We bring our unique value to our communities.
One of the big challenges many of us face is the difficulty of comparing ourselves to one another. In an earlier era of our culture, we might have called it, “keeping up with the Joneses.”
This idea is one of our goals is to be comparable to the people around us for the sake of appearances. They got a new car, and I should get a new car. They got a new television, and I should get a new television, and so on. It can be expanded to other parts of our lives, too.
Another person in my office got a promotion, so we might ask, why didn’t I get one? And this is particularly true when we look out on social media, the curated, partially true but not really reality, and see other people succeeding.
This material or “success” chasing is detrimental to our sense of self and a sense of who we are and how we spend our time in our lives.
On Berakhot 17a, we get this wonderful saying by the rabbis that speaks to this, using the framework of Torah study:
The rabbis in Yavne commonly said:
I who study Torah am God’s creature and my friend who engages in other labor is God’s creature.
My labor is in the city and their work is in the field.
I wake up early for my work and they wake up early for their work.
Just as they do not presume to do my labor, so too I do not presume to do their work.
Lest you say: I do a lot, while they do a little, so I am better than them, we teach: One who brings a great sacrifice and one who brings a small sacrifice is equally accepted, as long as they intend their heart towards Heaven.
Our goals cannot be to compare ourselves to one another, ranking each other on how much we do or don’t accomplish, on how much Torah we do or don’t study.
Instead, we can see each other as contributing our unique value to our communities, whatever that might look like.
What I would add to this text, saying, or reflection would be that we also have what to learn from each other. Each of us has something to offer, not just to God, but to one another.