Harry's Video Blog - Don't Be a Heel: Parshat Eikev

two stories first one twice a year as some of you who have been watching these videos may have noticed I stopped shaving for the first 33 days while we were counting the OM after Passover and for the 3 weeks before Tisha buff earlier this year I was traveling during those days after Passover and I took out my ID and I handed it to the TSA agent in the airport security line and she looked at me looked at my ID looked at me looked at my ID looked at me again and at this I started to worry did I somehow get myself onto the No Fly list and finally she smiled and she said I like the beard and I was so flabbergast that I I had to collect myself before I could respond and I said thank you so much you know no one has ever told me that before and I walked to the gate with a big smile on my face Story number two I have a friend who took his family once and they were visiting a certain area and they pulled up in their van right in front of an ice cream store got out went inside got ice cream and then came back outside got into their van they're about to pull away when another fellow with his family pulled up in his van right alongside them double parking them in so that they couldn't get out now In fairness to the other guy they were in an area in which it is not uncommon to double Park I don't want to say the name of the city because that wouldn't be appropriate so my friend gets out of his car walks around to the other fellow's vehicle and says hey excuse me I can't get out because you've double parked me in but I'm leaving just move back let me out and you can take my spot by this time the other fellow has gotten out of his van and he says take it easy I'm just going into the ice cream store with my family we'll be right out so he goes into the ice cream store with his family waits in the line orders gets his ice cream finally comes back out and then and only then lets my friend pull out from the spot my friend said that it took all of his strength not to pound the guy into the pavement two stories one random act of kindness one random act of unkindness neither one of them so enormous in fact both may be relatively trivial but one made someone's day and the other ruined someone's day at the beginning of this week's total portion the Torah uses a very strange word to describe the reward that we will get for observing the Commandments the word is AEV it literally means a heal why a heal Rashi the greatest of the biblical commentators tells us that in this instance the Torah is talking about those seemingly trivial moments those Commandments that we typically tread upon we walk over them with our heels because we don't take them seriously and that's why our rabbis caution us never think that you know the reward or the punishment for a particular Mitzvah or transgression because for all you know doing a Mitzvah that you think is a trivial one may have vast Cosmic repercussions and communic transgression that you think is a minor one may have massive consequences there's another reason a double scoop of meaning if you will if you want to go back to our ice cream store why the Torah may have used the term AEV or heal to remind us God gave us our feet for a reason there are certain Commandments that we can only do by traveling to do them if they have nine men in the synagogue and they need a tenth for a minion you got to walk over there or get in your car and get there if you're going to visit a sick person he's in the hospital you got to go to him a mner at a Shiva house is not coming to you you've got to travel there to console him and certainly the Mitzvah of escorting the dead to their final destination requires you to show up at the funeral or the cemetery in person and so maybe God's telling us by using that strange word to put down the remote control the baseball season is still far away from the playoffs hockey and basketball are over football hasn't started yet get out laas up your sneakers or get into your car or on your skateboard or your scooter or your Segway or your bicycle or your boat and go visit the sick or console a mourner or escort the dead or make a minion little acts huge [Music] Rewards