There is a lesson a Jew may learn from the striking of the gavel, a common procedure at Congressional assemblies. After deliberating and entertaining various opposing opinions and arguments, the assembled arrive at a final judgment, conclusion, and decision, which is introduced by the bang of the gavel.

The equivalent concept in Jewish life is known as makeh bepatish “banging with the hammer”— the final touch (and definitive act) that completes a project, campaign, etc.

We may not clearly see how a given act is actually a personal service of G‑d. Therefore, we must continuously increase in our good deeds to augment the likelihood of reaching the “final touch and purpose” of seeing our service to G‑d revealed.

Reb Mordechai, a student of the Baal Shem Tov, was taught by his Rebbe that a soul enters this physical world and spends seventy or eighty years all for the single purpose of doing a favor for one’s fellow Jew.

Although his every act was lofty and G‑dly, and he accomplished much in his spiritual journey, Reb Mordechai was told there may be a simple, single act that is the “final touch” that will not only complete his purpose in life, but may be the ultimate purpose of Creation. This one act may bring about the final merit of the collective Jewish people: to bring the long-awaited Redemption!

To see miracles in life, one must fulfill this teaching: to learn from everything we see, hear and experience. We must realize the direct relationship between the striking of the gavel in Congress by the non-Jew and our own striking of the spiritual gavel, forever searching for the “final touch” in one’s Divine service.

Toras Menachem 5748, Vol. 1, p. 604