What Are We on Earth To Do?: (A Little Essay on a Very Big Topic)

Abstract

D oes existence itself bear meaning? Don’t smile! The question may sound trivial, but is actually pivotal . . . and as inexhaustible as elusive. Still, because we are constantly making life choices rooted precisely in what we perceive to be the point of our existence, our personal philosophies end up mattering profoundly. The main point of this study is to focus the question of life’s meaning by asking what it means specifically for a Jew to be committed to the goal of living a meaningful life. And I have an ancillary point as well: attempting to elucidate what Judaism has to teach about the reason for being will inevitably set us to wondering about the reason that Judaism itself exists and about what we may rationally posit as its essential, even perhaps its ultimate, purpose. Taken together, I think the answers to these two questions create a context for understanding the most basic distinction between the Jewish and Christian worldviews—and I hope to be able to explain cogently that distinction as well. By admitting that there is indeed a God who created the universe, we oblige ourselves to begin our inquiry not by asking what we ourselves would like the point of existence to be, but rather what we can rationally