Rabbi Rael Blumenthal

Every great TED Talk, sports movie, and hero story contains a moment where someone explains to the protagonist that in every challenge there is an opportunity for growth.

You hear it constantly in reels and shorts.

The music grows more dramatic, rich with promise and nostalgia. The cinematography is perfect — just enough to keep you from scrolling away. The message is beautiful and uplifting: In every failure there is the potential for success. At every roadblock, there is the chance to change direction. This is your moment! The music reaches its crescendo, and some inspiring quote flashes across the screen… And then we scroll on for more.

Of course, no one disagrees with the messages of such viral positivity, especially in challenging times.

It’s is not a difficult philosophy to accept logically, per se. It's beautiful and uplifting.

Most likely, each of us has counseled a friend or relative with this very wisdom: “I know this is hard, but you'll be better for it. Life is about the journey, not the destination.”

As we travel through life — as individuals, families, and communities — we pray that we should face our own problems with courage and grace. We hope and pray that we use them as a catalyst for positive transformation.

But we all know that while these words are easy to say, they are hard to live by.

And I think the reason they are hard to live by is because there is a part of ourselves, deep down, that knows they are not entirely true.

As Jews, we know that life is not just about the journey — or at least, not about this journey. At the core of our being, we reject the notion that life is simply about overcoming challenges.

Allow me to clarify: It is certainly true, and useful, to perceive our difficulties as opportunities for growth. What we innately recoil from is the contention that our challenges, and the growth that emerges from them, are what life is about.

Certainly, we are supposed to overcome our obstacles. But all of this is in service of something much greater. The great chiddush of the Torah is that our lives do, in fact, have a destination. It was gifted to us on Shavuos a long time ago.

When we gathered at the foot of Har Sinai three millennia ago, Hashem offered us the privilege to be a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדש — a kingdom of Kohanim and a transcendent people (שמות יט:ו). On this, the Seforno comments:

להבין ולהורות לכל המין האנושי, לקרוא כולם בשם ה׳ ולעבדו שכם אחד, כמו שיהיה ענין ישראל לעתיד לבוא

“To understand and educate all of humanity, to call out together in the name of Hashem, and to serve Him as one, as we will one day do in the future...”

Rav Kook explains further that each of our individual lives — our successes and failures — coalesces into a tapestry of Jewish history. In the all-too-common relentless hopelessness of exile, we turned the journey itself into our purpose. And as we lost our way, our world grew darker and sicker as well. We all agree that it is incredible to recover from illness, but it is even better never to become sick in the first place.

On Pesach, we thank Hashem for each step of the journey and all that we gained from it. This is the story of Dayeinu. Dayeinu is good. Dayeinu is important. Dayeinu is each step and each day of Sefiras HaOmer. But on Shavuos, we want to stand at Sinai and receive the Torah. We want to arrive in Eretz Yisrael and build the Beis HaMikdash. We want to inspire humanity. We want our lives and our world to reverberate with Ratzon Hashem.

It is for this reason that Sefirah ends this week. Sure, we could keep counting forever. We could keep climbing and growing in our middos, conquering our personal deficiencies on deeper and deeper levels.

There is no shortage of podcasts to assist in exactly this mission.

But all of that is the journey. It’s not the destination.

This final week of the Omer is the end of escaping slavery. It is the end of that journey. If we do it right, we should never need to return to it again.

If we do it right, it’s time to stop scrolling and put the phones down. Stop searching for the next dose of inspiration, and start living inspired.