Judaism's Secret to Success

You know, we often use the term "potential." What is the meaning of potential? People may tell you you have lots of it, or that you're wasting yours, or that you have none. And yet, few people really know what potential is.

So, I'm going to begin, in the first instance, by sharing with you a little secret. I have a friend. He is a six-foot-two Rastafarian, and his name is Rax. Now, Rax came into my house about eight years ago, and he came into my house in order to train me with exercise in something specific called Muay Thai. If you don't know what it is, it's actually a lethal form of martial arts, which is why when we have to get in line for the food downstairs, everybody gets out of my way when I make my way towards it. And I, yes, I've been doing it now for the better part of seven, eight years, mostly because of the exercise aspect of it. It keeps me sane, keeps me healthy, and so on. But still, it doesn't help me sleep well.

Anyway, it does come with its occupational hazards, like the time Rax and I were sparring. And at a certain point, you know, you throw up a kick towards him, and he comes down with his elbow onto your foot, and crack! He fractured my toe. It was unbelievably painful. And the following week, I'm lying there on the couch in my home, feeling sorry for myself, when there's a knock on the door, and it's Rax. I would have thought, "How nice of him to come and visit me," but for the fact that he's holding the same usual sparring pads and whatever else. And I just looked at him, and I looked at myself with my boot and crutches, and said, "Rax, what are you doing? I can't." And he just looked at me and he said, "Hey, your other foot is working, man. So are your hands. Come on." As he always likes to say, "Nothing to you."

And I took away a very big lesson from that. Because, you know, there's a little gremlin inside you and me. Some know him as the devil. We typically call him the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. Jewish tradition maintains that your evil inclination gets a head start in life. The Torah states at the beginning of creation, at the beginning of Genesis, already from earliest childhood, "the inclination of man is towards evil." From early on. And of course, as a counterbalance, the good inclination, Jewish mysticism teaches us, starts his process of descent upon birth, or by a boy at his circumcision, and completes the process by bar mitzvah. And then, then the battle ensues. You are being pulled in different directions in life.

The Torah states right at the onset of creation that God created man in His image. What does it mean that we were created in man, in God's image? Apart from the obvious understanding that we all have a soul, which is an extension of the divine, of God himself, is also the fact that just as God has independent choice, so too, He gifted every single, single human being with free choice as well. Having been created in the image of God means that even as we tend to get pulled in different directions, we have the ability to choose. And all through life, I have to make a continuous choice. Can I or can't I? Do I listen to the good inclination that is motivating me and encouraging me and spurring me on to reach my maximum potential? Or do I cave to the dictates of the evil inclination that says, "Slow down. No, you can't."

If there's one thing that every single one in this room shares in common, it's that we all have ambitions. Right? We all have goals. We all have aspirations. And they're ingrained as part of our DNA. Already from earliest childhood. Come on, we all have lofty aspirations. "I want to be a fireman. I want to be a policeman. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a nurse." No one ever says, "I want to be a rabbi." And we tend to actually believe in ourselves a lot more when we're younger, right? We'd stick a blanket down our backs, jump off the bed, yelling, "Up, up and away!" thinking we're Superman or Supergirl, and that we could fly. And it didn't matter how many times we fell, we got back up and we tried again.

And then what happens? Then, all of a sudden, as we get older, many of us will have lived enough years to know that our greatest dreams have a persistent habit of falling away. We tell ourselves, "Maybe I can't fly after all." Sometimes it would actually seem that the greater our ambitions are, and the more committed that we are to achieving them, the more quickly we lose our way. And the question then is this: Is the dream really unobtainable, out of reach, too unrealistic? Or do we simply give up on them, or on ourselves, too quickly?

And of course, it's never our fault. "I'm a victim of my upbringing." "It's not my fault." Husbands and wives, they blame one another. "He didn't spend enough time with me." "She stopped caring about me." Adults blame their jobs, the time constraints, the stresses, and the anxieties of the rat race in which they had the misfortune of being born into. Blame my mother, blame my husband, blame my kids, blame whoever you want. But the bottom line is, I can't.

You know, there's a verse in Proverbs which says, "When you see a man diligent in his work, rest assured that he will stand before kings." In this verse, King Solomon is essentially extolling the virtues of somebody who believes in him or herself and perseveres in their task. And he makes the point that when you see someone who keeps their eye on the goal, who stays focused, they will stand before kings. What does that mean? It means they'll go on to achieve and scale great heights.

But the Midrash takes this one step further. You know, in Hebrew, the word for "kings" is the word for "angels." The Midrash says, "Don't read this verse, 'When one is diligent in their work, they will rub shoulders with royalty.' Rather, read it, 'they will rub shoulders with angels.'" What does that actually mean?

And the Midrash goes on to explain by way of a story. There was a great Rabbi of the Mishnah, known as Rabbi Hanina Mendoza. He was actually known to be utterly destitute, but was a deeply spiritual individual who experienced many, many miracles. And there are a number of different stories told about him in the Gemara. One such story is relayed in the very Midrash. He lived in the second Temple era. And as you may well know, of course, it was customary for people to bring sacrifices to the Temple, especially during the pilgrimage, the three foot festivals, when they made their annual pilgrimage. Mendoza standing there, and he's observing so many people bringing their gift offerings, their pledge offerings. And owing to his own financial circumstances, he feels bad. He cannot afford to bring anything.

So what does he do? He goes to a rock quarry in the outskirts of his town of Jerusalem, and he decides he's going to chisel out a really nice stone, and he's going to bring it as a gift to the Temple. As anyone who's ever seen Jerusalem stone will appreciate, it can be quite beautiful. Problem is that it's also unbelievably heavy, pretty impossible for any one man to carry. So he figures, "If I can't bring an offering of an animal, at least I can afford to bring this beautiful stone. It has to count for something." Problem is, how is he going to get it from the quarry to the Temple?

He had a little bit of money, so he goes in search for some laborers who would be able to help him carry it. He finds five men lingering, and he asks, "Gentlemen, can you help me?" And they say, "50 [whatever the coin was at the time], and we'll carry it." Looks at them and says, "50? I mean, if I had that kind of money, I'd have gone on and bought my own sacrifice. I don't need to come here and schlep a stone. I would have been able to afford a small animal." There's no negotiation to be had. And so these guys left.

But Rabbi Hanina Mendoza, still absolutely determined to make this happen. And once again, some other workers turn up. He has the same conversation with them, and they tell him, "Give us five coins, and we'll help you." "Five coins? That I can manage. That I can afford. Deal." But they say, "One condition: you have to help us carry it." And he says, "Okay, no problem." He's excited at the prospect of being able to bring this gift to the Temple. Puts his hand on the stone, lo and behold, presto! They find themselves in Jerusalem, right there by the very Temple itself. And right then and there, he realizes these were not ordinary men. These were, in fact, angels.

But a deal is a deal, and it did, after all, promise the five coins. He turns around to pay them, but of course, they're no longer there. Thus says the Midrash: "Don't read the words, 'One who is diligent can reach [malchut] royalty, high places.' Rather, read it, 'angels themselves.'"

And so I have a question on this story. Why did Rabbi Hanina have to make a deal with them all together? I mean, they were never going to take the money, so why the whole spiel of saying, "What you got to pay us," etc.? They disappeared, so why bother stipulating the five coins? And moreover, why do they insist that he helps them carry when, again, they were never intending to carry? They were going to do their magic, if you will.

And the answer is pretty straightforward. King Solomon says in Song of Songs, "You open for me an opening like the eye of a needle, and in turn, I will enlarge it to the point of opening it so big that wagons themselves will actually be able to go through." That's what God says: "Do your part, and I'll take you the rest of the way." In other words, there are essentially two stages. You have to believe in yourself. That's the "but." Then you have to translate that belief into action. You have to want to make it happen. And then you have to prove how much you want to make it happen by doing what you can to make it happen. That's what I said earlier on during the crossfire: "The two types of people in this world. There are those who act without thinking, and there are those who think without acting." Again, in this context, you have to want to make it happen, and then prove how much you want to make it happen by doing what you can to make it happen. Rabbi Hanina wanted to make it happen. That much we know. But how much did he really want to make it happen? How much of that will was being translated into action? How far was he willing to go? "Are you really willing to pay for it with your hard-earned money? Are you willing to actually carry it with us?" That the angels had to determine. And when he pulled out the money to pay, and when he agreed to actually help to carry, once all of that was demonstrated, there's nothing that was going to get in the way.

48 years ago, approximately, I had a second-grade teacher who observed me struggling over a piece of mathematics and complaining about my inability to complete it. And I will always remember how she looked across the classroom and yelled very loudly, "Yet, there is no such a thing as 'I can't.'" And to be sure, I've since come to discover that the ancient rabbis, about 2,000 years before Miss Spitzer, coined a similar phrase, albeit in a more positive context: "There is nothing that can stand in the way of true will."

You know, I had the privilege on many occasions to write letters to the Rebbe, my father, Rabbi Solomon. He encouraged me every year before my birthday to write a letter to the Rebbe and ask for a blessing for the coming year. And I was privileged in numerous instances to receive a reply from the Rabbi, which very, very often would invariably include an instruction, and very often include some other further point, but then adding in always the same words: "There is nothing that can stand in the way of your will." That's what Rabbi Hanina Mendoza came to experience as well.

Abraham was 75 when God first challenged him to move from his land, and his birthplace, and his father's home, to the land which I will show you. Note the choice wording of the Torah: "land," "birthplace," and "home." These are three things that mold the character of every individual. Number one, your father's home. What's that? That's your gene pool, what you inherit from your mother and father. Number two, your birthplace. That's your own innate qualities, the quirks, the idiosyncrasies that are unique to your personality. And number three, your land, namely this society into which you were born, the culture and traditions that you're exposed to and to whatever extent superimpose on some of your natural instinct. Abraham, and by extension, you and me, are being instructed by God that at no point in your life do you have to capitulate and tell yourself, "This is who I am. This is all that I can be." You can move beyond all that. You can transcend all of that, whether at 25, 45, 75, as Abraham was, or even 105. For as long as you are here, you clearly have a purpose to serve. Otherwise, dare I say it frankly, you would no longer be here. And for as long as you have a purpose to serve, you have to seek, and you have to explore, and you have to determine where else and where more you can make a difference. And at no point until the song is over do you have a right to stop playing your pivotal role in the orchestra of life. So long as the conductor continues to beckon to you, you keep blowing your trumpet.

There's a well-known Hasidic story. Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, he was delivering a discourse in a cramped study hall of Mezhibuzh to his many disciples assembled. And there was a man who had been riding by who came rushing into the hall looking for some assistance. His horse and his buggy became stuck in the thick, wintry mud. And he approaches the first student standing nearest to the door and he says to him, "Look, I just need a couple of minutes. Can you help me get the wheel up?" And he goes, he says, "Just, just come on. Don't worry about that. Daniel, you can come back in in two minutes. Just, just come outside, give me a hand for one minute, that's all I need." And again, you know, "Shh! I'm pointing to the Baal Shem Tov, where there's a lecture going on over here." And the the wagon driver is getting really incensed over here. And he says, "Just please do me a favor, come outside for two minutes, you can go back in." And at which point the student turns around and he says, "Look, don't you see? We're in the middle of an important lecture. The Baal Shem Tov is speaking. I really can't help you." To which the frustrated horseman retorted in Russian, "You can only. You don't want to."

And the Baal Shem Tov immediately paused in the middle of his class and pointed to the wagon driver and said, "What that man has to say is a more important lesson in life than anything else that I can possibly teach you right now. Because life is all about advancement. It's all about progress. It's about never standing still. The moment we stagnate, we degenerate. The moment somebody makes a conscious decision to not progress, they invariably regress. It may not be immediate. It may not be instantly discernible, but it is inevitable."

I urge you to always remember the difference between who you are and who you could be lies in what you get yourself to do. The only obstacle, the only thing that can get in the way and impede our ability to progress, to move ever forward, the only barrier that hinders our divine evolutionary process of upward spiral is that little voice that says, "I can't." And the challenge is to go in search for the hero inside ourselves and continue to nurture ourselves at every interval in life, constantly progressing, always moving forward, aiming ever upward. That was the uniqueness of Abraham. God said, "Go. Keep moving. Don't be afraid of change." To the land which I will show you. Don't be afraid of the unknown. Confront every challenge as it presents itself. Keep climbing higher. Because, and I urge you to always remember this as well, the greatest tragedy in life is not aiming too high and missing. It is actually aiming too low and reaching.

And I'd suggest a further analysis on the story with the angels. Why did God send angels? The man was determined. Fair enough. We wanted to ascertain how determined he was. That's also fair enough. But God can perform any number of miracles in any which way. So why angels? Why not just give the Rabbi the wherewithal to lift the stone? And the answer, I suggest you, well, angels have wings, right? Now, what exactly are wings? Legend has it that when God created the world, the birds were initially formed without wings, and they were upset. They sent a delegation of birds before God to complain. "We're small, and we feel completely overpowered by the larger animals." So God responded by giving the birds wings. And now the complaining intensifies. "It's worse than we thought. It's worse than ever. Until now, we were small, but we were able to be quick enough sometimes to actually elude other animals of prey. Now we have these extra burdens on our backs, and we feel weighed down." And God says, "Have patience. You'll see." And in time, one of the birds got himself pretty dirty and started to flap those wings to shake off the dirt, and suddenly she finds herself flying higher and higher. And soon word spread that there was this fantastic ability that these wings conferred. And to this day, birds continue to chirp songs of thanks to the Creator for the wings He gave them, for the ability to soar.

Jewish mysticism teaches us that each of our souls has two wings, two metaphorical wings, "kenafayim" to use the terminology, much like angels that have wings. God gave us the potential to be like angels with our own spiritual wings. You might look at life, and you might perceive the challenges of life, and you might think aloud, "Hey, what a burden! Life is too difficult." By living with a determination to reach beyond our presumed limitations, gives us the ability to fly high every single day. If the will is there, it gives us the way. It gives us the wings. It enables us to be set free from futility, from fear, from emptiness, and it gives us the very real ability to achieve beyond our wildest dreams. And God is always there as the wind beneath the wings of our souls, enabling us to climb and fly higher and higher. Because when they say, "The sky is the limit," they're talking only in terms of man's physical limitations. But insofar as our capabilities and accomplishments are concerned, we can soar to infinity and beyond. Never underestimate your abilities to achieve whatever you want.

And so it is in your spiritual life as well. All too often, we might find certain undertakings to be too tedious, too difficult. What, fill in every day, show every day, [jli] every week? But you have the soul. You have the wings. You can do it. You can unleash your inner greatness, both physical and spiritual.

You know, we often use the term "potential." What is the meaning of potential? People may tell you you have lots of it, or that you're wasting yours, or that you have none. And yet, few people really know what potential is. Discovering your potential allows you to change your life. And in the process of developing your potential, you can achieve so much. Potential actually comes from the root word "potency" and "potent," and refers to all the things that you can be successful at if you develop and choose to use your gifts, your talents, and your natural abilities. Knowing your potential does change your life by helping you understand what you can excel at and who you can become. And knowing that allows you to make your dreams come true.

There's again that well-known anecdote of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who famously said that after 120 years, when he comes up above, they'll say to him, "Zusha, why were you not like Abraham?" "Dear God, do you appear to Abraham? You never appear to me." "Why were you not like Isaac? You gave Abraham the option of sacrificing himself. You never gave me that option." "Why were you not like Jacob? You gave him the 12 tribes of Israel. I only had a couple of kids." Moses, he was leader of the Jewish people. He says, "Whoever they ask me, I will always have a ready response for. There's only one question which, if they ask me, I won't have an answer for, and that is, 'Ask musician, why were you not like Zusha?'" And he's teaching us the importance of having an authentic identity. God didn't make us to be like everybody else. If He intended me to be Superman, then He wouldn't have made me a Clark Kent. Each of us is supposed to be our own [or Frank], or whatever your name may be. Our job is not to imitate the success of others, but to discover our own unique potential and mission and tap into our uniquely designated role in this world. In other words, God doesn't duplicate. He put me in this world in order for me to be it. It's not Abraham. He already had an Abraham. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, we have to pursue our own destiny, find out who Zusha really is, and then ensure to run with it all the way.

When summoned at the burning bush to become the bonafide leader of the Jewish people, three times Moses says to God, "I can't." And the Torah tells us, Hashem, God, rages against Moses. "If I present you with a challenge, then clearly you can. You have the potential. This is your destiny." The Torah tells us categorically, God does not over-impose upon His creation. If an opportunity and if a task presents itself to you, know that that is your burning bush moment for you to celebrate like never before your own power, your own ability to get yourself to do whatever is necessary.

The famous biblical Joseph is trapped in the depths of Egyptian servitude. Life is all but over. Imagine if he would have said, "I can't." But in the end, he discovers his true potential and he emerges as Viceroy of Egypt. And his descendants experience the Exodus, while sister nations eventually drown out in the sea. So many Jews sat languishing in the gulags in Russia. Imagine if they would have said, "I can't." But they tapped into their inner potential in order to persevere. And today, they have children and grandchildren practicing as proud Jews all over the world. Countless Jewish heroes endured the ineffable treachery of the camps and the Holocaust. The future seemed out of reach. Imagine if they would have said, "I can't." But whether in the camps or after the war, they knew that there was so much more to their lives. So they went off and they searched deep, unpeeling the various layers, exposing their potential. Today, they live amongst us. Their children live amongst us. But you and me, thank God, we don't endure that same kind of struggle. But we get oppressed by the limitations of our own imaginations, or the dictates of a society that says, "You can't." And the onus is then on us to go and search for the hero inside ourselves and continue to nurture ourselves at every interval in life, constantly progressing, always moving forward, aiming ever upward.

You know, at the turn of the 20th century, there was a Jewish chemist named Paul Ehrlich. And he was struggling to find a cure for the plague of syphilis, which had brought suffering to so many. And when, at long last, he found the cure, he called it "Compound 606." Why 606? Because it was preceded by 605 failed attempts. After seven long years of trying 605 different compounds, he finally found Compound 606 that worked. And of course, he saved countless lives. And of course, he won the Nobel Prize. Imagine had he lacked the stamina to endure so many failures. The cure might have never been found. Ehrlich's story shines a light on just how much we can accomplish if we persist in the pursuit of our grander ambitions. And even if sometimes failure is taunting us on a daily basis, never underestimate the power that you have when you tenaciously pursue your dreams in order to make them real.

Another anecdote along these same lines. Long before Columbus discovered America, Europeans believed that if you sailed west across the ocean far enough, you'd reach land. And so a group of famous, expert Portuguese sailors decided they would test the theory. They sailed 25 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing. Then 70 miles. Still nothing. At 100 miles. Nothing. And then they returned and they announced the verdict: "Nothing there." Only, of course, we know that a whole new world lay over the horizon, waiting to be discovered. But after a tentative, abortive effort, they rendered the verdict: "Nothing there." And as Columbus was later to demonstrate, there was, in fact, so much there for those who had the conviction and the perseverance to carry on. Don't make that same mistake. Don't subtly abandon the voyage of discovery. Turn back on life, pronounce nothing there.

Do you know who exemplifies that? Rabbi Akiva. The famous Rabbi Akiva. For 40 years, he kept abandoning the voyage. He kept turning back every single time. And then he observes a rock with water dripping incessantly onto the rock, and he realizes it's been dripping there already for so many years, and ultimately, it made a hole through the rock. And he realizes, "If I keep going at it long enough, if I don't turn my back on the mission, if I continue to forge ahead with a steely will and determination, I can discover new horizons." And of course, he did. He became one of the greatest leaders ever. And even then, when he acquired already 12,000 students, he turned back. He came home. And then he overheard his wife commenting to the neighbor how she would encourage him to stay even longer. So he continued the voyage and ultimately came back with 24,000 students instead. If Columbus had turned back like the Portuguese sailors, nobody would have blamed him. But no one would have remembered him either.

When an opportunity comes our way, we might feel we're not up to the task. We can always turn away. We can always say, "I can't." And you know what? No one will necessarily blame you. But no one will remember you either.

I had another teacher, grade four, Rabbi Lichter, who explained to us in elementary terms what the definition of what we like to call in English, heaven and hell. He says, "You're going to be shown two pictures: one of what you became, and one of what you could have become." There can be, he said, nothing more painful than that. Imagine, if you will, playing the same numbers of the lottery every single week, week after week, month after month, year after year. And then one week, you figure, "Enough," and you stop. And that week, your numbers come up. How would that make you feel? Only, of course, with the lottery, there's another chance, and you can always go back to those numbers, however many billions to one the odds might be. But life isn't a lottery. This is the world where you can still make it happen. This is the realm in which you can still be all that you can be.

And I want you to think about this as well. You know, there are numerous anecdotes of people who, in moments of crisis, summoned superhuman strength and were able to rescue other people. Here's a fun fact: in May 1962, Jack Kirby saw a woman lift a car off her baby, which got stuck under the wheel. And that's what inspired him to create the Incredible Hulk. In 2012, Lauren Karnacki was leaving her house when she found her father unconscious under his BMW. Whereupon she lifted the car and threw it sideways away from him in the presence of eyewitnesses. Some call it hysterical strength. Others refer to it as an adrenaline rush. I suggest to you, it's something more.

And it comes back to the Rabbi's story. You know, the SAS and the Navy SEALs maintain that even their most grueling military personnel, who really put themselves through the motions, never use their full capacity. In fact, they speak about what they call the 40-second, 40, sorry, 40 percent rule. The 40 percent rule is the idea that when your mind is telling you to quit, your body has actually only used up 40 percent of its potential. Could you imagine that? You're quitting at 40 percent. There's more than double that still in the tank, but you're quitting less than halfway. Anyone who goes to the gym knows that to be true. Your mind limits you. You only believe you can do so much. Why do you think people perform better when they always have this blaring music in the gym? Because it distracts them. They're not thinking so much about how much they believe they can or cannot do or lift or whatever else. Besides. And so, in the process, they're summoning even more strength beyond the limits of their imagination. I actually bore witness to this once, where the guy who was doing his bench press was told that he only has the 100 pounds on there, whatever it is, 50 kilos. What he didn't know was that his trainer had went and put another, whatever it was, 20 on there, and he was going ahead and lifting it because he believed he was lifting something less.

If somebody challenged you to pick up a car, of course, your mind is going to tell you, "You're meshuggah, you can't." And so, of course, you won't be able to. But when you don't think and you just do, especially like in those scenarios, because life and death depends on it, you'll be amazed what you can accomplish. Mindset is everything.

It was always believed that nobody could run a mile in under four minutes. That is until 1954, when Roger Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes. And in that same year, four other athletes did exactly the same. What happened there? Was something in the air? Nike came out with a new sneaker? Or was it a psychological barrier that, once proven it can be done, altered the mindset, enabling others to do exactly the same? In life, there are always reasons, excuses, if you will, to slow the pace. It could be family, it could be health, it could be profession. And in those moments, our mind just simply takes over and tells us, "I'm so discouraged. I feel like quitting. I'm facing so many problems. I just don't believe I can overcome them." We feel utterly depleted, and sometimes actually want to give up. But whatever the challenge, there's always the tenacity to overcome it. Whatever the darkness, there's always the greater light that beckons. However tired or worn, there's always the ability to dig deep, to summon the second wind, and cross that finish line.

Again, God doesn't over-impose upon His creation. He has a defined and specific role for each of us with exclusive accomplishments unique to our individuality. There is something that you can do that no one else can do. There is somebody that you alone can become that no one else can become. Because whilst God created everything on mass, huge vegetation, animal kingdom, whatever else besides, He created man alone, singular, so that man can say, "For me, was this world created." And if the world was created for me, then I can do something with it. Make something of it.

So remember this as well. What you can become, that's preordained from above. Whether you become it, that's down to your free choice, to how you maximize your potential, to the extent that you grab life with both hands and run with it. Sometimes, sometimes we just need to stand outside ourselves and look in to get a better glimpse and a larger vision of ourselves. And then look to discover who you really are. What is your uniqueness? And what it is you bring to the world? What places do you feel drawn to? What kind of things make your heart beat faster when you think about them? What do you dream about and long to do? As the Baal Shem Tov put it, "Wherever you find yourself, that's by Divine Providence. God guided your footsteps to be there. There's something there available to you which is intended for you to be able to unleash your greatness and discover your inner hero." And then it simply becomes a question of whether you'll rise to the challenge or squander the opportunity.

You find life sometimes difficult? I say to you, it's not because things are difficult that we don't dare. It's because we don't dare that they're difficult. You find that one added spiritual undertaking threatening? I say to you, every shot you don't take is a guaranteed miss. You find reaching beyond your comfort zone a little bit too risky? I say to you, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

Let me wind down with a story. Mexico City, 1968. John Stephen, a quarry of Tanzania, started the Olympic marathon with all the other runners hours before, but he finished it all alone. And when he finally arrived at the stadium at the finish line, there were about a few spectators remaining there in the stands. The winner of the marathon had crossed that finish line hours before. It's getting dark. His right leg was bandaged. He was bleeding heavily. He's obviously in great pain, but he crossed the finish line, suffering from fatigue, from leg cramps, from dehydration, from disorientation, even. And a reporter went over and asked him, "Why didn't you just quit?" And he thought for a moment and he said, "My country didn't send me here to start the race. My country sent me here to finish it."

Think about those words. The moment you're born into the world, you are in a race. You know, the word for "race" in Greek is actually "agon," which is from the English, or where we get the English word "agony," because being in a race means that along the way, you're going to endure some hardship. That's just an inevitable part of life. But life calls for the discipline of an athlete, the endurance of a marathon runner, and the determination of a champion. Even if you might struggle along the way, don't despair. God didn't put you here just to start the race. He put you here to finish it. The important thing is to stay the course, keep focused on the end goal, go at your pace if you have to, but be sure to cross the finish line. In life, you're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best that you can every single day.

Beethoven started to go deaf at the age of 20, and he still went on to compose masterpieces. Mozart started playing music at three, and he still composed already at five. They're gifted. They have a unique ability. Does that mean I cannot be a broken musician? I don't know. Maybe I will be. Maybe I'm tone-deaf. But one thing I do know: why them, not me, that's God's business. So far as I'm concerned, God made me to be as great as I can be. I can be brilliant in a million other ways.

So, coming back to Rax, my trainer. All he was looking to teach me was that your weaknesses, your fractured toe, whatever. Some of them are real. The toe really is fractured. But there's still so much more that you can do that you don't otherwise realize. As the Rebbe often pointed out, "When there is a weakness in the body, you have one of two options: either fix the weakness, or alternatively, strengthen the area all around the weakness." If you have an area of vulnerability in your life, you can give up at the first hurdle, or you could discover your inner greatness and work with what you have to achieve great things. And that's been God's consistent message to us throughout history.

Moses' initial reaction to God at the burning bush was, "I can't." Right? And what did he say? "My speech is slow and broken. Find somebody else to do it." What does God say? "What's in your hand?" Moses says, "I have a stick in my hand." God says, "Okay. Your speech doesn't work. Take the stick. Throw it down." It turns into a snake. When Moses says, "Send somebody else. I can't." God says, "What's in your hand? Your speech is broken, but take what does work. Whatever does work, and that's how you'll be able to achieve your greatness," as indeed he did. When King David says, "Who am I, too small, to go up against Goliath?" What's in your hand? A slingshot. Use that. You'll accomplish what you need to do. And even when it came to Pharaoh's daughter, who stands by the edge of the water and she sees the basket with baby Moses floating in there, and she has nothing in her hand. Nevertheless, she uses her hand, as in the words of the verse, "She stretched out her hand." She stretched her hand as far as it can go, and then God took it the rest of the distance for her to be able to achieve what she set out to accomplish.

So remember, before your soul came into this world, it undertook an oath of life. It committed itself to fulfilling a purpose. And then events took over. We're diamonds in the rough. We spend a lifetime removing whatever it is that belies the inherent beauty and priceless gem that is our spiritual essence. It's all about peeling away the layers that we've allowed to obscure our vision, our dream, and our very real ability to make it happen.

So I'll end with a blessing to all of you, that you should all merit success in all of your endeavors. Be trailblazers to the world by making the most of every single minute, by always ensuring to live in the present, by making a point of launching yourself on every wave, and by finding your eternity in every given moment. Discover your inner greatness. Be the hero that you are meant to be. And above all else, always remember, life's journey is not intended to arrive one day at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, "Oh yeah, man, what a ride!" Thank you very much.

If you like that video, hit the subscribe button and notification bell below for hours of the best Jewish content online.