If lighting Shabbat candles is such an important Mitzvah, why do the candles have to be lit at a designated time? Why not light them when you come home from work or sit down for your Friday night Shabbat dinner? Even asking this question shows enthusiasm and a focused commitment to this Mitzvah, so why is the time of performing the Mitzvah so important?
The answer is, as you know, that time is important. We see that time is important when it comes to everything in life. For example, when a baby (finally) falls asleep, you know that is not a good time to give the baby a kiss. Yet, many still struggle with the concept of time when it comes to performing a Mitzvah. Why would G-d, who is not limited by time and space, care when we light the candles?
By looking at an interesting episode in this week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, we can deduce a better understanding.
The story goes that after the Jews crossed the Sea of Reeds, all the Egyptians’ jewels washed up on the shore and the Jews ran to collect the booty. Moses admonished them, saying, “We don’t have time for this! We must get on our way to receive the Torah!” Now, the Jews knew that they were already on their way. They had been counting down the days. This makes us wonder: How were they able to allow themselves to become distracted by some riches, especially when they had just received so much gold and silver from the Egyptians before they left?
We can presume that in their minds, they were fulfilling G-d’s command. It was not the riches that they cared about, but rather following the Mitzvah “to leave Egypt with riches.”
However, what they didn’t realize is that every Mitzvah has a time and place. When the time is past, we must move onto the next Mitzvah.
We eat matzah on Passover. If we hold our Seders a week or so after Passover, we miss the proper time to perform the Mitzvah. Friday night, as the sun is about to set, is the time for lighting Shabbat candles. If we light the candles an hour late, we again miss the proper time to perform that Mitzvah. It’s time to move onto the next Mitzvah.
This is true in every aspect of our lives: We must know the time and place for everything. Every Mitzvah has its time and place.
This is what the Jews learned from Moses on the shores of the Sea of Reeds: As much as we may want to do one Mitzvah, if its time is past we should invest the same enthusiasm into performing the next Mitzvah, because that is the commitment that G-d is looking for, not whether we like this Mitzvah or not.
In our lives we face tasks that we enjoy and those that we don’t. What matters is not only that we complete all our tasks, but that we invest the same amount of energy into every task—those that we don’t love as well as those that we do love.
This week, let’s be enthusiastic about all of our tasks and complete every Mitzvah with all of our energy.
Edited by geminiwordsmiths.com