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Take your shoes off your feet as a sign of respect

tonychanyt

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Oct 2, 2011
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At the burning bush, God said to Moses in Exodus 3:

5b “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers:

Egyptians before the time of Moses, and Orientals generally, in ancient (as in modern) times, removed their sandals (or their shoes) from their feet on entering any place to which respect was due, as a temple, a palace, and even the private house of a great man.
I worked and lived in Japan for a decade. Inside my apartment at the door, we provided indoor sandals for visitors. My friends would remove their street shoes and slip on the clean sandals at that spot. After that, they took a step up and walked on the wood floor of our apartment.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges:

The removal of the sandals is still the usual mark of reverence, upon entering a mosque, or other holy place, in the East.
I worked and lived in Saudi Arabia for four years. When I visited a mosque with my Muslim friends, we removed our street shoes and socks and walked on the carpeted floor barefoot.

Physically speaking, removing shoes helps maintain cleanliness within the mosque, as shoes can bring dirt or impurities from the streets.

Spiritually, we left behind the impurities and distractions of the outside world before entering the mosque for prayer or worship.

I worked in the Philippines for two years. I attended some Catholic Sunday masses. Some took place in open spaces with a roof and seats under it. There was no wall, no need to remove shoes at all. While sitting inside, I could see birds flying outside and hear their chirping. There was no difference between the dirt content inside the place of worship or outside. Sometimes, it was so crowded that some worshippers had to stand outside the perimeter of the roof.

I enjoyed all these different settings of worship :)