Devar/5770/Shemot
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And He said: 'Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.' (Ex 2:3)
What is the connection between shoes and holy ground?
In the Laws of the Chosen House it states: And what is "awe" of it? That one may not enter the Temple Precinct with his walking-stick, nor with shoes on his feet… (Laws of the Chosen House 7:1). And likewise in the Laws of Cohanic Blessing: Among the decrees of Rabban Yohanan, was that the Cohanim not go up to the platform (to bless the people) while wearing their sandals, rather they should stand barefoot (Laws of Cohanic Blessing 14:6). True, the two are different: the first is because of the respect due the Holy Temple, while the second is a decree to prevent people from thinking a particular Cohen is of improper lineage.
But they both share another dimension: the humbling of the person approaching. This is easy to understand in the first case, where one is entering the Temple Precinct -- because it is the House where God chose to rest His divine presence, therefore it is proper to be in awe of it and to recall that the one entering is but a lowly flesh and blood creature, compared to the One Who is perfect. Similarly, the Cohen who comes to bless the people, must recall that his being a Cohen is not due to any of his traits -- but rather is entirely dependent on God having chosen the offspring of Aaron -- therefore he must humble himself and not be proud of his status, which is only dependent upon an accident of his birth.
In our verse, Moshe approached the place where God caused His presence to be known, and therefore -- similar to the Temple -- it was "holy ground", and Moshe had to show respect and remove his shoes. But today, when we visit that spot in Sinai (assuming that the said location is in fact "the" place) -- we do not remove our shoes. The reason for that is the same reason we do not remove shoes when visiting Shilo: Because he sanctified the Temple courtyard and Jerusalem at that time, and sanctified it for the future as well (Laws of the Chosen House 6:13). That is to say, those places where the Holy Presence was revealed before the Temple location was chosen -- were sanctified for their time only but not for all time. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem, however, was sanctified both for its own time as well as for all time. May it be His will that we merit to see it rebuilt speedily in our days, and we all go there to receive the Holy Presence.
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