By: Renée Rockford
President & CEO
This week’s parsha, eikev, in its most literal sense, means “heel,” which Rashi explains refers to seemingly less important mitzvot that we toss off, fail to do, and that get trampled under a person’s heel. But eikev also means “because.” Because (eikev) we will listen and do those less important mitzvot (eikev), as well as the most often directed ones, we will be blessed with a whole list of blessings, including miraculous victories over those we fear.
Yet sometimes, the difference between a less important mitzvot and the most important ones might not be so obvious.
Let me explain: my father used to tell me how, in the waning days of World War II, when he had spent nearly five years as a concentration camp prisoner, the Nazis would march him and others to the mountains of Austria from a subcamp of Mauthausen. Every day, they hiked up the mountain to rock quarries, forced to shovel rock all day long, a sick and sinister way to exhaust them to the point of near-death. One day on that uphill walk, my father saw a bricklayer building a stone wall near the mountain path. The bricklayer motioned to my father, showing him that between two bricks, instead of mortar, he had placed a slice of bread, and he did so for many days after. With so many hungry and emaciated prisoners, how could that mason think that a few calories might make a difference for one hungry prisoner, let alone hundreds? Was his act – for which he risked his own life – a paltry attempt to address insatiable hunger, or was his the ultimate mitzvah of pikuach nefesh, or “saving a life?”
May we each find delight and inspiration in doing mitzvot both large and small.
Shabbat Shalom.
Please email Renée Rockford at rrockford@jewishcolorado.org with questions or comments.