Getting Out of a Routine

In Parshat Yitro we read this week of B’nei Yisrael’s arrival at Har Sinai and the awe-inspiring events of Mattan Torah. This section is introduced with the words,
בחדש השלישי לצאת בני ישראל מארץ מצרים, ביום הזה באו מדבר סיני. שמות יט:א
In the third month after B’nei Yisrael had left Mitzrayim, on this day they came to Midbar Sinai.

Rashi informs us that bayom ha’zeh refers to Rosh Chodesh Sivan, but he questions the usage of the term bayom ha’zeh (on this day), rather than bayom ha’hu (on that day), which would have been more linguistically appropriate. The usage of the term “this day” makes it sound as if B’nei Yisrael came to Midbar Sinai today, when it is really referring to a date long ago. Rashi brings an answer from the Midrash Tanchuma for this question and says that the reason the term “this day” is employed is because the Torah should always be new to us, as if we received it today.

When one learns something for the first time one feels a degree of wonder and excitement that one doesn’t feel when the material is being learnt a second or third time. Rashi is therefore telling us that each time we learn Torah, even if it is just a repetition of something we have learned already, we should try to feel the same degree of excitement as if we were hearing it for the first time.

This is the way I have always understood this Rashi, but recently I have been thinking that perhaps we can understand it slightly differently, as well.

Have you ever gone into the bathroom to brush your teeth, and when you came out you automatically said “Asher Yotzar”? Or bentched after you ate, but did it so automatically that a few minutes later you ask your friend if she saw you bentch, because you can’t remember if you did or not?

When we do something for the first time we pay it more attention, concentrating on what we are doing and making sure we are doing it right. But as time goes on and we get more used to doing it, we think about it less, until it becomes habit. It is good when we get into a routine of making berachot before we eat, but if we do it so automatically that we aren’t sure what we’ve said then it has lost its meaning and become rote.

Perhaps Rashi is telling us here that we should always try to perform mitzvot with the same degree of attention and meaning as the first time we did them.

It is hard to break a habit. When we are so used to doing something it is hard to remember to stop and think about it before we do it. But vacation is the perfect time to work on this concept, because we are getting out of our daily routine, going different places, doing different things. The change of pace might make it easier for us to remember to pause before we rattle off that bracha, think about what it means, and say it as if we were doing it for the first time.