Musar su Levitico 26:21

We have set forth a little of the eminence of a man who is habituated to praying with a minyan, and the great increase of his mitzvoth and merits. The major thing here is that this mitzvah be a steady one, and not one that he slackens in. But if sometimes he performs it and sometimes slackens in it, G-d forbid, then he is in the class of (Vayikra 26:21): "But if you walk with Me by chance, etc." (see Rashi there). And thus have our sages of blessed memory said (Berachoth 6b), that when a man is accustomed to come to the house of study, and once does not come, the Holy One Blessed be He "inquires" after him as to why he has not come. And this is intimated in (Isaiah 50:10): "Who among you who fears the L-rd — who listens to the voice of His servant — has walked in the darkness, where it is not light for him?" (If he had gone to perform a mitzvah, it would have been light for him, but having gone on a mundane errand, it was not light for him) (Ibid.): "Let him trust in the name of the L-rd." Why has this befallen him" Because he should have trusted in the name of the L-rd and did not. R. Yochanan said; "When the Holy One Blessed be He comes to the synagogue and does not find ten men there, He becomes angry, viz. (Ibid. 2): 'Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there no response?'" The intent is that even if a man were presented with an opportunity for profit at the time of his going to the synagogue, he should not pay heed to it, but trust in the name of the L-rd that what was set aside for him by Heaven will not be detracted from him. And, indeed, very often this is a test from Heaven for him. As our sages of blessed memory have said: "There is no man who is not subjected to tests. A rich man is tested; a poor man is tested, etc." And when a man reflects upon this, he sees this in his experience. He may sometimes stand a whole day in his shop and see very few customers, and when the time for the minchah prayer arrives [or on Sabbath eve before sunset], new customers come, whom he had never seen before, and beg him to sell to them — and all this, as a test, the Holy One Blessed be He testing him to see if his [Divine] service is dear to him [to be performed] with all of his heart and all of his soul.

The first path is [that] when a man encounters troubles, he will consult his heart and say [that] it is only his ways and his plots that have caused this to him, and that his sins have caused [the pain] to his soul. So he repents to God; and He has mercy upon him, like the matter that is stated (Deuteronomy 31:17), "and many evils and troubles shall befall them; and they shall say on that day, 'Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.'" But note that the custom among men is [that] if one sins to someone, and [later] at a time of trouble for him regrets it and submits to him because he needs him; such regret will be inferior in the eyes of his fellow - like the matter that Jephthah said (Judges 11:7), "How can you come to me now when you are in trouble?" However it is one of the kindnesses of God, may He be blessed, that He accepts repentance [motivated by] trouble and it is desirable in front of Him. And He will generously love the sinner when he returns to Him on the day of his rebuke and from amidst trouble, as it is stated (Hosea 14:2-5), "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have fallen because of your sin. Take words with you, etc. I will heal their affliction, generously will I take them back in love." And it is stated (Proverbs 3:12), "For whom the Lord loves, He rebukes, as a father the son whom he favors." But if the man does not repent from his evil on the day of evil, and the rebuked does not repent to the Rebuker, his iniquity grows and his punishment will be doubled. Do you not see that if a king rebukes someone who has sinned to him and he has not become chastised, [the king] will make his punishment harsher and be very hard on him. And it is written (Leviticus 26:18), "And if, for all that, you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you." And it is [also] stated (Job 36:13), "But the impious in heart become enraged; they do not cry for help when He afflicts them." And if he does not know and does not contemplate that the events have found him because of sins, but rather says like the Philistines (I Samuel 6:9), "it was not His hand that struck us; it just happened to us by chance" - there will be fury in front of Him for this, and his iniquity will grow. And the iniquity of this group will be greater than the sin of the first group. Therefore it is written about the first group (Leviticus 26:18), "I will go on to discipline you." And it is written afterwards about the other group [we] mentioned (Leviticus 26:21), "And if you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to obey Me, etc." For every group that is later in the section is more problematic than the one [above it]. So it is written afterwards (Leviticus 26:23-24), "And if these things fail to discipline you for Me, and you remain hostile to Me, I too will remain hostile to you." And afterwards, it is written (Leviticus 26:27-28), "But if, despite this, you disobey Me and remain hostile to Me, I will act against you in wrathful hostility." Its explanation is "you remain hostile to Me," because you will say, "It was just chance that [it] happened to us." But when a man does not recognize his deeds and does not know that he has the iniquity in his hands from his sinning, he must examine his actions and search his ways, as the matter is stated (Lamentations 3:40), "Let us search and examine our ways." But if he surely ignores his eyes and his ideas become foolish and deluded (from the expression in Scripture [Isaiah 19:13], "The nobles of Tanis have been foolish, the nobles of Memphis deluded"), and he does not investigate his ways and does not know the acts of his hands and that which his fingers have done and says, "I have not sinned" - his sin is very weighty, as it is stated (Jeremiah 2:35), "lo, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.'" And it is stated (Isaiah 42:25), "it blazed upon them all about, but they heeded not; it burned among them, but they gave it no thought." And it is stated (Proverbs 19:3), "A man’s folly subverts his way, and his heart rages against the Lord."

ואם תלכו עמי קרי . We learn from here that a person must set aside a specific place for his Torah study and prayers, etc. He should not let this become a matter of coincidence, קרי.