Our Journey as a Stalk of Wheat

The journey of growth is a lifelong task.    

Rabbi Yaakov would say: This world is comparable to the antechamber before the World to Come. Prepare yourself in the antechamber, so that you may enter the banquet hall. Pirkei Avot 4:16 

A stalk of wheat starts out green. While it sprouts, the stalk holds on to the seeds that will eventually be harvested, ground into flour, and used to feed the world.  

While the stalk grows, the seeds are almost impossible to extract. Its entire existence focuses on its purpose: growing seeds. Only at the end of its life, when the stalk ceases to be green and turns to a golden-brown hue, does the seed grow to its full potential and the stalk releases it.  

To extract the fruits of its labor too soon would destroy the stalk, and the seed would be immature.  

That’s why the stalk holds on to the seed for dear life: the stalk is the seed’s life-force.  

With All Your Heart  

The Tanya talks about the commandment in the Shema: And you will love God with all your heart. (Devarim 6:5).  

How can we love Hashem with the very organ that is synonymous with pining for the physical and material lusts of this world?  

Wouldn’t it be better to say that we should love Hashem with all of our mind? Intellect is the seat of the spiritual soul, whereas the heart’s focus defaults to the physical body.  

That’s precisely why we are commanded to love Hashem with a heart that can point either downward or upward. It’s our duty, through learning Torah, performing mitzvot, and focusing on our true mission in life to turn our heart away from the material pursuits and towards God.  

It is our mission to wean our desires away from This World and upwards to the Next World.  

The Real Goal 

Sure, we can pursue a career. We can buy nice things throughout our brief lifespan. It’s like the wheat stalk that consumes nutrients in the soil and water from the sky. But as much as the stalk enjoys the pleasures – he never releases the seed, because the seed is what those pleasures are for.  

We need to make a living for our families, but we cannot invest our heart into it. We can be a successful entrepreneur, but we cannot work for wealth or prestige. We can be famous, but we must not use our fame and popularity to amass power over others.  Material success and pleasure are only the means to an end. 

It’s our mission to be attracted to our wife, to love our husband, to point our hearts towards our mission of doing what’s right before Hashem.  

Remember the Mission  

Our mission is not an easy task. There are monumental distractions everywhere trying to take our life’s work away from us.  

Every day, we are bombarded by the media, the internet, and our “third hand” (smartphones). They relay countless stories that shower praise upon those who enjoy material success and fame but who forfeited their mission.  

Much like the wheat stalk that must combat fierce wind, freezing weather, and a constant wave of parasites trying to destroy its budding seed, we must do the same.  

Some seeds are our mitzvot and Torah learning. Other seeds are our coming to know God as passionately as we can and our forcing ourselves to detest evil and embrace everything holy.  

We accumulate these seeds for the Next World so that when our time is up, we will have amassed a large amount to show for our life.  

It’s a lifelong task. It’s our mission.  

Plant Food for the Journey 

Today, more than ever, the world is blessed with “fertilizer” for our seeds so that they can grow to their full potential.  

We live in the most materialistic and hypersexual period in human history. Consequently, every effort we exert to fulfill our mission is exponentially harder. Every toil to turn our heart towards Hashem is arduous. Each expression of love to our Father in Heaven and earth becomes very special to Him. These obstacles ”fertilize” the growth potential of our seeds as we journey through life. 

In the past, when everyone was religious and the winds were pushing us forward, the paths of life were lined with seeds made of pure gold.  

Today, the seeds are diamonds.  

Grab as many of them as you can while still on the journey. 

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, Center Stage Marketing, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.