RABBI WEIN UNFINISHED BUSINESS

I have often been perplexed by the statement of the rabbis in Avot that says: “It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, “ as there is another statement of the rabbis of the Talmud that if one begins to do a good deed, one should persevere to complete it. So, what should our attitude towards unfinished business be? And should a project or endeavor be started when it may be clear that it will be unable to be completed in one’s lifetime. Here we have another statement of the Talmud about a man that was planting a tree that would take 70 years to mature and produce fruit. When he was asked why he was doing so, for in the course of human mortality he would not live long enough to benefit from the tree, he answered that his forefathers had planted such trees before him and that he was therefore planting such a tree for the benefit of later generations that would succeed him.