Living with Purpose: Choosing Meaning Over Momentum

A few years ago, I was offered a job at a high-tech company. The position was impressive, the conditions sounded great, and there was even an opportunity to invest in the company under good terms. On the surface, it seemed perfect. I consulted a friend of mine, a businessman, and he looked at me in surprise. “You? Don’t you want to write and do good in the world?” I told him yes, but… He said it surprised him. “It’s a shame,” he said. “You could probably do the job well, but the real question is, do you actually want to do it? Do you really want to go down that path?”

I thought about it and realized he was right. Even though the offer sounded great at the time, I didn’t need it. What I really wanted was to focus on writing and publishing. Thanks to that friend, I didn’t give in, and a few months later I published one of my books.

How often do we live with a clear sense of purpose? How decisive are we regarding our goals? Purpose can exist on a basic level or on a much deeper one. There’s short-term or practical purpose, such as the desire to write or do good, and then there’s long-term purpose, touching on the deepest meaning I can reach- doing the will of G-d.

Everything we want to do has a certain purpose. If I want to build a house, the purpose may be to have a place to live, a secure environment where I can function, sleep, and thrive, or perhaps it’s to have an investment. The questions can go deeper. If the purpose is to live in it, why do I want to live in a house? Different layers of meaning unfold, and we can uncover a purpose within a purpose.

How much time and energy do we invest in clarifying our true purpose and deepest desires? To what extent are we reflecting on our intention, or are we simply letting life carry us along? The problem with “going with the flow” isn’t the flow itself, but that if we don’t consistently aim higher and seek true purpose, we can get swept away in the stream of life. Instead of being truly present and connected to ourselves and our goals, we’re dragged into a tidal wave of noise- images, trends, and sounds- without pausing to ask, What do I truly want? What is my deepest desire?

Without purpose, our vision scatters and we drift endlessly without direction. Living with purpose and continuing to ask ourselves what truly matters to me in life?, acts as an achor. Of course we may still need to do simple mundane tasks, but our greater purpose provides us with strength to move through the process.

My father is a lawyer who helps Holocaust survivors receive compensation from Germany. Many of his clients have suffered deeply, some even losing their grip on reality under the horrors of the Nazi regime. I’ve heard about the many challenges he faces in his work, and once I asked him: “Dad, how do you do it, day after day?” He looked into my eyes and said, “I’m saving people. I see an elderly man who can’t make it through the month, and I help him live with dignity. That’s what gives me the strength to go back to my office every day and deal with all the problems.”

I remembered that after I got married, during our Shabbat celebration at the synagogue in the Bavli neighborhood of Tel Aviv, a few elderly men approached me and asked, “How do you know that righteous man?” I looked around, unsure who they were referring to. Then they pointed at my father. Oh, I smiled. “That’s my Dad.” I witnessed then that the kindness and hope he gives to others keeps him going. The kindness flows back to him and generates within him the strength to face each day.

From the new book by Ran Weber, "Living the Day". To purchase, visit Hidabroot Shops or call: 073-222-125