The Mishnah says he would say, talking about he would famously teach, “If I’m not for myself, who will be for me?” A person comes to this world with the goal of learning Torah, of doing mitzvot (commandments), of achieving, of completing himself, and eventually attaining. Nobody else has the ability to do this for you. You have a mission, and that mission is yours alone to complete. Nobody else can get it done. So if you’re not for yourself, if you’re not focused on yourself, building yourself up, who will be focused on you? Obviously nobody, and you’re not going to complete your task in this world.
But when I’m for myself, when I’m for myself only, what am I? We were created as people, of course, like we just mentioned, to focus on ourselves and build ourselves up. But that’s not all we are. We’re also part of a collective. We’re part of a people. We’re part of Am Yisrael (a people), and as part of that community we’re part of Am Yisrael, and as part of that community we have to affect change for everyone else as well. That’s why we focus on the personal and the communal as well. Many of our mitzvot are not only singularly focused on ourselves, but they’re about everybody else as well. We have between men and men; we’re not supposed to take ourselves and isolate ourselves away from everybody else. We’re supposed to be part of the people, so we can’t just focus on ourselves. We have to also give and contribute to others as well.
And lastly, Ve’im lo achshav, eimatai? Not now, while we’re here to accomplish, to build, to create. If I’m not doing it now, when am I going to do it? Eventually it’s going to be too late, and it’s going to be lo aleinu. A person’s going to pass away, and he’s not going to have built, not going to have cultivated anything in this world.
So if a person, when he’s young, doesn’t try and progress in his growth of Torah, eventually life grabs a hold of him, and he gets busy, and he gets married, and he has a job, and he gets, he’s not focused on Torah, and he’s not focused on God, and he’s all over the place, and he could look back and say, “What have I accomplished when it comes to Torah?” Nothing in his life, and that’s the focus.
We can’t forget, we were created with that in mind. We were created by Hashem to build Torah, to grow in Torah, to do mitzvot, so we can’t kick the can down the road. We have to try it right now and say, “I’m going to do, not later, but right now.” Im lo achshav, eimatai? Not now when is it going to get done? The answer is probably never. It’s going to be too far gone, and a person’s not going to have the ability to accomplish...