Several days ago the world was gripped with excitement as NASA’s Curiosity Rover on a $2.5 Billion mission made its descent and landed on Mars. Many years of research, billions of tax dollars, and hundreds of scientists and technicians have been hard at work developing this amazing research vehicle.
According to NASA, now that it is on the surface, the rover will be able to roll over obstacles up to 29 inches high and travel up to 295 feet per hour. The rover carries the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific research ever sent to the Martian surface. The rover will analyze samples scooped from the soil and drilled from rocks. The rover's onboard laboratory will study rocks, soils, and the local geologic setting in order to detect chemical building blocks of life on Mars and will assess what the Martian environment was like in the past. The power source gives the mission an operating lifespan much longer than the battery of your cell phone and it can last 687 Earth days or more (I am trying to convince AT&T to switch to this battery).
A day or two after its landing we heard that it was able to erect itself to its full height and all its cameras seem to be working. Now over the next few months and maybe two years NASA’s scientists will be doing plenty research with the hope of making some great discoveries for humanity and scientific research.
On this mission, every little detail was critical, every wire and cable, every bit of computer code and programming, and every physical detail of the Curiosity Rover was immensely critical to the mission’s success. None of the team working on this probably had the luxury of forgetting critical components or even seemingly minor details. With these kinds of missions, the smallest chink can lead to a mission’s failure, and every detail was and is obviously immensely important and vital to the mission’s success.
Interestingly, the name and theme of this week’s Torah portion of Eikev addresses the relevance and importance of how we treat the little details of life.
In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion it states: "As a result (Eikev) of obeying these laws, guarding and keeping them, G-d will keep for you the covenant and the love which He promised to your forefathers." The verse then goes on to enumerate the various blessings, which are given as a result of keeping these laws.
However, the Hebrew word Eikev, which is translated "as a result," actually has more than one meaning as the word Eikev can also mean "heel". In fact, the implied usage “as a result” would usually have been expressed with other words. . Rashi, the famous commentary from the Middle Ages explains that the Torah is specifically encouraging us to keep and honor the commandments and details which we might otherwise view as insignificant and “trample on them with our heels”.
Human tendencies tend to assign importance to the big and large issues of life and Judaism, and these elements often take center stage in our minds and actions. Yom Kippur and Passover are two prime examples of Mitzvot that have become universally accepted as “big” and important Mitzvot. This is actually a great thing as wherever you go in life Jews will be celebrating and marking those dates. However, there are many other elements and seemingly insignificant details of Judaism or life that we often tend to ignore, or put on the back burner. Eikev the portion of the week makes a point of reminding us that the small details are not only not insignificant, but in fact they count too, and more than just count, they actually may be the little screws that hold the big pieces together.
Judaism is a big picture, but the beauty of the big picture is brought out by the small details. The Torah asks us to be mindful of the small aspects of life and encourages us to live a life where we are consciously aware of the importance of the small details.
A great example would be by trying to send me an email to rabbi@chabadsudburycom, there is something wrong with the email address I just gave. Try sending me something to that email address and it won’t come through, in fact it will bounce right back. All I did was remove a little dot from the address, what’s the big deal, I am trying to save on the ink and energy. But we all know that actually the little dot is quite crucial to that email getting to me, that little dot between the domain name and the com will be the difference of it getting to me or not.
This week as we hear all about the NASA’s Curiosity let us remember that we too are on a mission, and there is a lot that has been invested in us to help us get here, stand up to our full height and collect samples, do research and change the world. We need to remember that to our designer the details are important too, our job is to act on that premise and try to live a life where Judaism is not only in the big ideas, but rather the small and sometimes insignificant details of our lives are permeated with meaning and purpose so that the sum total of our actions makes our mission to this world an extremely successful one.
I am looking forward to some great finds from NASA’S Curiosity and applaud their amazing work. In the meantime, we will use this tremendous feat as a reminder of our own mission to bring purpose and divine consciousness into the way we live our life. It reminds us be mindful of our identity and purpose not only in the synagogue and temple, but rather in it is in our day to day living, in the simple and many interactions on the street, work and social life, that we have the best opportunity to express and live up to our mission of changing and bettering the world.