Find Your Niche

A thought on Parashas Nitzavim

As I sat down this week to learn Parashas Nitzavim, I was trying to figure out what I should write about. I was drawing blanks, even though the Parashah is full of important ideas. I thought maybe compare the Queen’s Funeral and all the different people involved in making the Malchus happen, to the list of the 10 different people who were standing by Moshe waiting to go into Eretz Yisrael. I figured someone else would write about that. Then, someone asked me why I started writing weekly Divrei Torah, and while answering, it all came together and hit me.

Moshe famously tells us in this Parashah that Teshuvah, and in fact Torah, is not out of our reach, we all have the ability to grasp onto it, we just have to open ourselves up to it.

כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך היום לא־נפלאת הוא ממך ולא רחקה הוא

Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.

לא בשמים הוא לאמר מי יעלה־לנו השמימה ויקחה לנו וישמענו אתה ונעשנה

It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”

ולא־מעבר לים הוא לאמר מי יעבר־לנו אל־עבר הים ויקחה לנו וישמענו אתה ונעשנה Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”

כי־קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך ובלבבך לעשתו

No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.

Years ago, I had an idea for a business and after bouncing it off a friend of mine he advised me to never go into a niche business in the Jewish world, as your audience is super limited. Perhaps that is true in terms of business, in learning though, I have been advised both by my father and my Rebbeim, to find your niche and make it your focus. When you find your niche, your audience may be limited but the impact is infinite.

Every single person that was present at the Queen’s Funeral, was filling a specific role that only he or she can do. Similarly, with us, the Jewish people, we each have our unique contribution to make. The Nesivos Shalom tells us that Rosh Hashanah is the day of accounting; Are we delivering on our contribution to the Malchus Hashem of this world? Do we have plans to deliver on our contribution, or not?

Perhaps what the Torah is telling us, is to find your thing and share it with the world. Use your mouth, use your heart and it will come to you. You just need to start.

I am very fortunate to live and work amongst some very impactful people. In my work at Mosaica Press, I interact daily with people who have been taken with ideas in the Torah, learned more about them and wrote books based on those ideas. They found what they specifically connected to and made it accessible to others.

This is not limited to writing books. You can put out a short inspirational video, you can write down something you learned everyday and share it with your friends. You can use your network to help others. You can take a concept that people generally do not know about and raise awareness of it. Look at all the people that are learning the Daf every day, and such, they are proving that Torah is within reach. There is so much that you can do, and there is something very special that only you can do.

Perhaps, this is the meaning of the words בפיך ובלבבך לעשתו. When you set out to do something, its in your mouth. When you actually start doing it, its in your heart. Once your heart and your mouth are one, you have the ability to do it.

The answer to why I started writing Divrei Torah is that I challenged myself to it. At first, I challenged myself with the Daf - to write a daily Daf insight, but it wasn’t my speed. Then, I set upon another challenge which was to work with my father on his Sefer, Lev Avos. After that, I challenged myself to write a weekly post.

Once I embarked and took that first step forward, I realized that it was right here all along, just waiting to be expressed. If this is true for me, it is definitely true for you.

We all have a unique contribution to make to the Malchus Hashem in this world. We all have within our reach the ability to add onto the infinite chain of Mesoras Hatorah. We just need to do it. We don’t need to do what someone else is doing. We need to find our connection, which calls out to us and then we need to bring it to light and make it tangible.

No matter what you challenge yourself to contribute, remember the impact of what you are doing is unlimited.