“And it shall come to pass, because (eikev) you will listen... HaShem your G-d will keep for you the covenant...” (Devarim 7:12)
Rashi explains: “If you heed even the seemingly minor mitzvos that a person tramples with his heels (eikev).”
We have written previously about Rebbe Nachman's teaching that when a person experiences such deep and genuine joy that it reaches all the way down to his feet, causing him to dance, this too is alluded to by the word vehayah—an expression of joy—and by eikev, the heel. When joy descends all the way to one's heels, a person merits that HaShem Himself, so to speak, guards the covenant (bris) for him.
Joy and guarding the bris always go hand in hand. It is impossible to find someone who has stumbled through forbidden sights and then walks away from the screen with a face filled with genuine joy, serenity, and inner peace. Such a thing simply does not exist.
Reb Avraham Chazan writes in Kokhavei Ohr about the importance of dancing, as was always the custom among Breslov Chassidim. He says that not a single day should pass without dancing, so that we compel ourselves to bring our joy all the way down to our feet. He explains that this is the deeper meaning hidden within Rashi's words, "the mitzvos that a person tramples with his heels."
For many people, it is difficult to see someone dancing simply because he is happy to be a Jew, or because he merited to pray Shacharis, or for any other spiritual achievement. Such behavior is the exact opposite of the world's outlook. Therefore, these are the "mitzvos that a person tramples with his heels" - practices that are difficult even for us as Breslov Chassidim to fulfill with simplicity: to rejoice wholeheartedly and to dance as our predecessors did.
To this, the Torah responds with its holy words: "Vehayah eikev tishme'un." Fill yourselves with joy, dance over the priceless gift of being Jewish, and then you will merit that HaShem Himself will help you guard the holiness of the bris.
May HaShem help us fulfill this teaching with simplicity and sincerity, until we merit to witness the true and complete Redemption. Amen.
Shabbat Shalom
Chaim Kramer |
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