The Sages of the Land of Israel teach us that no matter how small our sphere of influence and no matter how profound the change we seek, our individual efforts are very much notable.

It would be fair to say that many of us have personal peeves and dissatisfaction with our People. Strengthening our cause is the fact that we as Jews bear the unique quality that we freely admit our shortcomings as a People.

There may have been a time when we tried fixing things, but soon gave up because we found that our influence was minimal. After all, it is only great leaders who have the ears of audiences and only they can bring about change.

But this could not be further from the truth!

The Sages of the Land of Israel (Talmud Eretz Yisrael, Berakhoth 9:4) teach us that if one sees that the Jewish People are lax in the performance of commandments, one should take action in his/her own way to inspire them to improvement. At a time when the Jewish People were lax in making Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Elkanah the father of Israel prophet Samuel would go out of his way to collect people on his own Pilgrimage.

It is not just the great leader that has the duty to inspire positive change in the Jewish People. No matter how insignificant the individual Jew may think himself to be, his influence is in fact significant even if unlike Elkanah’s it does not turn out to be broad and far reaching!

No matter how small our sphere of influence and no matter how profound the change we seek, our findividual efforts are very much notable.

May each and every one us make a difference in our People!