Many cultures and religions have laws or practices requiring people to remove their shoes on certain occasions.
- Moses was commanded in Exodus 3:5 and Joshua in Joshua 5:15 to remove their shoes when Moses had a revelation from God at a burning bush, and Joshua received instructions from an angel.
- Priests who were descendants of Moses’ brother Aaron are told in the Bible to minister in the Tabernacle barefoot.
- The Mishna relates in Berachot 9:5 that Jews could not enter the temple mount wearing shoes or with a staff, money belt, or dust on their feet.
- Today, priests in Orthodox synagogues ascend a podium and recite a blessing after they remove their shoes. They do so to remember the practice of the ancient priests.
- (As an aside, the question is asked what helped Jews survive years in the diaspora. The answer is recalling Jewish practices such as the priestly blessing, Shabbat, and the Seder on Passover.)
- The Jewish practice is that mourners mourn their departed at home without leather shoes.
- Similarly, all Jews do not wear leather shoes on the fast days of Yom Kippur and Tisha b’Av.
- While Jews discontinued the practice of praying barefoot in synagogues, Muslims adopted the practice in their mosques.
- In Asia, Eastern Europe, and among some Hawaiians and others, shoes are not worn at home; visitors are expected to remove them before entering these homes.
Why?
- Since ancient times, people recognized two significant things about shoes that caused the abovementioned practices. People saw that walking with shoes accumulated dust, dirt, and other undesirable filth. They did not want this trash brought into their homes and places of worship. They also saw that walking was an active activity and people walked with shoes. For example, Judaism requires Jews to be active and to treat all that God created as they want to be treated themselves. The rabbis emphasized the need for activity in many ways. One was the call laws in Hebrew The root of this noun means to walk, go, and move.
- So, the removal of shoes was felt to be a sign of respect. Proper people do not soil another’s home or any holy place.
- The feet and shoes were also seen as hands as a possible threat to others. Thus, regarding hands, people offer their hands in a handshake to other hands to indicate they are not a threat. Similarly. They take off their shoes when entering homes or holy places to show they intend no action or threat, only respect.
When we offer our hands to others in a handshake gesture it is to show that we are not a threat. In ancient times, it was to signify that we had no weapons and we were exposing our arms to be cut off with a sword if we lied and were carrying a weapon. Similarly, when the Japanese bowed it was meant to show that they were not a threat. If someone is a threat when they bow their head it may be cut off. Even animals do that. The cat by closing its eyes is saying it trusts you. It’s a similar concept to think I’m lowing my head, I can’t see what you’re doing; I trust what’s coming next, that’s what Asian people do.
Contrary to what most people think, the smile is the exact opposite in most cultures. The smile with your teeth showing is supposed to be threatening. It’s supposed to show your fangs. This kind of thing we can observe in monkeys and some other animals. That’s why in most of the cultures the smile is with the lips closed; to show that you are not a threat. It’s the people who want to sell you toothpaste who say you want to show your teeth (almost everything here is driven by marketing). But naturally, if you smile by raising your lips, that’s biology. But Americans have grown so accustomed to smiling with teeth, we realize that we’re friendly. But if you do that somewhere else abroad, somebody will feel uneasy. They even have a special word for it when you smile with the teeth out, but I cannot remember it.
I agree. This is a fascinating subject.That is why I enjoyed Elias Canetti’s book Crowds and Power.
Many thanks for that surprise, dear Rabbi Israel Drazin ! Best: stephen
You’re welcome.
I also liked what you wrote. I agree with you that we should always remove our shoes when entering homes or a house of worship. When I enter a holy place or homes of family and friends I always remove my shoes out of respect. Similarly, Samaritans also insist on removing your shoes before entering their synagogues.
Some rabbis rule that it is forbidden to wear sandals on Shabbat because particles of sand may get caught in between the foot and the sandal, and this constitutes as “carrying.” I do not think this should constitute as carrying, in violation of Shabbat. I think this is an extreme. If sand gets caught between our feet and sandals, this should not violate Shabbat. We are not intentionally carrying anything.
I never heard the ruling about sand in sandles.
Dear Rabbi Israel Drazin ! Am in agreement with all your observations. Imo, all our texts mention several ethical behaviors concerning shoes. For example, not wearing shoes while mourning (such as after the destruction of Jerusalem), as a sign of respect is one mentioned behavior. It is also considered important to not boast about one’s importance, like Eliezer the Younger did when questioned about his wearing black shoes. On Shabbat, it is advised that one may not go out in a single shoe, likely to avoid mockery and potential violations of carrying items on Shabbat, which is forbidden. However, if one has a wound on the foot, they may wear a single shoe – with the shoe on the wounded foot if shoes are seen mainly for protection, or the shoe on the healthy foot if shoes are seen mainly for comfort. There is also an ethical recommendation about the sequence of putting on shoes: right shoe first but tying the left shoe first, which shows respect to both the general rule of precedence of the right and the special significance of the left arm where arm tefillin is worn. In times of persecution, people were forbidden from wearing hobnailed sandals on Shabbat, especially in sensitive circumstances, to avoid panic and potential harm to others. On Yom Kippur, it is forbidden to wear shoes, possibly to show humility. However, there is debate whether this applies only to leather shoes or any kind of shoes. These are not all universally applicable today and are often tied to specific cultural or religious contexts. It is important to note that the texts interpret these behaviors within their particular historical, religious, and cultural contexts. Best: stephen
I like what you wrote Stephen. I wrote this essay for a book I will publish soon. I added in the book what you wrote, as follows:
After writing this easy, I posted it on my website. My friend Stephen I. Ternyik sent me the following comment to which I added a bracketed explanation:
“Dear Rabbi Israel Drazin! Am in agreement with all your observations. Imo [in my opinion], all our texts mention several ethical behaviors concerning shoes. For [then I added the rest of what you wrote including your signature.]