"Etz Hayim Hi, as the ex used to say," I mumbled as I fought my way through a cold piercing wind to shul Sunday morning.
No matter how brutal the weather becomes in Los Angeles, with temperatures (adjusted for wind chill) sometimes dipping into the 30s, I always like to live up to the obligations of the Torah (unless I have a better offer or am just feeling lazy).
While I piously made my way through the Shacharit service, I came to meditate on a particular portion of my Artscroll Siddur which says that there is reward in the world for particular mitzvos, including arriving early to the House of Study morning and evening.
This immediately brightened my mood. As the closing of Protocols December 8 exemplifies, my life in this world has largely been a vale of tears. But in the next world, due to my punctilious observance of the Torah, things will be much much better.
Then my mood darkened when I thought about all the people I like to schmooze with during davening Saturday morning, and how rarely, if at all, they come to the House of Study. I thought about my many Protocols readers who, because of their sins, will not be with me in the world to come.
I practically rent my garments and feeling the cut of the tefillin into my flesh, I cried out with renewed vigor, "Etz Chaim Hi as the ex used to say."
