I have no food to offer you today but
hopefully some food for thought!
Each year, when I start to think about my
topics for the High Holy Days, I entertain an ever so
fleeting thought that this year my topic will be "The
Meaning of Life." I have the opening line all set "Today,
dear friends, I speak to you about the meaning of life"
and then I freeze. The idea comes and goes when I again
realize, I can't claim to know The Meaning of Life, I
don't.
This year I didn't even entertain that ever
so fleeting thought. I've come to live with my
limitations but then I came across a big idea in a little
book and I thought wow, maybe that's the meaning of life and
if its not the meaning of life, this is surely what makes
life meaningful.
I came across this small book in a book
store in the Jerusalem Mall. The title of the book is a bit
odd I confess. It is a Hebrew translation of a book
originally written in English.The Hebrew title is Mee
Yivkeh K'shetamut? Who Will Cry When You Die?
The title is a bit more pithy in English "Who Will Cry When
You Die?" There's no rhyme in Hebrew. I saw that Janie
seemed a bit startled when she saw, of all the books in the
bookstore, I was taking this one to the counter. I read
in Janie’s look "You've got to be kidding.
We're on vacation now. You can lighten up! And why in the
world do you want this book Who Will Cry When You Die? I
recognize the title seems a bit ominous but while Janie
was still in the shoe store next door which I had expertly
escaped, I had seen in smaller print on the cover, Lessons
for Living from the author of The Monk who Sold His
Ferrari. Could you imagine driving a Ferrari, selling it
and then becoming a Monk? This guy must have something to
say!
On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I
addressed the issue of feeling that we matter in life and
feeling that we matter in our synagogue community. Do you
know me, recognize me, value me here? By the time I saw
this little book in early July, these thoughts were brewing
inside of me. The book's title, Who Will Cry When You Die
in itself, evokes for me a whole host of the most
important questions. Does your life make a difference to
anyone? Will they miss you? Who will miss you? Do you
make a positive contribution to the world or at least to
your own little corner of the world? Does your life
matter? I am asking all of these questions myself.
The book cost 84 shekels and I don't spend 84
shekels so quickly. 18-19 dollars. I looked through the
table of contents and I saw a list of intriguing topics
including "Take Responsibility to enjoy the path, not only
the reward at the end." "Preserve a sense of tranquility of
spirit" "Honor Your Past" "Take an Example from a Child"
and "Laugh more." He opens this chapter "Laugh More" with a
statistic I had shared a few years ago in a Rosh Hashanah
sermon on laughter. A four year old child laughs on
average.... 300 times a day and children in general come
close to that. Adults laugh on average 15 times a day. How
are you doing? He writes in this chapter that Steve Martin
laughs in front of a mirror for 5 minutes every morning to
put himself in a good mood and to get his creative juices
flowing . Where can you find these kinds of brilliant
insights for 84 shekels.
It was a few days after I began when I
arrived at last of the 101 chapters in the book. What I
found in this chapter moved me most. The title of this
final chapter is "Live a full life in order that you will be
able to die happy." Again, with the dying but it is a great
little chapter. Dying happy sounds like an oxymoron, a
round square, a green orange, die happy... by living a full
life.
The author of this book is Robin Sharma. He
had been a highly successful attorney and then became a
speaker on leadership in business and then he started his
quest to understand life's deeper meaning. Earlier in the
book, he relates a story his father would tell him. His
father would say when a baby is born, everyone surrounding
the baby and everyone aware of the baby's birth is so very
happy and yet the baby comes in to the world crying. When
you die Robin, everyone around you should cry for all that
they will miss in you but you should be happy in knowing
that you have lived your life fully and well. This made me
think of how many times families have told me "dad seemed
so peaceful at the end. It almost seemed like mom had a
smile on her face." This is a tremendous source of comfort
to those who say goodbye.
These thoughts of living and dying and crying
and laughing are not thoughts we normally entertain but
today is not a typical day. For most of Jewish history,
and still in many places today, men would come to the
synagogue on the High Holy Day dressed in a white Kittel. A
kittel is like a small white robe. It has to be a beautiful
sight seeing the men davening all dressed in white. The
women are all fapitzed but they're either behind the curtain
or upstairs so in the main hall of the Shul you see this
sea of white.
What made this dress so much more powerful
is that the Kittel worn on Yom Kippur is also worn on the
groom's wedding day, at the Passover Seder and would be
the garment worn for burial. Can you imagine what it must
feel like to wear that garment today? That Kittel is
enough to make you really focus and hopefully focus on how
do I want to live the most meaningful life I possibly can.
In this little book's final essay, before
the author reaches the punch line on life's meaning, he
writes "we live at a time when we have conquered the
greatest heights but we still have to learn to take control
of our lives. We build the tallest buildings but we find
ourselves short of spirit. We have more possessions and less
happiness. Our minds are filled with greater knowledge and
our lives are more empty." These words caught my attention.
I think they are true for many of us. "Don't wait," he
continues "until you are lying on your sick bed to
understand the meaning of life and the precious purpose that
has been placed upon you in life. And here comes the
crescendo "The purpose of life is a life that has a
purpose." I was sitting on a balcony overlooking Jerusalem,
the beautiful soulful city and magnificent hills when I
read these words. I was deeply moved. In Hebrew the words
are even more moving "the purpose of life is a life that
has a purpose." And not just any purpose will do. He writes
"invest your greatest human abilities in a purpose that
makes an impression on the lives of others." His final
advice is "When you can remove yourself from all of the
mess and jumble and confusion, the real meaning of life
comes shining through "Live for the sake of something that
is lofty, noble, sublime for you."
I thought of the story of the great Rabbi
Hayim of Tzanz whose students once walked in on their Rebe
and saw him weeping. They said, Rabbi, why are you crying
so and they saw he could not stop the tears. He said, I am
crying for when the day will come when I will leave this
world and I will be asked the most important question of
all. I will not be asked "Where you as great as Moses, or
were you as great as Akiba or as great as Rashi. But I will
be asked "Haying, where you as great as Hayim." Do you
know what that means? Was the life you lived worthy of Hayim? Is
the life we live worthy of us?
These words touched me very deeply because
as I read them looking out over Jerusalem, I felt like I
needed a bit of a course correction. Your car may come with
an automatic navigating system which is especially good for
us Jews who are geographically challenged. If Moses had an
automatic navigating system, instead of 40 years, we could
have made it to the promised land in 11 days. The problem is
we don't come with that system. We can't just push a button
and arrive at our proper existential destination and when we
start veering off a bit we normally don't even know it and
we just get more and more lost. We men have the added
challenge that we don't like to ask for directions. That’s
OK. When we realize we getting lost, we have to make those
course corrections on our own. That is what today is about.
I guess I felt myself veering. I was in
Jerusalem. It's hard to imagine a better location but I
could feel I needed to reconnect with what is my central
purpose, my own purposes in life.
I invite you together with me to reflect on
this thought. Close your eyes (I'm always afraid to do this
- if someone just walks in they see me talking up here to
1300 people who look sound asleep) We'll risk it because we
have to clear out all distractions! Close your eyes and
think What is the purpose or purposes of my life that give
my life meaning. What ranks number 1. What is then number
2. Have I veered off course. How can I find my way
back? And if you can, open your eyes.
I like this story of an immigrant Moishe
Schwartz, now known as Maurice in the early 1900s who
recently came from Europe and settles on the Lower East
Side. He applies for the job of Shammes at the Rivington
Street synagogue. You know what a Shammes is? (Beatle -
Ritual Director) The Baalabatim of the shul, the leaders
were ready to hire him when they discovered he was
illiterate. How could they hire a man who can't even sign
his name. Dejected, Moishe leaves the shul and starts
peddling merchandise up and down Rivington Street. He starts
doing well and he buys a store front and then another. He
was doing Keen Ayin Harah very well and he starts thinking
bigger. In the mean time he's blessed with his own family
and he thinks I could become a chain "Maurice and Sons Dry
Goods" with five more stores he thinks. At that point he
goes to the local savings and loan and asks for a loan to
expand the business. He meets the bank president who is
very impressed, is ready to make the deal, brings out all
the paperwork and asks the man to sign. Moishe takes the
pen and puts down an X. Are you illiterate the president
asks and the man nods his head. "Even so", the banker
says," you've built an impressive business, your credit is
perfect and we'll go ahead with the loan but imagine what
you could have been if you had been able to read and
write." Yes, Moishe says "I would be the shammes of the
Rivington Street Synagogue."
Moishe, Maurice, by whatever name wasn't
meant to be a shammes. That wasn't his purpose. His noble
and lofty goals was to build a business, support his family,
operate honestly, treat his employees and customers well
and give Tzedakah. He did. Some years later, the Rivington
Street Synagogue honors Maurice Schwartz as man of the
year. He did well by them.
Today is about utilizing our spiritual
navigational system and making course corrections in our
lives. In English we hear the words sin repeated again and
again during these services but sin doesn't do justice to
the Hebrew word it translates which is Het. Het is a sort of
archery term, ironic because we Jews are not that much
better at archery than we are at geography. We have other
hidden talents. Nevertheless, our goal is to hit the bulls
eye of life. The very word Torah is built on a verb which
means to shoot something straight. When you miss, you commit
a Het and when you realize you're off track, its time to
refocus and retrain, do Teshuvah and shoot straight.
I think purposes change in life. Your purpose
twenty years ago which gave meaning to your life then may
not be your purpose today. For this coming year 5766, what
is your purpose which will give the greatest meaning to
your life?
Again, if you feel you've been veering, find
your personal navigation system and make a course
correction. We have to find the right road ourselves but
find the road that is worthy of you, that is noble and lofty
and sublime, that will give meaning and purpose to your
life.
And so I still can't claim to know The
Meaning of Life. I don't. But perhaps this can help to make
our lives more meaningful this year.
May we each find and fulfill our own worthy
purpose(s) which gives our lives meaning along with health,
prosperity and laughter, laughter on average 15 times a
day.
