“Mi yichyeh u’mi yamut, mi b’kitzo u’mi lo b’kitzo. Who will live and who will die? Who will die at the predestined time and who before that time?”
These words of the uNetaneh Tokef prayer – recited both this past week on Rosh Hashana and bez”h next week on Yom Kippur - remind us of our vulnerability and of the possibility that one may leave this world with unfinished business. Yet this Shabbat Shuva we will read about how Moshe lived 120 years to the day, indicating that G-d completes the years of the righteous (see Rashi to Devarim 31:1 and TB Sotah 13b), allowing them to realize their mission.
This is striking, as if there was anyone whose business may be considered unfinished it was Moshe. Moshe had arrived in Egypt to redeem the Jewish people and bring them to the land of Israel, to bring about the fulfillment of the promise of the ages that Eretz Yisrael would be our home. But Moshe did not make it there. We know how Moshe pleaded with G-d to be able to bring us there, but it was all to no avail. Can we really say that Moshe’s life - that ended before he reached his life’s goal - was not cut short?
“It is not your responsibility to finish the job, nor may you neglect it (Avot 2:21).” Moshe may have a had an unfulfilled dream for himself and Klal Yisrael, but he continued to work until his last day towards its fulfillment. Even on that last day, Moshe continued to progress to towards that goal, as once he recognized that he would not finish the job himself he made sure to identify and hand off the Jewish people to their next leader, Yehoshua, who would indeed bring us to Eretz Yisrael (Bamidbar 27:12-16; Devarim 31:14).
That is the true meaning of a complete life, not one that reaches its every goal but one that continues the march towards that goal. Each of us is part of Netzach Yisrael, the eternal Jewish people. There is a continuum to our story. Our job is not to complete the process of redemption ourselves but to do our part within that continuum – ambitiously and with determination – to move ourselves and those around us closer to it, and to help create the framework for succession, to pass the baton to others who will continue that march forward. The remaining distance to the goal should not frustrate us; it should instead frame our strategy and approach as we plan for the long game.
We should not underestimate our role – as individuals and as Klal Yisrael - in setting the forward direction of Klal Yisrael and the world. While we come and go, we have the chance to build towards the future by investing with love and focus in the next generations and their passionate commitment to our way of life, in our Torat Chaim and Torat Chessed, values built and nurtured at the core by our connection to G-d, faith, and Torah. What we do today is part of a process and trajectory that will ultimately lift up Klal Yisrael and change the world. Not today or tomorrow. But it is not our task to finish the job, just to continue it and never neglect it.
