That feeling, that sense of profound loss, isn't just a modern phenomenon. Our Sages wrestled with it too. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating and often imaginative work of Jewish literature, explores this very idea. It poses the question: what does it truly mean to be diminished? The text answers with a startling assertion: "all who lose their wealth are as though they were dead."

Heavy stuff. But it sets the stage for a powerful moment in the story of Moses. Moses, the reluctant leader, the man who stammered, the shepherd who would become the liberator. God appears to him at the burning bush, commissioning him to free the Israelites from slavery. "Come and I will send thee unto Pharaoh" (Exodus 3:10), God commands.

But Moses hesitates. He shrinks back. "Send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send" (Exodus 4:13), he pleads. In other words, "Please, God, send someone else. Send someone you will send in the future."

What’s going on here? Why is Moses, this figure we revere, so resistant?

The text offers a powerful insight into Moses's reluctance. It wasn't just about his perceived inadequacies. It was about the immense weight of the task, the potential for failure, the risk of losing everything. Maybe, just maybe, Moses felt that loss already – a kind of spiritual or emotional poverty that made him question his ability to lead.

God, in his infinite patience, responds with clarity. "I have not said, 'Come and I will send thee to Israel,' but 'Come and I will send thee unto Pharaoh.'" (Exodus 3:10). The mission is specific, the challenge immediate. God isn't asking Moses to solve all the world's problems, just to take the first, crucial step.

And what about Moses's plea to send someone else, someone destined for the future? God addresses that too, hinting at the coming of Elijah the Prophet: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come" (Malachi 4:5). "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6).

Elijah, the harbinger of redemption, will have his own role to play, his own mission to fulfill. But that doesn't diminish the importance of Moses's present task. Each generation, each individual, has their own calling.

So what does this ancient text, this glimpse into the conversation between God and Moses, tell us today? Perhaps it's this: even when we feel diminished, even when we doubt our abilities, we are still called upon to act. To step forward, to answer the call, to play our part in the ongoing story of redemption. And sometimes, just sometimes, that first step is all that's asked of us.