Why I Love My Life

Who would have thought that an insignificant figure from my past would trigger such a soul accounting?

It had to happen sooner or later. I am reading the paper, and a big figure in the American government is highlighted in the media. I look at the name, “Is that him?” I google his name, along with the title the media gave him. Sure enough, the images of the guy I went to school with match his name and title reported in the New York Post. He is an adviser to the American President.

Once the shock wore off, the inevitable happened.  “Nu, and what am I doing with my life?”

I knew the guy. We graduated from the same educational institution. We had conversations together. He is in the White House being talked about in the media, and I am not. Were we that different? What do I have to show for myself?

It forced me to think a lot about the choices I made in my life since the last time I saw this guy over 20 years ago. The answers made me happy:

Every day I wake up in the Land of Israel, and do everything I can to take care of my family, contribute to my nation, and serve my Father, the King.

Even if my Torah learning is limited to right before morning prayers, and listening to shiurim on my iPod during the commute, it is a national service. The official policy of the IDF is that Haredim do not get exempted from the army. They are tasked with defending the nation with their Torah and mitzvot. Since David Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan, every Prime Minister and IDF Chief of Staff agreed that performing mitzvot, learning Torah, kindness, charity, guarding what we say, and how we use our bodies, all constituted acts of National Security.

I work in hi-tech. My job is technical and content writer. The company I work for is a small business, with a huge product, and growing rapidly. By simply doing my job, which my native English skills are relied on to contribute to the company’s growth, I am taking care of my family.

The commandment to settle the Land, which the Rambam equated with all the other commandments in the Torah, also applies to enabling the Land to support its inhabitants. Like most hi-tech firms, this company, once successful, will be able to employ hundreds of people, bringing opportunity and prosperity to thousands of people in Israel, not to mention the taxes paid that go towards education, health, assisting the poor, and the army.

I am playing a role in expanding the country’s ability to defend itself, provide for the poor and disadvantaged, open its doors to Jews everywhere, and take bold risks for the sake of living in peace with my fellow citizens and Arab cousins.

My wife grew up in the Soviet Union, and I grew up in America. Our children are Israeli. That makes us an Israeli family. We spend our Fridays hiking everywhere in the country. We are blessed to experience firsthand the flowers, trees, birds, lakes, streams, fruits, and history of the Land of Israel from every side. When we study the history of the Land, we are studying the history of our soul. We are giving our children a Jewish identity with a beginning, a foundation, and a future.

I look at people my age and see a lot of success that, by any measure, can be understood as more than I have reached. It can even be said that some of the people my age have done more in the last 6 months of their life than I may with all the years G-d gives me.

It’s an illusion.

The great things in life we do are not just what we accomplish in our own name, but those eternal missions we play a role in among the greater good we choose to be a part of.