The Significance of Our Lives

Rabbi Melanie Aron

May 21, 2004

It is commonly said that no one on their death bed regrets not having spent an extra hour at the office. From my life experience, I’d say it’s a bit more complicated than that. The regrets that people express stem from a variety of sources. They can be about family and friends, or about not being present in the future to share in anticipated joys. They can also revolve around unused potential and the question of whether one’s life has made a difference.

The rabbis urge us to consider our beginning and our end, as we try to figure out what to do with the middle of our lives. To their minds neither our origins nor our final destination are particularly exalted, yet they marveled at each person’s individuality.

Akavyah ben Mehalalel in the beginning of the third chapter of Pirke Avot sums it up by quoting a short phrase from the book of Ecclesiastes, Zechor et Borechah. He plays on the fact that the Hebrew is without vowels so that the three letter root bet raysh chaf can be interpreted three different ways : Remember-- the spring from which you sprung, b-erchah, --remember the pit, the grave in which you are destined to end up, boorchah, and –remember the Creator who made you borechah.

The rabbis taught: “A human king stamps coins in his image and they are all identical. The Holy One causes each person to be created in the divine image, yet no two humans are the same.” That individuality is the key to the puzzle we each confront in trying to figure out why our life matters. What to do between our birth and our death? That which we are called to do, which cannot, by the very nature of creation, be done by anyone else.

The rabbis saw in dedication to the needs of the community, a great opportunity for the expression of individual talents and abilities. The needs were there and the work was exalted by its selflessness and by its ability to transcend a single generation. Rabbi Gamliel the son of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi taught: “Let all who occupy themselves with the community do so for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of their ancestors sustains them and their righteousness endures forever. “ When you are involved in the work of the community you are not alone. You become linked to the past and the future. You pick up where past generations left off and your efforts and achievements are passed on to the benefit of posterity. As we honor our volunteers this evening pray – found work sense a meaning and connection. May we each discover significance that can be lent to ourselves life is in the period each is granted between the beginning and the end.