Just as we know that by eating one tiny insect, R”l, one transgresses five or six aveiros, on the positive side, one can fulfill numerous great mitzvos by making his Yom Tov preparations!
As a person sits in heavy traffic in the lead–up to Yom Tov to make Yom Tov purchases and help his wife for Yom Tov, he may be fulfilling three or four mitzvos d’Oraisa! The first is that he is מקבל יסורים באהבה. He is also engaged in chessed! He is engaged in making a hachanah for a mitzvah! He is exhibiting rachmanus! This person has a list of mitzvos that he’s fulfilling, but if he isn’t connected to the essence, he becomes frazzled, nervous, and stressed.
As one goes about his Yom Tov preparations, a Yid should always remember two things: Which mitzvah I am doing, and why I am doing it. If we work to keep our mind about us, focused on these thoughts, then when Yom Tov arrives, we will feel so elevated and warmed—davka due to our hachanah that we have engaged in.
