Among the twelve senses of the soul that Kabbalah describes, the sense corresponding to the month of Sivan is called the sense of walking (חוּשׁ הַהִלּוּךְ).
What does it mean that walking is a sense of the soul? Clearly, referring to walking as a sense goes beyond the simple physical act of walking, which is an ability that every healthy person naturally develops in the first years of life. When we speak of walking as a sense of the soul, we need to abstract it and see that at its core lies the ability to step forward and progress, be it physically, which leads to our ability to walk on our feet, or spiritually, which leads to our feeling that there is a good future that lies ahead. A person with a developed sense of walking is always in motion, always thinking about where he can further develop. Development is not just about refining our talents or seeking career advancement, but spiritual maturation—the aspiration to be better, more authentic, closer to our inner and higher self. Just as doctors recommend daily walks, so too does the health of the soul depend on a constant movement towards the higher and the better. The sense of walking is constantly battling against the tendency to be encumbered by life: either by simply going with the flow of life or alternatively stopping and stagnating altogether. The sense of walking calls us to lift our feet, to move ourselves from our place and step forward, even against the current.
The sense of walking is a particularly Jewish sense. The first command God gave Abraham, the first Jew, was to walk: “And God said to Avram, ‘Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.’”[1] Because of this, the two words most often associated with Abraham are this command: “Lech Lecha” or “Go forth.”[2] Unlike Noah (whose name means “comfortable”), who was comfortable with his present state, Abraham listened to the call to go far from what was familiar to him, and precisely in this way to discover himself. Indeed, the words "Lech lecha" literally mean “Go to you,” in other words, go to yourself, go to who you really are. It was this first command from God that turned Abraham into a Hebrew (an ivri, עִבְרִי), which suggests one who seeks to go “beyond” (מֵעֵבֶר), beyond his present state and beyond even all present reality.
Despite the special place that the sense of walking has for Jews, it is to a great extent that which makes us human. Speaking, writing, painting, and even loving, all these are actions as natural to us as the animal's instinctive behaviors are to it. Only when we demand from ourselves that we step outside our comfort zone and go beyond the familiar and natural do we begin to manifest and realize the Divine image within us.
This dissatisfaction with our given state has the potential to elevate us even above the state of angels. While angels are described in the Bible as “standing,”[3] meaning they are fixed in their spiritual level, human beings are described as "walkers," capable of ascending ever higher. On the one hand, angels are very consistent. They are dependably nullified before the Creator. But their state of nullification is constant and, more importantly, always the same. It does not fluctuate up or down. A human being on the other hand is not so dependable. Even when we have decided to commit to nullify ourselves and our will before the will of the Creator, we fluctuate in our commitment. Sometimes we do not stand so strongly by it and find ourselves surrendering to our own whims. Other times, we may reach a level of nullification that an angel cannot even begin to understand.[4]
A beautiful story told about the Lubavitcher Rebbe illustrates this point well. A young man once came to the Rebbe and complained that he had lost interest in following halachah because it was impossible not to fail. “What use does God have for me and my conduct if I cannot do perform His will perfectly. Better that I do not deign to present myself as a practicing Jew, if I know how much I fail to follow the required practice.” The Rebbe did not answer him directly but rather asked him about his interests. When the young man revealed his keen interest in art, specifically painting, the Rebbe asked him whether he had seen famous paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge. The young man eagerly told the Rebbe about the many paintings he had seen and had enjoyed. The Rebbe asked him how much these paintings were worth, and the young man replied that they could go for thousands, even tens-of-thousands of dollars. The Rebbe then asked, and how much would a photograph of the Brooklyn Bridge cost, and the young man replied that a few dollars. The Rebbe then questioned: How could it be that an imprecise painting, lacking many details and unrealistic could sell for so much, while a photograph that was precise in all its details would sell for so much less? The young man proceeded to happily explain the value of artistic expression in a painting versus the mechanical act of making a photograph. Hearing the explanation, the Rebbe smiled and made his point:
If God would have wanted a precise, pure, and unwavering being to follow His commandments, he would have created only the angels. Our value as human being is not in our perfect obedience, but rather in our imperfection. Angels are like photographs; they serve God flawlessly, without struggle, deviation, or doubt. Their toil is beautiful — but it is fixed. Humans, by contrast, are like paintings. We are not perfect. We stumble, struggle, and strive. But that very struggle, shaped by free will and inner effort, allows us to reach a level no angel can. We don’t merely reflect God’s will—we choose it, we wrestle with it, we infuse it with heart, in other words, we have a sense of walking. We strive to move ourselves above and beyond our first nature. A photograph and its counterpart, an angel, captures what is. A painting, like a human being, reveals what could be. Angels are fixed. Humans possess the sense of walking and can seek to elevate themselves far beyond any angel.
In fact, the sense of walking is so lofty that it is described as capable of surprising even God Himself. When Abraham was 99 years old, after a lifetime of walking in God's ways, God revealed Himself to him and instructed him (alongside the command to circumcise himself), "Walk before Me." After surpassing all the angels and reaching our unique essence, the peak of walking is when we begin to walk before God and, as it were, lead Him, showing the way, in a manner of speaking, to new and unexpected places.
From Halachah to Walking
The tribe corresponding to the month of Sivan is the tribe of Zebulun. How is Zebulun connected to the sense of walking? First of all, the tribe of Zebulun was known as a tribe of merchants. A merchant is a socher (סוֹחֵר) in Hebrew, and his name derives from his way of walking about (סְחוֹר סְחוֹר), or sechor sechor. A second Biblical word for merchant, rochel (רוֹכֵל) derives from the word for foot, regel (רֶגֶל).
But the tribe of Zebulun didn't just walk about the world in search of goods and customers. It is told that they had a special partnership with the tribe of Issachar: the two tribes saw that they could not devote enough time to both earn a living and to studying Torah, so they made a deal: the sons of Issachar would dedicate their time to learning Torah, and the sons of Zebulun would travel the world, engage in commerce, and support them. Thus, both the merit of learning Torah and the livelihood would be shared equally between them.
Though practical, the deal sounds questionable. Is it not the case that while the tribe of Issachar develops spiritually, the tribe of Zebulun becomes immersed in worldliness? The truth is, Zebulun and Issachar shared not only the merit of Torah learning but also the merit of fulfilling its commandments. The tribe of Issachar indeed learned more Torah, but due to their reclusive lifestyle, they were able to fulfill it in practice only in a limited way. In contrast, Zebulun outgoingness, their wandering and business connections, which presented them with the challenge of infusing faith into this world every day and every hour turning theoretical halachah into practical walking on the ground of reality. Behaving with honesty and righteousness with friends and family is relatively simple; doing so while managing a company, finances, employees, and customers is something entirely different.
The greatness of honest commerce is reflected in the Talmud's statement that the first question a person is asked in the World to Come is "Did you conduct your business faithfully?" – did you manage your business (transactions) with honesty and integrity? This is the first question by which a person is measured, before questions about how much Torah he learned or how much wisdom he acquired! This question is not only valid for merchants. The word for 'commerce' used in the original story about Zevulun is prakmatia, the root of the word pragmatism, meaning practicality in general. To the extent that we are people of action, we all have an aspect of the sons of Zevulun, who have the power to take our principles of faith and give them practical 'coverage', turning them from mere words into a living reality walking in the world.
The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe captured this sentiment in an interaction with a simple merchant by the name of Elyeh Abeler. He said to him,[5]
Elyeh, I envy you. You travel to various fairs; you meet many people. Sometimes, in the middle of a business transaction, you get into a warm discussion about a Jewish saying, a saying from the Ein Yakov etc., and you arouse the other fellow's interest in studying the Torah’s revealed dimension (Talmud, halachah etc.) and Chasidut. This causes joy On High, and the Almighty rewards such "trade" with the blessings of children, health and sustenance; the larger the fair the more work there is and the greater the livelihood earned.
Earnestness and Trust
If spiritual progress is likened to walking, then it should be similar to it – advancing step by step, in a constant rhythm, with balance between right and left. But what are the souls spiritual legs that facilitate its walking?
According to the Kabbalistic system of sefirot, the two sefirot representing the spiritual 'legs' of a person are called netzach (victory) and hod (acknowledgment). Netzach is the right leg, which expresses our desire to conquer reality and succeed in our aspirations, and hod is the left leg, expressing our willingness to lose and acknowledge our limitations (and even express gratitude for them). If we look at the sense of walking through these concepts, spiritual walking translates into a movement of “run and return” between the aspiration to succeed and the necessity to acknowledge failure.
On a deeper level, the sefirot of netzach and hod express the qualities of confidence (בִּטָּחוֹן) and earnestness (תְּמִימוּת), respectively. The aspiration to succeed expresses self-confidence in the powers given to us, and the acknowledgment of our limitations expresses a simple faith that everything is for the best (which is also a type of confidence—confidence in God). According to this, spiritual walking is built on an oscillation between being filled with a feeling of self-confidence, a feeling that we have all the necessary powers to succeed in everything and raising our eyes upward in simple acknowledgment that we have nothing of our own, but everything is from Heaven.
Each of these qualities is essential, and each is dangerous without the other. Whenever we reach the peak of one, we must shift our weight to the other, repeatedly. This is how spiritual walking proceeds.
(Left) Right Left!
Let's conclude with a question: which foot should we start walking with? Alternately, we might ask, which side of the bed should we get up from in the morning? Common sense says that we should start with the right foot, the foot of netzach and confidence, and only when we stumble and fail should we mobilize the left foot—hod and earnestness. Indeed, according to halachah, we should start everything with the right foot, perhaps to accustom us to this pattern of thinking. On the other hand, there is a verse that states, “He who walks with earnestness walks confidently.”[6] This verse clearly states that we should start with the left foot—with earnestness—and then proceed to the right—confidence.
What is the solution? A careful examination of halachah reveals that there is a hidden 'step' that one should take every morning, even before placing the right foot on the ground. We are referring to the Modeh Ani, which is recited immediately upon waking and while still in bed: “I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.” This quiet acknowledgment is the opening of the day spiritually with the left foot of hod. It serves as a reminder that in the soul, even self-confidence needs to be built upon earnestness.
In passing, we have also discovered why it is that every army in the world marches to the tune of “left, right, left!”
[1]. Genesis 12:1.
[2]. Some modern thinkers have gone so far as to identify these two words as breaking the primitive state of mind, which saw cyclical repetition as the only way of life.
[3]. I will give you movement among these standing ones” (וְנָתַתִּי לְךָ מַהְלְכִים בֵּין הָעֹמְדִים הָאֵלֶּה), Zachariah 3:7.
[4]. One notable example discussed by the sages is the story of the angels Uza and Aza’el who spoke ill of mankind and of our fickleness. The Almighty cast them into human bodies, sending them to live in our world as human beings with an evil inclination. They failed miserably, especially with all matters related to sexual conduct. They are the “men of name” described in Genesis as having come upon the daughters of man.
[5]. Hayom Yom for 16th of Iyar.
[6]. Proverbs 10:9.
