Toiling to find Torah within everything

ובמד' חשבתי דרכי כו' בכל יום הייתי מחשב כו' רגלי מביאות אותי כו'.

And in the Midrash: "I considered my ways" (Tehillim 119:59) — every day I would calculate… and my feet would bring me [to the houses of study and prayer].

The Sefas Emes opens with the Midrash on David HaMelech's words: he would daily reckon where his various plans were taking him, yet his feet always led him back to the places of Torah.

דאמרו חז"ל בחקותי תלכו שתהיו עמלים בתורה פי' עמלים למצוא בכל דבר אור התורה כדאיתא בשביל התורה שנקראת ראשית א"כ ה' בחכמה יסד ארץ שיש בכל דבר חלק בתורה וע"ז אמרו א"ת מפליג לכל דבר להפרישו משורש התורה שאין לך דבר שאין לו מקום פי' בתורה.

For Chazal said on "If you walk in My statutes (b'chukosai teileichu)" — that you should toil (amelim) in Torah; the explanation: to toil to find in every thing the light of the Torah, as it is taught: "For the sake of the Torah, which is called 'reishis (beginning)'" — thus "Hashem founded the earth with chochmah," for there is in every thing a portion of Torah; and concerning this they said: do not read "mafleg" [as setting apart] every thing to separate it from the root of the Torah, for there is nothing that has no "place" — meaning, in the Torah.

"Walking in My statutes" means laboring in Torah — specifically, toiling to uncover the light of Torah hidden within everything. Since the world was founded "with chochmah" for the sake of the Torah, every created thing contains a portion of Torah. Therefore one must not "set apart" anything as disconnected from Torah; nothing exists that does not have its rooted place within the Torah.

ואז"ל מה יתרון לאדם בכל עמלו כו' יכול אפי' בתורה ת"ל בעמלו אינו עמל אבל עמל בעמלה של תורה.

And Chazal said: "What profit (yisron) has a man in all his toil…" — one might think even in the toil of Torah; therefore the verse teaches "in his toil" — in his own toil he gains no profit, but he does toil in the toil of the Torah.

Koheles asks what lasting gain a person has from all his labor "under the sun." Chazal limit this: it is only mundane toil that yields no enduring profit. Toil in Torah, by contrast, is the one labor that does bear lasting fruit.

עוד דרשו תחת השמש אין לו למעלה יש לו.

They further expounded: "under the sun" he has no [profit], but "above [the sun]" he does have.

Chazal qualify further: the verse says there is no profit "under the sun" — in the purely physical realm — but "above the sun," in the spiritual realm, there certainly is enduring profit.

א"כ משמע דעמלה של תורה שייך ג"כ תחת השמש להיות עמל למצוא רשימות וחקיקות של התורה שחקק הקב"ה בכל מעשה בראשית.

If so, it implies that the toil of Torah applies even "under the sun" — to toil to find the impressions and engravings of the Torah that HaKadosh Baruch Hu engraved within all of the work of creation.

Reconciling the two teachings: the "toil of Torah" reaches even into "under the sun," the physical world. There is avodah to be done within the material itself — to labor to discover the "engravings" of Torah that Hashem inscribed into every part of creation.

זהו בחקותי תלכו.

This is the meaning of "If you walk in My statutes (b'chukosai)."

The word "chukosai" hints at the "chakikos" — the engravings of Torah embedded in creation. "Walking in My statutes" means actively seeking out and uncovering those hidden inscriptions.

כמ"ש חשבתי דרכי שעמל בהם עד שהשיבם אל שורש התורה כמ"ש דהע"ה אם אתן שנת כו' עד אמצא מקום:

As it is written, "I considered my ways" — that he toiled in them until he returned them to the root of the Torah, as David HaMelech said, "I will not give sleep [to my eyes]… until I find a place" (Tehillim 132:4-5).

David HaMelech "considered his ways" — laboring over all his mundane affairs until he could trace each one back to its root in Torah. This is the meaning of his vow not to rest "until I find a place," the very "place in Torah" that every thing possesses.

Summary: "Walking in My statutes" means toiling in Torah — specifically, laboring to uncover the light and "engravings" of Torah hidden within every created thing, since the world was founded with chochmah and everything has its rooted place in Torah. While mundane toil "under the sun" yields no lasting profit, the toil of Torah does — and it extends even into the physical world, as David HaMelech showed by tracing all his ways back to their source in Torah.