TORAH → PARSHAH Issue 822 · August 5, 2020

Best Foot First

There are mitzvos that correspond to the head of a person and those that correspond to the heart

Best Foot First

 

“And it will be, because you will listen to these laws and keep and do them, then Hashem, your G-d, will keep the covenant and the kindness that He promised to your fathers.” (Devarim 7:12)

 


Rashi says the word “eikev — because” is used here since it alludes to those easy mitzvos that one tramples with their “eikev — heel.” Yet a true tzaddik doesn’t degrade the mitzvos. So why use the word “heel” if it alludes to something only resha’im do? There must be deeper/further significance to the meaning. (Sefas Emes)

Her name was Bertha. I coddled and favored her and she dogged my footsteps constantly. Bertha was my right ankle. She came into existence one hot summer camp afternoon when I was 16.

During an impromptu game of Follow-the-Leader, my friends and I jumped out the dining room window. The window was only two feet high, and one by one, my friends landed safely.

I had the bad luck to land on my ankle in a small burrow hidden by the tall grass. I heard a sickening crack and knew I wasn’t going to be jumping out any more windows in the near future. Yet the X-ray showed that my ankle was only sprained, not snapped in two as I’d imagined. The injury earned me crutches and celebrity status as I got to ride up the hill for activities in the director’s aging sedan.

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