LESSON 51: Make A Difference

In a world of about five billion people, it is hard to imagine making a difference to history. Even if we talk only about the Jewish nation, which has a population of about 12 million people, it is hard to imagine, for the average Jew, making a significant impact on the direction and success of the Jewish people as a whole.
However, often what stands between the Makers and the Pawns of history is not money, position, or power. It is usually two things: perception of a problem and the desire to do something about it. You can’t fix something that you can’t see is broken, and, you won’t try to fix that which you think you can’t fix.
A person who was planning a project to have a significant, and seemingly impossible, impact on the Jewish people was asked, “What do you expect to do? How do you expect to reach that many people, and, even if you reach them, how do you expect them to change their minds and get them to hear your message?”
Undaunted, he answered, “What difference does it make? What is the alternative, no project at all? If I do nothing, I will fail for sure. If I do something, even if I fail, I will know, at least, that I did my best to succeed. Don’t forget that Pinchas required 12 miracles to make him successful against Zimri (Bamidbar Rabbah 20:26). In other words, naturally speaking, the odds were stacked against him, and yet, that didn’t stop him, because win or lose, he had to choose, and he chose to make a difference. In fact, he’d rather die making a difference, than live and make none at all.”
This is what the Talmud says:

One who comes to purify himself, they help him … One who comes to sanctify himself, they sanctify him. (Shabbos 104a)

In other words, our responsibility is to make the effort, to take steps in the right direction, and leave the rest up to Heaven. We only have to make an opening the size of a pinhole, and Heaven will find a way to drive a wagon through it. In God’s world, small efforts can have huge effects, when they are in the right direction and with the right intention.
As we learn from the Torah, crises, from a Divine perspective, are really spiritual opportunities. As chaotic as history can seem to become, it is never out of control, at least not out of God’s control. Even in the worst circumstances, there remains an opportunity to rise to the occasion and make a difference on some level.
In the Torah, Pinchas merited to end the crisis in his time because he had developed himself into the kind of zealot who could perform the necessary deed. The daughters of Tzelofchad merited to teach an important law regarding inheritance of Eretz Yisroel because of their inherent love of the land, like their great ancestor before them (Rashi, Bamidbar 27:4).
If we plan to make a difference during the quiet times, then God will find a way to make it happen during the times of crisis.

Thursday, February 21, 2008