ספר חסידים - 3:5 “של נעליך מעל רגליך” – Moshe is told to, “Take off his shoes from his feet.” Why does Moshe need to be told to take off his shoes from his “feet”? Prior to one entering a Bais Hakneses or Bais Hamedrash, he must check his shoes to ensure that there is no excrement upon them, for when there is excrement there, one is not allowed to learn Torah or Daven. The Torah does not say that Moshe should, “חלוץ נעליך ” – which would mean to remove his shoes, rather it says, “של נעליך ” – which meant that he should completely remove it from his feet – that they should be Daled Amos away from his feet, to ensure that there was nothing impure there.
Now we can understand why the Posuk says that Moshe Rabbeinu was to remove his shoes from his feet. On the most basic level, נעל, which we call shoes, can also refer to the covering of the hands, what we call gloves. Thus, the Posuk says that Moshe was to remove his נעלים from his feet – telling us that we are speaking about shoes and not gloves. On a much deeper level, we can understand that the Torah is stressing that Moshe needed to remove what separated his Guf, from the floor upon which he stood – the אדמת קודש – holy ground. The Kohanim when performing the Avodah, must not have any Chatzitzah between themselves and the floor or vessels they are touching. This represents being completely connected to what they are doing. When one is performing Avodas Hashem, he must close out the physical world around him, and be one with the Avodah, one with Hakodosh Boruch Hu. The lesson was for Moshe Rabbeinu and for us to know that we must learn how to focus on the task at hand. When one is learning Torah or he is Davening, he is to completely connect to it so that he is doing it Lishma, and not for any other reason. One must be humble and seek the absolute truth, and not to have his personal desires be in the way. There should not be separation between our Guf and the floor, between out Neshama and Hakodosh Boruch Hu, rather we should be completely connected to the Ruchniyos. May we be Zoche to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu properly – completely Lishma.
