By Rabbi Aharon Seleh:
In this week’s Parsha, the passuk says “This is the Torah, a man who dies in a tent.” The Gemara in Brachot quotes Rish Lakish who expounds this passuk to mean the words of Torah are not retained except by one who “kills” himself over the Torah.
The Chofetz Chaim brings a parable of a merchant who worked tirelessly for many years building up his business. He became very successful. But he never had time to pray with a minyan or have a set time for learning. Many years passed, he grew older and started thinking about his spiritual life. He realized he hadn’t invested much in the next World. He decided to pray with a minyan every day and stay two hours afterwards to learn Torah. When he got to work, his wife was upset and told him he is not allowed to keep loyal customers waiting! He asked her, “what would you do after 120 years when I’ve passed on?” From now on, imagine that the first few hours of the day I’m not alive!”
This is the only way a person could truly maximize their time. The hours meant for Torah and tefilla, we are simply not alive. Therefore a person can easily keep all thoughts of their daily schedule out of their mind. Don’t worry about what will be, Hashem is running your life. The time meant for Hashem should be sacrosanct.
Rav Chaim Brisk expounds the verse to mean if we’re given one more chance to come out of the grave for just an hour, even though all the relatives would come to greet them in the cemetery, they would have no time for them; they would run to do Torah and mitzvot realizing their tremendous worth!