This week’s parsha, my bar-mitzvah parsha, is parshas Eikev. The names parshos are given are not a coincident. The one word that makes the name of a parsha always has a deep lesson.
The word ‘Eikev’ is translated as ‘because’ as in “because of your listening to these laws,” this and this will happen.
Another meaning of Eikev can be ‘heel’. This gives us two lessons;
Rashi explains that this teaches that we should be careful to fulfill even the seemingly minor mitzvot which we might tend to “trample over with our heels” as Rashi puts it.
Another explanation is that Eikev, heel, refers to the generation right before moshiach, our generation, which is said by our sages to be “on the heels of moshiach.” According to the Tzemach Tzedeck it’s a time when the Jews will listen to the laws and hasten the coming of moshiach.
But how are these two explanations connected? And what is the true meaning of “being on the heels of moshiach?”
As some of you have learned, many explain that our generation is so special because we are completing the “last licks” as you might say of all the generations before us. We’re simply doing the last bit of hard work that all the previous generations did. But we learn from the name of the parsha that we have a special quality, that we are called on the heels of moshiach.
Being likened to the heel has a special significance. The Fredikre Rebbe explains in one of his meimarim that the heel is much easier to put in hot water than the head. Why is this so? The most complicated and physically highest organ in the body is the brain. We learn in chasidus that the brain is also the place where the G-dly soul is most manifest. As you go down the body you find the organs become less refined. The heart is less complicated than the brain. The liver less refined than the heart and so on. The lowest and least refined part of the body is the foot.
Chasidus explains that the soul has certain powers. There are two levels of these soul powers. The first level, the powers of intellect and emotion, are particular powers which are not manifest in the body equally. The power of intellect for one has its source in the brain. However, a certain amount of the soul’s power of intellect has to be revealed to the rest of the body in order to perform its functions. A good example is learning how to write. A glimmer of the soul’s power of intellect is passed to the hand in order to be able to write. However, the intellect revealed to the rest of the body is a mere glimmer compared to that in the brain. Also the levels of intellect revealed vary according to the organ. In general, the further from the brain, the less intellect is revealed to that organ. We see this by how the organs get simpler and simpler as we move further from the brain.
Now the second level of soul powers has the power of will. The power of will is different. It is manifest throughout the whole body in the same way. When I want to move my hand, my hand just moves. When I want to kick my foot, it just does it. It doesn’t matter which part of my body it is because the power if will is the same. So if the power of will surrounds the entire body then it also affects the brain too. I can decide what I want to think about. But there’s a funny thing about the power of will over the brain. The power of will is not as strong over the brain as other parts of the body! Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head and couldn’t make it stop? That’s an example of how will doesn’t effect the brain the same way it affects the rest of the body.
Why is this so? Because the brain is such a strong source of intellect that the power of will is less effective on it.
So this answers why the foot is easier to put in hot water that the head. As we pointed out, the further you get from the brain, the less intellect is given to that part of the body. So the foot would have the least amount of intellect! Therefore the foot is more obedient to the soul’s will than the head.
So that’s why our generation is so lucky to be called “on the heels of moshiach.” True, we lack the deep knowledge and understanding of the torah of the generations before us, the “heads” of our generation, but we, like the heel, are more faithful than ever before. This is Mesirus Nefesh, total self-sacrifice to do G-d’s will, even if it means immersing ourselves in hot water; we just do it because Hashem said.
And that’s how these two explanations are connected. We, like the heel, lack the knowledge of the generations of the temple to understand the true meanings behind the mitzvos. Instead we just do all the mitzvos simply because G-d told us too.
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