Routine

26 Cheshvan 5782

“And it came to pass, when he had been there for many days, that Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked out of the window, and he saw, and behold, Isaac was jesting with Rebecca his wife.” (Bereishis 26:8)

When Isaac came to Philistia, he too, like his father Abraham, pretended that his wife was his sister. After living there undisturbed for a while, “he said [to himself], ‘From now on, I need not worry since they have not violated her until now,’ and he did not take precautions to beware.”

“This refers to the attribute of kindness that is aroused in a man’s heart of his own accord, through an arousal of the love of G-d when reading the Shema, cleaving to Him and surrendering his soul at Echad, ‘with all your wealth,’ in the literal sense” (Lessons in Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh, Epistle 32)

So too it is with our Avodas Hashem. We cannot rely on our previous achievements to inspire us and lead our way. Neither can we rely on other people to watch over us and pull us along. Instead we must rouse ourselves, from the deepest depths of our being, to love Hashem with all our heart and with all our wealth, specifically while saying the daily Shema. In this way we will draw inspiration of our “own accord” from the unlimited source up above.

“My soul is in danger always, yet I have not forgotten Your Torah.” (Tehillim 119:109)

We must live every day with the knowledge that our soul is in acute danger in this dark world. When we enter a comfortable routine and start holding at one level we are entering into an illusion, our soul has already began sinking at that moment. We must never stop increasing our efforts to fulfill mitzvos behidur, learn with concentration, and daven b’iyun.