Viktor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul, p. 13
In the last resort, man should not ask, ‘what is the meaning of my life?’ but should realize that he himself is being questioned. Life is putting its problems to him, and it is up to him to respond to these questions by being responsible; he can only answer to life by answering for his life. Life is a task. The religious man differs from the apparently irreligious man only experiencing his existence not simply as a task, but as a mission. This means that he is also aware of the taskmaster, the source of his mission. For thousands of years that source has been called God.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World, p. 262
The interesting part of the moral life, the grown-up part, comes not in universals but particulars. It speaks to me, here, now: this person, in this situation, at this time. It knows my name. It calls to me, not to the person next to me. It says: there is an act only you can do, a situation only you can address, a moment that, if not seized, may never come again. God commands in generalities but calls in particulars. He knows our gifts and he knows the needs of the world. That is why we are here. There is an act only we can do, and only at this time, and that is our task. The sum of these tasks is the meaning of our life, the purpose of our existence, the story we are called upon to write.
Rabbi Shalom Berezovsky, Netivot Shalom on Rosh Hashanah, p.108:2
According to the secrets of Creation that are known to the Creator, may He be blessed, every emanation and creation formed and fashioned down to every small detail in Creation, has a function and purpose of their own within the larger general goal of all of Creation. [With respect to each individual part of Creation] If it were not for this specific purpose, it would not have been created…Therefore, in the renewing of Creation on Rosh Hashanah there is a discussion in the Heavens as to whether this and that specific detail are needed for the New Year—if they are fulfilling their specific purpose and function or if they are superfluous and therefore not needed. And this discussion is had concerning every single part of Creation in all of its diversity without end.
