Dear Readers..

By

Dear Readers,

We wish every Bar Mitzvah Bochur that in 10 years he should put on Tefillin with the same excitement as he did that morning. We wish newly married couples they should appreciate each other a decade later the way they do now.

Is this being wishful? Can we appreciate a sunrise we see every morning? Can we enjoy the people who are constantly in our lives? Can we Daven on a Tuesday as if someone has just taught us how we can connect with our Creator?

The first time we experience something special we are moved by the item. For it to be fresh we need to draw from within and there’s only one way: to connect with Hashem.

It is the human experience that becomes stale. There is absolutely nothing in the world that isn’t taken for granted after being experienced 30 times. Hashem, however, is the Source of all life and is beyond physical, emotional, intellectual and even spiritual experience. By connecting to Him in a given moment, we are connecting to a realm that is above time. The more Hashem becomes a tangible part in our lives the more our lives are infused with the Shechina of an eternal G-d. 

And then everything can be experienced in a joyful spirit; waking up to our families. Greeting the neighbor who lives to our right. Davening with 15 other Yidden each morning. Delving into a Dvar Hashem zu Halacha. Complimenting someone who can use it. Making sure to be honest. Instead of being actions of rote they become individualized experiences of the eternal in the mundane, allowing us to marvel in wonder at that which we have.

The Yetzer Hara, evil inclination, will forgo anything but the present. He’ll agree to nostalgia of the past or to wish for a good future but he won’t give one inch when it comes to doing what’s demanded now. Because he knows that the present is what matters. What we do now shapes the story of the past and leads us into the future and that is where Hashem is to be found; in the big or small decision in front of us at this very moment.

All this also helps with the current wave of anxiety humanity seems to be dealing with. When we are present and mindful of what needs to be done at all times, we automatically deal less with the negative what if’s and what’s gonna be.

This is also a good preparation for the time when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of our Creator as the sea covers the riverbed.

May this Tisha B’av be celebrated as the first fast-turned-yom tov with the coming of Moshiach Now.

Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos, and a meaningful Tisha B’av,

Shalom