Dveikus Within Every Mitzvah

בפסוק כי המצוה הזאת א"א מצוך היום לא נפלאת כו'

On the verse, "For this mitzvah which I command you today is not too wondrous for you, nor is it far off" (Devarim 30:11).

The Sfas Emes opens with the verse that the Torah's mitzvah is neither too wondrous nor distant, setting up the question of how it is so accessible.

פי' כי מצות הש"י אינו כמצות מלך ב"ו אשר הוא דיבור בעלמא

The explanation is that a mitzvah of Hashem is not like the command of a king of flesh and blood, which is mere speech.

A human king's command is only words spoken from outside; it carries no part of the king himself.

אבל הקב"ה אשר צוה אותנו המצות הציוי היא דביקות וכח אלקות

Rather, the Holy One, Blessed is He, who commanded us the mitzvos — His very commanding is dveikus and a power of Godliness.

But Hashem's command is fundamentally different: the act of His commanding deposits within the mitzvah an actual power of Godliness and a means of dveikus.

וז"ש אשר קדשנו במצותיו

And this is the meaning of what we say, "who sanctified us with His mitzvos."

This is why the brachah says Hashem "sanctified us with His mitzvos" — the mitzvos themselves convey kedushah from Him.

וזה כח הציוי אשר אנכי מצוך לא נפלאת הוא ממך אך ע"י קיום המצוה בלב ונפש יכולין להתדבק בכח המצוה

And this is the power of the command, "which I command you" — "it is not too wondrous" for you, for through fulfilling the mitzvah with heart and soul one is able to cleave to the power of the mitzvah.

Because that Godly power is embedded in the mitzvah, it is not beyond us; by performing it with full heart and soul we attach ourselves to that inner power.

וזה שרמזו חז"ל שכר מצוה מצוה פי' ע"י המצוה מתדבקין בכח הציוי ונק' שלוחי מצוה

And this is what Chazal hinted at: "the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah" — meaning, through the mitzvah one cleaves to the power of the command, and such people are called "those sent on a mitzvah."

Chazal's teaching that "the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah" means the dveikus gained through one mitzvah is itself the reward, and those engaged in it are called Hashem's emissaries.

וזה ענין נעשה ונשמע שאמרו בנ"י כי הבינו אשר דברי אלקים חיים וקיימים לעולם וע"י העשי' יתדבקו בכח מצותיו:

And this is the matter of "we will do and we will hear" that Bnei Yisrael declared, for they understood that the words of Hashem are living and enduring forever, and that through the doing they would cleave to the power of His mitzvos.

When Bnei Yisrael said "we will do and we will hear," they grasped that Hashem's words are eternally alive, so the very act of doing would bind them to the Godly power within His mitzvos.

Summary: The Sfas Emes explains that a mitzvah of Hashem is utterly unlike the command of a human king, which is nothing more than spoken words. Because the Holy One, Blessed is He, is the One who commanded us, His very act of commanding implants within each mitzvah a power of Godliness and a means of dveikus — which is why we bless Him as the One "who sanctified us with His mitzvos." For this reason the Torah is "not too wondrous" and not distant: by fulfilling a mitzvah with heart and soul, a person cleaves to the Godly power contained within it. This is the meaning of Chazal's teaching that "the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah," and it is also the depth of Bnei Yisrael's declaration "we will do and we will hear" — they understood that Hashem's living, eternal words allow us to attach ourselves to Him precisely through the act of doing.