You’ve been counting the days until vacation, a birthday or something exciting. After waiting and waiting for this special day, you get sick. You can’t move out of bed; you can’t do anything. All you can think about is, “Why today? When will I have the opportunity to have this day again?”

In Parshat Behaalotcha, this is what happened to some of the people of Bnei Yisrael. They had been waiting for the day to give a korban (sacrifice) to Hashem. They had been waiting for the day when they could elevate themselves and draw closer to Hashem through the korban Pesach, which would remind them that Hashem had taken them out of Egypt. While this wait was exciting, when the day finally came, many Jews were impure which meant they could not give the korban. Although they were disappointed, these Jews taught us what we should do in such a situation.

There are different types of people in the world, and Bnei Yisrael are a stubborn people. When they set their mind to something, nothing will get in their way. While many people would have said,, “I missed it and there is nothing I can do about it,” these Jews, in their stubbornness, go to Moshe and say they want a second Pesach. Hashem tells Moshe to agree, and now the Jews have a second Pesach where they can make up for the first one. This is a valuable lesson: Sometimes you wait excitedly for something, and then Hashem puts a stumbling block in the way. But Hashem is just putting that there to see what you will do. Will you take action? Or will you forget about the important things because trying to change things is too hard?

May we all be stubborn when it comes to standing up for our beliefs! May we take action to obtain things that are important to us even when it is hard.

Shira Sedek is a teacher at Ramaz Middle school who has a Masters in Jewish Education.