Have you ever wondered why when you are finally at a point when you just want to relax after finishing a project at work, or reaching a milestone in life, or when you have simply reached a point in life when you want to retire, you find that there is still something calling on you to do? You think to yourself, why can’t someone else do it? How come this cannot be someone else's problem? Why me?
The interesting thing is that when we embrace that new, unwanted challenge, we not only end up doing a good job at it, we do a better job than even we expected of ourselves.
Why is that so?
Let’s first look at this week’s Torah portion, at the story of Jacob when he was an old man. He had many challenges in his life and he finally had the opportunity to settle into a relaxed life with his family. He was a happy man. What seemed to him a short while later, his beloved son Joseph was killed. He found out in subsequent Torah portions that Joseph actually lived, and became the viceroy in Egypt, so Jacob and his other children joined him in Egypt at a time when life – at first – was very good, and when Jacob himself said, the times were the “best of his whole life.”
Let’s take a closer look at Jacob’s life.
At this point in his life, we might think that he was entitled to start winding down a bit. Yet, what ended up happening was that he became even busier, accomplishing tasks. He did not retire. He had asked G-d for a blessing that he could sit in tranquility. This does not mean sit in retirement and drink tequila by the pool. What he meant by his request was that he should be able to accomplish his tasks in this world without worries.
Although his blessing request was fulfilled for a short time, Jacob suffered a prolonged burst of pain with the absence of his beloved son Joseph. When they finally did reunite in Egypt, Jacob went into overdrive and set up a Jewish community there that flourished.
Jacob took his pain and turned it into gain.
This is a lesson here for all of us. It is never a good time to stop working. There is a reason why every project, job, or responsibility that comes our way, came to us—perhaps because we are good at it, or maybe just because the job was meant for us to do. Either way, we should embrace it as our life’s mission and do our best at it.