By my count, I have said the weekday Shemoneh Esrei prayer more than 45,000 times. That is FORTY FIVE THOUSAND TIMES. I know it by heart and can recite this very long prayer without paying attention. Therein lies the problem. I should be concentrating on the words and appreciating Who I am speaking to, yet after 45,000 times, the words come so easily that I often find myself saying them by rote. How do we maintain our concentration and ignite our inspiration for practices that we do over and over again.
The second half of Parshas Pinchas contains the various offerings that were brought on the holidays and on Shabbos. The section starts off by instructing us regarding the Korban Tamid, the daily offering that was brought in the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and later the Beis Hamikdosh (Holy Temple) every day, 7 days a week. The Torah states (28:6) “The continual Olah offering that was made on Mount Sinai…” What is the relevance of Mount Sinai to the offering that was brought every day in the Beis Hamikdosh?
Rabbi Yissocher Frand quotes Rabbi Yosef Salant who points out that the Torah is teaching us a philosophical lesson. When we do something again and again, whether it is once a day or more, there is a danger of going through the motions. And we become blasé. We lose our feeling of excitement. This is true of physical activities and of spiritual or inspirational experiences. Think of a special food that you really love. Now imagine that you ate it every day for breakfast, lunch and supper. How long would it be before you no longer took the same pleasure from the experience?
The Torah is teaching us that when the daily offering is brought, it should be done just like that first time at Mount Sinai. Infuse it with feeling and meaning. It may be hard to feel enthusiastic and inspired every day, twice a day, at the bringing of the Tamid offering. Yet, the Torah says you can do it just like you did at Sinai. While maintaining our sensitivity to the pleasure we receive from eating and other physical activities requires setting limits on how much we indulge, this is not true for spiritual and emotional activities. We are capable of continuously reinspiring ourselves. It requires work and attention. This applies to our relationships with people and to our relationship with Hashem.
Throughout the Jewish calendar we do this in our observance of the holidays. On Pesach we recreate the experience of the Exodus in order to feel as if we ourselves came out of Egypt. As we draw closer to Tisha B’Av, we attempt to really feel the loss of the Beis Hamikdosh and internalize what we are missing by living without it. How can we get closer to this challenging goal? One important way is to learn more about what having a Beis Hamikdosh really means and how the Jewish people have suffered over the past 2000 years since its destruction.
May the Temple be rebuilt speedily and in our day.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Zischa Shaps
