Rabbi Roodyn

היום אם בקולו תשמעו

Today if you listen to His voice.

Human beings have a great ability to procrastinate and push things off until tomorrow or another unspecified future occasion. This may come from a desire to avoid uncomfortable situations or to get out of hard work.

The Chofetz Chaim says that the Torah uses the word ‘Today’ in reference to fulfilling commandments to teach us that mind-set of living in the present. We should imagine tha we only have today to live and opportunities that we have today to perform good deeds may not present themselves tomorrow. Hence when the opportunity to do a mitzvah arises, we should regard it as possibly being the last one we may ever be able to do and do it right away in the best way possible.

He developed this idea by saying that our attitude towards what we have to do should be that only one day exists, there is only one matter to accomplish and that you are the only one who can do it.  That way we feel a sense of responsibility and heed the call to action, choosing meaning over comfort.

Dayan Abramsky said in a similar vein that one should view each day in his life like a page in his autobiography, what happens today affects the future and will be recorded for all time. We have the ability to fill each page with beautiful stories of growth and kind deeds. Past pages may be already written, but we can revise them their significance by learning from our mistakes. With this panoramic view of life, these mistakes become stepping stones for growth. Only the present pages are before us. We have the opportunity to be the author of a great masterpiece that describes a great person: each and every one of us.