Parashat Nisavim

Shlomo Zargari

By: Rabbi Shlomo Zargari

Shalom, let’s start with a story. A man was taking a stroll next to the river bank, he suddenly notices a young boy crying for help. Without a moments hesitation, the man jumps into the dangerous river and struggles to save the boy and finally drags him to safety. Turns out that this is the prince. The king owed him a great debt of gratitude and commanded he should be allowed into the treasure for a full day to gather as much wealth as he wants for himself. The man walks out with bags and chests full of gold and diamond and pearl jewelry , antiques and artwork. Over night he became a very very wealthy man. He built himself a beautiful palace, conducted businesses, got accepted in the high society and married off his children to royalty. Every year he would make a party for his friends to celebrate his success. Once during the feast of celebration he asked the assembly :”when do you think was the happiest day of my life ?”. People started to guess : ” the day you built your magnificent mansion” “when your children were born” “when you got married”….he said that all those were memorable milestones, however, the happiest day was the day he spent in the basement of the kings palace. True it was very hard work, he didn’t eat all day and was carrying heavy things the entire day nonstop, but he knew that every moment counts and every package, heavy as could be is for him to keep, down to the last pearl necklace…..

The truth is, says Harav Yisrael Meir HaCohen better known as The Hafes Hayim(1839-1933) this should be our feeling when performing misvot. The problem is that we don’t realize and understand this. If we did we would enjoy every moment we are studying Torah, every misva would be another treasure for us, every minute of Torah would be sixty seconds of huge treasures….when Hashem will open our eyes and heart, we will then see”Hashem will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love Hashem, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” (Devarim 30,6). Then, we would appreciate just our story, how precious every moment was. These are the last moments of 5755, let’s make them count and with this we’ll have gained ourselves and the whole world much treasures.

Shabat Shalom and Shana Tova.

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