In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Shemot, G-d called to Moses from out of a burning bush. “Moses! Moses!” and he answered, “Hineini – Here I am.” G-d gave Moses the sacred task of saving an enslaved nation. It is a job that Moses did not feel up to. Moses argued, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and free the Israelites from Egypt.” Later he argued, “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to me?” and beyond that he said, “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

Moses is Moses, but he is not yet MOSES. He will become MOSES in due time. Like G-d, Who reveals G-d’s name in this moment of Torah as “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh – I am what I am” or also translated as “I Will be What I Will Be,” Moses’s identity will be shaped by this pivotal moment in our historic narrative. Moses will find a way to approach Pharoah, to be believed and listened to, and he will find his ability to speak for himself, eventually speaking the entire book of Deuteronomy as a farewell sermon to his people.

How often are we faced with an important task that seems too great for us, too important, and for which we do not feel capable? This moment in Torah teaches us that it is the tasks themselves that make us capable of completing them – all we really need to do is show up and say, “hineini – here I am.” If the task is worthy of us, we can BECOME worthy of the task. The only question to ask is whether the task is truly worth doing.

On this Shabbat before the secular New Year, many of us are considering our new year’s resolutions – all the ways that we hope to better ourselves in 2019. I would suggest that this is a great moment to seek out remarkable tasks, things that seem beyond our reach, things that will help to make the world better than how we found it. This is a great moment to say, “Hineini.” I am here. I am worthy. I am ready.