HaRav Osband says:
Someone once showed me a teshuvoh written by the Avnei Nezer in Nisan (OC 336). He writes that he has no time, "because these days are very valuable, an hour is like a day."
What this means, as it says in the Maharal, that every year is a complete cycle, analogous to the creation of the whole world. The month of Aviv, "this month is the head of all months," is analogous to the beginning of creation, and the beginning of the formation of this year. One can be (re)created and reborn. We should just properly value and weigh the hours of Nisan.
Since Hashgochoh arranged things so that we are not in our yeshivas and kollelim, it seems that Hashem wants our service particularly in this way. Davka what a person learns wholeheartedly just because his heart desires it and for no other reason. HaKodosh Boruch Hu wants us to enter the holy days of Pesach that are upon us with the proper preparation. It should not be from worthless things. The way that a person enters yom tov, determines what he gets out of it and how he celebrates it. On Pesach we can achieve great levels in freedom, and Chazal say that the only free person is one who is occupied with Torah.
The Gaon HaRav Mordechai Gifter zt"l once wrote me a letter that he had heard from HaRav Michael Forshlager zt"l (a talmid of the Avnei Nezer who wrote Toras Michael), that for the Rebbeh (the Avnei Nezer) the Seder night was more holy than the Yomim Noraim. [If so] We can be sure that it is worth investing in it.
How does one prepare for Pesach?
I once heard that WWII broke out in 5699. There was great danger and nobody really knew what to do. Some decided to stay and some decided to flee. HaRav Boruch Sorotzkin decided to flee with the Mir Yeshiva, I think on the advice of his father HaRav Zalman zt"l. The Alter of Telz, HaRav Avrohom Yitzchok Hy"d decided to stay.
The arrangement was that they would travel by train from Telz to another city, and from there with another train through Russia, which was a trip of several weeks. Then they would go by boat to Japan. The plan was to stay there only a short time and then continue on to the US or to Eretz Yisrael.
Everyone knew that in those times when people went different ways, there was a good chance that they would never see each other again. When the Telzer Rov parted from his son-in-law, who had been married only about half a year, he accompanied him and his daughter to the train station. He told them this yesod, which is simple and correct, and is a key concept. I heard this from his son, HaRav Yitzchok shlita.
You are going on a trip of several hours. This is something passing. Then you will go on a trip of several weeks. That is also something passing. After that you will go on a boat to Japan. That is also passing. After that you will stay in Japan. That is also something passing. Know this, that three-quarters of one's life can be taken up in things that are called passing. However, a person should fix it for himself, in each case, that here he is and here he will stay for his whole life. When you board the train, consider it as if you will spend the rest of your life there, and live according to that.
These were his words of parting, that he chose to impart in leaving them for the rest of their lives. In fact a short time later he was murdered al kiddush Hashem.
Many years later, Rebbetzin Ginsburg o"h, who was the daughter of great people and the wife of a talmid chochom, that when she traveled on that train, and opposite her on the aisle sat the young couple, she said that in the weeks they spent on the train she never saw him with eyes out of his gemora. When she woke up in the morning he was already learning and when she went to sleep he was learning. Even when the soldiers came to check their papers — and he had forged papers that if they were discovered as such would condemn him to death — he continued learning. He gave over his passport without stopping his learning for a second.
That is how he spent those weeks on the train. That is how he spent the time in Japan. That is how he spent his whole life.
