Rabbi's Blog

A few weeks ago, out of the blue as I was walking I caught myself favoring one foot over the other. I found it difficult to put pressure on my left foot, especially when walking barefoot. For some reason it felt better and less acute when wearing socks and even more so wearing shoes. After I gave up on my usual stubbornness and natural tendency towards martyrdom, I decided to actually look and see what and why my foot hurt. Lo and behold, I had a nasty callus that just appeared out of nowhere. A similar condition comes from a cousin of the callus known as the corn. From where and why do a calluses and corns come? 

Corns and calluses are thick, hardened layers of skin that develop when the skin tries to protect itself against friction and pressure. They most often develop on  feet and toes or hands and fingers. Corns and calluses can be unsightly. If you're healthy, you need treatment for corns and calluses only if they cause discomfort. For most people, simply eliminating the source of friction or pressure makes corns and calluses disappear. Callous comes from the Latin root callum for hard skin. Walking barefoot a lot can cause feet to become calloused. I needed an over-the-counter treatment which within a few weeks killed the dead skin around the callus and eventually peeled away, leaving new fresh skin underneath.

I began to wonder why I had this callus and what  I did wrong to deserve the discomfort it brought me. There is the concept of Midda Kneged Midda – measure for measure - and I tried to calculate perhaps what Mitzva I’d neglected. Of the six hundred thirteen mitzvos, most are performed by hand, mouth, or just being in attendance; very few are accomplished through use of one’s foot. Although some of the baalei mussar emphasize the point that it is our feet which bring us to the places where we fulfill mitzvos or violate the aveiros -  sins - the feet themselves don’t actually commit the sin. Or do they?

We usually use callous in the metaphorical sense through referring to the emotionally hardened. If someone is unmoved by other people's problems, one might say he shows a callous indifference towards human suffering. It is interesting to note that an emotionally hardened, insensitive person is described as a callous person. A callous person has deadened his feelings and emotions. Generally speaking, this definition is used with regard to relationships between man and his fellow man. Perhaps it is appropriate to suggest that callousness includes man’s relationship with God.

In this week’s parshas Emor we read about the festival cycle beginning with Pesach and ending with Shmini Atzeres. Although the commandment to “go up” to Yerushalayim is found later in the Torah and limited to Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos, we nevertheless understand the concept is implied here in Emor as well. In Vayikra 23:4 the Torah states: “Eileh Moadei Hashem Mikraei Kodesh Asher Tikriu Osam B’Moadam”: “These are God’s festivals that you must celebrate as sacred holidays at their appropriate times.” The Gerrer Rebbe, Reb Itzchak Meir Rotenburg, explains that the calling of the appropriate times are sacred times. These appointed, appropriate times draw the person to holiness. This is why only three verses later the Torah states: “Bayom HaRishon Mikrah Kodesh Yihyeh Lachem”: “The first day shall be a sacred holiday for you…” that you will be called and drawn to holiness.

We may ask, “Who exactly is being drawn to holiness and given an opportunity to become holy -  the Torah scholars or the average Jew? Rav Avraham Lichtenstein, in his sefer Kanfei Nesharim, says it is speaking to the general population, the average Jew who is not involved in Torah study all the time. Quite often lay people are busy with work, business, and other activities limiting their time and involvement in pursuing Torah study which, in turn, provides man with the tools to reach ever greater spiritual heights. These appointed times are designed for the average Balei Bos to use Shabbos and Yom Tov to study more Torah and be drawn more deeply so as to be called ‘holy’. The Torah is a book of life from which we read and learn so as to know and more deeply understand the mitzvos of the Torah and to review the customs and laws of how to fulfill them. Shabbos and Yom Tov are imbued with holiness; it is a time for us to draw from that a special Ruach HaKodesh -  a certain Divine, spirited inspiration for us to receive and understand more of the Torah. Similarly, the concept of having a neshama Yeseira - an extra soul on Shabbos and Yom Tov from which we receive physical nourishment, we also draw spiritual and intellectual nourishment from that same extra neshama. Shabbos and Yom Tov are a call to become spiritually charged.  These holy days  are imbued with the charging device and the time to do so.

One of the distinctions between Yom Tov and Shabbos is the fact that we, not Hashem, determine when Yom Tov will fall out based upon the sanctification of the moon. The Mitzva of Kiddush HaChodesh was the first Mitzva given to Klal Yisroel as a nation. Apparently, up until that point the decision to calculate the holidays was still in God’s court, not the earthly court. This is supported by a Midrash Rabbah Devarim 2:9 that states: “HaKadosh Baruch Hu said before the Torah was given the Moadim - thefestivals / appointed times - belonged to Me. From now on it belongs to you.” The Midrash quotes that our verse was originally  ‘Moadei Hashem’ but then it was Asher Tir’u Osam - that which now is determined by them. 

The Mitzva of going up to Yerushalayim on the festivals encourages us to take the right steps in order to grow closer to Hashem. We establish when those holidays will occur, placing the initiative directly upon us. In today’s day and age we cannot formally fulfill this mitzvah without a Beis HaMidash,but there are some strong suggestions as to what we can do in the absence of the Temple. One of those suggestions is to take Yom Tov seriously as a time to get closer to Hashem. Perhaps I didn’t use my time during Yom Tov carefully by using the time to go up and therefore was reminded of my ‘callousness’ towards Hashem by developing a callus on the part of the body that didn’t take me where I was supposed to go.

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

*Yitzchak Meir Rotenberg-Alter Rothenberg Alter, born 1799, died March 10, 1866 was the first Rebbe of the Ger Hasidic dynasty, which he founded in the town of Góra Kalwaria (known as "Ger" in Yiddish), Poland. He headed the Kupath Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Kollel Polen (Poland) Varsha (Warsaw). He was also known as The Chiddushei HaRim (החדושי הרי"ם) for his Torah writings, and was sometimes fondly called Reb Itche Meir (Yiddish) by his followers.

*Rabbi Avraham Lichtenstein was an eighteenth-century rabbi of Prassnysz, in the region of Plotzk, Poland, and author of Kanfei Nesharim