Mitzvot that Man Treads with His Heel
"This shall be the reward when you hearken to these ordinances, and you observe and perform them; Hashem, your G-d, will safeguard for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers" (Devarim 7:12)
Rashi explains the term "eikev – when" which also means heel. It alludes to the sort of commandments people may regard as relatively unimportant so they tend to figuratively 'tread on them with their heels'. However, these mitzvot too every person must observe, just as he observes other seemingly more major mitzvot. A person may sometimes think nothing will happen if he arrives a few minutes late for his shiur or prays just once without a minyan. While these are not severe sins, the Torah explicitly commands us that even these 'small' things that man treats lightly and treads with his heel, he must guard carefully, for they too are part of the Holy Torah.
There are also some important, significant mitzvot that a person treads with his heel. These are mitzvot we fulfill daily and therefore grow accustomed to them and don't pay enough attention to them. When it comes to the blowing of the shofar, each one of us concentrates on the mitzvah and entertains thoughts of repentance, for it is a rare mitzvah performed once a year. But when we don our tzitzit every morning, we don’t get excited or even think about it at all; we just put it on like any other garment. This is the destructive power of routine, concerning which Hashem warns us to be careful not to fall in the trap of habit and not tread on these mitzvot with our heel. Rather, we should strengthen ourselves and put thought into every mitzvah we do, contemplating its great reward and lofty concepts, and in this way we will not treat these routine mitzvot with indifference.
It is worthwhile understanding why the Torah chose particularly the heel to convey the idea of something a person tramples on and disregards.
The reason could be that since the heel is found at the end of the leg, it hints to a person's end in This World. When man wishes to repent and pay attention also to mitzvot he has become accustomed to performing daily, he must contemplate his end – consider what will be his lot when he passes away and ascends to the Heavenly Court. This thought will certainly serve to arouse in him the awareness that every single mitzvah, however 'small' and 'regular' it may be, earns us great reward in Heaven. After one hundred and twenty years he will require all those thousands of mitzvot that come his way every day which he fulfills out of habit without paying much attention to them.
This is how Rabbi Ya'akov Abuchatzera zy"a, author of Pituchei Chotem, explains the adjacency of the Parshiot Eikev and Re'eh. If man wishes to work on himself and not tread on 'easy' mitzvot, he must see (Re'eh) the heel (Eikev), meaning he must consider the day of death when he will long for even the most minor mitzvah. If a person contemplates this while still alive, he will merit beautifying the mitzvot and bringing them to perfection by fulfilling them with the appropriate concentration.
