The Search For Meaning...A Yom Kippur Reflection

When you’re a child, many of the individuals you meet seem larger than life!  It’s not until you look back upon the experience as an adult, that you might realize that the opposite is the case.  I had an experience when I was 18 years old, attending the MADOR program for Camp Ramah in the Poconos, where the individual I met not only seemed larger than life then, but whose persona has continued to have an impact on my thinking as an adult.

I studied that summer with an individual named Viktor Frankl.  I did not know that he was the father of Logo Therapy, a form of therapy based on the belief that the pursuit of finding meaning in one's life is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans. What I do remember is sitting and listening to him tell about his experiences in the concentration camps.  I specifically remember the story of how he was separated from his wife and parents and how they were murdered. I also remember him explaining to us that the Nazis could physically remove his loved ones but could never take away his memory of them nor the meaning they had in his life and the love he felt for them.  I remember him talking about the Nazis destroying his research papers but not being capable of destroying the learning that he had accrued over the years.  It was obvious to me at that time that Frankl’s sense of purpose did not falter even though the Nazis caused him to suffer greatly.  He spoke of individuals he met in the camps who spent their days trying to bring comfort to others even in the midst of great personal pain. Such individuals exercised what he saw as the ultimate human freedom, the act of choosing their attitude to a given set of circumstances.

So often our modern day culture tends to focus on finding happiness rather than meaning in life.  We assume that if we work high paying jobs, live in luxurious homes, and travel to faraway places that all will seem well within our personal universes.  Yet, according to research done last year by the Center for Disease Control, forty per cent of Americans did not feel that their lives had a clear sense of purpose even though in the previous year the Gallup Poll discovered that 60 per cent of Americans reported that they felt happy.  So you might ask, what difference does it make if you don’t feel that your life has a sense of purpose as long as you feel happy?   Research has shown that having purpose and meaning in life increases overall well-being and life satisfaction, improves mental and physical health, enhances resiliency, enhances self-esteem, and decreases the chances of depression (The Atlantic, Emily Esfahani Smith, Oct. 22, 2014).  Viktor Frankl would have said it differently.  "It is the very pursuit of happiness," Frankl knew, "that thwarts happiness."

Of course Judaism doesn’t rely on research to back up its view of life for those of us sitting here tonight.  It merely transmits its values by stating what it believes to be true about human nature.  One of Judaism’s values is that what makes us truly human is our soul, the part of us that makes us feel as if our life has direction and unity.  Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson described our souls as the part of us that provides us with the capacity to rise above ourselves, to see others’ needs and to respond with sensitivity.(Meaningful Life, p. 7) Our souls ask us, “what am I needed for? Our bodies ask us “what do I need.” This world view of Judaism has actually been corroborated by psychologists who have found that  “Leading a happy life, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver.”  Perhaps that is why on a day such as this, we emphasize doing tzedakah and acts of gemilut chasadim as means of bringing us more in alignment with our spiritual goals. 

Judaism does not believe that we must only pursue spiritual goals while ignoring our physical selves.  A body is holy because it is the vehicle that carries our soul.  We are not to worship our body but on the other hand we are not to mistreat it either. In fact we’re obligated to pursue the best care we can for our physical and emotional health.  Our soul cannot express itself without the body.  Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel expressed this idea in the following way:  “A human being should always regard himself or herself as if the holy dwelt within his or her body, for it is written: ‘The Holy One is within you’ (Hosea 11:9).

Yom Kippur is seen as a day of judgment.  Yet, there is also an image found in the Zohar, a central text of the Kabbalah mysticism that says: “On the day when a person’s time arrives to depart from the world ….three messengers stand over him and take account of his life and all that he has done in this world, and he admits with all of his mouth and signs the account with his hand….so that he should be judged in the next world for all of his actions, former and later, old and new, not one of them forgotten. (Zohar 1, 79a)  Such an accounting is known as a cheshbon nefesh, an accounting of the soul. 

If you could imagine accounting for your soul before a heavenly court today, how would you answer the following questions:   What matters to you?  How do you choose to spend your time?  Do you live a life that matters?  What are your priorities?  If you had only one more day to live, who would you see or call? 

Fortunately we do not have to wait for a near death experience or the end of our lives in order to decide whether or not we are living a life that is meaningful, whether or not we are living a life that matters.  We can do that on any day of the year. However, on the High Holy Days we are in what Ron Wolfson calls, “prime time” for thinking about our answers to those very essential questions. We can set aside time to think about where we are in our journey in life and where we hope to be going.  We can readjust our moral compass in such a way that we can return to our path of living a life that gets our priorities straight.

Having meaning in your life doesn’t mean you personally have to work for the United Nations, although we know an individual from this congregation who performs incredible meaningful work by doing so, nor does it mean you personally have to try to discover the way the universe was formed, as is being studied by another of our congregants who spends time in a meaningful way doing just that.  It can be achieved by raising children, taking care of elderly parents, opening your home to guests, studying Jewish texts that lead to conversations and “debates for the sake of heaven,” visiting the sick, bringing joy to a bride and groom, celebrating lifecycle events with family and friends, taking responsibility for the environment, using your talents to act as a leader, and the list goes on and on. Living a life full of meaning also includes enjoying the gifts of this world….reflecting on the wonderous….and even wrestling with G-d.

 

So as we prepare ourselves for this Day of Atonement, my wish for each one of us is that we should be sealed in the Book of Life for a meaningful year, not just a happy year!

G’mar Chatimah Tovah.