Feet That Lead Themselves: Beyond Nature

1“If you will walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them.”¹ On this verse the Midrash says:² “This is what is written, ‘I considered my ways, and I turned my feet back to Your testimonies.’ Dovid said: Master of the world, every single day I would plan and say, ‘I am going to such-and-such a place, to such-and-such a house,’ and my feet would bring me to the synagogues and the study halls.” What does this teaching have to do with our verse?

2aPerhaps we can explain it this way. There are, as is known, two kinds of tzaddikim. The first serves Hashem constantly, but always within the bounds of nature; he does not give himself over entirely to avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. The second reaches the level of giving himself over to the Creator completely, mafkir atzmo: he makes himself ownerless before Him. We find this with Hillel the Elder, who risked his life to hear words of Torah. Chazal relate:³ “Once he could find no work to earn a wage, and the guard of the beis midrash, the study hall, would not let him in. He climbed up, hung on and sat at the edge of the skylight, to hear the words of the living God from the mouths of Shemaya and Avtalyon. They said: That day was Erev Shabbos, in the winter season of Teves, and snow fell on him from the sky until he fainted, and he lay there until Shabbos morning. They found three cubits of snow on top of him. They dug him out, washed him, rubbed him with oil and sat him by the fire. They said: This man deserves to have Shabbos desecrated for him.”

2bBut this raises a question. Chazal said: “A person should never stand in a place of danger and say that a miracle will be done for him, for perhaps no miracle will be done for him. And if a miracle is done for him, it is deducted from his merits.”⁴ How, then, could Hillel go out in the cold and snow to hear Torah, knowing that he might be putting himself in danger? The explanation is that Heaven deals in a special way with a tzaddik who gives himself over to the Creator's honor. With him Heaven does not follow the natural order; it deals with him only through miracles, measure for measure. Such a tzaddik can rely on a miracle, and is permitted to, as we will explain.

3This is what Dovid HaMelech meant by “I considered my ways, and I turned my feet back to Your testimonies”: his feet would lead him to the beis midrash. In his great humility, Dovid HaMelech counted himself on the first level we described, among the tzaddikim who walk in the ways of nature. That is the meaning of “I considered my ways” [the Hebrew word for “I considered” also means “I calculated”]: with every mitzvah he would calculate whether he had the strength to do it, and whether he really had to, or whether perhaps “I should go to such-and-such a house now.” But Dovid HaMelech had in fact reached the second, loftier level, serving Hashem with all his strength, above nature. So his feet would lead him of their own accord to do the mitzvos, without any calculation, and he let go of all his material affairs, to be bound to spiritual things alone.

4On this basis we can explain why the Midrash places these words on the verse “If you will walk in My statutes,” of all verses: to teach us that every single person can reach such a level. If you toil in Torah, [which is what “walk in My statutes” means,] and “keep My commandments and do them,” then anyone can reach it. Such a person will keep the mitzvos constantly and be so absorbed in his love for them that all the desirable things of this world count for nothing in his eyes, and his feet will carry him of their own accord to the beis midrash. [So we find in Chazal that Hillel the Elder used to say, “To the place that I love, there my feet lead me.”⁵ Chazal also said that Hillel “obligates the poor.”⁶ The Shulchan Aruch HaRav explains that although the strict law does not require anyone to act as Hillel did, it is middas chassidus, a trait of piety, to do so, giving oneself over to the point of self-sacrifice to keep the Torah.⁷]

5aA tzaddik who walks in this path, giving himself over to the Creator, is privileged to be dealt with through miracles. The whole world, as it were, is made ownerless for him, open for his use, and all of it stands ready to help him do Hashem's will. As Chazal said, “The whole world was created only to accompany this one.”⁸ When a tzaddik reaches the level where his world holds nothing but avodas Hashem, everything is then placed at his command as a matter of course, to guard him and to help him in his avodah. For him the natural order does not apply.

5bThis fully answers our question of how Hillel the Elder could put himself in danger for the sake of Torah study. Hillel had given himself over to the service of his Maker, so all of Heaven's dealings with him were miraculous. Hillel was therefore permitted to rely on a miracle, for Heaven treated him only by way of miracles. We see this in Hillel elsewhere too. Chazal said of him: “Hillel the Elder had a different trait, for all his deeds were for the sake of Heaven, as it says, ‘Blessed is Hashem day by day.’”⁹ That is why he did not buy his Shabbos food from the first day of the week. Hillel's whole way was to give himself over to the Creator, and so he was privileged to have Heaven deal with him through miracles, measure for measure.

6May Hashem grant that when we engage in Torah and mitzvos, we reach this level of giving ourselves over completely to avodas Hashem, and that we bring the End, the final redemption, closer. Amen, may it be His will.