Netvort Parshas Eikev 5770: Walk Softly
By Rabbi Joshua (ambulatorily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Parshas Eikev begins with the statement, "If you will (eikev) listen to these judgments and guard and do them, then the Lord, your God will keep the covenant and the kindness which He promised to your fathers
." (Devarim 7:12). What is the precise translation of the word "eikev”? Ramban says that it means, 'as a result of.' Rashi however, famously says that the word alludes to the heel of the foot, called eikev, and the Torah is telling us that if we keep those seemingly small mitzvos which people tread on with their heels, God will reward us.  Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, in his Aperion, explains, somewhat differently, that we will receive reward for walking to do a mitzvah. Since the Talmud tells us that the reward for a mitzvah comes in the next world, the Torah could not be referring to the reward we will receive for the actual mitzvah, but rather, to the rewards we will receive for the preparation behind a mitzvah, such as walking to a synagogue to pray, or to a study hall to learn Torah. The word Eikev, then, according to Rabbi Ganzfried, is related to the heel in the sense of walking, rather than treading, as Rashi explains it. This explanation can, however, be squared with Rashi's comment that the word alludes to the seemingly small mitzvos that a person treads on being important as the mitzvah itself, and therefore Moshe here is telling the people to be careful in preparing properly before performing a mitzvah.

Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, in his Ohr HaChaim, offers an explanation of the word eikev, as used in our verse, that is somewhat similar to that of the Aperion in that he connects it to how a person walks, but his explanation carries a different message. He says that a person should walk in a humble and lowly manner, with his heal touching his big toe. Rabbi Reuven Margolis, in his notes to the Ohr HaChaim, Ner LaMaor, points out that this comment needs to be understood, because the Talmud in Sotah, 22b,  tells us that it is wrong to walk in such a way, and that one can end up hitting his toe against some object and harming himself by walking in this fashion. The Rambam, in fact, codifies this Talmudic statement in his Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Deos, 5:8), applying it to a Torah scholar, and saying that it is, in fact a sign of arrogance. Rabbi Margolis suggests that there is a misprint in the Ohr Hachaim, and he meant to say that one should not walk with his heel touching his heel, but, rather, in a humble way. Rabbi Avraham Korman, in his HaParsha Ledoroseiha, also raises the problem from the passage in Sotah, and gives, basically, a similar explanation of the Ohr HaChaim.  I believe that this explanation, as well, can be reconciled with Rashi's explanation, because it is an indication of humility for a person to devote himself to performing all of the mitzvos, and not just those that are well publicized and popular. A person may, for example, put great efforts into purchasing the most beautiful esrog available, but not pay much attention to other mitzvos which are not done publicly. In fact, there is a popular saying that the letters of the Hebrew word esrog refer to the words in the verse in Psalms, 'al tevoeini regel ga'avah' which is a prayer asking to be saved from haughtiness. Sometimes people exhibit a certain amount of haughtiness in the way in which they perform a mitzvah which is not matched by the way they perform seemingly lesser mitzvos. The Torah, then, is telling us to perform all of the mitzvos with equal fervor, but to be  humble in the way we perform them, even if we do expend a  great deal of money on some of them.

Following the explanation of the Ohr HaChaim, it is significant that Moshe delivered this message precisely at this point in his life, in his farewell oration to the people as recorded in the book Devorim. As we have noted in the past, the Ramban expands the teaching of the rabbis, that the language of the section of rebuke of Devorim was formulated by Moshe, to apply to the entire book of Devorim, so that there is a certain personal element with which Moshe infused in the entire book. The Torah in parshas Beha'aloscha, tells us that Moshe was the most humble person on earth, and, so it is appropriate for him, in the book of Devorim, in which he incorporated elements of his own personality, to teach the people that they should walk humbly with God even when performing His commandments.

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