It states in this week's parashah (19:5) ֻלָּהְגס לִי ֶםְיִיתוִה, "You shall be to Me a segulah/treasure". Rebbe Dovid Lelover zt'l explains that the nekudos of a סגל are three dots, like this ֶ. Whichever way you turn over the three dots, it remains a סגל. Therefore, it states ֻלָּהְגס לִי ֶםְיִיתוִה, a Yid is like a סגל, no matter what he does, he remains a Yid... and thus there is no reason to despair.
Seder HaDoros (year 5269) says that Rabbeinu Yitzchak Abarbanel wrote thirteen sefarim, and he writes about himself the following: "All these sefarim I wrote after I left the land in which I was born. Before then, I was busy serving in the chambers of kings, and I didn't have time to study, and I wasn’t familiar with sefarim. I wasted my days and years with nothingness to attain wealth and honor. And then the wealth was lost in a bad way. After traveling from one place to another and losing all my money, I began studying Hashem's sefarim."
The Abarbanel didn't say, "I am getting older; I wasted much time and opportunities in my youth; I can't begin again. Besides, what will become of me? How can I become a Torah scholar, starting so late?" He didn't say that. Instead, he immersed himself in the Torah and became one of the greatest gedolim. This is a reminder that everyone can start, no matter his stage in life, and he can accomplish a lot.
Simchah and Fulfillment
Reb Yaakov Meir Shechter Shlita (Yom Machmadim p.42) teaches that a segulah for simchah and to feel fulfilled and satisfied is to be maavir sidra, to review the parsha of the week. This is tested and proven.
A person came to the Yismach Yisrael zt'l and cried, "Holy Rebbe! I owe money to the entire world! To all my friends and banks! My business is collapsing. What will be with me?"
The Yismach Yisrael replied, "What are you planning to do?"
The man said, "I thought to do what everyone else in my situation would do. I will declare bankruptcy."
The Rebbe replied, "But how will that help you? You need parnassah!"
The man replied, "I will open a new company. It will have another name. The new company didn't do anything wrong to anyone; it doesn't owe money to anyone. It doesn’t have a past that is positive or negative. I will take on new loans from the bank and build from the beginning again."
The Rebbe smiled, "You just helped me understand something I wondered about for a long time. Yisro had seven daughters (see Shemos 2:16), and Yisro had seven names (see Shemos 4:18, Rashi). I always wondered why the Torah tells us this... but now I understand. Each time Yisro made a chasunah for one of his daughters, he took it upon himself to give a large dowry. To pay for the dowry, he had to borrow money from many people. The day after the chasunah, he didn't have money to pay back the debts. So he declared bankruptcy and called himself a new name, and this new "person" didn't owe money to anyone."
In our context, the yetzer hara comes to a person and says, "You are so deeply in debt (in a spiritual sense). You committed this aveirah and that aveirah... There is no more hope for you."
A wise person will reply, "It isn't as you say. I have just declared bankruptcy! I'm finished with my past. I am a new person." As the Rambam writes in Hilchos Teshuvah (ch.2), "From the paths of teshuvah is that a person... should change his name." Therefore, it is often taught that when one does teshuvah, he is שנולד כתינוק, like a newborn child, without any connection to the past.
It states (19:1) ִינָיס ִדְבַּרמ בָּאוּ ַזֶּהה בַּיּוֹם, "On this day, they arrived in the desert of Sinai." These words hint at the first step for receiving the Torah. It is to focus on הזה ביום, this day.
