Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
How do we prepare for the festival of Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah? In my opinion, by actualizing a single word: Daily! A daily something. A daily study of something little or big, alone or with a partner. It doesn't matter what or how; the main thing is consistency.
Several years ago Yedidya's daily study entered our home. He learns the daf yomi, a daily page of the Gemara. This evening just before Shavuot, I will interview him on Zoom regarding this activity. Yet perhaps someone needs to interview me about how this affects the family. In truth, I must say that his daily half hour of study exerts a positive influence on the entire household.
In his footsteps, I began a daily study whose acronym is chet-tav-tav, which stands for Chumash (Five books of Moses), Tehillim (Psalms), and Tanya (a classic Chasidic work). It takes only a few minutes each morning, but if you study a small part of the weekly Torah portion each day, you finish the entire Chumash in a year. If you read a few chapters from the book of Psalms each day, you will finish the entire book every month. And if you read one segment a day from the book of Tanya, you will finish it once a year. I never thought that such study could fit into my schedule and the only explanation for my success is the power of that daily commitment.
On the festival of Shavuot, when we receive the Torah anew, it is said that we must resolve to increase our learning, however little that may be. So my unambiguous recommendation for this holiday is to focus on the word "daily." It's not by chance that what is written here is called "The Daily Portion." It is a hint to what a daily commitment to learning a portion of Torah -- any portion -- can bring.
So what will your "daily" be?
