If you're ever looking for a way to be amazed by nature, a quick glance at a list of the insect kingdom would be a good place to start. There are nearly one hundred thousand species, and millions of subspecies.
One of those insects is called a wormlion, and can be found mainly in Africa, and in parts of Iberia.
If you've made it this far in this article, you might be wondering why you're reading about insects. Well, let's continue a little more with the wormlion's life story, hopefully that'll shed some light on how you might be able to find inspiration in the world of the creepy crawlers.
The wormlion spends the vast majority of its life as larvae, only to finally mature into a winged adult much later. Their adult life lasts
only one week, during which their sole goal is to give birth to a new generation of wormlions.
Imagine that. A whole life, full of bug size struggles, ups and downs, good days and not such good days, all for what? To live just one single week, and make sure that a new generation will live - and repeat the whole thing all over again. It seems quite redundant, even meaningless.
Yet this is quite similar to the human life cycle. For many years we are children, then we turn around and before you know it, you're a parent yourself, making sure your kids can do the same all over again. What's the point?
To better understand this seemingly repetitive cycle, we need to understand the truth behind what we know simply as 'giving'.
Giving is far more than a simple act. Giving is actually a state of being, affecting the giver much more than the receiver. Giving is the best way to tap into our truest selves, discover who we really are and find true peace.
The Kabbalah teaches that every creature, especially human, has deep within it a special place where its truest self resides. This unique spark of true identity is know in hebrew as an 'Atzmi' (עצמי), loosely translated as 'essence'.
This place where our truest self resides is powerful yet very subtle, easily glossed over and quick to be lost in the sea of life. That deepest sense of identity springs up here and there, yet we might not even realize that it exists at all. It might be the force that makes us choose a certain career, or pulls us to Synagogue on the High Holidays. Yet we can easily ascribe other, more mundane reasons for our making those decisions.
Accessing this deepest self can be hard, but the Torah prescribed the best way to do it all the way back at Mt. Sinai. The surest way to access our truest self is... by giving to others.
The reason for this, Kabbalah explains, is because it is only our deepest sense of identity that allows us to give. Every other element of our existence is limited. We might be able to run, draw, play music, think, build or innovate. But it's all on a limited scale, and will therefore always feel jeopardized by others. There will always be someone else who can run faster or play better music.
Our deepest sense of self however, is truly independent, wholesome, confident and appreciates itself just for who it is. It is therefore capable of truly, selflessly giving to others, for others are no threat to it.
This, the Torah teaches us, is why the Creator set our world up in a manner that as soon as a creature matures, be it a wormlion or human being, it almost instantly becomes busy with giving. It's about far more than assisting others or raising children. It's about staying true to ourselves, making sure we do not become defined by external titles or circumstances.
It's why the wormlion's entire week-long adult life is completely consumed with ensuring the next generation. For that unique act of giving enables the wormlion to be the best wormlion it can be, truest to itself, confident, happy and content. Us humans are just the same.
How's that for a life lesson from something smaller than a pea?
Rabbi Avrohom