אַל תִ ּקְרַ ב הֲלֹם שַ ׁל נְעָלֶיךָ מֵעַל רַ גְלֶיךָ וגו' (ג, ה)
Do not come near here. Take your shoes off your feet...” (3:5)
The Ways of Tzadikim:
The Ropshitzer Rebbe zy”a once had a complaint against the Bnei Yissoschor zy”a, and he wanted to hint why he was upset at him.
When the Bnei Yissoschor came to him, he sat him near him at the table, upon which was sitting one cup, the Ropshitzer Rebbe told him, “It is known that every entity in this world – be it an inanimate object, a plant, an animal or a person – possesses a holy spark of life that sustains it. If this life-source is removed, the entity ceases to exist.
“It is stated (Tehillim 145:19) that Hashem fulfills the will of those who fear Him. That means that I have the power to remove the life from any entity. Look at this cup that is sitting on the table. I have the ability to remove its life-source and turn it into dust!”
As soon as he finished saying those words, he grabbed the cup – and it turned into grains of dust.
The Bnei Yissoschor understood that the Rebbe was telling him that if he did not conform to his way of thinking, he could cause himself to fall from his lofty level and to be left with nothing but dust.
However, the Bnei Yissoschor was not perturbed. He said, “Hashem told Moshe to remove his shoes (na’alecha) from his feet. His intention was that, as Chazal say (Avos 2:10): ‘One must be careful of being burnt by the ‘coals’ of talmidei chochom, for their bite is the bite of a fox, and their sting is the sting of a scorpion, and their hiss is the hiss of a serpent.’ We see from this that chochomim have three powers – their bite, their sting, and their hiss. The first letters of these three words – neshicha (bite), akitzah (sting), and lechisha (hiss) – spell the word “na’al” (shoe). Thus, when Hashem appeared to Moshe, He told him that when he became the leader of the nation, he would have to ‘remove his shoes’, meaning that he must not use his powers of biting, stinging or hissing against Klal Yisroel... He was saying that a leader must not harm his people.”
The Ropshitzer Rebbe was awed by the answer and by how calm the Bnei Yissoschor remained, and he exclaimed, “He did not lose his bearings!”
