One Mitzvah

29 Iyar 5782

“I will speak of the splendor of Your glorious majesty and of Your wondrous deeds.” (Tehillim 145:5)

It is a great matter in Chassidus to speak of Hashem in everyday conversation. Every greeting, every business transaction, every casual conversation can be transformed into a dwelling place for G‑d. By mentioning an idea from the Torah, a story of a tzaddik, or simply drawing attention to G‑d’s glorious majesty which encompasses the world, we can uplift our daily lives and everyone who comes into them.

“The sum of all those who were counted: six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty.” (Bamidbar 1:46)

Every Jew counts! Every Jew’s mitzvos count. Therefore, it is a great merit to draw even one Jew a little closer to the Torah, through the performance of even one mitzvah. Our primary focus at first shouldn’t be to make every Jew “frum,” our entire concentration should be on the moment itself, to connect, as good as we can, a Yid’s soul to its essence and origin, through increasing in him his mind’s attachment to Torah and his active performance of the mitzvos contained therein.

“The worlds cannot endure or receive the light of this Shechinah, that it might actually dwell and enclothe itself in them, without a ‘garment’ to screen and conceal its light from them” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 52)

As tomorrow’s Tanya continues, “But what is this ‘garment’ which is able to conceal and clothe it (the Shechinah) yet will not itself be completely nullified within its light? This is His blessed will and wisdom, and so forth which are clothed in the Torah and its mitzvot that are revealed to us and our children.” We thus learn that the Torah and mitzvos don’t only have relevance to the Yid himself but to the entire world, allowing G‑dly life-force to descend into it, and to all Jews in general, in this generation and the ones that will follow.