By Rabbi Marco Del Monte
From head to heel
Parashat Ekev opens with the words “Vehayah ekev tishmeun”, “And it shall come to pass, as a consequence of your heeding.” The word ekev indicates what comes at the end, the consequence, but it also means “heel”.
Rashi uses precisely this meaning and explains that the Torah alludes to the mitzvot considered minor, those that man sometimes tends to “trample with his heel”. The heel inevitably brings us back to Yaakov Avinu, who is born with his hand grasping the heel of Esav. The Kli Yakar reads into this gesture something that goes far beyond the birth episode: Esav would have despised the birthright as something to be trampled on with the heel, whereas Yaakov grasps precisely what Esav disdains. And so, the Kli Yakar adds, Yaakov grasps and observes those minor mitzvot that men tend to trample upon. Esav thus represents the man who looks at what appears immediately great; Yaakov knows how to find greatness even in small things. It is no coincidence that the Ben Ish Chai sees in the name Yaakov the letter yud united with the word ekev: the highest dimension must manage to reach even the heel. At the same time, the name Yisrael recalls the rosh, the head. In the two names of the Patriarch who would give his name to the Jewish people we thus find a complete spiritual movement: aspiring to the heights of the head without ever neglecting what is at the height of the heel. But precisely when man reaches the rosh, when he grows, builds and achieves success, a new danger arises. Moshe warns Israel not to think: “My own might and the power of my hand have won me this wealth.” The Torah, however, does not respond by saying that man possesses no strength: “You shall remember Hashem your G-d, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth.” The Ben Ish Chai defines this awareness as “the foundation of the existence of the world”: man must remember that what he manages to achieve does not stem from an autonomous force, but from a received force. The Nefesh HaChayim takes this principle even deeper by explaining the Name Elokim as “Ba'al hakochot kulam”, the Master of all forces. Every force existing in the world continually receives from Hashem its possibility to exist and to act; if this influence were to cease even for an instant, nothing could continue to exist. The Nefesh HaChayim explains that if, Heaven forbid, H” wanted to destroy the world He would not need to send destructive forces; it would suffice not to supply any longer that energy which sustains the world and gives it life. True humility, therefore, does not consist in denying one's own abilities. A man can be intelligent, strong, rich, capable and even aware of being so. The question is whether he considers himself the origin of that force or the recipient of that force. It is precisely here that the Orchot Tzaddikim identifies the root of gaavah—arrogance. In the first chapter, dedicated precisely to pride, it quotes the sequence of our Parashah: abundance leads to the lifting up of the heart; this leads to forgetting Hashem; right up to “the might and power of my hands”. Gaavah is not merely feeling great: it is forgetting the Source of one's greatness. Perhaps then Ekev teaches us what man's path should be. We must aspire to the rosh: grow in Torah, in knowledge, in abilities and in responsibilities. But the higher we climb, the more we must preserve something of Yaakov, of that yud capable of reaching all the way to the ekev. Because true greatness does not consist in remaining small, but in becoming great without greatness making us forget where we come from. Being Yisrael means being able to reach very high with our head, while continuing to know that even the smallest step of our heel is possible solely thanks to the One who gives us the strength to take it. Perhaps this is truly the path that transforms Yaakov into Yisrael and that each of us is called to walk: never abandoning the ekev while aspiring to the rosh, not forgetting the small things while seeking the great ones, not forgetting the Source while our strength grows. Only then can man become that ladder that Yaakov saw in his dream, planted firmly in the earth with its head reaching the heavens: because perhaps man's task is not to flee from the earth to reach Heaven, but to live so profoundly what is below that he manages, step by step, to unite it with what is Above. Shabbat Shalom
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.