem open our hearts in His Torah and place within us His love and His fear.