Love on a shoestring
In Parshas Lech Lecha Avraham refuses the king of Sdom's offer of booty in exchange for the souls. He declares, 14:23
אִם־מִחוּט֙ וְעַ֣ד שְׂרֽוֹךְ־נַ֔עַל וְאִם־אֶקַּ֖ח מִכָּל־אֲשֶׁר־לָ֑ךְ וְלֹ֣א תֹאמַ֔ר אֲנִ֖י הֶֽעֱשַׁ֥רְתִּי אֶת־אַבְרָֽם:
The shoe lace here is translated as a shoe strap, for the shoes in ancient times were held together by leather straps that likely extended upward on the calf in the style of gladiator sandals. That is what seems to be in the mind of the Mishna Shabbos 6:9, which discusses what types of clothing and ornaments one may wear outside an eruv on Shabbos. It includes straps worn by boys: הַבָּנִים יוֹצְאִין בִּקְשָׁרִים
What was the nature of these straps? The explanation the Kehati edition offers is based on the Gemara's explanation, "If a son has longing for his father, he takes the lace from the right shoe and ties it to his left." Rambam interprets this to mean that if a young son greatly loves his father, and the youth is unable to leave his father, the latter takes the lace from his right shoes and ties it to his son's left arms, and this is effective as a remedy; these are the 'knots' mentioned in this mishna."
So the shoe straps become a symbol of the love of the son for his father. And the only remedy for his difficulty in leaving his father is wearing his heart on his sleeve, so to speak, in wrapping the shoe strap on his left arm. This is exactly what men do in wrapping tefillin. Indeed, the tefillin knotting is directly linked to shoe lace tying in the halacha of tying the left shoe first. And so that connection has already been established.
Drawing in another halacha pertaining to shoe laces makes it clear that this apparently mundane article is loaded with symbolism. Thanks to my son for pointing me in the direction of the source of the halacha, Sanhedrin 74b:
Related: http://emreieliezer.blogspot.com/2018/10/avrohom-and-strings.html
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אִם־מִחוּט֙ וְעַ֣ד שְׂרֽוֹךְ־נַ֔עַל וְאִם־אֶקַּ֖ח מִכָּל־אֲשֶׁר־לָ֑ךְ וְלֹ֣א תֹאמַ֔ר אֲנִ֖י הֶֽעֱשַׁ֥רְתִּי אֶת־אַבְרָֽם:
| Neither from a thread to a shoe lace will I take from you, lest you say 'I have made Abram wealthy.' |
What was the nature of these straps? The explanation the Kehati edition offers is based on the Gemara's explanation, "If a son has longing for his father, he takes the lace from the right shoe and ties it to his left." Rambam interprets this to mean that if a young son greatly loves his father, and the youth is unable to leave his father, the latter takes the lace from his right shoes and ties it to his son's left arms, and this is effective as a remedy; these are the 'knots' mentioned in this mishna."
So the shoe straps become a symbol of the love of the son for his father. And the only remedy for his difficulty in leaving his father is wearing his heart on his sleeve, so to speak, in wrapping the shoe strap on his left arm. This is exactly what men do in wrapping tefillin. Indeed, the tefillin knotting is directly linked to shoe lace tying in the halacha of tying the left shoe first. And so that connection has already been established.
Drawing in another halacha pertaining to shoe laces makes it clear that this apparently mundane article is loaded with symbolism. Thanks to my son for pointing me in the direction of the source of the halacha, Sanhedrin 74b:
אתא רב דימי א"ר יוחנן לא שנו אלא שלא בשעת גזרת המלכות) אבל בשעת גזרת המלכות אפי' מצוה קלה יהרג ואל יעבור
כי אתא רבין א"ר יוחנן אפי' שלא בשעת גזרת מלכות לא אמרו אלא בצינעא אבל בפרהסיא אפי' מצוה קלה יהרג ואל יעבור
When Ravin came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, he said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Even when it is not a time of religious persecution, the Sages said that one is permitted to transgress a prohibition in the face of mortal danger only when he was ordered to do so in private. But if he was ordered to commit a transgression in public, even if they threaten him with death if he does not transgress a minor mitzva, he must be killed and not transgress.מאי מצוה קלה אמר רבא בר רב יצחק אמר רב
אפילו לשנויי ערקתא דמסאנא
What is a minor mitzva for this purpose? Rava bar Yitzḥak says that Rav says:
Even to change the strap of a sandal.
Some explanation that the nonJews wore black straps while the Jews wore white straps, and changing the color, though not a violation of halacha in and of itself, would be prohibited when done as an order during a time of Shmad.
It's possible to relate this concern with shoe straps to the significance it holds for representing relationships that carried over into the mitvah of tefillin.
Related: http://emreieliezer.blogspot.com/2018/10/avrohom-and-strings.html
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