Milah Gateway To Geulah

בפסוק אם יהי' נדחך בקצה השמים מ' יקבצך כו' התורה נק' שמים והברית נק' קצה השמים

On the verse "If your dispersed ones will be at the edge of the heavens, from there Hashem your God will gather you in" (Devarim 30:4) — the Torah is called "the heavens," and the bris (covenant of milah) is called "the edge of the heavens."

The Sfas Emes reads the verse symbolically: "heavens" alludes to the Torah, and "the edge of the heavens" alludes to the bris milah, which stands at the threshold of attaining Torah.

כי התורה תלוי בשמירת הברית

For the Torah is dependent upon the keeping of the bris.

He explains why milah is the "edge" — because attaining the Torah itself hinges on first guarding the covenant of milah.

וכמ"ש מי יעלה לנו השמימה דרשו ר"ת מילה

And as it is written, "Who will ascend for us to the heavens" (Devarim 30:12) — the Chazal expounded that the initial letters of these words spell milah.

He brings a proof that milah is the gateway to the heavens: the words "Who will ascend for us to the heavens" begin with letters that spell milah, hinting that milah is the means of ascent.

א"כ המילה בקצה השמים והוא מעלה את האדם לשמים ותורה

If so, the milah is at the edge of the heavens, and it is what elevates a person up to the heavens and to the Torah.

Therefore milah sits at the very edge of the heavens, serving as the doorway through which a person rises to the heavens and to the Torah.

ועיקר הגלות והגאולה תלי' בקצה השמים נדחך בק' השמים וכמו כן משם יקבצך שהוא שורש הגאולה:

And the essence of the galus and the geulah is dependent upon "the edge of the heavens": "your dispersed ones at the edge of the heavens" — and likewise "from there He will gather you in," for that very point is the root of the geulah.

Both the exile and the redemption turn on this same point: Bnei Yisrael are scattered to "the edge of the heavens," yet from that very edge — the power of the bris — Hashem gathers them back, making it the root of the geulah.

Summary: The Sfas Emes reads the verse of the dispersed ones being gathered from "the edge of the heavens" as a deeper teaching about the bris milah. The Torah is "the heavens," while milah is "the edge of the heavens," since attaining Torah depends entirely upon guarding the bris. He supports this with the well-known remez that the initial letters of "Who will ascend for us to the heavens" spell milah, showing that milah is the means by which a person ascends to the heavens and to the Torah. Because milah stands at this threshold, it is the pivot of both galus and geulah: Bnei Yisrael are scattered to the edge of the heavens, and from that very same point — the strength of the covenant — Hashem gathers them in, which is the root of the redemption.