According to Rashi the word ekev means heel. If we keep mitzvot that other people step on with a heel, then we will be blessed by Hashem.
The following story is told about about, Reb Zusha, the brother of Reb Elimelech:
On the festival of Sukkot Reb Zusha would bring several simple folk and untutored men to his home, to give them food and drink and to rejoice with them.
Some of his friends asked him why he did this, and he replied: “In the future, when tzaddikim will sit in the sukkah made of the skin of the Leviathan (a giant mythical sea creature), Zusha will also go, and he will want to join them and enter the sukkah, but they will not let him. They will say: Should you, Zusha the simple one, merit to sit in the place where the tzaddikim sit? Now Zusha can come and argue: he too brought simple folk and unlearned men into his sukkah (The Holy Brothers, 80-81).
Some say that since the word ekev means heel, that we must do each mitzvah from our head until our heel. An example of such a mitzvah is sleeping in a sukka.
The following story is told about Tavi, Rabban Gamliel’s servant:
One who sleeps beneath the bed in the sukka did not fulfill his obligation, because the bed constitutes a tent that serves as a barrier between him and the roofing of the sukka. Rabbi Yehuda said: It was our custom that we would sleep beneath the bed before the Elders and they did not say anything to us to the effect that we are not fulfilling our obligation. Apparently, the halakhic status of the bed is not like that of a tent and it does not prevent fulfillment of the mitzva. Rabbi Shimon said, contrary to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda: There was an incident involving Tavi, the Canaanite slave of Rabban Gamliel, who was sleeping beneath the bed, and Rabbi Gamliel lightheartedly said to the Elders: Did you see my slave Tavi, who is a Torah scholar and knows that slaves are exempt from the mitzva of sukka? Since it is a positive, time-bound mitzva, Canaanite slaves, whose status with regard to this halakhic category is like that of women, are exempt from the obligation to fulfill the mitzva of sukka. Therefore, he sleeps under the bed. Rabbi Shimon continued: And by the way, as Rabban Gamliel was not issuing a halakhic ruling, we learned that one who sleeps beneath the bed did not fulfill his obligation (Sukkah, 20b).
Everlasting Shoes!
Background:
In Parashat Eikev Moshe continues to speak to the Israelites and retell the story of their journey in the desert. In Chapter 8 pasuk 4 Moshe says:
שִׂמְלָ֨תְךָ֜ לֹ֤א בָֽלְתָה֙ מֵֽעָלֶ֔יךָ וְרַגְלְךָ֖ לֹ֣א בָצֵ֑קָה זֶ֖ה אַרְבָּעִ֥ים שָׁנָֽה׃
The clothes upon you did not wear out, nor did your feet swell these forty years.
This pasuk raises a lot of questions. What does it mean that their clothes didn’t wear out? How is that possible? And why would their feet swell? What does Moshe mean by that? The mefarshim offer different answers to these questions.
Regarding the clothing, Ibn Ezra offers two explanations. The first is that their clothing did not wear out because they brought many garments with them from Egypt so they had enough clothing to last them all 40 years. The second explanation is that the manna did not cause them to sweat, and so their clothes didn’t wear out.
Rashi offers an entirely different explanation - he quotes a midrash which states that their clothes didn’t wear out because the clouds of Hashem would rub the dirt off their clothes and bleach them so that they looked like new white garments. And, as their children grew, their clothes grew with them - just like a snail’s shell grows as the snail grows.
Rashi and Ibn Ezra offer similar explanations for their feet not swelling. Rashi explains that, naturally, a person’s feet swell when they travel. Ibn Ezra says that this means that Hashem gave them strength, and also that Hashem had them walk slowly so that their feet wouldn’t swell.
Questions:
- What types of explanations does the Ibn Ezra provide for why the clothes did not wear out? Are these natural explanations, or miraculous?
- What type of explanation does Rashi provide for why the clothes did not wear out? Is this a natural explanation, or miraculous?
- Why do you think that the Ibn Ezra and Rashi explain this in the way that they do? How would these explanations appeal to the Israelites?
Download a printable version here.
In Parshas Eikev, Moshe instructs the Jewish people that if they follow Hashem, they will be rewarded, and if not...let’s not go there. A Jewish director made a reenactment of Parshas Eikev, available for viewing here. Moshe relays the same point, a bit more wordy, in the sixth aliyah, which contains the second paragraph of Shema. Near the end of this paragraph, as in the first paragraph on Shema, we are instructed to write the Shema passages on the doorposts of our houses and our gates, the Mezuzah. In the first of our ongoing series, It IS My Job to Explain My Job To Three Year Olds, Rabbi Herzfeld is going to show the kids how he writes mezuzahs (no writing will be done) and talk about the importance of the mezuzah.
Yoni Friedman.
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