Keeping a young family going is a big job.
Our vacation this summer is the treat of traveling from child to child and immersing ourselves in their lives, if only for a few days. Last night my son in law came home from a long day of work. He was exhausted. He has been involved in a big project at work and has a lot on his plate. After helping with the bedtime rituals I fully expected him to call it a day. Instead, he headed to the kitchen to make lunches for his little ones.
That was a little action that represented a lot of love.
This week’s Torah portion is called Eikev. The first verse of the portion says that if you keep the mitzvot, the rules, then Gd will keep the Covenant. The word Eikev means because.
Because you keep your part of the bargain, then Gd will keep His.
It’s a quid pro quo.
Simple enough.
The word Eikev also means a heel. Like the heel at the end of your foot.
Rashi, the super commentator, says that in order to keep our side of the bargain we need to do mitzvot. Even those mitzvot which seem inconsequential, the ones we might step on, even those “little” ones are meaningful.
It’s the attitude to the small mitzvot that people might step all over, that sustains the Covenant.
As human beings we have the tendency to embrace the “big ticket” items. The small things in life we dismiss and relegate because they seem unimportant. The big things might be challenging and sensational, but the attention to the small details really shows meaningful commitment.
A parent shows their love for their child by taking them on a big trip. But the commitment evidenced in making their lunches every day and doing carpool, is the stuff of ongoing relationship and connection.
It is sometimes the smallest action which can be life altering in its impact.

A true story.
In order to ascertain that meat is kosher it needs to be slaughtered and prepared in a particular manner. There are supervisors, rabbis, who oversee the process to make sure all the rules are followed to provide the necessary oversight required. At a particular facility in the Midwest, there was a team of these Rabbis, supervisors, who came to work early each day and left late in the evening. Once, before a long weekend, the foreman came to finish locking up. He came to say goodnight to the guard who monitored all the personnel and their entry and exit from the meat packing plant. The foreman informed the guard that he could go home as all had left the facility and they would be locking up for the weekend.
The guard refused to leave. He insisted that one of the team of rabbis had not left the plant yet.
The foreman replied that he had done a complete sweep and no one remained. He questioned the accuracy of the guard’s assessment, after all, there was a large team of rabbis, how could the guard be sure one hadn’t left.
The guard was relentless and insisted on accompanying the foreman once again through the plant. Sure enough, they found the rabbi locked in one of the freezers. He has been there for quite awhile and had already lost consciousness. Emergency medical personnel was summoned and the rabbi survived his close brush with death. Had the guard not insisted on looking for him, he would not have survived the ordeal.
After all the drama calmed down the foreman asked the guard how he knew that particular rabbi hadn’t left the building.
The guard replied that every morning when the rabbi entered the building he would always extend a hearty “good morning”. Similarly, every evening when he would leave he would always bellow a warm “good night” to the guard.
Without fail, morning and evening, a kind word was exchanged between colleagues.
The guard said he marked his days with those greetings.
That evening he knew that the rabbi had not exited the building because he never would have left without saying goodbye!
It was the warmth of the acknowledgment that saved the man from an icy demise.
It was such a small action which made the difference between life and death.
The rabbi saw the guard as a person who should be acknowledged and therefore the guard looked for that rabbi twice a day.
We are now in the seven weeks of consolation between Tisha BAv and Rosh Hashanah.
We are starting to think about repairing the rifts that brought about destruction and focus on rebuilding relationships.
We can start with small actions, “small” mitzvot, that can create connection and closeness between ourselves and others and between ourselves and Gd.
It just takes a little step.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!