Sold for a Pair of Shoes
The Job of a Shoemaker
It is written (Amos 2:6): כֹּה אָמַר יְיָ עַל־שְׁלֹשָׁה פִּשְׁעֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל־אַרְבָּעָה לֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ עַל־מִכְרָם בַּכֶּסֶף צַדִּיק וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם׃ (So said Hashem, For three crimes of Yisrael, and for four, I will not turn away, for their sale of a tzaddik and a pauper for a pair of shoes). Whom is the prophet referring to when he speaks of Hashem not forgiving Yisrael for the sale of a tzaddik for a pair of shoes?
When describing the sale of Yosef, the Torah says (Bereshit 37:28): וַיַּעַבְרוּ אֲנָשִׁים מִדְיָנִים סֹחֲרִים וַיִּמְשְׁכוּ וַיַּעֲלוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף מִן־הַבּוֹר וַיִּמְכְּרוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים בְּעֶשְׂרִים כָּסֶף וַיָּבִיאוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף מִצְרָיְמָה׃ (And Midianite merchantmen passed by, and they pulled and lifted Yosef from the pit, and they sold Yosef to the Yishmaelim for twenty silver coins, and they brought Yosef to Mitzraim). The Targum Yonatan adds an interesting detail: “…וְזַבִּינוּ יַת יוֹסֵף לַעֲרָבָאִין בְּעֶשְרִין מָעִין דִכְסַף וְזַבְּנוּ מִנְהוֹן סַנְדְלִין… (…and they sold Yosef to the Arabians for twenty silver ma’in and they bought sandals with them…). Further, it is written in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 38:11 where their actions are directly tied to Amos 2:6: וּמָכְרוּ אוֹתוֹ לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים בְּעֶשְׂרִים כָּסֶף. כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד נָטַל שְׁנֵי כְסָפִים לִקְנוֹת מִנְעָלִים בְּרַגְלֵיהֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״עַל מִכְרָם בַּכֶּסֶף צַדִּיק וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם״ (And they sold him to the Yishmaelim for twenty silver coins. Each one of them took two silver coins to buy shoes for their feet, as it says, ‘for their sale of a tzaddik and a pauper for a pair of shoes’).
Why would they do that? Isn’t it odd that each of them bought the exact same thing with their share of the profits? Nobody wanted to buy anything else, like a new shirt, or a piece of jewelry, or maybe even just an ice cream cone? What are the odds of that? What’s going on here?
When Moshe Rabbeinu was pasturing the flock of his father-in-law, he drove his flock to the mountain which would eventually become known as Har Sinai. When he encountered the burning bush, what was the first thing that Hashem instructed him to do? It is written (Shemot 3:5): וַיֹּאמֶר אַל־תִּקְרַב הֲלֹם שַׁל־נְעָלֶיךָ מֵעַל רַגְלֶיךָ כִּי הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עוֹמֵד עָלָיו אַדְמַת־קֹדֶשׁ הוּא (And He said, Do not come near. Remove [shal] your shoes from your feet, for the place upon which you are standing is holy ground). We read of another, very similar, incident with Yehoshua (Yehoshua 5:15): וַיֹּאמֶר שַׂר־צְבָא יְיָ אֶל־יְהוֹשֻׁעַ שַׁל־נַעַלְךָ מֵעַל רַגְלֶךָ כִּי הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹמֵד עָלָיו קֹדֶשׁ הוּא וַיַּעַשׂ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ כֵּן (And the Minister of Hashem’s Army said to Yehoshua, Remove [shal] your shoe from your foot because the place upon which you are standing is holy, and Yehoshua did so). Further, Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 40:5 brings out the relationship between Moshe and those who would enter the Temple courtyard: כָּל מִי שֶׁנִּכְנָס לַמִּקְדָּשׁ צָרִיךְ לִשְׁלֹף נַעֲלוֹ שֶׁכָּךְ אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְמֹשֶׁה ״שַׁל נְעָלֶיךָ מֵעַל רַגְלֶיךָ״ (All who enter the Temple need to remove his shoe, for thus Ha-Kadosh, baruch Hu said to Moshe, ‘Remove your shoes from your feet’). The Ramban also reminds us of this connection in his commentary to Shemot 3:5: וְכֵן הַכֹּהֲנִים לֹא שִׁמְּשׁוּ בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ אֶלָּא יְחֵפִים (And so, the kohanim only served in the Temple barefoot).
Therefore, one needs to remove one’s shoes when one is standing on holy ground. How come? Rabbeinu Bachya explains in his commentary to Shemot 3:5: ע”ד הפשט הזהירו בשלילת הנעל לקדושת המקום וכדי שלא יקל את ראשו כנגד השכינה (According to the simple meaning, he [Moshe] was warned regarding the removal of his shoe for the holiness of the place and in order that he not behave disrespectfully toward the Shechinah). But going deeper, he also explains that the wording שַׁל־נְעָלֶיךָ is not the normal wording to express removal of shoes, which would be חַלוּץ־נְעָלֶיךָ. Therefore, he explains Hashem’s words as follows: אך בענין הנבואה הזכיר של מלשון שלילה הזהירו שישלול ממנו החומריות שהמשילם לנעלים, לפי שהחומר דבק בגוף כמו שהמנעל דבק ברגל, וכשם שיש ביד האדם לשלול נעלו מעל רגלו כן בידו שישלול ממנו החומריות כדי שיהיה מוכן לנבואה (However, with respect to the issue of prophecy, the word shal [remove] is mentioned because it is related to shalilah [negation] to indicate that he needs to remove from himself his own physicality, which is indicated by the shoes, because the physicality clings to the body just like the shoe clings to the foot. And just like it is within man’s power to take off his shoe from his foot, it is within his power to remove his physicality from himself in order to be prepared for prophecy).
These are all very interesting points, but let’s keep things as simple as possible. The simple reason that shoes were not worn in each of the above-mentioned cases was because, due to the holiness of the ground, shoes didn’t need to be worn because the Shechinah was present. This is also the reason why the shoes of the Jews didn’t wear out during the forty years in the wilderness (Devarim 29:4). They didn’t wear out because they walked barefoot. This is stated explicitly by the Midrash Lekach Tov on Devarim 29:4: להלך יחף כי לא חסרת דבר (To walk barefoot because you lack nothing). Think about it for a moment. If you were surrounded by the Shechinah in the form of the ananei ha-kavod, would you wear shoes to separate yourself?
We are come to the subject of the quintessential shoemaker – Chanoch ben Yered – the tremendously holy tzaddik who lived before the flood. To give you an idea of just how great he was, he is one of only a dozen or so people who never died and who entered Gan Eden with their bodies. The Zohar ha-Kadosh (Bereshit 37b) explains that when Hashem took Chanoch at the young age of 365 years (Bereshit 5:23-24), he was transformed into an exceedingly high malach [מט”ט, Metatron], the Minister of the Interior [שר הפנים], one of the two keruvim, to serve Hashem in His presence, making crowns for Him out of our tefillot and berachot in order to bring down an abundance of Heavenly shefa to our world. Prior to being recruited to serve in this way, while he was still in his physical body on this planet, he had learned the deepest secrets of chochmah and became exceedingly wise beyond our imagination. For dedicating himself to serving Hashem down here, Hashem allowed him to serve Him up there. Hashem showed him in actuality those things that he had learned through chochmah down here, i.e. the tree of life which is in the midst of the garden along with the secrets of its leaves and branches.
But what did Chanoch actually do that brought him to such a high level? The prolific author and Kabbalist R’ Eliyahu ha-Kohen of Smyrna writes (Midrash Talpiot, Ot 8, Anaf Chanah): והוא היה תופר מנעלים לקשר העולמות ע״ש ועל כל תפירה אמר בשכמ״לו שיש בפסוק זה יחוד וקישור כל היכלות בעליונים. בגימטריא חנוך מט”ט (He was a shoemaker [literally, ‘a stitcher of shoes’], to connect the worlds for the ‘Name’, and with each stitch he said, Baruch Shem Kavod malchuto l’olam va’ed [Blessed is the Name of Honor, His kingdom is forever], for there is in this pasuk unification [yichud] and connection of all the Palaces in the Supernal Worlds, the gematria of ‘Chanoch[84] Metatron[314]’ equaling the gematria of the roshei teivot for the phrase Baruch Shem…[398]). This provides us with a little bit of the mystery surrounding Chanoch. The important point for us is now that everything he did he did to unify the upper worlds. His kavanot were directed toward this purpose, and everything was done for the sake of Heaven.
Some understand that the Midrash Talpiot is not saying that Chanoch was literally a shoemaker, but rather a spiritual shoemaker. According to this understanding, Chanoch didn’t actually make shoes for people, but rather he connected the upper worlds with his words and his kavanot, similar to how a shoemaker connects pieces of leather together with his stitches. However, the Italian Kabbalist Menachem Azariah of Pano is of the opinion that in addition to Chanoch stitching together the upper worlds, he was a literal shoemaker down here on Earth (Asarah Ma’amarot, Eim Kol Chai 3:22): והוא היה תופר מנעלים בפועל…והיה חנוך באמונתו מכוין בהם לקשור העולמות התחתונים שיהיו תקונים לרגלי שכינה דכתיב בה “מַה־יָּפוּ פְעָמַיִךְ בַּנְּעָלִים” שהם חוצצין בינה ובין דומן האדמה אשר אררה ה’ בסבת החטא ועל כל תפירה ותפירה היה מכוון ואומר ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד שיש בפסוק זה קשר ויחוד כל ההיכלות עליונים כנודע וראשי תיבות שלו בגימטריא חנוך מטטרון שנתחנך במשמרתו וקנה מקומו (He was a shoemaker in actuality…and Chanoch, in his emunah, directed [thoughts] to connect the lower worlds that they would become ‘footstools’ [literally, tikkunim] for the legs of the Shechinah, as it is written [Shir ha-Shirim 7:2]: ‘How beautiful are Your feet in shoes’, for they are ‘separators’ between Her and the dung of the ground which Hashem cursed because of the sin, and on each and every stitch, he would have intention [kavanah] and say, Baruch Shem Kavod malchuto l’olam va’ed, for there is in this pasuk connection and yichud of all the Supernal Palaces, as is known, and the roshei teivot of this [pasuk] is the gematria of ‘Chanoch Metatron’ who was educated in his charge and acquired his place). Wow! That’s pretty amazing. Chanoch took over the ‘job’ of the malach Metatron.
Whether or not Chanoch was an actual shoemaker is beside the point. The main point is that he not only stitched together the upper worlds, he also stitched together the lower worlds, making them into ‘shoes’ for the Shechinah. By stitching shoes for the Shechinah Chanoch was able to ‘bring down’ the Shechinah, so to speak, from the upper worlds and connect Her to the lower worlds, including this world of Asiyah.
How does one stitch shoes for the Shechinah? One needs kavanah. Yes. One needs to do everything l’shem Shemayim. Yes. But the missing key to the whole puzzle is found in the Torah (Devarim 23:15): כִּי יְיָ אֱלֹקֶיךָ מִתְהַלֵּךְ בְּקֶרֶב מַחֲנֶךָ לְהַצִּילְךָ וְלָתֵת אֹיְבֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ וְהָיָה מַחֲנֶיךָ קָדוֹשׁ וְלֹא־יִרְאֶה בְךָ עֶרְוַת דָּבָר וְשָׁב מֵאַחֲרֶיךָ (For Hashem your G-d walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to deliver your enemies before you; and your camp shall be holy, so that He should not see among you any ervah [indecent, promiscuous, lewd] thing, and turn away from you). The key to having the Shechinah dwell ‘down here’ in our midst is having purity of the holy brit. Without this, no amount of kavanah will do any good. Rather, G-d forbid, we drive the Shechinah right out of the land. People may continue to call it the ‘Holy Land’, but it won’t be holy. It is only ‘holy’ when the Shechinah dwells here. And when we are not absolutely pure, then we create separation in all the worlds, the upper worlds and the lower worlds. This is how Chanoch was able to be the shoemaker – through his kavanot, yes, but also through the purity of his mind and the guarding of his eyes and his holy brit.
Therefore, as we have explained many times before, a tzaddik is someone who is absolutely pure, above and below, someone who has unified, in purity, his lower half with his upper half, i.e. his body with his mind, using his holy brit only for kedushah, with using his sensory organs of the face (including the eyes) only for kedushah. When someone accomplishes this degree of purity, then he can unify the upper worlds and bring about the ultimate unification – connecting the upper worlds with the lower worlds. This is the meaning of a shoemaker. This is Chanoch and this is also Yosef the Tzaddik.
Now we can understand why all of the brothers used their share of the money to buy the exact same thing, i.e. shoes. Before the sale of Yosef, they walked barefoot because they didn’t need shoes. The ground was holy just like it was at the burning bush or in the wilderness. But with the sale of Yosef, everything changed. The ground was no longer holy for the Shechinah had departed. She left because it was only in Yosef’s merit that She was able to be connected to this lower world in the first place. Immediately, the brothers felt the ground under their feet – they felt the dirt, the rocks and the thorns. And it hurt. And so they needed shoes. Prior to his sale, they couldn’t imagine that he was the one who was responsible for such kedushah in the land. Maybe they thought it was one of them, or maybe all of them collectively – but certainly not that ‘fanatic’. Well, like a slap in the face, they came to a shocking realization that the kedushah was solely in the merit of that ‘fanatic’ who kept telling them to guard their eyes and stop looking.
Either we make shoes for the Shechinah and enjoy bounty and blessings, or we continue to make shoes for ourselves and slog along. It’s our choice.
