BIG on the Little Things - Rabbi Ya’akov Asher Sinclair

If you think about it, it's really amazing that we can stand. Our skeleton is built with two legs containing lockable knee joints and an upright spine to provide [music] a column of support. Our ears contain fluid-filled canals and small organs containing calcium stones. As you move, the fluid slosh around and the stones roll, activating nerves that tell your muscles how to keep you upright. When we stand up, gravity causes blood to pool in our legs, dropping our blood pressure. But near our heart, there are baroreceptors [music] detecting the drop in our blood pressure, and they act very quickly to counter the [music] drop by speeding up the heart and making it beat stronger. The brain provides a motor cortex and dopamine to help [music] us stand. And last, but far from least, is the heel that the tens of kilos of the human frame balances on. In Parshat Ekev, the Torah says, "And it will [music] be if you hearken." The Torah here uses the word Ekev to mean [music] if. Now, that's an unusual choice. Usually, Ekev means a heel. [music] Rashi explains that if we keep the seemingly insignificant mitzvahs that people [music] tread on with their heels, so to speak, then God will bless our lives in every [music] way. Why should a little heel? Why should the little things be so important? [music] The truth of our bonding with both God and our fellow man [music] is not shown by our grand gestures. It's the little things that show how we really feel. >> [music] >> If you care, you're big on the little things.