The Consequence of [an] Ankle
The word ‘eikev’ is an interesting one. It is not used often- only five times in the whole Torah.
In our parsha, Parshat Eikev, we, Bnei Yisrael are told:
Ibn Ezra explains that ‘eikev’ means forever, as it states in Tehillim:119:112 ‘natiti leebi la’asot chukecha l’olaam eikev, meaning ‘I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes, at every step, forever’.
Ramban posits that ‘eikev’ means because, and he uses a previous time that the word ‘eikev’ is used in the Torah as a proof text.
The first time that a word is used in Tanach is normally the principal definition that we use for the word, and since the first time that it was used was with Avraham at the akeidah (Sacrificing of Isaac), that is the preferable definition.
That definition works within our current pasuk.
Beautiful.
However, I would like to go back to a different time in the Torah, in which the shoresh, the root of the word is utilized.
Yaakov has just been given the bracha that Yitzchak had intended for Eisav to receive.
Eisav, after finding out that Yaakov snuck in there before him, screams and cries bitterly to his father for a bracha as well, and says so bitterly “that’s why they call him Yaakov, because he “eikev”ed me twice”, obviously referring to the trickery of the firstborn-hood, and also now for the bracha.
Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Hoffman says somethings so simple that I think is so beautiful: it means to grab somebody by the ankle, grabbing the ankle of your friend, in order to get ahead of him.
Yaakov was trying to get ahead.
These two definitions… Of ‘it should happen’ and ‘ankle’ having to do with bringing somebody down… they actually live in perfect synthesis for me.
I call my ankle my Achille’s ankle… Because when I used to walk, it was the cause of my downfall.
Legitimately.
One time, I was going down the stairs on my way to shul. At the time, we had a stair-lift… But I did not want to use it and my ankle rolled out. I fell down the entire flight of stairs on my face.
Baruch HaShem, I only broke my nose.
But I can understand Hoffman’s perspective… My ankle is my downfall. It’s as if my soul wants to do something, but my body prevents it from happening… And in this case, it happens to be my ankle. When I used to walk, if my ankle rolled out, I fell down.
My ankle turns on itself… Literally and figuratively.
I can no longer walk.
I cannot even take a step.
However, I work exceptionally hard at physical therapy, constantly working on strengthening a very weak, important part of me and my story.
My family and I are some the only ones on Earth who traverse this road of Childhood Onset ALS that manifests itself in this way.
That leaves us traveling the road not by walking, but in motorized wheelchairs.
It’s not only lonely because there are very few other people on Earth who have this.
People don’t understand it in an intimate way… not that they should, but they don’t understand it. They don’t understand the different types of help and that the help that is needed is constant and varied and private.
They also most probably do not understand that it is incredibly expensive.
In Perek 11 we are told we are told that if we listen to all of HaShem’s instructions, He Will Drive out our enemies from the Land of Israel.
We are following the Torah. Our enemy is not seen.
It is a disease inside us.
If you want to help us with combating our enemy, you can.
If you can help us with this hard thing, to help us be stronger, please donate at this link: https://thechesedfund.com/hopeinaction/herzfeld-family-fund