Your Heel Is Not Your Weakness — Why Italy Is Shaped Like a Foot
Hey, how are you? I hope you're doing amazing. Thank you for watching. I want to share with you an idea. You know, they say Rome wasn't built in a day. And they also say about Rome that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. But maybe let's give some pushback. Why would we do as the Romans do? Maybe they're not the ones we should be following. Maybe when in Rome we should do something else, not do as the Romans do. I want to share with you a perspective, a thought, an idea. Hear me out. The Tama Yushalmi Tinus 1 1 tells us of a situation that you might find yourself in. Let's say someone were to approach you and ask you, hey, where is your God? Hechan elokeha, where is your God? What are you supposed to answer him? The Talmud tells us your answer should be Bekrach Godol Shabaromi, in the great city of Rome. So when somebody comes to you and asks you, where is your God? You're supposed to answer him in the great city of Rome. What? In the great city of Rome? You know, Rome is the father of Western culture. Rome is a city that represents the lowest of the low, the impurest of the impure. Why would you answer that God is in the great city of Rome? You would think to answer maybe God is in the holy land of Eritisral, or he's in the shul, the synagogue, or the house of study, or in the great city of Rome? What's going on? Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, the great Chasidic master, he reads this Gemora, he reads this piece of Talmud with a slight analytical lens, and he says, you know, the person who's approaching you, the questioner, is not asking where is God? He's asking, where is your God? Where is your God? And from his question, we see that the person who's asking the question, he's right now struggling. He's in a tremendously low spot right now in the level of spirituality. He's asking, where's your God? which means he's disassociating himself from God altogether, meaning you have a God, but I don't. Where I am, there is no God. I'm asking, where is your God? So the answer to that individual who's asking the question of where is your God, the answer to him is in the great city of Rome. The great Rabbi Nachmin teaches us that the great city of Rome represents the abode of evil forces. It represents the clutches of evil, the clipos, it represents a complete submersion in the realm of the physical, in the realm of Ra, in the realm of evil. And we're being educated that even in that place, even in Rome, even in the great city of Rome, even within the clutches of evil, even when a person is in the lowest of the low, is experiencing the impurest of the impure, even in that place, guess what? That's where God can be found. He can be found there too. God is found wherever you let him in, wherever you open your eyes too, because truth is, there is no place that is devoid of God. God is everywhere. And so if you open your eyes and you realize that even in your place of lowness, even in your place of impurity, God exists there too. So let him in. And from that place, now a person can repent, he can do to Shiva, and he could connect to his creator, he connects to the master of the universe. So when somebody asks you, where is your God? the answer is in the great city of Rome. He's within that darkness, he's there, right there with you. Don't disassociate yourself from God. Connect with him, let him in. And so we have a new answer to our question, you know, or to the phrase, when in Rome. The world says, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. But no, the answer, based on what we're learning now, is a little bit different. When in Rome, don't do as the Romans do. When in Rome, find God. When in Rome, find the ability to connect to God. When in Rome, when a person's experiencing Rome and he's experiencing a great difficulty, he's experiencing a tremendous low, and he's as uh he's in the realm of spiritual numbness and utter physicality. In that place, you can find God. Don't do as the Romans do, but find God, find light, find meaning, find the holiness, and come back. Come back and return. You know, it's fascinating to think about this concept that the Talmud specifically uses the great city of Rome as this example. You know, Rome is the capital of a larger country called Italy. Italy is uniquely shaped as a foot. You know, I want to show you this bottle because it's a good illustration. Look at the classic Bartanura product of Italy, right? So this is the shape right here. It's the shape of Italy. And Rome, it's more north, but Rome is the capital city of this country. It's uniquely shaped like a large boot, like a foot, like a heel. What's interesting is that the word in Hebrew for a heel is Akhev. Akhev represents a foot, and the Torah tells us the Hayah Akev Tishma'un. Even in the realm of Akev, even in the realm of the lowest of the low, you see, the heel is the lowest part of the human body. The heel is the part of the human body that's constantly touching the ground. The heel represents utter physicality and spiritual numbness, constantly stepping on it, stepping on it, and stepping on it. But in that place of Akav, we are taught Tishmo'un that we can hear the Lord. We can hear God, we can hear and connect to Hashem, our creator, the Master. Because my friends, perhaps the message is clear. When somebody asks, Where is your God? the answer to him is in the great city of Rome. Even in the heel, even in the Akev, Tishma'un, we have to find the ability to hear God, to hear his calling, wherever we might be in life, even in the lowest of the low. We are currently in an era of time called the Iqvisa de Meshiacha, where at the footsteps of Meshiach, we're right at the end of history, right? And we're in the realm of that Akav, we're in the realm of that foot. It's it's some spirituality is sometimes difficult to connect to. We often feel like we're spiritually numb. But that's okay. There's an encouragement over here, and that is even in the Akev, even in the foot, even in that country of Italy, even in the great city of Rome, we are meant to find God or meant to see him and experience him and connect to him. Rabbi Nachman teaches us, Bivaday hum isukha bimatora klipos. The person is so invested, he's so entrenched in the clutches of evil. Right? So what do you answer to him when he asks you where's your God? You say he's right where you are. God sustains everything. And the fact that you're alive right now, you can experience him, you can connect to him. You know, it's fascinating. In Greek mythology, there's the figure known as Achilles. Achilles was a tremendously powerful warrior, right? And I'm just bringing this out as a way of analogy. Um I I don't get too involved in Greek mythology. That's just not my thing. And I'm just want to I want to say this by showing a tremendous contrast with Judaism and a similar type of story. You see, there's a term called Achilles' heel. Achilles' heel represents a weakness of a person. It's a term we all use. Achilles' heel, the weakness of a person, represents a person's downfall, great vulnerability. But where did it come from? So it comes from this Greek legend, this in mythology, where you have this character known as Achilles, and Achilles was an infant, and Achilles' mother, named Thetis, she was like a sea nymph, and she took Achilles by the foot, by the heel, and dunked him into what's called river sticks, and it was a great magical river, and any part of the human body that would touch the water, so it would become invincible. The only problem was Thetis, the mother of Achilles, held the baby, Achilles, by his foot, by his heel. So when she dunked him in the magical waters, his heel didn't get wet, and therefore that was the one place on his body that remained vulnerable. And unbeknownst to him, years later he was fighting, he was a great valiant warrior, and years later he was fighting, and somebody shot an arrow and it happened to hit him in the heel, and he died because that was that one place where so Achilles' heel became this terminology representing a weakness. And in the in the myth, right, Achilles' weakness became his very own downfall. And in tremendous contrast, I'm just bringing this out as an illustration, right? You have a story in the actual Bible, in the Torah, and in the Old Testament, in our Torah, Akadosha, our holy Torah, where we have a story about somebody holding on to the heel of another, and that's Jacob. That's Yaakovinu holding on to the heel of his brother Asaf, right? The Chesas Baakiv Aesap, Yaakovinu is seen as this brother who's holding on to the heel of Asaf. Aesov was a person who was in even in the womb, even in the womb, he was running after the physicality of this world. He was running after, right? And Aesap, of course, was the father of Edom. Aesop was Edom, which is which is Rome, which, right? What's Yaakov trying to do? Yaakov, Yaakov is grabbing onto his heel. Yaa'kov is saying, Asaf, wake up. Asaf, yes, I understand you're you're you're constantly headed towards the lowliness, you're constantly headed towards promiscuity, you're constantly headed towards murder and and negative activities. But he grabbed on to the heel of his brother, reminding him that even in your low place, even in that place of impurity, even in that heel, you can find God. Return, connect, don't give up. Of course, historically, Asaf didn't get the message. Asaf didn't get the message, but we're meant to get the message. We're the children of Jacob, we're the children of Yaakov. Yaakov is that Yaakov in his very name has the word Akv, has the word heel, and it also has the word Yud at the beginning of it, the letter Yud at the beginning of his name. Yud Akev, right? Because Yaakov Avinu understood that I can hold on to the Akiv. I can hold on to the heel. I can be in a low place in life. I could be feeling like a heel. I could be on the on the ground in the lowest of the low. I could be feeling spiritually impure, but I could connect to that yud. I could connect to Kodashbarakhu. I could connect to God. And that's the secret perhaps of the Gemar, of that piece of Talmud, which tells us when somebody asks you, where is your God? You should answer him in the great city of Rome. In the great city of Rome. Because our weakness, that heel, does not become our downfall. It can be, right? Achilles, it was his it was his downfall. Achilles was downfall. But there's a secret in Judaism, and that is our weakness can become our very strength. Our place of weakness, our place of lowness can become the very place in which we soar to incredibly high places. Once we reframe and think about, okay, this is the situation that I'm in. God put me in this situation, and now I can come back. I can connect him. I can, I can, I can reframe where it is I am in life and realize that Hashem is here, and now let me connect to him. Let me leave the clutches of evil, let me uh leave this abode and let me connect to what I'm supposed to do. Let me get back on track to what I'm supposed to be doing. So when in Rome, no, don't do as the Romans do. When in Rome, learn to find God, constantly hold on to that acheth, hold on to that heel, realize that even in the lowest moments, even now, in this era of time called the Igvasadimishika, when so many people, when so many of us are feeling spiritually numb, to still connect, to have to reframe, to realize that there's no place that's devoid of God. And when we have that recognition, we'll come back, we'll come back to him, and we'll we'll reintroduce positivity in our lives, we'll reintroduce light into our lives, we'll reintroduce meaning and purpose and holiness into our lives. May we all be Zochel, may we merit to see that, may we be merit to see within the AG moments, to within those low moments, let's learn to find God and remember Rome shaped like Rome within Italy, shaped like a Buddha, shaped like a heel. But even in the great city of Rome, even within the clutches of evil, a person with the right frame of mind can connect to his master, can connect to Hashem and leave it all behind. Because what's standing on the other side is something so much more richer, something so much more meaningful. That we'd be so happy to connect to that all the best.
