These are the journeys of the Children of Israel… (Bamidbar 33:1)

About ten years ago, my wife and I decided it was time for us to move. We had lived in Boston for three wonderful years and although we enjoyed the community very much, we decided to move to South Florida. I remember a few days before moving, I began wondering if we really made the right choice – maybe we should stay in Boston. I spoke with a Rabbi from the Boston community and he told me although he would like it if I stayed in Boston, there was a reason I needed to go to Florida. Hashem has a plan for me.

I was recently listening to a lecture from Rav Eli Mansour and he said a very deep and mystical thought. The first person in this world was Adam and everyone came from him. Adam was an extremely holy person when he was born, but unfortunately, he sinned. When he committed his sin, his holiness was scattered all over the world. It was like shattering a piece of glass on a map of the world. The job of the future generations is to pick up these pieces of Adam’s holiness. Once all of the pieces are picked up, then Moshiach will come.

So, how do we gather these pieces of holiness? The answer is we need to do mitzvos. When we perform a mitzvah in a place containing these sparks of holiness, the sparks attach to the mitzvah like a magnet and rise up to Heaven. The next question is how do we know where these sparks of holiness are? We don’t know, but we do know one thing. Hashem controls the world and although we think we might control where we go, Hashem controls where we travel to. Hashem makes sure we travel to the places where the sparks of holiness reside. Therefore, all we need to do is perform a mitzvah.

If a person thinks about this, it can make him very stressed out. A person might think he needs to always be learning Torah 24/7. This week’s Divrei Simcha is not meant to stress out people or to make them nervous. But we should think about times during the day when we have an opportunity to perform a mitzvah and not let those moments pass us by. We should think about those times when we can do something and jump on that moment. Doing a mitzvah during that small moment could gather the last spark and bring the Redemption from this bitter exile.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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