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http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter2-21.htmlOur Problems, G-d's ProblemsBy Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld
"He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not upon you to complete the task, but you are not free to idle from it. If you have learned much Torah, you will be given much reward. And faithful is your Employer that He will reward you for your labor. And know that the reward of the righteous will be in the World to Come."This mishna closely resembles the previous, also authored by R. Tarfon. Last week we learned: "The day is short, the work is great, the workers are lazy, the reward is great, and the Master of the house presses." We were given a sense of the urgency of life. Here too, R. Tarfon discusses the enormity of the tasks to be performed and the magnitude of Divine reward. Yet our mishna introduces a number of new ideas, and as we will see, a much broader and profounder image of life will emerge.
This week R. Tarfon tells us that it is not upon us to complete the task. He also states that G-d is "faithful" to reward us -- and that that reward may come only in the World to Come. I believe last week R. Tarfon was offering us a personal or individualistic outlook on life. We must see life as an ongoing procession of challenges and opportunities. There is much work to be done and much reward to be earned. The stakes are very high. Our lives should be one of boldly and eagerly rising to the many challenges before us.
Here R. Tarfon views life from a broader perspective -- not the personal but the global one. It is true that we must work hard and accomplish mightily. There are very few of us who could not change the world for the better if we had only the vision and the drive. Yet we must not feel it all rests on our shoulders: the task is not ours to complete. We must make the effort, but whether or not our efforts will be successful is in the hands of G-d. We do our part -- we are not free to idle -- yet we rest assured that G-d is the ultimate arbiter of what is and what is not accomplished in this world. And if we are not successful, it is beyond our control, and most importantly: it is not our problem.
For this reason, our mishna seems to almost de-emphasize reward -- stating that we must be patient about it and not necessarily expect it in this world. Viewing the world from our own perspective, we might have expected that if we work so hard, we will enjoy the fruits of our labor. We would expect our deeds to make the world a visibly better place, and that the rewards which are our due be handed to us on a silver platter.
However, R. Tarfon, from the grander perspective of this mishna, warns us otherwise. We do our part, but we must accept that from our limited perspective we may not so quickly see the results. The gears of this world churn exceedingly slow. G-d has His plan and the world will certainly reach its zenith, but the march towards that goal may not even be perceptible to us. Many lifetimes may go by before we see the world move ahead. Many world events from our perspective may seem to be moving the world backwards rather than forwards. For we must simply accept that just as our own tasks are beyond our ability to control and complete, the results of our labor may be beyond our ability to comprehend. Every good deed brings the world forward -- that we know for certain -- but how precisely we may never know.
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