Toward a Meaningful Life (Paperback)

A man visiting the Rebbe complained of a lack of meaningfulness in his life. Yes, he had a successful career and healthy family, but at the end of the day, he felt lonely and empty.

"Do you ever devote time to your soul?" the Rebbe asked him.

"How can I have time for my soul when I am so consumed with work and family?"

"There is an old saying," the Rebbe replied, "that when two people meet, it is two souls against one body. Because bodies are self-centered by nature, they cannot join forces -- each pursues its own physical needs. Souls, however, are selfless by nature, so when two people join forces, their souls converge. May I suggest

What Is a Soul?

Have you ever just burst out in tears for no apparent reason, finding yourself in deep sadness? That is the soft voice of your soul, crying out for attention, asking to be nourished with at least as much care as you nourish your body.

Have you ever experienced a truly sacred moment, when, despite the constant turmoil of life, you felt a profound sense of awe and belonging? That, too, is the voice of your soul, expressing a deep satisfaction with its intrinsic connection to the forces of spirituality.

We use the words body and soul constantly, in different contexts. But do we know what they really mean? What is the nature of soul? What is its relationship to the body?

The soul manifests the very reason for our existence; it is the one part of our being that directly reflects our connection to G-d, our creator. Even though it is not tangible and is hidden within the body, the soul is the very fabric of who we are. While the body encompasses the material aspects of our lives, the soul encompasses the spiritual. The body is driven primarily by having its physical needs met. This does not imply that the body is inherently bad; it is not. It was created by G-d and is initially neutral, with great potential for good. But it is the soul that energizes and guides the body to do good deeds and connect to the divine. The soul is transcendent by nature, for "the flame of G-d is the soul of man."

There is a built-in dichotomy, therefore, between the tangible nature of the body and the transcendent nature of the soul. Look closely at the flame of a candle, and you will see an approximation of your soul -- the flame licking the air, reaching upward, as if toward G-d. And yet the wick pulls it back to earth. Similarly, your soul is constantly reaching upward, while your body holds you back with its insistent demands for physical sustenance or gratification. The question for each of us is, Do we choose to be the flame that rises upward or the wick that holds us down?

To be a wholesome and healthy person, your body and soul must work in harmony. We need not choose one over the other, indulgence or abstinence; we can and must merge body and soul. And this means uniting the body and soul to fulfill the mission for which we were all put on earth: to lead a meaningful, productive, and virtuous life by making this physical world a comfortable home for spirituality and G-dliness. Every one of us fulfills this mission using his or her unique abilities and talents, whether a person is a teacher or a parent, a businessperson or a scientist. We must all seek to become aware of our mission and actualize it by conducting our lives from minute to minute, from day today, from year to year in accordance with G-d's laws.

The dichotomy of body and soul is everywhere we look, and there are many labels for it: form and function, matter and energy, materialism and spirituality. In a book, for instance, the words on the page are the body and the ideas behind them the soul. The same is true of every aspect of our universe, because the universe itself is composed of a body and a soul -- its material components and the spiritual components that give it life. So the first step toward creating unity throughout the universe, the first step toward spiritualizing the material, is to first unite your own body and soul.

Leading a meaningful life means being able to pierce the outer, material layer and connect to the energy within. This is not an easy task, for the body operates with sensory tools (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch), while the soul traffics in the suprasensory (emotions, conscience, intelligence, and most important, the subliminal spiritual forces). And the energy within is not a quantifiable energy as defined by physics -- there is an element of mystery to it that defies measurement. It is not just a force; it is the force we call life. And there are elements of life that we have just begun to discover.

Look around you today. It is obvious that many of us are searching for inner peace, happiness, or calm, searching for our soul. But are we using the right tools with which to search? Because we have grown so reliant on our sensory tools, we often feel as though they are the only ones at our disposal.

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Excerpted from Toward a Meaningful Life, New Edition by Jacobson, Simon Excerpted by permission.
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