The Jews in the Sinai desert knew that it was time to break camp and travel when the cloud that hovered over the Mishkan (the moveable Temple used in the desert) began to move. When the cloud would rest they knew it was time to encamp. They’d always immediately setup the Miskhan, even if there stay was only for a few days, or perhaps even as short as a single day or night.
But why expend all that energy to build and take down the Mishkan for sojourn of a mere 12 hours?
Our life’s’ travels have a purpose. Sometimes it might seem to us that we are simply in the midst of a temporary phase, an interim step, so to speak. We might say to ourselves: “This is only temporary, why bother? When I get to where I want to be in life, that is when I will learn, pray, do this mitzvah or that mitzvah. But now is not yet the time…”
Says the Torah, every stage in life has its own important purpose and meaning. It is up to us to make sure that even the seemingly insignificant interim phases, are as filled with meaning and purpose as the extended permanent ones.
Or as the sage Hillel famously said, “If not now, then when?”