Aikev: the heel of agency

What kind of partnership is this? In exchange for love and obedience, Gd offers to provide food, clothing, land and general success.  Although these things had previously come by dint of miracle, they will now look more normal.  We will have to behave like muggles. No more manna, no more life long, never-wear-out clothing, no more direct communication from heaven. The parsha is directing us to recognize the miracles of everyday life. It tells us that when a person is successful, it is a Divine gift. 

The parsha starts with the word eikev.  This word first appears as the target of the serpent, that has been debased to  a snake, in the  Tree of Knowledge drama.  The children of the woman: 

 ה֚וּא יְשׁוּפְךָ֣ רֹ֔אשׁ וְאַתָּ֖ה תְּשׁוּפֶ֥נּוּ עָקֵֽב׃  They shall strike at your head, And you shall strike at their heel. 

There is sense that the object of defense, the part used to crush the head of the snake is also the target for its attack. 

The work next appears after the akeidah, the binding of Isaac ( Genesis 22;18)

וְהִתְבָּרֲכ֣וּ בְזַרְעֲךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל גּוֹיֵ֣י הָאָ֑רֶץ עֵ֕קֶב אֲשֶׁ֥ר שָׁמַ֖עְתָּ בְּקֹלִֽי׃

All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command.”

Now the word eikev  is used as a verb, translated as "because." That is is the sense in which it is used in the parsha.  How does  the heel become the cause? It is in the nature of a step.  The heel is the first , tentative part of the step.  It is an exploration and it is reversible. (Some folk dances are elaborations of the reversibility of the placement of the heel.) Perhaps this inquiring nature of the heel is part of the reason that it is the target for the serpent, the titilator of curiosity. Advancing the (tentative) heel toward The Good is enough to merit the reward of blessing . 

The third time  (

Genesis 25:26) the word appears is as the basis for the name of the ancestor of our uniqueness: Jacob

וְאַֽחֲרֵי־כֵ֞ן יָצָ֣א אָחִ֗יו וְיָד֤וֹ אֹחֶ֙זֶת֙ בַּעֲקֵ֣ב עֵשָׂ֔ו וַיִּקְרָ֥א שְׁמ֖וֹ יַעֲקֹ֑ב

Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob.

The scene evokes the eternal competition between the brothers and the nations that they spawned.  The brothers are born in struggle.  Jacob ( desperately)  holds onto the last piece of Esau, and if the relationship continues this way, Esau will crush the head of Jacob - or will Jacob come to poison Esau and cause  his downfall?

Eikev is intrinsic to the character of Jacob and his descendants.  It is curiosity and tenacity .  It invites us to analyze more closely the nature of the world: causes, effects, targets and defenses.   It is how we relate to Gd. 

A song to the Creator of a place for the Heel of Cause

I recognize Your Role

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role

I recognize Your Role for creating the world

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for creating the world with a big bang

I recognize Your Role for providing clean water 

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for  the variety of ways it comes into being

    the distillation of water from the seas into clouds

    the purification of soil  through selective absorption of plants

I recognize Your Role for creating  light

 I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role  for the ability to see

I recognize Your Role for creating  darkness

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role  for the ability to not see

I recognize Your Role For creating variety

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for the random

    its predictability in the aggregate

    its unpredictability in the individual

I recognize Your Role for  spawning biological diversity 

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for creating DNA 

    for error prone replication 

    for the corrective machinery

    for the errors that emerge and generate diversity 

        the substrate of evolution

   I recognize Your Role in the (merciless) selective pressure

  I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role  for the haven of the niche

I recognize Your Role in the weather 

I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for the Butterfly in the Canary Islands

     that generates the hurricane anon

I recognize Your Role for creating  heaven

  I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for views from space

    that made heaven more distant

        as it should be

I recognize Your Role for creating  the atmosphere

  I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for breath 

I recognize Your Role feeding the hungry

  I recognize  the Kindness of Your Role for hunger 

    so that food can be appreciated