The Soul Of The Sole

Hashem tells Moshe to take off his shoes because he is standing upon holy ground.  Why must one remove their shoes to walk on holy ground?  The siddur of the Shla asks why is the morning blessing of שעשה לי כל צורכי referring to wearing shoes, where is the reference to shoes?  He explains that shoes are generally made from animal skin and therefore by wearing them man shows his dominance over even the highest of all creatures.  כל צורכי means that he has placed me above everything else.  Therefore, the Be’ar Yosef says, when one is standing in front of Hashem, one must be humbled before Him and can't show his dominance over anything. 

The Bechai (see also Kli Yakar and Nitziv) explain that removing one’s shoes is symbolic of removing one’s self from physicality. The Ruch Chayim at the beginning of Pirkai Avos says that the shoe is representative of the body of the person.  Just like the shoe holds only the very end of a person so too the body only contains the lower levels of the neshama.  This idea is the reason for chalitzah where the shoe represents the body of the dead brother (see the Zohar by chalitza.)  [The Zohar may even have an application in halacha, the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch rule that after untying the shoe it should be thrown to the ground and the Gra cites this Zohar as the source to demonstrate that the body is settled in the ground and the neshama is released.] 

The haftora of Vayeshev tells us that the brothers sold Yosef for shoes.  Where the brothers walking barefoot and figured let’s sell our brother to purchase shoes?  Explains the Oftrasfe Gaon that Yosef is the middah of yesod, he is the one ring that binds all the brothers together.  Before the sale, kedusha was present with the unity of the brothers, wherever they walked it was admas kodesh, however after the sale the kedusha evaporated now that Yosef was gone, and they could wear shoes. (I do believe this is in a spiritual sense, not that they went barefoot.)  [See Eretz Tzvi explains that the debate between Yosef and the brothers was that Yosef held one must purify the body as well, so one has no evil urge.  The brothers held it was better to have a yetzer harah and conquer it (see there how he reads this into their debate.)  Now based upon the Zohar we understand that by getting rid of Yosef the brothers could follow their view of having a physical body separate from the neshama, that is represented by the shoes.  This idea could be the explanation of the Gur Aryeh in Devarim (8:5) who writes that clothes are called מאני דמכבדותא by the Gemorah but shoes aren’t.  What’s the difference, why are shoes worse than clothing? Based upon these sources we can suggest that clothes are the garments (כמו שנקרא בלשון הקבלה לבושין,) the expressions of the soul.  Shoes however, function just to protect the physical, coarse body.

The Shem M'Shmuel has a slightly different approach.  In his view the ground is this lowly world and it is the shoes that connect the ground to the person that reaches towards the heaven.  The removal of the shoe in the chalitzah process represents removing any connection the dead brother has to this world and allows his neshama to go up to its proper place.  Chazal say that on every stitch of making shoes, Chanoch was miyachid yechudim.  Why do we have to know he was a shoemaker, just tell us in all his endeavors he had lofty intents (ואכמ"ל  about what the Michtav MeEliyahu cites from Rav Yisroel Salenter about this and the letter of the Mictav’s son-in-law.) The shoemaking is symbolic of his capabilities to unite the lower and upper worlds.  Chazal are mentioning that he was a shomaker for that is part of the description of what he was accomplishing.

Based upon what the Shem M'Shmuel, we can understand the Bechai in a different light.  For a regular person one must have shoes to join the spirituality of the person to the physical ground and elevate it.  However, Moshe Rabbenu was completely above the physical realm and had to remove his shoes (Eyun Haparsha.)

There is a Zohar cited in Chassidus that a malach called sandal ties the prayers of Klal Yisroel to the crown of Hashem.  It seems that there is a connection between shoes and the prayers.  What is the connection?  Tefilla is called in the Zohar the time of war (this idea can is also in Unklos and Rashi in Vayechi (48:22) that the sword and bows of Yaakov are referring to his prayers.)  What is the battle of prayer?  The battle is between one’s Godly soul and one’s animalistic soul.  At the time of prayer, one’s Godly soul is trying to overpower the animalistic soul and it fights back (see Likutay Torah beginning of Ki Setzah.)  That’s why it is the malach called the shoe (sandal) which takes the prayers up to the heavens.  It is through the refinement of the animalistic qualities of the human represented by the foot that allow the prayers to soar up to the heavens.