I Love Those Shoes | Mr. Charlie Harary

There's a fascinating pasuk in Shir HaShirim. It goes, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is looking פעמייך - שלוש פעמים בשנה is looking at Klal Yisroel come to Yerushalayim. He's looking and He’s going, Wow, how beautiful are those... shoes! Really, the shoes? That’s what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is focusing on? Like, what does that mean? So there's a great piece I saw in Rav Meilech’s Haggadah, quoting Rav Shlomo Zalman, who quotes the Vilna Maggid. And here's what he says, listen to this. A man leaves his house in the Galil, let's say, and he's going for שלוש רגלים. What do you think it was like when they left their house? You think it was like a party? I'm sure his wife's, like: Take this one. I can't take this one. He's too little, he's too big. Daddy, I want to go. -You can't go. I don't want to go. He's talking to his teenage son. I don't want to be there. His 3-year-old wants to be there, but he can’t take them. It's probably... just to leave the house. And then who's going to cover for him? What's going to be? What's with the neighbors and what’s with the enemies and what's with the planting? I’m sure when you left your house in the north to walk to Yerushalayim for weeks, it wasn't a pleasure. It wasn't flying first on El-Al. And I'm sure when he left that first thing, it was easy and hard. And he went the first stop, but he slept at night outside. And he's probably thinking: I should have went home. I should have took my little one. He was crying for me. He was holding onto my foot when I left, and I shouldn't have left him. And then he’s got one kid going: I don’t want to be here, Daddy. And he's probably thinking to himself: What am I doing? I miss my wife, I miss my kids. And they keep on going, a couple of stops later, and he puts his head down at the next stop and he's probably hungry and he's tired, and wondering: When are we going to get there? Night after night, week after week, till he finally comes to Yerushalayim. By the time he gets to Yerushalayim, those shoes, that he put on to leave, are full of dirt and full of worry and anxiety, and did I go, didn't I go? When he gets to Yerushalayim, he sees the Beis HaMikdash, and what's the one rule in the Beis HaMikdash? You can't wear your shoes. And he sits at the Beis HaMikdash and he right away sees the Shechina and the fire come down on the Korban and the Kohanim working, and the לויים בדוכנם and the ישראל במעמדם. And he's going: Oh, my God, this is worth every single second. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu looks down at this guy who is now living his dream, who is living in רוחניות, and says, It’s so awesome that you did that, but you know what I love the most? Not when you got to the Beis HaMikdash. The journey. When your shoes were on. Because when you struggled and you fought and it was hard and it was anxious and you weren't sure if you can go or not go and you kept on walking. That's what I love. That's my gift. You know what you get? You get the fire, you get the Korban, you get the singing, you get the Beis HaMikdash. You know what I get? I get the muddy shoes. We live in a world that the journey to the Beis HaMikdash could not have been more muddier. And every day you walk, and every day you fight, and every day you struggle, and every bit of mud is the most precious diamond to Hashem. Hashem says. You know what I love? I love those shoes. The muddier, the better.