Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA (The Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness). We've been discussing the importance of appreciating every single day. It’s important to point out, however, that some people get a little obsessed with productivity, and when they hear that they have to use their days properly, they start to think of filling every second of the day, not wasting a second, but not understanding or appreciating that even one thing that you do during the day can be worthwhile.
This does not alleviate your responsibilities, but we know the Yetzer Hara tries to always attack what we’re doing. So let's first focus on what it means to do one good thing during the day.
Rav Chaim Vital, the Arizal’s prize student, writes, in his sefer Shaare Kedusha (section 2, gate 4), that every service to Hashem that we do has to be done with the ultimate happiness. He cites two stories of Rabbis. One about Abaye (Berachot 30a) says that one day he was in a great mood and someone asked why. His answer was, “I'm wearing my Tefillin today.”
The other story is about Rav Bruna. The Gemara says that a rabbi once recommended that if someone was visiting a certain town, he should send regards to Rav Bruna, because he was a great man. What was his greatness? On a day that he prayed Netz, he was smiling all day. Rabbi Ades says we see two great lessons from this story. Number one is that praying Netz is enough to keep you smiling all day. And number two is that we see that what makes a great man great is that he appreciates one deed. That caused him to smile all day. Many people do good deeds, but to be happy all day from that deed, that’s the way to measure greatness. Rav Bruna is an Adam Gadol, because he knows what it means to do one good thing.
There was a great rabbi named Rav Usher Tuvia Weiss. He was the Av Bet Din of Yerushalayim for many years. In a sefer written on his life, he brings down the following: The Torah (Bamidbar 10,10) says,
B’Yom Simchatchem/On a day of your happiness, your holidays and your Rosh Hodeshes, you blow the shofar. The question is, we know what the holidays are. On Rosh Hodesh, they blew the shofar in the Bet Hamikdash many times. But what is “Your day of happiness?” There are different explanations. One of them says it's Shabbat. And one of them says the Day of your happiness is the day that you bring the Korban Tamid. Every morning and every evening, there'd be a Korban that corresponds to our Shaharit and Mincha, and that made the day into a day of happiness. Now, hold on. The Korban Tamid was only brought one hour during the day. The whole process was not that long. So why is the day called The Day of Happiness? He answers, “We see from here that one mitzvah, for one hour during the day, is enough to make the whole day into a day of happiness,” because I merited to do God's will. The whole day now becomes a day of happiness. This is a fundamental, he says. A person has to understand that doing God's will and making God happy one minute of the day is enough reason to be happy all day. He proves it from the Tosafot ( Yerushalmi Pesachim 50A), that brings down that on Erev Pesach (as I’m sure some people are aware), we don't do work after midday. Tosafot says that in the times when we had a Bet Hamikdash, it was Assur/forbidden from the Torah. Why? Because they brought the Korban Pesach, and because of that Mitzvah, it became a holiday.
Similarly, when someone is a Sandak, the day becomes a holiday for him.
The Gemara goes on and asks, We brought a Korban Tamid every day, so why wasn’t every day a holiday? And Tosafot answers, “You're right. But the pasuk in Shema tells us, gather in your wheat which is obviously a lot of work. If every single day was be a holiday, we could never work. So therefore, God said that although we work because we have to, really every day is a holiday, a day of happiness. Some people have happy hour, but we have a happy day. Why? Because we prayed Shaharit, we prayed Mincha. It’s happy day. And really, I shouldn't go to work today. It's a celebration, but if that were the case, then every day would be a holiday and I’d never get to work. So, we have a special reprieve to go to work.
That's what it means to do one day of Avodat Hashem. And again, the Yetzer Hara tries to take this away from us. He doesn't want us to know what it means to use a day. Using a day doesn't mean that you're sucking the day for every second it's worth and not doing anything else, but locking yourself in a room and learning 18 hours straight. That's also a great thing to do. But if you learned for 15 minutes, that’s also something. Celebrate that. Of course, your goals have to be great.
It's brought down in the Mishnayot (and many Gemaras) that when you start your day off and you're learning Gemara, there's a request you make. “God, it should be Your will that I make all the proper decisions and I don't get happy at people's downfall…” and a whole long list of aspirations follow for the day. And at the end of your day learning, it says, Thank You Hashem, that I sat in the Bet Midrash and I didn't sit on the street corner. It doesn’t say, “Thank You, Hashem that I fulfilled all my great aspirations.”
We say, “Thank You Hashem, because I did something today. I didn't waste my day.” That's a celebration. Celebrate an hour, or even a moment of success during your day.
Have a wonderful day.