Always Act with a Goal in Mind

PIKESVILLE, Maryland — Since childhood, one of my life guides has been “Always act with a goal in mind.” Later, I saw that Friedrich Nietzsche put the idea this way, “Humans need a goal to live,” and Andrew Carnegie wrote, “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” Viktor Frankl developed Logotherapy, a type of psychotherapy that helps people find meaning in their lives and cope with their struggles. While in a Nazi concentration camp as a prisoner, he was able to survive by having as his goal to rejoin his wife.

I will explain my guide by showing how it is applied in several incidents. First, by looking at a movie, then prayer and study.

The 64-year-old 1960 three-and-a-half-hour movie Exodus is not just excellent but also inspiring.

The film is about the successful attempt to recreate the Jewish State of Israel in 1948. It is fictional based on the superb novel by Leon Uris, also titled Exodus. The name refers to a ship that transported over 600 Jews from Cyprus to Israel, which the British did not want to happen. But it also refers to the movement from slavery to freedom as occurred in the biblical salvation from Egyptian slavery led by Moses, told in the Torah in the book Exodus.

Although fiction, the movie perfectly captures the history and acts of 1948. Its main characters are drawn to show the ideas and feelings of the people in 1948 in Cyprus, where Jews were imprisoned by the British, and Palestine, which Israel was called in 1948. However, they do not have the actual person’s roles then. For example, a man leads Hagenah with ideas like Ben Gorion but is not depicted as Ben Gurion. The same applies to the leader of the Irgun.

We also see a high very active and charismatic fighter in the Hagenah, played by Paul Newman; a non-Jewish nurse who is not inspired by the Jewish need for the return to its homeland but changes her mind; a bigoted British officer who is convinced Jews are so bad you could smell them; a 15-year-old girl who is looking for her dad the only family survivor of the Nazi Holocaust; a young Jewish man who suffered greatly, including sexual abuse by Nazis who wanted, indeed needed, revenge. Also, a British administrator reveals that England promised Jews part of Palestine but now leans toward the Arab desire that Jews should not be in their land; a friendly Arab chief who helps the Jews, and more.

Jews observe a fast day on the Jewish date 9 Av, called in Hebrew Tisha b’Av. It commemorates the destruction of the first temple built by King Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. It also remembers the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in 70 CE. As a result of the later destruction, most Jews have been exiled from their homeland for close to 2000 years, although some always remained home. It should surprise no one that after this long period and the loss of six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War Two, exiled Jews wanted to go home in 1948.

Jews go to synagogues on this fast day and mourn the ancient tragedies by reading writings from these days and by prayers.

But is this enough?

I think it is not enough.

My son’s family agrees. Mourning for the destruction of the temples needs a goal. The goal is to help Israel. They buy Israel bonds. The money helps Israel while Israel pays the purchaser interest. They send their children to Israel to learn in Israeli schools, as my wife and I did. They watch the Exodus movie after the synagogue, which inspires them each year to help Israel.

Prayer

 

Just as passive mourning over the loss of the Jewish homeland needs a goal, so too does prayer. Most people think they satisfy the prayer tradition by reciting the words. They do so without searching for what the words teach. They have no goal.

The Hebrew word for “to pray” is lehitpaleil. The root of this word is pll, “judge.” Lehitpalei is reflexive, meaning “judge oneself.” The goal of prayers is to focus on the person reading them, so people should read the prayers and learn to judge themselves.

Reading prayers without this goal is worthless. God does not need to hear chatter that the chatterer does not understand.

Take the beautiful Friday night prayer Lecha Dodi,” Come, my Beloved,” as an example. Virtually all Jews love the melody and sing along in the synagogue without a goal of understanding what they are singing, believing it is a praise of the Sabbath. This is not true. The song was composed by a mystic during the Middle Ages, reflecting the idea that God is composed of ten parts that became unraveled and will only be restored with the help of humans. And, the mystic contends, only when God is restored will humanity have a messianic age.

I sing the song despite knowing this, despite being a rationalist and rejecting the idea that God could be shattered. But it makes me judge myself, think, and realize that I must work to bring about a messianic age, and I do so. 

Torah and Talmud Study

 

The same need for a goal applies to Judaism’s significant encouragement of Jews to study the Torah and Talmud. If people do so without the goal of improving themselves and the rest of the world, they are only chattering like birds on a tree. Other birds will find meaning in what they hear, but the Torah reader only hears sounds.

In his book, Tales of Hasidim, Martin Buber tells the story of the great Hasidic Rabbi Zusya (1718-1800). When Zusya was on his deathbed, his students saw he was crying. They tried to comfort him. They told him he was almost as wise as Moses and kind as Abraham. “There is no need to weep. Indeed, you will be judged positively in heaven.” He answered, “When I die and come before the heavenly tribunal, they won’t ask me, ‘Zusya, why weren’t you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,’ instead, they will ask me, ‘Zusya, why weren’t you Zusya?’ Why didn’t I fulfill my potential? Why didn’t I follow the path that could have been mine.”