139- A Foot and a Shoe

“How beautiful are your feet in shoes” (The Zohar, Hukat). A shoe is on one’s foot. We should discern between feet and shoes. In corporeality, the shoes keep the feet from harm. Otherwise, if there are no shoes on the feet when we step on the ground, sometimes there are harmful things that harm a person.

In the work, Raglaim [legs] are regarded as Meraglim [spies] who go to spy on the holy land—whether it is worthwhile to work and labor in order to enter the holy land. Since the legs come in contact with the outer ones, meaning with external views that remove a person from entering the servitude of the Creator, the correction is Naalayim [shoes], from the word Man’ul [lock], which closes the thoughts and desires that the spies bring him.

This shoe, called “faith above reason,” when he says, “They have eyes but they will not see; they have ears but they will not hear,” then it is said, “How beautiful are your feet in shoes,” meaning that if there are no feet, it cannot be said that he is wearing shoes. Thus, it requires both feet and shoes, and then it is regarded as beautiful.