Purity flows from cleaving to the divine utterance

במד' אמרות טהורות כו'.

In the Midrash: "pure sayings, etc." (cf. Tehillim 12:7, "the sayings of Hashem are pure sayings").

The Midrash on the parsha opens with the verse describing Hashem's "sayings" as pure, linking the theme of purity to the divine utterance.

דקשה איך יכול ב"ו להתטהר כראוי.

For it is difficult: how can a flesh-and-blood human being purify himself as he ought?

The Sefas Emes raises the question: given man's lowliness, how can he ever attain true taharah (purity) on his own?

ורק כי הכל במאמר נברא כמ"ש בעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם.

Rather, it is that everything was created through an utterance (ma'amar), as it says, "with ten utterances the world was created" (Avos 5:1).

The answer lies in the fact that all of creation came into being through divine "sayings," the ten ma'amaros.

ולכך המאמר נותן טהרה לכל דבר.

And therefore the utterance grants purity to every thing.

Because the divine utterance is the source of each thing, that utterance is also the wellspring of its purity.

ורק להיות דבוק בשורש החיות שבכל דבר.

And it is only to be attached to the root of life-force within each thing.

To become pure, a person need only cleave to the inner root of vitality — the divine utterance — present in everything.

וזהו אמור כו' ואמרת.

And this is the meaning of "Emor... ve'amarta" ("Say... and you shall say").

The doubled language of "saying" in the parsha hints at this theme of the purifying divine utterance.

שהטהרה בא ע"י בחי' מאמר כנ"ל.

That the purity comes through the aspect of "utterance," as above.

Taharah is achieved by connecting to the ma'amar, the divine speech that underlies all existence.

ובגמ' ה' האמירך כו עשנו חטיבה אחת ואנו עושין אותו חטיבה א' כו' ע"ש שפי' אמירה הוא החיבור והדיבוק בשורש החיות כנ"ל.

And in the Gemara: "Hashem He'emircha... He has made us a single entity and we make Him a single entity, etc." — see there; that the meaning of "amirah" (saying) is the joining and attachment to the root of life-force, as above.

The Gemara (Chagigah 3a) interprets "he'emircha"/"ha'amarta" as a mutual bond between Hashem and Yisrael; the Sefas Emes reads "amirah" itself as the act of attaching oneself to the divine source of life.

ובתוס' ביאור כי זה ענין ספירת העומר שאומרים שציונו כדי לטהרנו כו'

And with an additional explanation: that this is the matter of Sefiras HaOmer, regarding which we say that He commanded us in order to purify us, etc.

This same idea underlies the counting of the Omer, whose purpose, as we recite, is to purify Bnei Yisrael.

כי ביצ"מ נתגלה בכל איש ישראל אשר יוכל לצאת מכל רצון אחר.

For at the Exodus from Mitzrayim it was revealed within every man of Yisrael that he is able to depart from every other desire.

Yetzias Mitzrayim awakened in each Jew the capacity to break free of every alien desire that is not Hashem's.

וזה חירות להיות הרצון תמיד ליבטל ולהיכלל בהשי"ת.

And this is freedom — for one's will to be constantly nullified and absorbed into Hashem.

True cheirus (freedom) is when a person's whole ratzon is perpetually given over in bittul, included within Hashem.

וזהו הי' אז ביצ"מ שהי' הגאולה ע"פ נס והוא בחי' ביטול שלא בדרך השכל והטבע.

And this is what happened then at the Exodus, where the redemption came about by way of a miracle, which is the aspect of bittul, beyond the path of intellect and nature.

The geulah from Mitzrayim came through open miracle, embodying a bittul that transcends ordinary reason and the natural order.

ואח"כ סה"ע לברר המידות שהם דבקין בנפש האדם להיות נמשך חיות הש"י בתוך המידות.

And afterward Sefiras HaOmer comes to refine the middos (character traits), which are bound up in a person's soul, so that the vitality of Hashem be drawn into the middos.

After that initial miraculous bittul, the Omer count works to purify the emotional traits ingrained in the soul, so that Hashem's life-force flows into them.

כי הש"י א"ס ואין לו מדה וגבול.

For Hashem is infinite (Ein Sof) and has no measure or limit.

Hashem in His essence is boundless, with no "measure" (middah) whatsoever.

והמשכות חיות ממנו לנבראים נק' מדה כנ"ל.

And the drawing-down of vitality from Him to the created beings is called a "middah" (measure), as above.

The very channels through which His infinite vitality reaches finite creatures are what we call "middos" — measured portions of His life-force.

כמ"ש במ"א עמ"ש במדה שאדם כו'.

As I wrote elsewhere on the statement, "with the measure that a person measures, etc." (Sotah 8b).

This connects to the principle that a person is treated "measure for measure," which the Sefas Emes has discussed elsewhere.

וכפי מה שמקבל האדם חיות עליון תוך המידות שלו היינו להיות החפץ והרצון לקרב כל המידות אהבה ויראה וניצוח כו' הכל אליו להיות מתנהגים רק ע"פ רצונו ית'.

And according to how much a person receives supernal vitality into his own middos — meaning that the desire and will is to bring all the middos, ahavah (love) and yirah (fear/awe) and nitzachon (the trait of striving), etc., all toward Him, so that they are conducted solely according to His will —

The work is to draw the higher divine vitality into each of one's traits, directing all of them — love, awe, ambition, and the rest — toward Hashem so that they operate only by His ratzon.

כפי מה שנכנס הארה מנקודה הראשונה תוך המידות שבנפשו.

— according to how much illumination from the first point (nekudah rishonah) enters into the middos within his soul,

The measure of light from the original inner point that penetrates one's traits determines the next result.

כן מגרש ומטהר האדם מכל טומאות ורצונות אחרים אשר לא לה' המה.

— so does a person banish and purify himself from all impurities and alien desires that are not for Hashem.

As that inner light fills his traits, it drives out and cleanses every tumah and every foreign desire that is not for the sake of Hashem.

וכן ענין ש"ק וימי המעשה ג"כ כנ"ל.

And likewise the matter of Shabbos Kodesh and the weekdays is also as above.

The same pattern is found in the relationship between Shabbos and the six workdays.

שבש"ק בחי' ביטול אליו ית'.

For on Shabbos Kodesh there is the aspect of bittul to Him.

Shabbos is the time of complete bittul to Hashem, paralleling the miraculous bittul of Yetzias Mitzrayim.

ובחול להמשיך חיות ש"ק תוך כל מעשה גשמיי לכך נק' ימי עבודה כנ"ל.

And on the weekday, to draw the vitality of Shabbos Kodesh into every physical act — therefore they are called "days of labor" (avodah), as above.

The weekdays parallel Sefiras HaOmer: their avodah is to carry the holiness of Shabbos into every mundane deed, refining the "middos" of action.

וזה עצמו בחי' אמור ואמרת אליהם דייקא.

And this itself is the aspect of "Emor... ve'amarta aleihem" ("Say... and you shall say to them"), precisely.

The doubled "saying," specifically directed "to them," expresses these two stages of connection to Hashem.

דהיינו מה שהש"י מקרב אותנו אליו שנוכל להיכלל בו ע"י הביטול לכלל כנסת ישראל.

That is to say: that Hashem draws us close to Him so that we can be included in Him, through bittul to the collective of Knesses Yisrael.

The first "Emor" is Hashem drawing us near, enabling us to be absorbed into Him by nullifying ourselves into the whole of Knesses Yisrael.

וזהו אמור עשנו חטיבה א'.

And this is "Emor" — "He has made us a single entity."

"Emor" corresponds to Hashem making us one unified entity bound to Him.

ואמרת אליהם זה מה שאנו מקבלין אמירתו בכל המידות ורצונות ומזה בא הטהרה:

And "ve'amarta aleihem" ("and you shall say to them") is that we receive His utterance into all our middos and desires — and from this comes the purity.

The second "saying" is our part: drawing His divine utterance into all our traits and desires, and it is precisely this that brings taharah.

Summary: The Sefas Emes asks how a mortal can truly purify himself, and answers that since everything was created through divine "utterances" (ma'amaros), purity flows from cleaving to the divine utterance that is the root of life within each thing. The doubled "Emor... ve'amarta" reflects two movements: Hashem drawing us close and making us one with Him (paralleling the miraculous bittul of Yetzias Mitzrayim and Shabbos), and our drawing His utterance into all our middos and desires (paralleling Sefiras HaOmer and the weekdays). This inflow of the inner point's light banishes every impurity and alien desire, and it is from this that taharah comes.