What's your JQ? That is, what's your Jewish Quotient? How much of your time, day in and day out, week in and week out, do you spend doing something Jewish? How much of what you want to learn have you been able to learn so far? How much of what you observe (or don't observe) do you understand in a way that satisfies you?

Having just come back from Israel as I write these words, I know that Jewish culture is both deep and broad. In Israel, there are many avenues for Jewish expression. Just by living in Israel, you make a powerful statement of Jewish cultural vibrancy. And many Israelis add to this contributions to the arts, science, medicine, Jewish thought, literature, music, and other aspects of our culture.

But here in the Diaspora, it is not so easy to raise our JQ to the level that we would like. There are so many competing demands on our time; so many aspects of our lives that we have yet to perfect, and they all call out to us with ever-increasing stridency. We need to lose weight, we need to become better spouses and children and parents, we need to become better investors. We need to improve our homes, we need to read more books. We need to advance in our careers, we need to support our spouses as they advance in their careers, we need to be there for our children while they are young and as they grow up.

And in the face of all these demands, it is easy, even natural, to give up by relegating them all to the "one of these days" pile . When we are overloaded, as many people today are, we become paralyzed. The sheer height of the pile daunts us into inaction: when there is too much to do, we don't know where to start. And the pile just grows into impossible proportions, so that it would seem foolish to try to tackle it.

But there is a specifically Jewish answer to this problem, not only to the problem of how to improve our JQs, but also how to tackle all of the many projects in our lives that demand our attention.

As we learned one Saturday afternoon a few months ago in our Pirkei Avot class, Rabbi Tarfon taught: "You are not obliged to finish the task; neither are you free to neglect it." That's an oft-quoted statement precisely because it makes so much sense. When we look at those enormous, daunting, piled-up projects, we don't know where to start. Rabbi Tarfon tells us where to start: at the beginning. Just get moving along the path, and don't worry about the enormity of the task. Your movement and growth are themselves part of the task, and you will begin to make progress from the first step.

The one thing we must not do is become complacent or despondent. That is the second half of Rabbi Tarfon's teaching. While we don't have to freeze ourselves in a state of worry about not being able to finish, we must never allow ourselves to become frozen in a state of non-growth, of not starting along the path.

So, to lose weight, get off the couch and start walking, playing, running, or swimming. To become better spouses, start speaking the way you know you should to your loved ones. To get back on the path of financial and career progress, start saving and reduce spending. To get your home looking the way you want, start with the first project. To become well-read, start reading the first book on your list. To become a better parent, start spending more time with your kids. And to raise your JQ, pick the first thing you want to learn and the first thing you want to begin doing, and get moving. Take the first step!

Rabbi Steven Schwarzman