Parshat Ekev – Because (You hearkened…)
CARLSBAD, California — This week we read the portion titled, “Ekev,” which means ‘Because’ (you hearkened). The portion begins by articulating a very interesting proposition as the Almighty offers the Jewish people a deal in which He promises all sorts of beautiful blessings because they listened/followed the Divine Commandments (aka Mitzvos). Being that this portion is in the Book of Deuteronomy we understand that this is Moses conveying his impression of G-d’s word. Moses is reminding the people that we have entered into a contract with the Master of the Universe; a contract that stipulates since we will do what we need to, the Creator will reciprocate with all manner of blessings.
There is an alternative translation of ‘Ekev’ that has great significance as well. The word ‘Ekev’ means heel. The commentaries explain that we are being promised that if, or better yet since, we will follow all commandments, even those that often get trampled underfoot because they seem less important, we will be blessed in wondrous ways.
The world has a saying, “The devil is in the details.” That is understood to mean that those details that many feel are minutiae, are actually quite important – essential even to achieving success. As Jews we look to the Torah for life-guiding wisdom. In this case we are saying that, “The G-dliness is in the details!” When we are mindful of the fine points of a Torah observant life we will indeed experience incredible blessings.
Can we take a moment and imagine an insignificant sounding Mitzvah that can actually bring us meaningful blessings?
Let us use an extremely straightforward commandment – to say a blessing when we enjoy something; for instance before eating a fruit we say the blessing thanking G-d for the fruit of the tree. We Jews are actually expert ‘blessings sayers’ as we have almost limitless opportunities to say blessings. Throughout the day we put many things, all Kosher of course, into our mouths. Due to the regularity of the activity many may come to take the food for granted. How many of us eat mindlessly?
If we can train ourselves to be more self-aware and to carefully acknowledge the Source of the sustenance that we are enjoying, that will certainly positively affect our outlook on life. The more grateful a person is the more joyful that person will be. The more joyful a person is the more blessings he will see, as he sees the world through ‘rose colored glasses’.
We understand from this that the blessing on the food has far-reaching and deeply profound consequences. The simple act of acclimating ourselves to acknowledging the Source of our blessings will cause us to perceive more and more blessings, which will turn any pessimist into an optimist!
Let us endeavor to be more mindful of the Divine Commandments, and not to, G-d forbid, trample any of them underfoot. Let us embrace the manifest blessings in our life and ride the joyous feeling transforming our landscape from darkness into light and from negativity into the ultimate positivity!
Wishing everyone an uplifting, joyous, and HEALTHY Shabbos!
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Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort is Director of Coastal Chabads and Chabad at La Costa. Rabbi Eilfort welcomes readers’ comments and questions and may be reached at RabbiE@ChabadatLaCosta.com.