B"H
Monday, Tevet 27, 5781 / January 11, 2021
There are six events which the Torah commands us to remember each day of our life. One of them is, "Remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life" (Deut. 16:3). Thus, we must remember the Exodus from Egypt each day.
Q. Why is it so important to remember every day the Exodus which happened over three thousand years ago?
A. In this week's Torah Portion, Parshat Va’era, Moshe tells the Jewish people that G-d has heard their cries and that He will liberate them from Egypt. However, because of their hard and difficult work, they didn't listen to Moshe.
Pharaoh made the Jews work hard, not because he needed their service, but because he wanted to enslave them. As a result, he made them do all kinds of unnecessary labor. He also made women do the jobs of men and vice versa. He enslaved them physically and spiritually to such an extent that the Jews were unable to comprehend G-d's word.
By commanding us to recall the Exodus every day, G-d is reminding us that our daily work to make a living should not interfere with our duties to Him. Ultimately, it is G-d who provides us with what we need.
Rabbi Yaakov, the Magid (Preacher) of Dubna gives the following parable. A laborer came to a town in which there lived a very generous man. The man's home was always open to guests. In the same town there also lived a miser, who was very stingy.
The laborer was hired by the miser to do a day's work in return for room and board. After completing a hard day's work, the miser sent him to the home of the generous man who provided him with good food and comfortable lodging. This went on for a while. The worker put in an hard day’s work thinking that it was his employer who was paying for his food and lodging.
Then one day the laborer discovered that all this was not a payment for his hard work, but as a result of the kindness and benevolence of the other person. "How foolish was I to exhaust myself, when all this would have been given to me anyway!" He thought to himself.
It is the same with us, said the Magid. Although, as the Torah says, we must work and do our part, we should at the same time remember that in the end, it is all a gift from G-d. This is the purpose of remembering the Exodus each, that we shouldn’t be enslaved to the physical and monetary needs.
There is a profound lesson here for us in our daily lives. If we spend more time with our loved ones and devote more of our time toward our spiritual obligations to G-d, we would still have what is destined for us and have more time for ourselves and our loved ones.
HAVE A GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY SUCCESSFUL & WONDERFUL DAY