This post does two things. First, it orients us into the avodah of our lifetime. Let’s get comfortable with the big job being asked of us; to partner with Hashem to make this world a place where He can dwell. Sometimes the work of our soul will be outward-facing, and we’re asked to step up to do something external that can improve a hard situation, i.e a chesed. Sometimes, the work will be a totally internal avodah, and we are helping the world by removing some of the klippos that get in the way of Hashem’s ability to be manifest down here. We work at sur mei’ra, avoiding bad, and assay tov, doing good. The whole world is full of ‘construction sites’ and our neshama has a real purpose in helping build and fix the world, to reveal Hashem’s presence here.
The second purpose of the post is to be mechazek us as we toil. Even after you work on yourself internally and feel like you made real progress, you may get discouraged when you are faced with another similar battle. And even after you’ve accomplished something, you may be disappointed to find that you are called to continue working on it, again and again. But working on yourself, day after day, is not a bad thing! That’s the rhythm of life. The world needs to be repaired into a dirah b’tachtnonim, and Hahsem sent you down here to be a construction worker — to help build and fix it. All throughout our lifetimes we are moving from construction site to construction site. It’s not demoralizing. This is the nature of Hashem’s emunah in us! He constantly sets us up in scenarios where we grow, build, accomplish, and develop ourselves. And when we do, chazak v’amatz, it’s onwards to the next scenario.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 89.
