This week's parasha is עקב. The word has a few meanings, but in context it means "because of"/"due to"/"as a result of". The first few verses tell us that as a result of harkening to, safeguarding, and performing the משפטים/laws that HaShem has commanded, HaShem will keep the covenant that He made with you, and will show you the kindness He promised to your ancestors. And He will love, bless, and multiply you. And He will bless the fruit of your soil -- grain, wine, and oil. And He will bless your flocks. And He will love you above all other nations. And neither your nor any of your cattle will be sterile nor barren nor ever miscarry. And He will remove all sickness from you. And He will take care of your enemies by giving them the kind of diseases you knew about in Egypt.
Those are things that most owners don't even think about. I mean, if some condiments were left, they would leave them; but they wouldn't stock the house with them. These are little things, but it meant the world to us to find everything and more in place for us to enjoy our family time and the simcha.
That is a pretty fair offer, no? One might even say more than fair. Now the more usual word for "because of"/"due to"/"as a result of" would be בגלל or maybe even בשביל. Chazal took notice and Rashi brings that because this use of the word עקב is unusual, we can understand more about what HaShem is promising by looking at the usual meaning/use of the word עקב, which is "heel"; as in the heel of the foot. Chazal tell us that all these amazing promises, blessings, and love come from taking care to heed the “light” commandments that a person tramples with his heel (עֵקֶב).
Umm... what? All that stuff for keeping the light mitzvos, the little stuff that people trample; that is, practically ignore? I know I am retired now, but I was 50 years in the workforce. One of the things I miss least are annual reviews. Most years were good, though I have a few less than pleasant reviews. I also had some outstanding reviews. (The last few years it was just annoying to be reviewed by someone 30 years my junior.) I had a few different "careers". They all involved programming and data analysis. Of course, I had to also track my vacation time and attend staff meetings -- stuff that nobody really likes, sometimes ignore -- classically the kind of light tasks that people tend to trample with their heel. No matter how well I did those things, I never had a manager heap blessings on me because of my good attendance to staff meetings. It never, ever led to a promotion nor even a raise. In fact, it never came up. No manager ever mentioned those things even once. So what is going on here? HaShem heaps blessings and love on us because of what?
We are here in Florida this week to celebrate my mother-in-law's 90th birthday, bli ayin hara. We are really excited and the whole family is here. We even rented a house with a pool for the out of town family to all be together with us. (We are also out of town here, of course. 😊) We are paying a nice price for it; fair, but not cheap. It comes with beds, linens, refrigerator, oven, air conditioning, Of course it comes with all those things. What would a rental be without those? It also has a coffee maker and urn. It is a kosher home, so also meat and dairy utensils. All stuff needed for a nice stay.
It also has s'farim. And books for both adults and children -- dozens. It also has games and toys for children of all ages. That is already beyond usual expectations. I said coffee maker? Also coffee, high quality coffee (Nespresso) with many flavors of pods. I have never seen that before. The lights in all the rooms are Shabbos lights! And condiments. Kiddush cup. Wine and beer. As we saw all the little extras, we just felt the owner really cared about us having a perfect stay. We also had direct communication with the owner over WhatsApp. The owner didn't just say "feel free to ask about anything", she proactively reached out to tell us about things we might have missed. We not only felt that we could communicate whenever we needed, we felt that the owner wanted us to communicate.
Those are things that most owners don't even think about. I mean, if some condiments were left, they would leave them; but they wouldn't stock the house with them. These are little things, but it meant the world to us to find everything and more in place for us to enjoy our family time and the simcha.
When we do those light mitzvos that most people trample, we show HaShem that we don't view mitzvos as a burden, nor even as a means to getting reward. We show that we love doing mitzvos so much that we even look for more mitzvos. And when we have done all the mitzvos we can, we look for ways to do them better and with more enthusiasm. We look for ways to do things that could bring us more mitzvos. The mitzvos are things we, nebbich, have to do; they mitzvos are little messages of love we use to show HaShem how much we love Him and love being part of Klal Yisrael.
Shabbos, kashrus, davening... of course we have to do those; we are Jews, after all. The light mitzvos that most people trample? Ah... that is pure love language.
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