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1. Time is a most precious commodity. Our minutes are measured, and, if they are not, maybe they should be! When a Torah Jew is asked 'Gotta minute?' he pauses for a moment before responding. Indeed, our days are marked by special Halachic points throughout the day: Daybreak, Sof Zeman Krias Shema, Sof Zeman Tefillah, Midday, the optimum time to recite Mincha, Sunset, Tzeis Hakochavim, and Midnight. We do not need alarm clocks to remind us of our duties, or how to organize our day. Yet, interestingly, these times do change throughout the year. For instance, Chatzos, or Halachic Midnight in New York City this week is 11:40 p.m. This means that Krias Shema of Maariv must be recited before that time in order for one not to be considered 'an individual who violates the words of the Rabbis' (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 235:3, Mishna Berura, Seif Katan 27). Accordingly, our days are structured, but we are reminded by season and time change to keep on guard, and not to live our lives by sleepy habit and redundant rote. An important resource for the daily changing times in your area (United States and Canada) is 718-331-TIME, which is a computerized, automated service that can be reached 24 hours a day.
2. The Sefer Tomer Devorah (end of Chapter 4) writes: 'And this is the standard of Teshuva that a person should conduct himself in daily--he should think about and actually do Teshuva 'bedavar ma'--in some way, every day, so that all his days are days of Teshuva.' What a remarkable teaching! As long as we think about Teshuva, and fix a 'davar ma'--something small in a given day, we are considered to be living all of our days with Teshuva. After considering and reconsidering this simple, straightforward and powerful point, we can each think of how it may be implemented in just a few moments every single day of our lives. The Torah in this week's Parsha teaches (Beraishis 24:1) 'And Avraham was elderly, he came with his days...' The commentaries explain that Avraham Avinu made each and every day count, so he was able to 'come with his days' into his old age. The Tomer Devorah is giving us a great starting point to emulate our forefather.
3. Supplementing this point, the greatest obstacle to personal growth and to Teshuva is the Yetzer Hora, which urges us, which eggs us on, to follow our taavos--our desires--and not our reason and intellect. HaRav Shlome Volbe, Z'TL, (Collected Letters, 23) brings the Chovos HaLevovos which actually teaches that the **intent of the Torah** is to cause one's sechel--one's intellect, to control and succeed over, even to vanquish, one's base desires. In fact, HaRav Volbe definitively writes, the 'ikar hakol-- the most important of all'--is to be a 'ba'al sechel'--to act with intellect overcoming emotion, with reasoning overpowering impulse, and with discernment overriding instinct. If in the situations that come up throughout the day, we remind ourselves that we are a 'ba'al sechel' (perhaps with a little slip of paper on our desk), we can go far, very far, towards bringing our days with us into our old age.
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Reprinted with permission from Hakhel MIS
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Important Numbers
