* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
“Shalom Sivan, My name is Eliran Bitan. Today I complete the daily Rambam study and begin it all over again.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, the Rambam, arranged the entire Torah in a text known as Mishneh Torah or HaYad HaChzakah (The Strong Hand). We are talking about 14 books — 14 is the gematria of Yad — that encompass halachot in every area of life.
How do you build a strong hand? It’s simple: You exercise it every day . Even when it’s not convenient. Even when you don’t feel like it. A muscle is built from persistent exertion and not from a one-time effort. This is true with Torah and every other endeavor. Torah is not acquired in a single day, but rather day by day.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe established a few paths for learning HaYad HaChazakah. Learn a single chapter a day in a three-year study program or study three chapters a day and finish in one year. In either case, it involves a permanent and consistent daily commitment, in the manner that any muscle is built.
At the beginning, this was boring for me — just learning halachot, day after day. But I discovered that there are no shortcuts and that perseverance is everything — on reserve duty, at work, in dealing with the daily pressures of life. It’s a commitment, but anyone can do it.
Purpose is found not in the completion of a project but in the person you become through your commitment to it, and the daily “training” involved.
And so not only is the hand strengthened but we create for ourselves, as individuals and as a nation, a strong backbone, a strong heart, eyes that see others in a positive light, and strong muscles of faith.
There are many apps and websites and, of course, books for daily Rambam study and other daily Torah studies as well. In honor of Tu Bishvat, you too are invited to plant daily study in your life.”
