In this week's Torah portion, the Torah describes how the Land of Israel was inherited and divided among the tribes. This division occurred after the people had entered and conquered the land. The Torah stipulates that a lottery was held to determine which portion of the land would belong to each tribe. (This explains why later in history two kingdoms would form: the Kingdom of Judah in the south and the Kingdom of Israel in the north, since the portions of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were located in the south, while the portions of ten other tribes were in the north.).
As we have mentioned many times, the Torah is not (just) a book of stories, but contains life lessons for all generations in all places.
In this case, the portion of land represents the spiritual work that corresponds to each person. That is, God places us on Earth for a specific and defined reason: personal refinement in both the spiritual and material realms, and the refinement of our surroundings.
We might initially think that each person should strive to refine and elevate those matters with which they feel most comfortable and which they find most enjoyable. Each person should choose their mission in life based on the matters they find most pleasurable; however, we see from the Torah that the portion of each tribe was determined by a lottery, that is, with a specific Divine intention that did not depend on reason.
Given that we don't know what our portion in life is, how do we know what issues we should work on?
Our sages explain that each soul is responsible for observing all 613 precepts. There are no exceptions. In addition, each person has certain matters that are more closely related to their life, because their soul arises from a specific level connected to those matters, and that is that person's particular portion.
The way to discover one's own portion is by analyzing the areas where one finds the greatest difficulty. The very reason why a particular mitzvah is difficult for a person to fulfill indicates that it is their portion and that this matter requires special dedication.
There are different kinds of difficulties, both internal and external, and it is part of our service to God to overcome these obstacles, so that through this elevation we may succeed in all other things.