“Barefoot”
by Harold Meij
Bare feet have several meanings. For example, nakedness
of feet is a sign of mourning. God says to Ezekiel, the priest (Ezekiel
24:17) “Make
no mourning for the dead......and put on thy shoes upon thy
feet.” David
is said to have gone from Jerusalem barefoot, when he fled from Absalom.
It is also a mark of respect. In the Koran we find the passage
“Surely I am
your Lord, therefore put off your shoes.......(Ta Ha 20:12). The Muslims
do indeed leave their shoes at the door of a mosque before entering. In
Christianity we find that Moses took off his shoes to approach the burning
bush where the angel of the Lord called to Moses (Exodus 3:5); priests
serving in the Tabernacle (a tent sanctuary used by the Israelites during
the Exodus) did so with their feet naked, as they did afterwards in the
Temple. This is likely what is referred to in our rituals.
The direction Pythagoras gave to his disciples was "Offer
sacrifice and worship with thy shoes off." Maimonides, the great expounder
of the Jewish Law, asserts that "it was not lawful for a man to come into
the mountain of God's house with his shoes on his feet, or with his staff,
or in his working garments, or with dust on his feet." The Druids also
practiced this by performing their rites barefooted, as did the Peruvians
before they entered the temple to worship the Sun.
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