Surrendering to what lies beyond our control can be liberating.

Accepting our powerlessness before God can paradoxically be empowering.

The final verses of the Torah, which we read on Simchat Torah, describing the last days of Moshe's life, show us how.

Vezot Habracha, the final parsha of the Torah, ends with a startling lesson. Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest leader of the Jewish People, stands at the edge of the Promised Land after forty years of leading his people towards it. He sees the land, but never enters it. And his death brings the Chumash to a close with one of his greatest missions still unfinished.

Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the Rambam, Rashi and Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein shows why surrender before God is not a defeat. The Rambam notices something the Mishnah leaves off its list, and that omission reveals exactly where human power lies. Knowing what belongs to us and what belongs to God can become a source of real freedom.

Then the question goes further. What does success mean if you never finish the work? The last verse of the Torah names Moshe's greatest achievement, and Rashi's reading of it is the last thing anyone would expect. It changes the very meaning of success and failure.

• The Mishnah lists what happens to us against our will. What does it leave out, and why does so much depend on that omission?

• What would change if you stopped carrying the outcomes of your life as though they were yours to guarantee?

• How can the greatest leader who ever lived leave the central mission of his life unfinished?

• If it is not upon us to complete the work, what exactly is being asked of us?

• Why would the final verse of the Torah celebrate a moment that looks, on the surface, like Moshe's greatest failure?