Do the Math

I want to make the critical importance of praying for ahavat Yisrael, love and unity within the Jewish people and the world, even more apparent to you. Allow me to delve into a little math and I will reveal a wondrous accounting! 

Let’s imagine that it was possible for someone to learn Torah 24 hours straight, day and night, without a break. No eating, drinking, bathrooms – nothing. Every single word of Torah that is learned is its own mitzvah. Such a person would earn approximately 260,000 mitzvot in 24 hours. 

Now, let’s compare that to saying one single sentence of prayer for the entire Jewish people: “Please G-d, let the Jewish people return in complete repentance before you, and in particular, for all of the commandments between man and fellow man and ahavat Yisrael.” 

The Satmar Rebbe explains an incredible concept. When you pray for one person, then every prayer is one mitzvah. If you pray for an entire family, then that prayer gets multiplied by the number of people in that family – so with one prayer for a family you might earn 6 or 8 mitzvot, let’s say. 

Therefore, when you pray for the entire Jewish people in this way – this one simple sentence earns you the number of souls that there are in the Jewish people!  

Just for estimation’s sake, let’s say there are 15 million Jews on the planet. So that one sentence would earn you 15 million mitzvot! 

Now I want you to consider what you can achieve in half an hour of such prayers!!! 

If every sentence is 15 million mitzvot, you end up with an average of about 15 billion mitzvot in half an hour!!! 

And that’s on the low side – if you’re really energetic and stuff a lot of prayers into that half an hour, you can easily earn a lot more than that. 

And not only do you earn such an enormous quantity of mitzvot, but these are no “ordinary mitzvot” – these are mitzvot of ahavat Yisrael, which is the purpose of all of Creation and all of the Torah – and the singular mitzvah which can correct the sinat chinam – baseless hatred – which has kept the world in exile, and thus bring the full Redemption with mercy!!! 

If all of that wasn’t enough – never forget that the entire concept of ahavat Yisrael is that none of us work alone. You aren’t just earning 15 billion mitzvot for yourself in the average half an hour of praying for ahavat Yisrael. You are adding that amount to the merits of the Jewish people on the Heavenly scales!  

Each and every one of us with just a little bit of time and effort can tip the scales towards merit – big time!!! 

Perhaps now you can start to understand the critical importance of another person and another person taking upon themselves to pray this half an hour for the Jewish people with whatever personal self-sacrifice it takes. And if you can’t manage half an hour, for instance if you’re an overwhelmed mother of small children – do 15 minutes. Do 5 minutes. Say that one sentence over and over for one minute!!!  

Recognize the massive results of that little effort and do it, whatever it takes!!! And even more – share it with everyone you know!!!