Articles

What is the meaning of life and why are we here?

12/31/2017 9:48:32 AM

Our Two Missions
We are put on this earth with both a personal and a global mission. Our global mission is to make this world into a better place a process that involves bringing on the Messianic Era(see article on Jewish belief in the Messiah) In this era there will be world peace, a curing of all diseases, poverty will be no more and every person will know the ways of G-d. We also have a personal mission that we were put on Earth for.

When we are born we have a specific mission. Sometimes it has something to do with something we didn't do in a previous life, yes Judaism believes in reincarnation. A lot of people say that this personal goal can be ascertained by interpreting the parsha or torah portion of the time we were born, others say it may have something to do with our hebrew names. Regardless of your beliefs, we are put into this world to accomplish something.

Besides our personal goals we have a global goal of making this world into a better place and bringing about the messianic era. An era that is described as beating swords into plowshares and general world peace. There will also be no poverty and no illness.For more on this please read the article "Does Judaism believe in a messiah".

How do we accomplish these goals. Judaism gives us 613 good deeds or Mitzvot. Some of these are good deeds you do for other people and some are between G-d and yourself, such as prayer. By doing these Mitzvot we not only do good for the world like giving charity, we also bring the world closer to the Messianic age.

When we are born we are placed in this material world, with its material distractions. While making a living for yourself and your family is important in Judaism, it is not the ultimate goal of life. The ultimate goal is to achieve our spiritual mission. A story is told of a man who left his country to travel to a land where precious gems were as prevalent as dust on the ground. When he got to that land he started to collect them, but when he tried to use the precious stones to pay for things he was told that since there were so many on the Island that they were worthless and the only currency accepted on the Island was chicken fat. So he started to collect chicken fat and became very wealthy. When he returned to his country he brought huge amounts of chicken fat back with him. His wife asked him why he brought back worthless chicken fat, rather than the precious jewels he was supposed to acquire. It was at that point that he realized that he had lost his way. It is the same with us when we enter this material world we some times lose track of our spiritual mission and instead chase after material things.

Lets keep our focus on our mission.