Question:
Sefiras ha'omer.
Answer:
As you count the omer, don't forget to count your own maalos and greatness—what better preparation for kabalas haTorah (Reception of the Torah) than to introspect on all the good that Hashem has given you. Now, Rebbi Yisrael Salanter z"l said like this: "In shemayim (Heaven), they don’t give 'gifts', rather they give 'jobs'!"—whatever talents/abilities a person may have are there help save Klal Yisrael! Rebbi Nosson Vachtfoigel z"l said that when Mashiach will come, it will be one thing to have been a ben Torah (follower of the Torah), but it will be something else entirely to have been from the bonei haTorah (builders of Torah)." (Davening for the people is also good). Now, all those out there that feel like they just can't do anything, you have good company—King Chizkiyahu, who was supposed to have been the moshiach, the messiah, (but wasn’t, due to his lack of singing praise to Hashem after the downfall of Sancheiriv), told Hashem that I can't do anything— you Hashem run the war! And "run the war" He did, and Ashur (Assyria) was gone forever. This is the power of one that "can't do anything"! (And perhaps this was Yona's idea as well, going to sleep in the middle of the storm at sea—"Hashem, it's all You!")
