A bochur once told his rebbi, “Who am I? I’m too young, too small, too ordinary to accomplish anything important.” The rebbi answered, “If you were going on your own, maybe you’d be right. But if the Ribono Shel Olam sent you, then you carry His strength with you.”
The Haftara of the first Shabbos of the Three Weeks opens with the first prophecy of Yirmiyahu HaNavi. When Hashem chose Yirmiyahu to become the Navi who would deliver His message to Klal Yisroel, Yirmiyahu protested: “I do not know how to speak, for I am young.” Hashem responded, “Do not say, ‘I am young,’ for everywhere I send you, you shall go, and everything I command you, you shall speak.”
The Chida explains the depth behind this exchange. The excuse of “I am young” only makes sense when a person is acting on his own. If someone is pursuing his own mission, then perhaps he can claim he lacks the confidence, experience, or ability needed to succeed. But when a person is sent as a messenger by someone great, his personal limitations no longer matter. A young messenger delivering the king’s command is not viewed as an ordinary child. He carries the authority and power of the king himself.
That was Hashem’s message to Yirmiyahu. “Do not say, ‘I am young,’ because you are not going with your own strength. You are My messenger.” Once Hashem sends a person on a mission, that person is backed by the infinite power of the One Who sent him.
This idea applies to every Jew and every mitzvah we perform. The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos teaches, “Be as careful with a ‘small’ mitzvah as with a great mitzvah.” Why is there really no such thing as a “small” mitzvah? Because every mitzvah is a direct command from the Rebona shel oilam. Every time a Jew puts on tefillin, gives tzedakah, says a brachah, learns Torah, or helps another Jew, he is acting as Hashem’s messenger.
And when the King of all kings appoints a person as His messenger, there can never be anything insignificant about that mission. How differently we would approach mitzvos if we truly remembered this. We are not performing ordinary actions. We are carrying out the will of the Ribono Shel Olam Himself. Every mitzvah becomes precious, meaningful, and infinitely important because it is His command and His mission.
A person may sometimes look at himself and think, “Who am I?” But the answer is the same one Hashem gave Yirmiyahu: if Hashem sent you, then you already have everything you need to fulfill your mission.
