Miller's Musings Parshas Shelach Lecho: Good Habits Die Hard

בס''ד

Conventional thought would say that the more important something is the more reminders we would require to ensure there is the least chance of our overlooking it.  For those living a life governed by the Torah, there is nothing more valuable than the performance of Mitzvos. Therefore for those of us less naturally spiritually attuned, Hashem conferred upon us the Mitzvah of Tzitzis.  This Mitzvah, as the Torah tells us, is so “that you may see it and remember all the commandments and perform them”, which is all well and good, were it not for the fact that the Torah seemingly repeats this again in the next Posuk, “So that you may remember and perform all My commandments.” The mechanism by which gazing upon Tzitzis reminds us to act righteously is beyond the scope of our discussion, but we do need to try and fathom the need for the aforementioned replication of the stated nature of Tzitzis as a memory aid.

To succeed in a Torah life requires the use of whatever tactics are at our disposal.  A positive environment conducive to spiritual growth, preemptive safeguards and efforts to connect with G-d, are just some of these potential methods.  But if ‘old habits die hard’ it would be entirely logical to use that for our betterment and create habits that we would want to be difficult to jettison.  Each time we repeat a good pattern of behavior we make it easier the next time to reproduce this behavior due to it becoming more and more habitual and instinctive to us.  This we can suggest is the meaning of the duplication of the Torah informing us that Tzitzis prompt us towards fulfilment of Mitzvos.  When we see the Tzitzis it will inevitably remind us and inspire us to do the will of Hashem.  And once this is done, and a good deed has been accomplished, this will in turn build within us another automatic reminder to do likewise should the opportunity arise again. 

We are always warned to not perform Mitzvos by rote and to endeavour to do each mitzvo because we want to, not because we were trained to.  Yet there is a lot to be said for creating positive habits within ourselves and implanting these habits into our way of life even though it may be initially forced and unnatural.  If we are always used to praying when things go awry it becomes something that we naturally do.  If we teach ourselves to always respond warmly and with generosity to people, it will become second nature.  Of course we must find newness and instill depth into our acts, but if we start by training our habits, and the habits of our loved ones, to be as they should be, we are giving ourselves an excellent head start to eventually being the authentically great people we want to be.

*May Shabbos be a positive force for change in our habits and life*

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם 

לעילוי נשמת שרה יעל בת גרשון

לרפואת אלימלך יהושע אהרון בן דבורה רבקה