Religion

September 21, 2006

One woman’s search for the meaning of life, the universe, and everything

Why are we here?

By Amy Klein

Tweet

Share

(Page 2 - Previous Page)

 
Maybe I'm like Jonah, the prophet whose book we read on Yom Kippur. God wanted Jonah to tell the citizens of Ninveh to repent or be destroyed. Jonah doesn't want to deliver this prophesy, so he runs away and gets on a boat, but the boat ends up in stormy waters because of him, so he jumps ship and is swallowed whole by a "big fish." After three days in the fish, Jonah repents for his disobedience, gets spit up, does his prophesy. The people repent, God, The Merciful One, is happy, and Jonah becomes a great prophet, his book read by thousands of Jews for thousands of years.
 
Now, sitting in my editor's office, I feel like Jonah before he repents; I have been asked to write about the meaning of life, and although I have been on hiatus from such ruminations for years, perhaps it is time to return to that quest. It is the perfect time to ask these questions, this being the month of Elul, when Jews ponder their lives, repent and prepare for the High Holidays.
 
Besides, I reason to myself, much in the way that Jonah might have reasoned with himself while in the whale's belly ("I can either stay in this stinky stomach eating fish and drinking seawater for the rest of my life, or tell a few thousand people to shape up..."), maybe I am the right person to do this investigation. After all, I have no stake in its answer, and therefore, I can be what reporters always strive to be but rarely ever are: objective. Call me the reluctant philosopher, in search of why.
 
If you Google "The meaning of life," do you know how many answers you'll find on the Internet? 119 million. (The World Wide Web is evidence of the fact that many, many people indeed lead meaningless and purposeless lives). Among those answers you will find many references to the Monty Python film, you will see many products and books advertised and you might find one strange guy named Eliezer S. Yudkowsky who has written a very long treatise on how man's purpose in life is to create great technology: "Our role in the cosmos is to become or create our successors."
 
Still, if anyone on the web is going to have the answer to the meaning of life, it's everyone; in other words, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written by users around the world:
 
"The question 'what is the meaning of life?' means different things to different people. The vagueness of the query is inherent in the word 'meaning', which opens the question to many interpretations, such as: 'What is the origin of life?' 'What is the nature of life (and of the universe in which we live)?' 'What is the significance of life?' 'What is valuable in life?' and 'What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?'"
 
Googling "The meaning of life" will also take you to Web sites on the Dalai Lama, who has written a book called... "The Meaning of Life," a collection of lectures on the Buddhist worldview, which espouses practicing nonviolence, engaging in altruism, and transforming consciousness. (Amazon Customers who bought the Dalai Lama's "The Meaning of Life," also viewed "The Meaning of Life," by E.D. Klemke, and "The Real Meaning of Life," by David Seaman.) It seems I am the only one in the world who is not reading about the Big Questions. Consider these titles in the business section: "How Full Is Your Bucket?" "10 Qualities of Charismatic People," "How to Get Anyone to do Anything," "The 8th Habit (of Highly Effective People)," "Who Moved My Cheese?" "Why Am I so Fat If I Moved My Cheese Into My Mouth?" (OK, I made that last one up.)
 
But if I'm going to look for answers, I might as well start at the very top, and way high on the charts of the self-help/religious/inspirational titles is the Rev. Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life." The book, subtitled, "What on Earth Am I Here For?" has sold 20 million copies worldwide. Here's how it begins:
 
"It's not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind or even your happiness. It's far greater than your family, your career or even your wildest dreams and ambitions."
 
We were placed on this planet by God, for his purpose, writes Warren, who has a network of tens of thousands of churches from 160 countries and has trained more than 350,000 pastors worldwide.
 
"You won't discover your life's meaning by looking in yourself," he writes. "You must begin with God, your creator."
 
If I'm going to begin with God, I might as well start with my own, the "I-am-the-Lord-your-God-who-took-you-out-of-Egpyt-You-Shall-Have-No-Other-Gods-but-Me" God.
 
Hundreds of books throughout the ages discuss the meaning of life. For golden oldies, see Maimonides' (1138-1204) "Guide to the Perplexed," Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's (1707-1746) "The Path of the Just" and Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's (1934-1983) "If You Were God," a simple parable offering you the chance to be God in order to understand that there is no way to do things differently.
 
The 20th century saw the advent of Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, and entire new schools of thought and thinkers. Here's a few I got my hands on: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's "God in Search of Man: A philosophy of Judaism"; Martin Buber's "I and Thou"; Rabbi Elliot Dorff's "To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics"; "In God's Mirror"; Rabbi Irwin Kula's "Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life"; Rabbi Harold S. Kushner's "Overcoming Life's Disappointments"; and Victor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." (See page 29.)
 
OK, to be honest, I'm not going to actually read all these books. I'm guessing many of them espouse different theories on the basic tenets of Judaism, how we were created by God to do mitzvot, to make ourselves and our communities and the world a better place and be a light onto the nations. Even though I'm looking for the meaning of life, I've really only got a few weeks.

On a single page

1 | 2 | 3     Next Page

---

Post your comment below!

Click here to return to the homepage.

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback. Comments may not exceed 700 characters.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:

Type the word you see below:

Comment:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?