Rebbetzin Leah Gans
It Is Not Your Task to Finish the Work
“It is not your task to finish the work, but neither are you free to withdraw from it” (Pirkei Avot, 2:16). Whose task is it to finish the work, then?
King David wrote in Tehillim: “I will call to G-d Most High, to G-d who completes it for me” (57:3). The Almighty Himself will finish the work (make the prayer complete) for me. “Commit (gol) your way to the L-rd and trust in Him—and He will act.”
To entrust all our needs to the Almighty is to tell Him in prayer what we need: health for ourselves and our children, well-being in our family and finances… “Cast your burden upon the L-rd, and He will sustain you…” (ibid., 55:23).
A parable is told about this. A man was looking for a cornerstone for a building he was constructing in a valley. He climbed a mountain and found a suitable stone there, but it turned out to be an enormous boulder that was impossible to lift. The man began rocking the stone until it came a little way out of the ground, then pushed it down the mountain, and the stone rolled into the valley on its own. If the man had needed to drag the stone up the mountain, he would hardly have managed it. But giving it a push takes only a small effort.
King David tells us: entrust (gol) your needs. The word gol resembles the word golel, to unroll, to turn, and the word megalgel—rolls, unrolls. Only a small effort in prayer is required of us—and the Almighty will roll the stone of our heavy burden down for us.
Prayer—an Overwhelming Effort?
Prayer does not actually require physical effort; even a physically weak person can move mountains through prayer, as we see from the example of our great teachers. Our task is to want to do so. “One who comes to purify himself is given help” (Yoma, 38b).
A person needs to begin, to open a hole the size of the eye of a needle, and help will come immediately.
Isaiah (41:14) states: “Do not fear, worm of Jacob, people of Israel; I have helped (and will help) you, says the L-rd!” The Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael explains: “Just as a worm can attack a cedar only with its mouth, so Israel has nothing other than prayer.” A worm is soft and weak. All its strength is in its mouth, with which it grinds up hard, coarse food—trees, houses, earth. Gnawing through an entire cedar would seem to take an overwhelming effort, yet a little worm can manage it.
So it is with the people of Israel: their strength is not physical, but lies in their ability to move mountains through prayer (and Torah study).
to be continued
Prepared by: Mrs. Zissi Skarzhinskaya