Our Purpose

People continuously seek purpose in their lives. There are times when things seems to be going well and ones purpose in life appears to be clear and then there are other times, in every life, when that purpose, which seemed so clear only a short time back is completely clouded and cannot become clear no matter how hard one tries. Perhaps we each have to analyze the validity of our various definitions of purpose, but to do so we must first look back to the source of our current day perspectives.

Zealous pursuit of material pleasure, motivated by our collective desires, has led us into a world which continues to be driven by this objective, yet “purpose” remains fleeting and people continue to seek 'it' in their lives. However, if mans' purpose was a lost cause then we would move more rapidly, as a human race, toward the brink of our own self inflicted destruction, but that's not quite the way it is...

Purpose is the central element of any culture, if it can be identified it can be nurtured to increasingly empower society, but when single minded devotion to purpose is diluted by other purposes that compliment the collective ‘noise’ of desire then our actual purpose is diluted. If we go back to the roots of our spiritual culture in the western world, particularly around the time of the revelation to the people at Mt. Sinai, we will see that purpose in life was centered on the soul. At this time, as is evident in the Torah and in Egyptian archaeological records, the passage of the soul was clearly the focus of so many aspects of society. Whilst the Egyptian records refer to the soul’s passage in the afterlife (to a greater degree), in everyday life passage remained the focus. Either way, the soul was at the absolute center of purpose and thought that prevailed in society.

Society’s absolute commitment to elevation of the soul was the living purpose of the mainstream so much so that their conscious minds were readily aware of and always centered on the potential impact their actions may have on the elevation of their souls in the afterlife. Negative moral behavior would lead to a demise of the energy of the soul, which was seen as the antithesis of ones G-d or god given responsibility. By the end of life’s term the body and mind should be elevated to the purest state so that the elevated soul be returned to rising to a higher heaven that its origin. Torah and Kabbalah resolved that a single purpose cannot be defined by multiple gods and that was the defining difference between the holy people of Israel and Egypt.

If we were all truly committed to the improvement of life on planet earth we would first begin to recognize our life purpose so that it could manifest in our thoughts and actions, in the way we operate and function as individuals and as societies and finally as a common race of human beings . In the absence of messianic intervention, a dramatic change is not possible, but if one contemplates the era in which we find ourselves and takes a global view of significant ecological, territorial and cultural events of recent history one can only begin to draw conclusions that improvement, through unity, is the only logical direction toward which society must move, in order that we can ultimately attain the peaceful objectives that are ultimately prophesized for the human race; to bring G-d to dwell amongst us in a direct and absolute fashion.

This objective is clearly referred to in the Torah, particularly in the lead up to messianic times when we (on earth) are to make a home for G-d to dwell amongst us. In Hebrew 'home' is written בית (bayit). The same word is used for the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet (bet - בית), the letter is ב (bet or beit) representing the number 2. The gematria of (ta’avah) meaning “desire” or passion בית = 412 = תאוה (bayit). Generally ta’avah is referred to as a negative desire, but when it is associated with a righteous person it becomes positive. The signs are therefore clear, our progressive return to a righteous state will correct the energy of our collective desires and bring with it the presence of G-d to dwell in the house that we make for Him. There are some very special connotations related to the energy associated with the letter ב (bet), particularly as they relate to the third and final temple in Jerusalem. The letter ב (bet) is the first letter of Torah.

Discovering our collective purpose as a human race seems to be a perplexing problem, but there can be no greater purpose than to bring G-d’s presence to dwell amongst us in a real and absolute sense.