Parshah Summary – P’shat
The third parshah of Sefer Devarim continues with Moses’ closing address to the Children of Israel, promising them that if (Eikev) they will fulfill the mitzvot, they will prosper in the Land: “…a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey.”
Moses also rebukes them for their failings in their first generation as a people, recalling their worship of the Golden Calf, the rebellion of Korach and the sin of the spies. But he also speaks of forgiveness and the Second Tablets, instructing them in the core principles of “circumcising the heart,” and the mitzvah to “love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Moses explains that their forty years in the desert, during which they were sustained with daily “manna” from heaven, was to teach them “that a human being does not live by bread alone, but by all that emanates from the mouth of the Divine does a person live!” Moses describes the land they are about to enter as “flowing with milk and honey,” blessed with the “seven species” – wheat, barley, grapevines, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. He warns them to be aware, lest they become arrogant and begin to believe of themselves that “my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth…”
Torah of Awakening
וְהָיָ֣ה עֵ֣קֶב תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן אֵ֤ת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְשָׁמַר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ לְךָ֗ אֶֽת־הַבְּרִית֙ וְאֶת־הַחֶ֔סֶד אֲשֶׁ֥ר נִשְׁבַּ֖ע לַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃ And it will be if you listen to these discernments and guard them and do them, then Hashem your God will guard for you the covenant and the kindness which was sworn to your ancestors… - Devarim (Deuteronomy) 7:12 Parshat Eikev
There’s a story of Reb Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, that once, when his grandfather was teaching him Torah as a young boy, they came to this verse: עֵ֕קֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַ֥ע אַבְרָהָ֖ם בְּקֹלִ֑י – Because (eikev) Abraham listened to my voice… and Menachem Mendel’s grandfather asked him to explain it. The child said, “Abraham heard God’s Voice even with his עֵקֶב eikev – his heel!”
The grandfather, Reb Shneur Zalman, was ecstatic with his answer and said, “In fact we find this same idea in another verse: וְהָיָ֣ה עֵ֣קֶב תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן – It will be if you listen... This verse tells us we should strive to become so sensitive that even our eikev – our heel – should ‘listen,’ meaning that we should sense the holiness that permeates all creation even with the most insensitive part of our bodies.” This story cleverly summarizes the fruit of spiritual practice: The sensitizing and tuning of awareness into the sacred dimension that underlies all experience. Part of the way we accomplish this is through the addition of practices and structures in our lives that help to develop consciousness, similarly to the way in which the addition of physical exercise develops the body. But the other important element is not a form of addition, but subtraction – meaning, intentionally refraining from taking, and consequently the having of less. Do you know the sensation of drinking water after the 25-hour fast of Yom Kippur? Several days after a huge earthquake in Haiti, television news showed a man searching day and night for his wife who was buried somewhere under a collapsed building. After something like five days, a voice was heard from beneath the rubble. Men dug furiously toward the voice. Soon they pulled out this man’s wife. She had been buried, no space to move, no food or water for several days. What did she do? She sang hymns! As they pulled her out, she was moving and singing. She was clapping her hands, crying “Halleluyah!” Incomprehensible – but there it was: she was singing in gratitude for her life, for the sunlight, for being able to move. That’s sensitivity. The principle to remember is: the more you get, the less sensitive you are to what you already have; hence the tendency to always want MORE. This is so obvious with children. We want the best for them. We want to give them everything. And yet, the more we give, the more they want. Giving them more and more doesn’t always satisfy them more; it can create spoilage. So, it turns out, if we want to give them more, we sometimes have to give them less. וְהָיָ֣ה עֵ֣קֶב תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן – It shall be if you listen… The sentence is strange, because as we saw in the story, the word עֵקֶב eikev really means “heel.” Here, it is understood to mean “if” or “because” or “consequence.” This meaning is probably related to the English idiom when we say that something “follows on the heels” of another thing. The thing that “follows on the heels” is the consequence. עֵ֣קֶב תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן eikev tishma’un can also be translated as “reward for listening” as in “the positive consequence” of “paying attention,” or being sensitive. What is the reward? בָּר֥וּךְ תִּֽהְיֶ֖ה מִכׇּל־הָעַמִּ֑ים – Blessed you will be from all the peoples… In other words, you will receive and appreciate all the blessedness of being a person among people – the gift of being human. This is the whole point of all of those traditional spiritual practices that restrict you in some way, such as fasting. Their message is: don’t keep going in the direction of “more.” Go in the direction of less, even if just for a small period of time, so that you can consciously receive the blessedness of being, rather than constantly looking toward the horizon of the future for more gratification. וַֽיְעַנְּךָ֮ וַיַּרְעִבֶ֒ךָ֒ … לְמַ֣עַן הוֹדִֽיעֲךָ֗ כִּ֠י לֹ֣א עַל־הַלֶּ֤חֶם לְבַדּוֹ֙ יִחְיֶ֣ה הָֽאָדָ֔ם כִּ֛י עַל־כׇּל־מוֹצָ֥א פִֽי־יְהֹוָ֖ה יִחְיֶ֥ה הָאָדָֽם׃ You were afflicted and hungered… so that you would know: not by bread alone does a person live, but by everything that emanates from the mouth of the Divine does a person live! - Devarim (Deuteronomy) 8:3 In other words, to truly live, you have to feel your most basic needs. You have to hunger a little. Otherwise, you won’t appreciate your life and sustenance as a gift, as coming from the “Divine mouth.” And, while fasting and other traditional restrictions can be useful aids, you can actually practice this in a small but powerful way every time you are about to eat. Rather than just digging in, take a moment. Delay the first bite. Appreciate. Say a brakha – either the traditional one or something in your own words. When you are finished, don’t just get up and go. Take a moment… וְאָכַלְתָּ֖ וְשָׂבָ֑עְתָּ וּבֵֽרַכְתָּ֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ עַל־הָאָ֥רֶץ הַטֹּבָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָֽתַן־לָֽךְ׃ – And you shall eat, and you shall be satisfied, and you shall bless… 8:10 In this week of Shabbat Eikev, the Sabbath of the Heel, may we practice sensitivity to the many gifts of sustenance that often get taken for granted. Most of all, may we be sensitive to the one gift that holds all the others: the gift of the space of awareness within which all experience unfolds. Don’t hurry through the present moment to get to the next thing. There is only one life to enjoy – and that is the one you are living, in this moment…
Read past teachings on Eikev HERE.
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