Even if the Shoe Fits - Take if Off!
Even if the Shoe Fits - Take if Off!
The Torah (Shmot 3:5) relates that after seeing the burning bush, Hashem tells Moshe to remove his shoes. The rationale presented for this is, "for the place upon which you stand is holy ground."

The need to take off one's shoes in a sacred place is mentioned in Sefer Yehoshua (5:15), and is established as normative halakha in the last mishna in Brachot (9:5), which prohibits entry to Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount, while wearing shoes. 

The significance of taking off one's shoes when entering a sacred place is not explicit in the Tanach, Mishna or Gemara. Different explanations are suggested by the commentators (mefarshim).

Chizkuni (Shmot, ibid.) comments that since one's shoes may be dirty, it's inappropriate to enter a holy place with shoes. This technical rationale is also offered by the Rambam in his commentary to the aforementioned mishna in Brachot.

Rav Hirsch (Shmot, ibid.) suggests a more fundamental understanding for this practice, claiming that this act symbolizes the need for direct contact between the person and the sanctity inherent in the ground. Shoes are essentially a barrier, and when one comes in contact with sanctity, one needs to remove the barriers to ultimately be affected and influenced by it. 

In a similar vein, Rav David ben Amram Ha'Adeni, in his Midrash HaGadol, suggests that removing one's shoes symbolizes the need to free oneself of mundane thoughts, concentrating on developing a relationship with God. 

In our hectic and chaotic world, people are often working 24/6, constantly connected virtually and functioning as "human-doings," not human-beings. Taking off one's shoes represents and facilitates a time-out from the rat race. The physical, grounding connection to the holy soil beneath one's feet, which we often are too busy to appreciate, provides one with the mental space necessary to be spiritually sensitive. This enables one to cultivate a relationship, a real connection, with God.

May we be zocheh, merit, to internalize this message, and to be successful in this endeavor.