The Incomplete Task
In this era that almost idolizes efficiency, speed, and accomplishment, it seems profoundly archaic to imagine the satisfaction of an incomplete task. But as is usually the case, the ancient wisdom of Torah speaks resonantly with our current moment.
Moses is on the mountaintop overlooking the Promised Land. God reveals that he will not be able to enter the land with the people he’s led for decades, thus fulfilling his apparent life’s mission. Moses responds with tacit acceptance of his fate and blesses the people who will enter the land and ensure the future.
On the eve of his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. intoned this scene in his famous “Mountaintop” speech. Prophetically, he shared that though he would not enter a new era of racial reconciliation with his people, they would nonetheless get to that “Promised Land.”
It takes a true servant leader, steeped in faith traditions and a vision that extends beyond their role and their lifetimes, to possess the humility to be contented with what he/she accomplished as a small but significant link in the chain of human betterment. And it takes a deep faith to affirm that the larger task requires the commitment and the resolve of those who come after us.