NOW!

To my dear subscriber,

First off, I would like to apologize for not writing a D'var Torah last week. Actually, I apologize for not sending it out - I did, however, write one. "So why didn't you send it out?" I'm sure that's what your wondering. Well then, let me explain. I wrote up the D'var Torah, and I was going to send it out on Thursday night. Why wait? Well, I wanted to read it over, add some things, and spice it up with humor. I'm sure everyone will agree that a D'var Torah without humor is like an elephant without a trunk (think about it). So I waited to send it out on Thursday night. And then. Let's just say that I was in for a surprise. For all of you who don't already know, Great Neck (and the neighboring areas) was hit with a tornado (I'm not sure if they're calling it that, but it was the closest thing to a tornado that I've ever seen). There were knocked down trees everywhere...in the streets, on cars, on houses, everywhere...except for in the ground. And I'm not talking about the trees that people grow in little flower pots - I mean trees that are over 100 years old, huge trees, that weigh tons. And, as you might expect, power lines and wires were everywhere except for where they should be. No power means no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no fully-charged cell phones (WHAT?!?!?), no computers, and worst of all, no D'var Torah being sent out. Here's something funny - so there were no traffic lights, so if you were coming from a side street, you basically had no chance to get on the main road because the cars just wouldn't stop. Cars were just driving through, not paying attention to any traffic laws, because there are no traffic lights. And there's no way a cop will pull anyone over under these conditions. The thing is, why don't people stop at stop signs? Stop signs don't run on power, people! Cars were just running stop signs, as though they, too, were shut off. Crazy people!

By the way, the Ribbono shel Olam decided not to take any lives with this storm. No one was hurt. Amazing, no?

But what can I learn from this? I learn from this, when you have a D'var Torah ready, just send it out, man. Don't wait for the tornado to come and take your power away.

In this week's parasha, Parashat Pinehas, Pinehas does exactly that. He sees something that's wrong, and he wants to put an end to it. (Forgive me for not filling in the details, but you can peruse over the end of last week's parasha at your own leisure. It will state what Pinehas did.) Imagine if he would have waited to think about it. Imagine if he would have went on a coffee break, or maybe even slept on it. Do you think he would have been as zealous? Would he have acted with the same vigor? Of course not! It would have died out. Procrastination = Suicide. Well, not really, but you get my point. Now, I'm not talking about doing things without thinking about them. Don't go punching the person sitting next to you on the train because he's/she's talking on the phone, claiming that you didn't want to procrastinate.  I'm saying, when you know something is right, don't wait!

This week, we all fasted on Shiva Asar beTammuz (17 Tammuz). So, being that we entered the three weeks, which is a time to introspect and work on perfecting our ways, I began learning Shaare Teshuva by Rabbeinu Yonah. This is something that I try to do every year, but this year, I'm getting a jump start (now instead of Elul). There's something that he says that I would like to share with you. He talks about how bad it is to push off doing teshuva. He gives two main reasons. 

One reason is, the more you push it off, the harder it will become to do teshuva. It's exponentially more difficult to break a habit of three years as opposed to a habit of two years. If you know you are doing something wrong, you can't push off mending your ways! You have to do teshuva NOW! If you wait, it will only become so much more difficult. I don't need to explain this to you - you can testify to this yourself. The longer you do something, the more difficult it will be to break from that habit. 

The second reason is, your sin will be considered even worse. Let's give you a story. Imagine there are five prisoners in a jail-cell. After a while, they drill a hole to escape. Four of them escape. The fifth one says, "I'm happy where I am. I like it here. I''m not leaving." When the king hears about this, he says, "Kill the remaining prisoner!" "Why should we do that, your majesty?" The king replies, "If he doesn't escape, that means he doesn't fear me. He's not scared of being imprisoned to me. If that's the case, kill him." If a person doesn't do teshuva, it's like telling Hashem, "I know I have a chance to escape by doing teshuva, but I don't care. I like where I am. This life is great. So thanks for the escape, but I'm staying put."

You tell me, how should Hashem react? He is merciful, but do you wanna bank on that?

That's why we have to take the first opportunity that we are granted with, and implement our repentance immediately.

I'm sorry for being so blunt, but I'm scared that the power will go out very soon, so I want to get this out already.

Shabbat Shalom! Thank you!

Avraham Adam Sabzevari

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