NEXT MITZVAH OF THE DAY - WHICH SHOE DO WE PUT ON FIRST?

BS"D So after we have washed our hands and thanked HaShem for looking after our bodily needs so well, most of us get dressed at this point in our morning. The Code of Jewish laws, which we call Shulchan Aruch in Hebrew, teaches us everything we need to know in order to act as a Jewish person should. It is our guide book to a Jewish way of life. On page 6 is outlines the rules for how we get dressed in the morning:

…when dressing ourselves, we must always give preference to the right hand or foot, over the left; but when removing shoes and other articles of apparel, the left comes first…When our shoes have laces, we first put the shoe on the right foot without lacing it, then we put the one of the left and lace it, and afterward we lace the one of the right. The method of dressing also applies to all other articles of clothing.

Here is a great story taken from the book “Visions of Greatness” – Volume 2, by Rabbi Yosef Weiss, page 193. (Reprinted with permission)

The following story is related by Rabbi Reuven Tillim:

At the turn of the twentieth century, the yeshiva did not yet exist on American soil. The only source of Jewish education available was the Hebrew day school, where dedicated rabbanim (rabbi’s) often labored to inject a little enthusiasm for the Jewish religion into boys who were more interested in daydreaming, playing baseball and enjoying all the diversions of the “free world”.

Rabbi Yochanan Berman (names are fictitious) was among the many selfless men who left the comfortable sphere of Jewish life in New York to settle in cities with tiny Jewish populations in an effort to spread Torah and yiras shamayim (fear of Heaven). Reb Yochanan was determined to seize the opportunity to teach his students as much as possible. When the school year started, he soon established a healthy rapport with the boys in his class. They listened respectfully as he outlined the code of Jewish law and explained all the halachos (laws) that they needed to know.

One day, Reb Yochanan began to teach the section of halachos that deals with the proper way to put on one’s clothing in the morning. “The right shoe is put on first, then the left,” her old the boys. “There are many instances in the Torah which show that the right is more important than the left”.

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