Yud Eikev- Yaakov Avinu

Yaacov Avinu is a simple Yid. He is a Jew that is connected to his heel.

The heel is anava, bitul. Anava is about realizing that there is good in another person and you dont have to be the best at everything. Only when you become eikv, Vehaya eiekev- then Tishmeun- only then will you be able to hear what people are saying.

Listen to your heel- the part of your body thats always hidden- your secret place that holds the mystery of how a yid feels about hashem, that noone else knows or understands. Listen to your heel. remember your secrets, how deep your connection to hashem is, even though all year its hidden, eikev tishmeun, it's time to listen. In a world where everone is in everyone else's business, shidduchim fall apart because people are nosy. facebook, sms, myspace, but theres no private space anymore, at the end of time all thats left is the heel. you dont feel the heel until theres something wrong. it's time to listen, to tap into to a place where no one but you and hashem have access to. This is why eretz yisrael is the reward in the parsha, b/c eretz yisrael is haaretz asher ar'recka, the place where you become revealed to yourself.

Its hard to look at our daily live and see that we really are serving hashem most of the day, b/c we dont feel it, so we think the relationship has evaporated.
V'haya Eikev- when your relationship with hashem becomes like a heel, desensitized with no feeling, Tishmeun- listen closely for the whispers that hashem is speaking to you into your life. davka when theres no sound.

Vhaya- is a lashon of simcha- sifrrei chassidus ask, what is the simcha here, of klal yisrael listening? The answer is a gevalt, Eikev is a reference to Ikvasa Demishicha, the last generation before moshiach in which we are living. Vhaya- the simcha is, Eikev- during the last generation before moshiach, when the darkness is so thick you can touch it, emes is hidden, and we are bombarded with filth and confusion every second,( what we struggle to not look at in one day, is more than people 70 years ago dealt with in a lifetime). In such a generation, Tishmeun- there will still be yidden who want to listen to hashem. Not Taasun- will do everything neccesarily, but tishmeun- will want to do everything.

Yaacov Avinu's strength allows us to remember what it is that we Truly want. Let's never forget it.