Zerizus/Joyful Haste

WHEN WE SHOW HASHEM HOW MUCH WE WANT TO DO HIS MITZVOS, BY DOING IT FASTER, AND WITH MORE EXCITEMENT, WE ARE MAKING A STATEMENT. WE ARE SAYING, HASHEM, I AM NOT JUST DOING YOUR MITZVOS TO BE YOTZEI. I AM DOING YOUR MITZVOS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU AND I WANT TO COME CLOSE TO YOU!!

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In Parshas Naso, Rashi says (quoting the Midrash) the reason that the Nesiim did not give their contributions to this Mishkan immediately: They said, “We'll wait to see what's missing, then we'll give everything else.” But then...everything was brought before they had a chance.

Chazal tell us that because the Nesiim were lazy,  they were punished – they lost the yud in their name.

But we can wonder: what was wrong with what they did? Laziness? They were prepared to give so much, so why were they punished for being lazy?

Rav Segal, the Manchester rosh yeshiva, says that this is a basic yesod of how seriously the torah views laziness. Theres a big ta'anah on a person who isn’t a zariz.

Laziness can actually turn a bad argument into one that sounds pretty reasonable. Now imagine a person under their covers, and the alarm goes off. They tell themselves, “You know, if I sleep another 20 minutes, I will have even more koach to learn, better davening, so it’s a mitzvah to lie in bed and linger, because then I can serve Hashem will more geshmak!!” And all of a sudden it’s a mitzvah to lie in bed and miss z'man tefilah. Maybe it's true? But the argument here is because of laziness. When a person is being lead by laziness, when a person isn’t ready with enthusiasm, with geshmak to do what has to be done, it's no longer a good ta'anah.

Orchos tzadikim (in shaar hazrizus) explains that zrizus is one of the first middos that a person requires. Enthusiasm – WANTING to do something. We see this middah so powerfully in Avraham Avinu, with the nisayon of Akeidas Yitzchak. Imagine what was going through Avraham’s mind... And:  “Vayashkeim Avraham ba'boker.” He got up early! Not only did Avraham do what Hashem told him to do. But look at HOW did he did it! He could have easily taken his time, woken up later, had a long breakfast. But no! If Hashem told me to do something, I am going to do it NOW! K'lal yisrael is living in the zchus of Akeidas Yitzchak, because of Avraham’s zrizus. He did it ALL THE WAY.

We all do mitzvos – but how are you going to perform these actions? Are you going do it “because you HAVE to”? It's all about the motivation – the ahavas Hashem. Avraham understood that it was Hashem’s command, so of course he did it because Hashem told him to, because he HAD to. But he also did it with zrizus! With Geshmak!

Reb Dovid Drayim was a Litvish yid who moved to a small town, to Gateshead. There was nothing there. He wrote twenty-two letters to various rabbanim, asking them to come to Gateshead and build the community. Out of twenty-two , he got only two replies. One of them was a polite refusal. The other  was rabbi Dessler, who wrote, “Next time you're in London, please come and discuss it with me.” Rabbi Dessler actually moved to Gateshead. He opened  a kollel and a seminary; he built the Torah in Gateshead to what it is today. Why? Because someone was a zariz. There are excuses and ta'anahs, but the Torah wants a person to be moser nefesh.

When Bnei Yisrael came to the Yam Suf, it did not split until it saw the coffin of Yosef Hatzaddik. Yosef broke his nature. Yosef overcame a test, overcame nature. Middah k'neged middah, the Yam Suf overcame nature and split for Yosef. 

This is what zrizus is all about – overcoming our nature, our basic lazy instinct, to run to do mitzvos with passion and excitement.

In World War I, there was an exhausted soldier on the battlefield. Everyone around him was dying but he noticed one group of soldiers that was always upbeat, always able to pick themselves up after getting knocked down. They were always murmuring things from little books (sifrei Tehillim).  And at one point in the war, when missiles were flying, he picked up his eyes to Heaven and said “I hate being a soldier. I don’t know how to pray; show me You're watching over me. I want to be shot in my hand, and it will be a sign.” Moments later, there was a ceasefire and the fighting came to a stop. Then one lone shot pierced the air, and hit the soldier's finger. That was his sign from Hashem. He promised himself he would go home and check out what Judaism is all about. He really wanted to do it all the way, but first he decided to go to college and finish up his studies, get a degree in agriculture. By the time three months of college were over, his resolve was over too. He was so not into becoming frum anymore. Years later, he claimed that if he would have went to a Rabbi right away, he would have been religious right now. Because of his laziness, because he waited to act – he lost.

On the other hand, during World War II, there was a nineteen-year-old jew from Israel who wanted to join the war fighting for his brethren. He was on a plane to England, returning from a bombng mission, and the plane started running out of gas. They circled a bit then had to do an emergency landing, fifteen miles from base. It was a terrible crash. The plane ripped into two, with many dead, many injured. But there was one person without a scratch. This boy walked back to the base at night and they were shocked to see him alive. He was given a pill to calm down and slept for 24 hours straight. When he woke up, he asked to be taken home and right away he went to Rav. He told the Rav that he wanted to become frum, and by the end of his military career, he was a frum army captain.

In both these stories, they wanted to do teshuva, to embrace Yiddishkeit. But the zrizus made all the difference.

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Information from this writeup has a lot based on a shiur from Rabbi Avi Weisenfeld.

Special thank you to Mrs. Mindel Kassorla for helping with this writeup!