Keeping the Torah's mitzvos is easy, right?! Shabbat - going home early on Fridays in the winter; keeping kosher - even in business, at birthday parties, and on holiday; Yom Tov - taking off all of those days from work; learning Torah- - going to Jewish day school, cheder, adult education classes - it's as easy as pie, right? Yes, it is, if we have the right attitude. If we see the Torah as a burden - and restrictive - then it is hard. If we see it as freeing us to get the most meaning and fulfilment out of our lives, then it is easy and enjoyable. So the Torah says in this week's Sedra: "

...it is not hidden from you and it is not distant. It is not in heaven, [for you] to say, 'Who can ascend to the heaven for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to it and perform it?' Nor is it across the sea, [for you] to say, 'Who can cross to the other side of the sea for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to it and perform it?' Rather, the matter is very near to you - in your mouth and your heart - to perform it."

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Farber explains: "...it is not hidden from you means it is not too difficult for you. It is not only for the Jews of the "old country" or for "rabbis." It belongs to you - yes you! It is up to you to elevate and inspire yourself to keep the Torah - and the Torah will, in turn, inspire you.

The Torah "is not in heaven" because from the day it was given it lives here, on earth, within our grasp and within our reach. In his work Derech Hashem, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto says that this world is a world of striving and effort - and this is where the Torah is most applicable - to help guide us 's we work though daily life. As we say in Hallel: "Hashomayim, Shomayim L'Hashem - Ve'ha'aretz nasan livnei adam - The heavens belong to Hashem, but the earth is man's".

This means that each us of can find meaning in everyday life. We don't only have to wait for a bar mitzvah, wedding or family simcha to find spirituality. We can find it "within ourselves - in our mouth and in our heart". How? Consider a small example of making a bracha on an apple. Take the apple in your hand and ask yourself: "Where did this apple come from?" From a tree. Where did the tree come from? From a seed in an apple. Where did that apple come from? From a tree. Where did that tree come from? From a seed in an apple. Where does this chain end? At the very first tree in the Garden of Eden.

When you make a bracha on this one apple, you are actually recognising the whole chain of apples - seeds, trees, apples... going back to the first tree Hashem made. When you think about it, you are really saying this: "Hashem, when you made the first tree, you knew that one day I would benefit from this particular apple. You had me in mind at the time of Creation. You are giving me this apple now, because you want to have a relationship with me. I want to say thank you by making a bracha and thus have a personal relationship with You.

In this way, "it is within your mouth" to feel spiritual and to meaningfully connect with Hashem, just by recognising G-d as the source of this apple. So, within this world, right here, right now, you can engage in a personal one to one with G-d. It is within your reach -just as close as the next apple!