Why should I work when the world is crumbling?
February 10th, 2016 Posted by Rabbi Daniel Lapin Ask the Rabbi No Comment yetQuestion:
Listening to you is one of the best things I did last year. You have introduced me to the issues of physical life along with spiritual life and how they go hand in hand. I battle with discouragement due to the bleak future of the economy and nation.
Can you offer some encouragement? I want to set new goals and pursue them but I can’t help but think what’s the point.
∼ Eduardo
Answer:
A tale is told of a prisoner who is forced each day to transport painfully heavy rocks. He consoles himself by imagining the great building he is helping to build. One day, a guard tells him that each night, his back-breaking work is undone as another prisoner has the job of moving the rocks back. Every day he merely undoes the back-breaking work of another prisoner. There is no purpose to the labor other than punishing and exhausting the two prisoners.