The secret of permanence
"Success is 99 percent effort and one percent inspiration" How is this principle expressed in the service of God
Rabbi Eliezer Eisikovits
In which verse in the Torah will we find the most fundamental principle for a person's spiritual growth? Various opinions were expressed about this in the Midrash. Ben Azzai says, "This is Sefer Toldat Adem: In the creation. G-d, in the in his view, the image of G-d in man is the founding principle. On the other hand, Ben Zuma believes that the greatest rule in the Torah is found in the verse "Shema Yisrael, the one G-d." The son of Nanas points to another verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord."
It is easy to understand the choice of the sages in these verses, since they all deal with familiar basic principles of the Torah - foundations of faith, of human greatness, and of the power of grace. But then Shimon ben Pazi arrives and surprises with a verse taken from our weekly Torah portion," Shimon ben Pazi said: "We have found a more comprehensive verse, which is, "You will make one lamb in the morning and the other lamb in the dusk." Rabbi Plony stood up and said: Halakha is as ben pazi, As it is written [as far as I show you the pattern of the tabernacle].
Quoted in the introduction to the commentary on Ein Yaakov and also from the Maharal in Netivot Olam. The puzzlement here is clear: What is the matter of sheep for the great rule of the Torah? The answer is that exciting experiences are etched in memory, and exciting events elevate us. But what builds a person and changes him in the long run are the actions he does in routine. All the lofty ideas in the world are like blooming dust as long as they are not translated into fixed actions.
Do you want to be a great person, to change yourself and your surroundings? - Ben Pazi tells us - take on self-discipline of constant, daily work. Get yourself into a regular routine of actions that will uplift you. You will make one lamb in the morning and the other lamb at dusk. Every day the same two victims, in the same format and at the same time. True, it's not always exciting – but in these repetitive actions lies the secret of success. If you wait until the enthusiasm comes, you will reach nothing. Embrace for yourself good habits, and you'll look good.
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The word 'Routine' is from 'routine' Regel – [feet]. habits are like the feet that lead a person. Bad habits need to be shaken off. But if the desired destination is desirable, the habit that leads to it is excellent. The power of habit is that it assimilates the things that affect us, into our daily routine. In this respect, God's work is similar to any work of a person about which one sage has already said, "Success is 99 percent effort and one percent inspiration". It turns out that even very creative people whose success depends on the spark of inspiration had to impose a routine of permanence, habit and self-discipline in order to realize their talent. And the same is true in the service of God.
Take prayer, for example. In order to pray properly, a person must find a spare time slot within his busy schedule; eliminate the thoughts that disturb him; put himself in an appropriate state of mind; Decide what to pray for and in what words to do it. If there were no fixed order for prayers, if every time one went to prayer a person had to re-enlist his mental strength, it turns out that many disruptors would stand in his way. In such a case, prayer would become a rare mitzvah that man rarely fulfills.
Therefore, the members of the Great Knesset established arrangements for prayer: Shacharit, Mincha and Arabic. At fixed times, in a fixed version. Even after this constancy there are still challenges for the worshipper and he may pray according to routine. On the other hand, as prayer enters the daily routine and becomes a natural part of it, the chances increase that at least some of the times it will be done properly and its influence on the person will increase.
A person wishes to fulfill the commandments of the Talmud Torah and acquire broad knowledge in it. If he waits until he has the chance, it is doubtful that it will ever happen. He will always say to himself, "When I'll have the time, I do it," . even if he takes advantage of occasional time for study, or waits for him to be highly motivated to overcome those who interfere, his study will still be interrupted. Therefore, one of the six questions a person is asked while standing before the Court in heaven is, "You set times for the Torah"? The emphasis on the question is not on the scope or content of the study, but on its very permanence. Those whose study takes place on a regular basis – those who have integrated the study into their daily routine and made it a habit – sooner or later will reach everything and will accomplish a lot of creation.
To finish the entire Babylonian Talmud looks like a huge mountain 2,711 pages high. But when you climb this mountain by constantly and consistently walking from page to day, it can be conquered in a period of seven and a half years. The Bible has 929 chapters, but with consistent study of chapter per day it can be completed in about two and a half years.
Apart from more effective study, there is another virtue in learning regularly, since the effect of such learning goes beyond the time slot in which it takes place. It turns a person into a learner, one for whom learning is important enough to occupy a significant place in his schedule.
In fact, halacha itself is to a large extent a set of habits and fixed behaviors that are internalized in the lifestyle of the Jew in every field: in speech, eating, commerce and everything he does in order to build him layer after layer, floor after floor.
