The United States prides itself on its work ethic. Yet, somehow, it has cultivated the idea that one’s useful work life is over by age fifty or sixty. When one is no longer as strong and energetic, one is given the right to decrease in the activities relevant to his mission in life. The Torah instructs us that as long as we are alive, our mission is alive and we must do no less than previously.

“When one is connected Above, one does not fall down below.” When a person connects himself to G-d “above,” to a level which transcends time and space, then even while he is confined “below”, within time and space, subject to the limitations of his body’s abilities, G-d helps him to succeed in growing in all matters connected with Godliness. Tied to our Source above, our spirit continues always to grow and develop, and more than makes up for any decline in physical vitality.

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