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Look after your own torah study and prayer!

Written by Benjamin A Rose

“Because they are my servants – whom I took out of the land of Mitzrayim, do not sell them the way slaves are sold.” Vayikra 25:42)

The Divrei Yisrael explains this verse that a person should not be enslaved to his work – that the job should not be his priority – day and night. Because G-d’s contract is a person’s priority – this contract is the Torah (Translators note: The Torah was created prior to the creation of the universe), written and sealed with the signet ring of the King. To apply this to one’s daily life, a person should learn Torah prior to going to work – each person according to his capabilities, regardless of the amount.

The Imrei Shaul, in his commentary to the Divrei Yisrael, quotes his great-grandfather, Rebbe Yechezkel of Kuzmir, who tells us that this is alluded to in the verse in Shemos 5:19. There the Torah tells how the Egyptians stopped giving the Jews straw to make bricks. They were then told, “Lo sigr’u milivneichem dvar yom b’yomo – You shall not diminish from your daily quota of bricks,” even though they had to get the straw themselves. The word for “from your bricks” (milivneichem) is the same as “from unto [or because of] your children.” In other words, even though you have a responsibility to support your children and infants, the Torah is telling us that you are still obligated to put in time for – and not diminish from – your daily prayers and Torah study.

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