That which is difficult is
easy, the easy is difficult. Why is this so?
We get through most of life's challenges by making snap
decisions, knee-jerk reactions or having honed responses so finely that we do
not linger over them.
But present most people with an easy question like, "What is life
for?" "What is your purpose in living?" And they begin to stutter and mumble.
"Oh," you say, "those are not simple
questions!"
I counter, "If
every day we make decisions that are hinged upon our response to those questions
we should know the answer. Well, you go
to work, open savings accounts, put money away for vacations, tell your kids
they need more education, do all these things and so many more and you would
never think to ask what is our purpose? The answer to that question should
inform the rest of our lives. The reason
why we do everything in life should be our response to the question, "What is our life's
purpose?"
The first man and woman in the garden had a single task: to
maintain what had been created in Eden.
As we know that simple charge ended in failure.
Noah was assigned seven commandments for his heirs. As the Torah and history reveals, this
experiment also failed.
So what is the ultimate lesson that curtails humanity's appetite
for wrongdoing? How does Torah configure
the destiny of humanity? It answers,
make him responsible for more than himself.
While this may seem counterintuitive, read on.
In the Talmud, we learn of one of the students a rabbi who became
ill. As the student was new to the
Academy and not very well learned or known no one went to visit him. When the master, Rabbi Akiva, heard that his
student was sick he ran to his home to pay him a visit. The brief tale ends with the student rising
out of his sickbed and thanking his teacher profusely for restoring him back to
life. The lesson? Everyone is obligated to visit the sick. This is not a good deed. It is a mitzvah, a
commandment.
"Those who do not visit the sick are guilty of spilling
blood," declare our sages.
There is another story of a ship floundering in a fierce storm.
One companion said to another, "This is the worst thing to ever
happen!" His companion replied,
"No. Something far worse would be when someone asks you for bread and you
have none to give."
In these instances and one thousand more examples just like them,
our responsibility in life, to God and to the world is not to hoard but a gift to be taken and shared.
Giving gives life meaning.
Returning to the initial question posed at the beginning of this
message, "that which is difficult is easy, the easy is difficult" is
simple to understand. We fight against doing what we feel is imposed upon us
(mitzvah). That makes it difficult. But
once we self obligate to do God's will we find it is very easy and our actions
breathe meaning into life. And on the
other side of the equation, when we do that which is most expedient it provides
no sense of real achievement. In the
final analysis, it leaves us empty.
So, what is the meaning of life? What is your answer?
