In his weekly Yated Ne'eman column, Rabbi Shmuel Baruch Genuth explains the power that thought and focus can have on our actions and mitzvot.
“A fascinating study recently published shows us something powerful,” writes Rabbi Genuth. “Researchers followed 80 hotel chambermaids and cleaning workers. 40 workers went into a room where fitness trainers told them that their hard physical work would help them maintain proper physical fitness. The physical effort of cleaning dozens of rooms a day will lead to a significant improvement in their health, such as calorie reduction, cardio-pulmonary endurance, and lowering of blood pressure. The second group of 40 workers heard no such information. The facts weren’t explained to them.”
“A month later, all 80 cleaning workers were examined, and it turned out that the 40 workers who heard that their work was helping them to improve their health actually had improved blood pressure and improved health, while the other 40 hotel workers who didn’t get that information showed no significant improvement.
“The researchers came to a simple conclusion: Two people can do the same thing, but putting intention and thought into a task can change everything, not just emotionally, but also physically,” explains Rabbi Genuth.
Rabbi Genuth quotes the Mishnah Berurah in Hilkhot Shabbat: “When buying food for Shabbat it is good to say that everything that you buy is for the sake of Shabbat, because speech does a lot in the realm of holiness.” In other words, two Jews can go to the store and buy the same list of products. Both bought challah, wine and products for Shabbat meals. But one focused and said: “I’m buying this in honor of the holy Sabbath” and his speech did great work in the realm of holiness. Why? Because the intention in his act changed the whole purchase.
Rabbi Genuth quotes Tractate Shabbat, which quotes the verse in Proverbs: “Hear that I will speak to the governors.” The Gemara asks: “Why are the words of the Torah compared to a governor, to tell you: just as a governor can kill or give life, so too the words of the Torah can kill or give life. As Rava said, “the ones who learn Torah with their right hand will find Torah to be an elixir of life. The ones who learn Torah with their left had will find it to be a deadly poison.”
Rashi explains: “Right hand means those who learn with with all their might, troubling themselves to know its secret like a person using his right hand, which is his main hand.” Two people both take their Torah learning seriously. They learn it with all their might. But one is emotionally preoccupied with having to know its secrets and depth. He is using his ‘right hand’ all the way. He is elevated above and beyond the one not emotionally focused.
Rabbi Genuth asks “What is so special about him? And he replies: “The worry, the feeling inside him that if he doesn’t know the secrets of the Torah, his life is not life.”
Rabbi Genuth concludes: “We count the Omer every night, but our Omer count will be far more powerful and the reward double if we take a minute to focus and think that we are now about to count the days toward that great day when we received the Torah. Without the Torah and mitzvoth, we were mere mortals, and now with the Torah we’re elevated above every nation and language, holy and lofty. A few moments of reflection and forethought – and we transform ourselves into different people.”