20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Meaning

Meaning Jack D. Spiro M eaning is the central problem of human existence. Does life make sense? Does it amount to anything? Is there any purpose or value in the human enterprise or in the individual's personal quest? Many writers answer these questions in the negative. Koheleth, the elderly sage who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, considered everything vanity. He concluded that life is nothing more than a breath of air, and he based his conclusion on the observation that everything passes away, that everyone eventually goes to the same place: All are composed of dust and return to dust. Just as we come forth from the womb, naked shall we return. No one has the power to retain the breath of life; there is one final event for all. Koheleth's message is echoed in the musings of Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" (Act 5, scene V, lines 24-28). This same sense of meaninglessness overcame Arthur Schopenhauer, who wrote: "Time is that in which all things pass away.... Time which has been 566 MEANING exists no more~ it exists as little as that which has never been.... that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort.... existence has no real value in itself." 1 Even some biblical passages appear to support a negative response to the meaning of life: "Man, his days are like those of grass~ he blooms like a flower of the field~ a wind passes by and it is no more~ its own place no longer knows it" (Ps. 103:15-16). "Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow" (Ps. 144:4). If, as all these writers suggest, death is the ultimate power, we may conclude ,with C. H. D. Clark that "if we are asked to believe that all our striving is without final consequence," then "life is meaningless and it scarcely matters how we live if all will end in the dust of death.' '2 The question about the meaning of life becomes the fundamental problem of our existence as human beings. The Jewish response to the question does not agree with the consensus reached by these writers. Viewing the vast panorama ofJewish tradition, we see that Koheleth and the psalmist are in fact a small minority. Neither other biblical writers nor the rabbis and theologians are so negative. They are, in contrast, convinced that life does have meaning, which is derived both from a special relationship between God and man and from a promise of immortality. The biblical writers did recognize the minuteness of man compared to the magnitude of the universe and the eternity of time: "When I behold Your [God's] heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You set in place, what is man ... 7" (Ps. 8:3-5). But, despite the infinite immensity of space and time, the psalmist also believed that God made man "little less than divine, and adorned him with glory and majesty" (Ps. 8:5). Whereas Koheleth perceived no difference between human being and beast, other biblical writers believed that man was a moral and spiritual reflection of the creator: "God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him~ male and female He 'created them" (Gen. 1:27). According to the Bible the meaning of human life derives from this special relationship between God and man. The purpose of the relationship, the reason for creation, is for man to glorify God (Isa. 43:7). The glorification and sanctification of God can be expressed through worship, the offering of sacrifices, and the observance of the Sabbath and festivals. But most important, God is glorified and his ways are reflected by proper conduct: "The Lord of hosts is exalted by judgment, the Holy God proved holy by retribution" (lsa. 5: 16). MEANING 567 The conviction that man lives in a unique and special relationship with God is only a partial answer to the question of meaning and to Koheleth's challenge that life is meaningless. How do other biblical figures deal with the psalmist's assertion that man...