By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari:
Shalom,
Here we are, Shabbat Shuva. The scale is shaking and so are our hearts… The Talmud teaches us ( Rosh Hashana 16b)
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The people who aren’t completely righteous nor completely evil are hanging…
We are given a break, a few days, to add to the positive side of the scale with our misvot, and to erase from the other side with repentance. However the fear is still lingering, we didn’t become completely righteous overnight. We didn’t succeed in closing our mouths. We didn’t clear out our hearts. If anything, we probably added to the other side and who knows where we stand now…If someone were to approach us with a revelation,“There’s one Misva that weighs in like a hundred Misvot and there’s so much of it!†How happy and excited we would be. This is a great shortcut! I can tip the scale! But wait…. maybe it’s very difficult, maybe it takes much time or effort?
The answer is not at all, it’s very simple and anyone can do it. What is the magic Misva? This Misva actually doesn’t weigh a hundred times but six hundred thirteen times! The Talmud Yerushalmi in פ××” ×— says each word of Torah study is equal to all the Misvot of Torah! Imagine, there are 248 words in קרי×ת שמע multiplied by 613 is more than 150,000!!! How long does it take to say Shema?
Additionally, Rabenu Yosef Hayim זצוק״ל the Ben Ish Hai ( in parashat Shemot) writes one hour of learning Torah on Shabbat is equal in the heavens to one thousand hours of learning on weekdays. Imagine how one reading of Shema equals millions of Misvot. We aren’t even talking about minutes. We are talking hours of learning, torah, halachot, mussar and gemara or mishnayot… this will surely tip the scale for us and our family!
If the learning is in the Bet Hamidrash, it’s even greater (שיר ×”×©×™×¨×™× ×¨×‘×” ×—,טז)
So we have our work cut out for us for these days and especially on Shabbat!
Every second counts, at home or away, walking or sitting we can make these times count!!!
גמר חתימה טובה