Mind and heart, the two inner luminaries

ואיתא טובים מאורות כו' כח וגבורה נתן בהם להיות מושלים בקרב תבל.

And it is brought [in the tefillah]: "Good are the luminaries … strength and might He set in them to rule within the world."

The two great luminaries, the sun and the moon, were given power to govern the world — and the Sefas Emes will apply this to the inner world of man.

והאדם הוא עולם קטן.

And man is a small world (olam katan, a microcosm).

Everything found in the cosmos has its counterpart within the human being.

א"כ יש בו ב' מאורות אלו המושלים בו.

If so, there are within him these two luminaries that rule over him.

Just as sun and moon govern the world, two corresponding "luminaries" govern a person.

והם בחי' מוח ולב כדאיתא בספרי קודש.

And these are the aspects of the brain (moach) and the heart (lev), as is found in the holy sefarim.

The two inner luminaries are the mind and the heart — the seats of thought and of feeling.

ועיקר העבודה בלב ששם יש ב' לבבות וצריך בירור.

And the main avodah is in the heart, for there are two hearts (two inclinations) there, and a sifting/clarification (birur) is needed.

The heart houses both the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara, so the essential work is to sort and clarify which force will rule there.

וז"ש קרא לשמש ויזרח אור ראה והתקין צורת הלבנה.

And this is what is said: "He called to the sun and it shone light; He saw and established the form of the moon" [from the Kiddush Levanah].

The sun shines on its own, but the moon's form had to be "established" — corresponding to the mind, which is clear, versus the heart, which must be worked upon.

מה ראה רק כמ"ש וירא כו' את האור כי טוב ויבדל דרשו חז"ל ראה שאין רשעים כדאי להשתמש בו וגנזו לצדיקים.

What did He "see"? Only as it says, "And He saw … the light, that it was good, and He separated" (Bereishis 1:4) — Chazal expounded: He saw that the resha'im were not worthy to make use of it, and He stored it away (genazo) for the tzaddikim.

The hidden primordial light (or haganuz) was set aside for the righteous; the "seeing" was Hashem's recognition that it must be concealed from the wicked.

זה שהתקין צורת הלבנה שהוא הבירור בלב ששם המלחמה ומאן דנצח לחויא ינסב ברתא דמלכא.

This is "He established the form of the moon," which is the clarification (birur) in the heart — for there is the battle, and "whoever defeats the serpent will take the king's daughter."

The "moon" that must be fashioned is the work of the heart, where the war against the yetzer hara (the serpent) is fought; the victor is wedded to the "king's daughter," the holy light stored for tzaddikim.

ובנ"י ירדו למצרים ועבדו בחומר ובלבנים לזכות למאורות האלו במוח ולב.

And Bnei Yisrael went down to Mitzrayim and labored "with mortar and with bricks (levenim)" in order to merit these luminaries in the brain and the heart.

The crushing labor in Egypt was itself a process of refinement, earning Bnei Yisrael these two inner luminaries of mind and heart.

ונתברר ונעשו ברי לבב במצרים.

And they were clarified and became pure of heart (barei levav) in Mitzrayim.

The suffering of Egypt sifted and purified them, so that their hearts emerged clear and clean (note the wordplay: levenim/bricks and levav/heart, barei/pure and barei/bricks).

ולכן החודש הזה לכם.

Therefore "This month is for you" (Shemos 12:2).

Having become pure of heart, Bnei Yisrael could now receive the gift of renewal — "this month," the power of the new moon, became theirs.

כמ"ש לב טהור ברא לי אלקים ורוח נכון חדש בקרבי.

As it says, "A pure heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me" (Tehillim 51:12).

A purified heart is the vessel for inner renewal — the renewal of the new moon parallels the renewal of a clean heart and steadfast spirit.

וזה הרמז חרש הי' לבם.

And this is the hint in "their heart was deaf/dull (charash)."

Before the geulah their hearts were "deaf" — closed and unable to perceive the power of renewal.

ולא יכלו לראות ההתחדשות.

And they could not see the renewal (hischadshus).

With dulled hearts, they were blind to the capacity for renewal symbolized by the new moon.

עד שנגאלו ממצרים ונעשו ברי לב.

Until they were redeemed from Mitzrayim and became pure of heart.

Only once the geulah cleansed their hearts could the obstruction be removed.

עי"ז החודש הזה לכם:

Through this, "This month is for you."

The purified heart is precisely what enabled them to grasp and possess the power of renewal — the mitzvah of the new month given to Klal Yisrael.

Summary: As the sun and moon rule the world, the mind (moach) and heart (lev) are the two luminaries that govern man, the microcosm. The mind shines clearly like the sun, but the heart — housing two inclinations — is like the moon whose "form" must be established through birur, the battle against the yetzer hara, whose victor wins the hidden light stored for tzaddikim. Bnei Yisrael's labor with bricks in Egypt refined and purified their hearts (barei levav), so that once redeemed they could finally perceive hischadshus — the power of renewal — and receive "This month is for you."