Chodesh Tov!

“Ze hayom asah Hashem, nagilah v’nism’chah vo, This is the day that Hashem has made, let us rejoice and be glad on it.”!!!!! Ok, time for another rant - I LOVE Hallel!, but what I really love is when people daven Hallel with full kavanah , which to me speaks of signing and rejoicing on this "day that Hashem has made", not just trying to get thought it as fast as possible.

Yes, I work full time, and yes most people "have to get to work", but for the 4 or 5 extra minutes it would take to truly recite Hallel with some real feeling, would it be that horrible? So you get to work at 8:10 instead of 8:00 - stay 10 minutes later at the end of the day. Take the next train instead of your "normal" train.

I think that most of us have either lost the proper perspective of what is truly important in this life, or never really had the proper perspective (ok, MY view of "proper perspective") to begin with. We all chase after the almighty dollar, and are so focused on our jobs (yes, I know we have bills to pay...) that we so totally compartmentalize our lives such that we allocate x minutes for religion in the morning, x at night, Shabbos, and that's it. As I see it, we don't fully appreciate that we are "avde Hashem", and that while "working for a living" may be a necessary part of our lives, it should be viewed as a "means to an end", and not the end goal itself.

With this perspective, one should be able to more easily see that avodas hashem should really take priority and that spending 5 or 10 more minutes davening in the morning is not a "hardship", but a reward that we should take pleasure in.

Perhaps tomorrow we can spend a couple more minutes on Hallel.....????