A Great Tzaddekes, Yet She Didn’t Understand Why David Was Leaping

The Daily Chizuk from The Rav, the holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “It was forbidden to see pants; it’s like seeing underwear”

“And David was whirling with all his might” (II Samuel 6:14)

Thursday, 8 Nissan 5783 — “In my life, I never saw my father’s thumb.”

These are his holy words:

Even Michal, who was such a great tzaddekes, had questions about David.

Michal would put on tefillin. Once, women used to put on tefillin—not like today—but she couldn’t tolerate David’s dancing.

Even though she was such a tzaddekes and put on tefillin, she said, truthfully: In my life, I never saw my father’s thumb. I don’t understand what’s happening here.

It was forbidden to see pants. There was no such thing as seeing pants—it’s like seeing underwear. No—people would go with long cloaks down to the floor; the cloak would rub against the floor. You wouldn’t even see the shoes.

If you could see the shoes, that was already called immodesty. I have a book here that says that even among the non-Jews, seeing shoes is considered immodesty. They would walk with the cloak literally down to the floor. It was forbidden to see pants; it was forbidden to see shoes; it was forbidden to see anything… it’s like underwear—you don’t see it.

Michal said: In my life, I never saw my father’s heel or his thumb—and now you, David, are leaping—what kind of…?

David was leaping, and leaping, and leaping—“And David was whirling with all his might” (II Samuel 6:14).