After Hashem your God you shall walk, and Him you shall fear, and His mitzvos you shall observe, and to His voice you shall hearken, and Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall cleave.
English: “After Hashem your God you shall walk” — Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said: What is the meaning of the verse “After Hashem your God you shall walk”? Is it possible for a person to walk after the Shechinah? But it is already written “For Hashem your God is a consuming fire.”
On the daf / in context: The verse cannot be taken literally as physical following of the Divine Presence; the derash therefore seeks the practical meaning of “walking after” Hashem.
Type of Learning
Derash on the verse (Sotah) — the impossibility of literal walking after the Shechinah opens the discussion of imitating Divine attributes.
What Is Learned
The command to walk after Hashem cannot mean physical proximity to the Shechinah; it must refer to another form of following.