When faced with a choice between two paths... give weight to the one that will have the deepest impact on others
IThas always struck me that one of the most fundamental things for each person to know is that he or she has a unique mission in life that belongs to him or her alone.
Yet that knowledge only takes us so far, for it is still crucial to know what that mission is. And on that score, we can never know for certain: We are not born with a mission statement tied around our wrists. At best, we can discern certain hints.
Rav Itzele of Volozhin writes in the name of his father Rav Chaim of Volozhin, in his introduction to Nefesh HaChaim, that our purpose in the world is to do good for others. Rabbi Moshe Sherer, whose 25th yahrtzeit just passed, always made that the central message of his annual visit to the Agudath Israel camps in the mountains. And so important did he feel that message was that he insisted that his son Rabbi Shimshon Sherer take him on that annual visit, even at a time when he had been in isolation for months and his doctor had specifically forbidden him from any close contact with the campers.
But if our mission must somehow be connected to benefiting others, that only raises other questions: benefiting whom, and in what ways?
Create a free account to keep reading.
