One Va'Etchanan Thought At A Time

I once asked Rav Aron Lichtenstein about the Jewish view of a sense of humor and he said that it may be his Western upbringing but he feels uncomfortable around someone who doesn’t have a sense of humor. As interesting as the point about humor is, I find the part about Western influence equally interesting.

Rabbi Abraham Twerski and I are enamored by the one day at a time approach to life. There are many ways to show this to be a Torah idea. But I wonder where the influence to this approach came from first for me.

Sanhedrin 100b states “Do not agonize about tomorrow’s problems, because you have no way of predicting tomorrow.” The Chasam Sofer says that we should only think about fighting and beating the yetzer hara today because if we think about the long run we may be disheartened and give up in failure.

Yaakov worked for Rochel for seven years, but because he loved her they were like a few days in his eyes. The Hebrew expression for how the time felt for Yaakov is “keyamim achadim.” The Torah states that in his eyes the seven years were like individual days. The way he got through this hard stretch was by not viewing it as one chunk but rather taking it one day at time. (This approach was suggested to Rabbi Twerski by a patient of his).

The counting of the Omer is a mitzvah for all generations – ledorot (VaYikra 23: 14-21). The Jewish People were able to do the seemingly superhuman, to change from slaves to spiritual beings by taking it one day at a time. We are often intimidated by the prospect of major change, but when taken in bite size portions we can take on ventures and achieve success. This lesson explains why the Omer is a command for all generations.

“You who cleave to G-d, you are all alive today(Devarim 4:4).” This sentence and its reference to today can be taken within the context of this approach. The Chasam Sofer says that the idea here is – How do you cleave to G-d? By living this day.