Levi Brackman's

Ki Tisa was my Bar Mitzvah portion. It always brings back memories of the most embarrassing experience of my life and simultaneously the cause of the most important lesson I have ever learned. As a rebellious twelve-year-old, I refused to go to Bar Mitzvah lessons. Instead I insisted that I could learn the Torah portion by practising on my own with the help of a cassette recording. My Mum did not want to fight with me over it and reluctantly asked the teacher to record the portion. I started to learn it from the cassette with some success, but I quickly became bored and constantly put off listening to the recording.

The day of my Bar Mitzvah arrived and I did not know the portion. In order not to disappoint the many guests who had come to hear me I felt compelled to go up and read it as best I could. Needless to say, my rendition that Shabbat afternoon was far from perfect. Undeniably, I found the whole exercise of having to learn my Torah portion parrot-fashion an unmitigated waste of time.

This was a life-changing experience. The embarrassment that my sheer laziness and procrastination caused me that day knew no bounds. To this day I regret that I did not put in the effort needed. However, my shame gives rise to a useful question: how can we motivate ourselves to do things that at the outset seem pointless? We are often called upon to perform laborious and unpleasant chores. We put them off until the last minute and even then do not carry them out to the best of our ability. How can we motivate ourselves to enjoy tasks that are monotonous and unexciting?

The truth is that by infusing every aspect of our lives with intrinsic worth, the mundane can be transformed into a labour of love.

Everything in the world has an inner reason and its conduit. It recently occurred to me that although I see immense value in putting ideas to paper I actually find the act writing a chore. However because the inner, primary purpose predominates, the conduit ceases to be a chore and becomes a labour of love. 
For some life is dictated by corporeal objectives for others there are higher goals. One who perceives a G-d-given purpose in life will make sure that everything, even the smallest, most tiresome detail, somehow fits into that framework. No task is meaningless and every job is relevant.

Regarding the lighting of the candelabra in the Tabernacle, the Torah relates that each morning Aaron the High Priest had to clean out the used wicks and burn them on the alter. Surely this was a job for the Tabernacle janitors not for the High Priest himself.[i] However since the cleaning of the candelabra is a prerequisite to its daily lighting they are both partners in the same gaol.

This is the lesson I learned from the embarrassment of botching my Bar Mitzvah portion – never allow anything in life to become meaningless. One must constantly recognize the higher purposes of life and live by them. Then every aspect of our lives will be infused with meaning and nothing is monotonous or boring.

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