This is finals time in rabbinic schools across the country. We work late into the night, trying to finish papers and projects. But we ignore the spiritual question: what defines success?

For many of my fellow students, finals are a a flashback to high school. Someone else will decide whether they pass or fail, whether they will get promoted or not. But I have the advantage of being older. I know that life isn’t always a straight line. Life is sometimes like the Joseph story – one painful event after another until we discover that God meant it for the good.

As I write this, I am finishing up nine weeks of radiation therapy. I never expected to get cancer. But I have been getting radiation therapy every day for nine weeks. Each day, I go in to see my therapists and I joke with them and tease them. Each day, I take the time to make their lives a little brighter, to recognize them as unique individuals.

Rashi taught that each of us was sent here to bring a ray of kindness into someone else’s life. That’s what I’ve been trying to do. And as I contemplate the end of my therapy, I realize that I will miss my therapists. I will miss their warmth, their energy, their willingness to respond with their own jokes. My therapy has been about building relationships and bringing kindness into the world, not about machines and radiation.

I never planned to have cancer. But who knows what impact I had. I bring a little light into my therapist’s lives and they pass it along to their children. Or perhaps, they give extra care and attention to the next patient and they save someone’s life. Slowly, one day at a time, we create a world of kindness.

And perhaps, my example of grace and strength, my willingness to be honest about my pain has helped my fellow students, so that they, too can bring kindness into the world.

Success is defined not by passing a final, and not by earning a title, but by listening to God’s voice, by helping others when they are in need and celebrating with them at times of joy.

The Torah tells us that God said to Abraham, “Lech lecha. Go from your land, from your country, from your father’s house.” In our tradition, it was a one time event, unique for all time. But Sefat Emet teaches that God calls out those same words to each of us. “Go. You have a destiny. The world is calling you to reveal a spark of holiness, to play a part in mending our broken world.”

We never know what holy work is ahead of us, what kindness we can perform. But we can listen to the cries of others and make their lives sweeter. And together we can repair the world. That is the true meaning of success.

May the One who brings healing bring healing to all those in pain, and may He guide each of you towards your sacred destiny.