20 Apr ACHREI-MOT/KEDOSHIM- WE ALWAYS NEED TO KEEP GOING

The Mishnah teaches us in Pirkeh Avot (1:13), אלד†ףיסי†≠ףיסומ†– “one who does not increase, diminishes.”

In other words, if we are not moving forward, then we are moving backwards. If we are not rising upwards, then we’re falling downward.

The first Lubavitcher Rebbe’s young son once came home very excited after school. The boy told his father that the boys were playing in the playground, trying to climb up a pole. One by one, the boys tried climbing, reached a third or a half the way up, but then slid down. Nobody reached the top – until he tried. He made it all the way up.

“Why were you able to reach the top and nobody else did?” the father asked.

“I watched as they tried to climb, and I saw what they were doing wrong. They all at one point looked down, and got scared or confused, and fell down. So I decided that when I climbed, I would not look down at all. I just looked up, and I made it all the way.”

“My son,” the Rebbe said, “you just explained to me the story of life. As we climb, we should never look down. We shouldn’t look at those who are doing less than we are. This will pull us down. We should look only upward, at how much more we can still accomplish.

Why is this the case? Why did Hashem create us in such a way that we always need to grow to avoid falling backwards?

The answer is that each year, we are meant to accomplish something which we didn’t accomplish the previous year. Each month, we are meant to accomplish something which we didn’t accomplish the previous month. Each week, we are meant to accomplish something which we didn’t accomplish the previous week. And each day, we are meant to accomplish something which we didn’t accomplish the previous day.

Hashem doesn’t keep us in this world to continue doing the same thing. Each day, and even each moment, we are to do something new, something better, something greater than what we’ve done until now. We always have something new to accomplish. What we’ve done until now isn’t good enough.

This is why life always requires us to learn new skills and develop new habits. What works for a person when he is single doesn’t work when he is married. What works for a couple before they have children doesn’t work once the have children. What works when they have young children doesn’t work when their children are grown. In the professional world, too, we constantly need to change and adapt. Business practices that were effective 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, are not necessarily effective now. This is how Hashem created the world, in order to ensure that we fulfill our unique purpose at every stage of life. We constantly need to change and learn, because we constantly have new goals to achieve.

Let us, then, never be afraid to change, to learn something new, to try a new approach, or to shift gears. This is what we need to do to guarantee that we fulfill our mission and realize the purpose for which we are here at each and every moment.