Nomi Kaltmann
What is my purpose in this world?
It is one of the oldest questions we ask ourselves. Across cultures and faiths, people spend their lives searching for the answer. Judaism offers a beautiful response to this eternal question: every person enters this world carrying a soul that is divine in origin, and every soul has something unique that only it can contribute to the world.
Jewish mysticism takes this idea one step further. It teaches that no soul arrives on Earth by accident. Each soul is sent with a mission that belongs to it alone. There is a children’s song taught in Jewish kindergartens that captures this beautiful idea: “For 70 or 80 years, a soul descends to this world just to do a favour for another.”
Imagine that. A lifetime of joys and disappointments, triumphs and heartbreaks, all for one act of kindness, one conversation, one moment of compassion. While humans might measure our lives by our achievements, in Judaism we believe that God measures us by our acts of chosen kindness.
This understanding also means that our callings are not meant to look the same. Judaism has never imagined that holiness belongs only to those who stand behind a pulpit or devote their lives to studying Torah.
The artist who awakens beauty through their creativity, the doctor who heals the sick, the teacher who inspires their students, the parent who nurtures their children with love and patience, the lawyer who pursues justice for their clients – each of these careers can fulfil a sacred purpose by offering their gifts in service of others.
There is a story told about a university professor who embraced Orthodox Judaism and wrote to a renowned Hasidic rabbi asking whether he should now leave academia to become a rabbi. The reply he received was unexpected: “Absolutely not.”
The Hasidic rabbi explained that for this professor, his classroom was already his sanctuary. His gift was teaching, and by living his faith with integrity before generations of searching students, he could inspire far more people than he ever would from behind a lectern as a rabbi in a synagogue.
Finding one’s purpose in life is rarely immediate or easy. For many people it unfolds slowly, through unexpected turns and abandoned plans. It may take decades before we recognise the work that only we can do.
In my own life, I explored many different paths before discovering that writing was my gift. I find joy in taking ideas that are complex and making them accessible to others through my prose. In Jewish thought, our talents are never simply possessions for personal enjoyment; rather, they are entrusted to us, and they become sacred when we use them to bring a little more wisdom, kindness and hope into the world.
Perhaps that is what a life full of purpose really looks like. Not becoming someone else, but fully embracing the person your soul was always meant to be.
Nomi Kaltmann is an Orthodox rabbi.