A classic example of this is the daf hayomi. In the beginning, it is very difficult for most people to start learning the daf. We are so busy and preoccupied with all of life’s obligations it seems nearly impossible that we will manage to keep up with the schedule of learning a page of Gemarra every single day for seven and a half years! What will we do on Shabbos and Erev Shabbos when we don’t have much time?
However, this approach is itself our mistake. When we try to figure out how to learn all of Shas at once, we will certainly get overwhelmed. Seven and a half years is a very serious commitment that makes us pretty nervous. Thus, many of us don’t even start. Or, even if we do make an attempt, learning the daf is such a heavy burden that we simply can’t carry for very long, since our focus is on how long it will take to do the whole thing.
On the other hand, when we just concentrate on learning one daf today, we don’t get overwhelmed. Certainly, despite our hectic lives, just for one day, we could manage to fit in a page of Gemarra. If we don’t have the time or focus to study it with Rashi and Tosafos, then we can read through an ArtScroll edition, or listen to a shiur. Then, when the next day comes, we do the same thing. Pretty soon, seven and a half years have passed and we’ve finished Shas! And then, when we look back, we realize that those seven and a half years really passed very quickly. In fact, they were all just like one day – today’s daf, then today’s daf, etc.
Furthermore, if doing a daf every day is too much for us, then we can do the amud yomi with the same approach. Although fifteen years certainly seems like a long time, the truth is that this too passes very quickly when we simply do one amud at a time.
This same thing applies to hisbodedus. If we think that we have to do hisbodedus every single day for an entire year, we will probably get very discouraged and not even start. The spiritual and physical obstacles that we face in making time to talk to Hashem in our own words are so great that such a commitment is far beyond our reach. But if we just take it one day at a time, we can make sure that today we find the set amount of time that we measure that we’re capable of – each person according to his level – to have a personal conversation with the Creator.
