he must spill out the blood and cover it with earth. (Leviticus 17:13)

This week’s parsha contains the mitzvah of covering the blood when a bird or non-domesticated animal is slaughtered. The Gemara learns that a person must use ‘his hand’ to cover the blood and is not allowed to cover the blood with his foot. This means a person cannot just kick dirt onto on the blood which is lying on the ground, even though this would be the easiest way to cover the blood, because this will make the mitzvah disgraceful in his eyes. We learn from here that we must respect the mitzvos. Even though something might be the quickest or easiest thing to do, it does not mean it is the best thing to do.

I have a neighbor who every weekend is outside washing his car very carefully. Is this really necessary? The reason he does it is because he (unfortunately) is in love with his car. Therefore, he gives a nice chunk of time to care for his car. We should not behave this way towards our car, but we should definitely behave this way towards our mitzvos.

One time I was davening Shacharis in a shul and Hallel was said on that day. After shul was over, one of the people mentioned that davening was beautiful but Hallel was said too quickly. They should have had a little more kavannah (concentration) on the joy of the day during Hallel. I give this person credit for noticing this. But I don’t give the person credit for not noticing the beauty of davening. What I forgot to mention is that I did not say Hallel with the minyan that day. This is because I was still davening Shemone Esray and didn’t finish until they finished Hallel. This particular minyan davened extremely fast and it davens extremely fast every day. (I should note that this was the only minyan in the area that I could attend that day due to circumstances beyond my control.) We should not rush through mitzvos because this makes the mitzvos disgraceful in our eyes.

Imagine paying to see a movie (personally, I haven’t been to a movie, but from what I hear, you almost need to take out a new mortgage on your house to pay to go to the movies now… last time I went, it was $3.50 to see a movie). The lights go out and the movie comes on and it is shown in fast forward. It is over after 5 minutes. How would you feel? Would you be satisfied or would you want your money back?

Think about how you perform mitzvos? Are you like my neighbor who washes his car carefully or the movie going in fast forward? Which one should you be?

Good Shabbos!
-y.e.s.
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