In this week’s Torah portion, Ekev, Moshe continues his words of strength and warning to the Jewish people to ready them for their entry into the land and their start as a nation. In the last verse of last week’s parsha Moshe tells them to guard the, “mitzvot, the chukim and the mishpatim.” The word mitzvot is a general term for the commandments, the word chukim refers to ritual commandments whose reasons we often do not understand, and mishpatim refers to ethical commandments whose reasons seem obvious to us. In the first verse of this week’s parsha though Moshe refers only to the “mishpatim,” the mostly interpersonal commandments, the reasons for which we generally understand: “And it will be (ekev) if you listen to these commandments (mishpatim) and guard and keep them, then God will keep the covenant and the kindness which he swore to your ancestors.”
Rashi comments on the word Ekev, the title of our parsha, since the word is a bit cryptic. Rashi points to the root of the word ekev which is connected to the word “akev” which means ankle: “If you keep the light commandments which people tend to crush under their ankle, (then God will keep the covenant).” The Keli yakar writes that Rashi is bothered by the inclusion here of only the word mishpatim and not chukim. And so he interprets the word ekev to mean the commandments which we tend to “crush with our foot”, ie, pay less attention to, because by this Rashi includes the “chukim”, the ritual commandments whose meaning we do not understand: “The chukim, mitzvot whose reasons we do not know, are included through the word ekev because these are the ones we tend to ignore and crush with our foot. We do this because Satan and the people of the world degrade in our minds those commandments which seemingly have no reason.” Intellectually we know that the mitzvot which guide our relationship with God and the mitzvot which facilitate our relationship with others are equally imprortant and fundamental to being a Jew, but in practice i think some of us indeed “crush with our heel” one category or another.
Thoguhout Jewish history there were groups and movements which put a great deal of stress on one element of Judaism over others. For instance, though the early Reform movement in the 1820’s was for the most part focused on changes in synagogue ritual, it soon became a movement which stressed the interpersonal over the ritual, calling itself “prophetic Judaism” after the prophets who said that God does not want your sacrifices but wants you to be kind to the widow and the orphen. Other examples were chsidey ashkenaz, the pietists of Germany in the 12th and 13th centuries, who especially stressed the accestic, the followers of Shabbati Tzevi in the early 17th century who stressed the mystical and the messianic over other things, and the Chasidim of the late 18th and early 19th century who were strongly criticized for emphasizing the ecstatic to the loss of other parts of Judaism.
It is important for us as modern Orthodox Jews to zoom out and look at ourselves. In what ways do we focus only on certain parts of Jewish life to the detriment of others? For instance, while certainly shabbat is one of the most important elements of Jewish religion and life, if that becomes the sum total of our Judaism and our weekdays contain little deep engagement with the Divine and the Torah, then this may quickly devolve into a partial Jewish life which will lack depth. As the month of Elul approaches let us examine ourselves to determine what parts of the Torah, which chukim and mishpatim are lacking our full attention and devotion.