Shnayim Yomi - Shemot - R'vi'i - #4 - Rabbi Efrem Goldberg - Full Presence and Empathy

In the fourth aliyah, when Moshe now is on the run because he's fleeing for his life, he stepped up and he stood up, he intervened and interjected himself into a conflict, and now he is making his way shepherding the sheep of Yisro, his father-in-law, and he comes across this bush that's burning but it's not being consumed. Hashem calls to him and Hashem tells him, "Shal na'alecha me'al raglecha ki hamakom asher ata omed alav admat kodesh hu." Take your shoes off because you're in a holy place. And in fact, this is the halacha. On Har HaBayit, not allowed to wear leather shoes. On Yom Kippur, we're in a holy place, not allowed to wear leather shoes. Moshe Rabbeinu is in that holy place, not allowed to wear leather shoes. What's the idea and the image of Moshe taking his shoes off? And there are many ideas and interpretations. One, that while you're talking to Hashem, you have nowhere else to be, nowhere else you can go. To be fully present, fully concentrating, giving all of your attention, is to take off your shoes. We need shoes to be independent, to walk around, to accomplish, to achieve, to travel. We have to stand still without shoes. Whenever we're with Hashem, we're trying to demonstrate we're not distracted, there is nowhere else we want to go or be. All we are is with Hashem. But there's more than that. When a person is not wearing shoes, they feel the pain, they feel what's happening on the ground. Hashem is telling Moshe, "If you're going to be the leader of the Jewish people, you cannot wear protection around your foot. To be a leader is to feel pain, is to empathize with pain. It is to be able to not numb ourselves or avoid pain, but to be able to identify with the pain of people around us. And therefore, as Moshe is being recruited to be a leader, "Shal na'alecha me'al raglecha." Take off your shoes, take off that protection. Feel the pain. Know there's nowhere else to go when you're standing in front of Hashem, who is "Hamaychin mitz'adei gaver." He prepares our footsteps, he enables us to go everywhere we do, and we have to thank him. And when we're with him, he deserves our full attention. If we aim and aspire to be leaders in our own families and our own lives, then we too need to have our full attention when we're with Hashem.