17 Dec VAYESHEV: WEARING OUR SHOES

Parashat Vayeshev tells the
tragic story of mechirat
Yosef – the brothers’ selling
Yosef as a slave. They at first
plotted to kill him, but
eventually they decided to lift
him from the pit into which
they had thrown him, and sell him to
merchants as a slave. These merchants then
brought Yosef down to Egypt and sold him to
a nobleman named Potifar.
The Midrash teaches us something very
peculiar about this transaction. It tells that
Yosef’s brothers used the money they
received in exchange for Yosef to buy
themselves shoes. This is the meaning of
the pasuk in the Book of Amos (2:6) that
speaks of a righteous person being sold for
shoes: Al Michram B’kesef Tzaddik V’evyon
B’avor Na’alayim. The Targum
Yonatan writes that the tzaddik mentioned in
this pasuk is Yosef, whom the brothers sold
in exchange for shoes, as they used the
money they received to purchase shoes
Why is it significant that the brothers bought
shoes? Why do we need to be told this? What
might the shoes symbolize?
After Adam and Havah’s sin in Gan Eden,
Hashem told Adam, “The ground is cursed

because of you; you shall eat it in sorrow”
(Bereshit 3:17). Hashem placed a curse upon
the earth, whereby earning a living will
entail, aggravation and hard work. I do not
know a single person, rich or struggling,
whose livelihood does not entail
challenges. This was Hashem’s decree after
Adam’s sin – that making a living is going to
be difficult. This is the curse declared upon
the ground.
Shoes have the effect of elevating a person
from the ground. Symbolically, then, shoes
allude to our ability to rise above the “curse,”
the frustrations and hardships of life. Wearing
shoes represents our refusal to get stuck in
the “curse” that we’re struggling with, our
determination to rise above it, to keep our
heads held high, to see the blessing and
opportunities in every situation, rather than
wallow in paralyzing sorrow and despair.
This is why a mourner removes his shoes,
and why we all remove our shoes on Tisha
B’Av, when we all mourn the destruction of
the Bet Ha’mikdash. During mourning, we
are to fully feel and experience the “curse,”
the pain and angst of what has been lost.
Conversely, kohanim did not wear shoes in
the area of the Bet Ha’mikdash, because this
territory is sacred ground, where there is no

curse. For the same reason, we do not wear
shoes on Yom Kippur, when we live a sacred
existence, as though we return to Adam’s
state before his sin, before the curse.
Nobody embodies the quality of rising above
life’s curses than Yosef.
As a 17-year-old boy, he was betrayed by his
own brothers, and brought to a foreign
country as a slave. here he was tempted by
his master’s wife, confronting the most
difficult of all spiritual tests, and he
prevailed. The Rabbis teach that Yosef’s
triumph over the lure of immorality is what
protected Am Yisrael throughout the 210
years they spent in Egypt, which was the
most immoral society in the ancient
world. Yosef’s strength and resolve set a
precedent that kept our nation pure
throughout the years of slavery in
Egypt. Yosef rose above the “curse,” and
transformed his personal challenges into a
great achievement that ended up guaranteeing
the nation’s spiritual survival.
This is why shoes are associated
with mechirat Yosef. The brothers thought
they were destroying Yosef, but he did not let
himself be destroyed. He succeeded in lifting
himself up, and using his tragic situation into
an opportunity to achieve greatness.

This is an example for all of us to follow. We
all face times of sorrow, pain, loss,
frustration, and anguish. In the case of the
passing of a loved one, Heaven
forbid, halachah tells the mourner to remove
his shoes, to focus on the void, on what has
been lost, and on the pain. At other times,
however, we are to “wear our shoes,” to rise
above the “curse,” to not allow ourselves to
get stuck in negativity. We, like Yosef, have
the strength to grow from life’s challenges,
to use our difficulties to lift us up and make
us great.