At the beginning of the Torah portion, Moses again presents the fundamental idea that if the Israelites observe God’s mitzvot they will receive His blessing. The verse that opens the Torah portion: “It shall be because [ekev] you heed,” is expounded by the Sages as an allusion to the meticulous observance of the routine, minor mitzvot that people tend to overlook.

“It shall be because [ekev] you heed these ordinances” (Deuteronomy 7:12). This explains what the verse states: “Why should I fear in days of evil, though the iniquity of my feet [akevai] surrounds me?” (Psalms 49:6). Blessed is the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, who gave Israel the Torah in which there are 613 mitzvot, among them minor ones and major ones. Because there were minor mitzvot among them about which people are not meticulous, but rather they cast them under their heels [ikveihen], …that is why David feared the day of judgment, and said: Master of the Universe, I do not fear that I was lacking in my observance of the major mitzvot in the Torah, because they are significant, so I was meticulous to observe them properly. What do I fear? That I was lacking in my observance of the minor mitzvot. Lest I violated one of them, whether by doing something I should not have done or by not doing something that I should have done, because it was minor. And You said: Be as meticulous in the observance of a minor mitzva as a major one. Therefore, David said: “Why should I fear in days of evil, though the iniquity of my feet surrounds me?” (Tanĥuma, Ekev)