רבינו בחיי — והיה עקב תשמעון

Q — The parsha promises rain, prosperity, victory — all gashmi rewards. Where is the spiritual reward for keeping the Torah hinted at?

A — Rabbeinu Bachya finds the answer in the parsha's first two words: והיה עקב. עקב — the heel — is the lowest, most ground-bound part of the body; it is the linguistic stand-in for the lowest tier of reward, the gashmi outcomes the parsha enumerates. But והיה contains the letters of the Shem Hameforash (י-ה-ו-ה rearranged). So the structure of the opening phrase encodes both reward tiers at once: the visible gufani promises (encoded in עקב, the heel) and the invisible spiritual reward of ziv haShechinah (encoded in והיה, the Name). RBB then turns this into a general principle: the Torah elaborates on the morgash (perceptible) reward at length and gestures at the muskal (intellectual/spiritual) reward only briefly — the heel is shown in full color, the Name is signed in code. The same pasuk that seems to promise only barley and rain is the pasuk that quietly promises Shechinah.