52 | MARCH 21 • 2024 
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ollowing the pioneer-
ing work of Martin 
Seligman, founder 
of positive psychology, there 
have been hundreds of books 
published on 
happiness. 
The American 
Declaration of 
Independence 
speaks of the 
inalienable rights 
of life, liberty 
and the pursuit 
of happiness. Yet there is some-
thing more fundamental still 
to the sense of a life well lived, 
namely, meaning.
Happiness is largely a matter 
of satisfying needs and wants. 
Meaning, by contrast, is about 
a sense of purpose in life, espe-
cially by making positive con-
tributions to the lives of others. 
Happiness is largely about how 
you feel in the present. Meaning 
is about how you judge your 
life as a whole: past, present and 
future.
Happiness is associated 
with taking, meaning with giv-
ing. Individuals who suffer 
stress, worry or anxiety are not 
happy, but they may be living 
lives rich with meaning. Past 
misfortunes reduce present hap-
piness, but people often connect 
such moments with the discov-

ery of meaning. 
Furthermore, happiness is 
not unique to humans. Animals 
also experience contentment 
when their wants and needs are 
satisfied. But meaning is a dis-
tinctively human phenomenon. 
It has to do not with nature but 
with culture. It is not about what 
happens to us, but about how 
we interpret what happens to 
us. There can be happiness 
without meaning, and there can 
be meaning in the absence of 
happiness, even in the midst of 
darkness and pain. 
In a fascinating article in The 
Atlantic, ‘There’s more to life 
than being happy,
” Emily Smith 
argued that the pursuit of hap-
piness can result in a relatively 
shallow, self-absorbed, even self-
ish life. What makes the pursuit 
of meaning different is that it is 
about the search for something 
larger than the self.
No one did more to put 
the question of meaning into 
modern discourse than the late 
Viktor Frankl. In the three years 
he spent in Auschwitz, Frankl 
survived and helped others to 
survive by inspiring them to 
discover a purpose in life even 
in the midst of hell on earth. It 
was there that he formulated the 
ideas he later turned into a new 
type of psychotherapy based on 

what he called “man’s search for 
meaning.
” His book of that title, 
written in the course of nine 
days in 1946, has sold more than 
10 million copies throughout 
the world, and ranks as one of 
the most influential works of the 
20th century.
Frankl knew that in the 
camps, those who lost the will 
to live died. He tells of how 
he helped two individuals to 
find a reason to survive. One, a 
woman who had a child wait-
ing for her in another country. 
Another, a man who had writ-
ten the first volumes of a series 
of travel books, and there were 
others yet to write. Both, there-
fore, had a reason to live.
Frankl used to say that the 
way to find meaning was not 
to ask what we want from life. 
Instead, we should ask what life 
wants from us. We are each, he 
said, unique: in our gifts, our 
abilities, our skills and talents, 
and in the circumstances of our 
life. For each of us, then, there 
is a task only we can do. This 
does not mean that we are better 
than others. But if we believe we 
are here for a reason, then there 
is a tikkun, a mending, only we 
can perform, a fragment of light 
only we can redeem, an act of 
kindness or courage, generosity 
or hospitality, even a word of 

encouragement or a smile, only 
we can perform, because we 
are here, in this place, at this 
time, facing this person at this 
moment in their lives.
“Life is a task,
” he used to say, 
and added, “The religious man 
differs from the apparently irre-
ligious man only by experienc-
ing his existence not simply as a 
task, but as a mission.
” He or she 
is aware of being summoned, 
called, by a Source. “For thou-
sands of years that source has 
been called God.
” 
That is the significance of the 
word that gives our parshah, 
and the third book of the Torah, 
its name: Vayikra, “
And He 
called.
” The precise meaning of 
this opening verse is difficult to 
understand. Literally translat-
ed it reads: “
And He called to 
Moses, and God spoke to him 
from the Tent of Meeting, saying 
…
” The first phrase seems to be 
redundant. If we are told that 
God spoke to Moses, why say in 
addition, “
And He called”? Rashi 
explains as follows:
“
And He called to Moses: 
Every [time God communicated 
with Moses, whether signaled by 
the expression] ‘
And He spoke’ 
or ‘and He said’ or ‘and He com-
manded,
’ it was always preceded 
by [God] calling [to Moses by 
name].
” Rashi to Vayikra 1:1.

LISTENING FOR THE ‘CALL
’
“Calling” is an expression of 
endearment. It is the expression 
employed by the ministering 
angels, as it says, “
And one called 
to the other …
” (Isaiah 6:3).
Vayikra, Rashi is telling us, 
means to be called to a task in 
love. This is the source of one 
of the key ideas of Western 
thought, namely the concept of 
a vocation or a calling, that is, 
the choice of a career or way of 
life not just because you want 
to do it, or because it offers 
certain benefits, but because 
you feel summoned to it. You 

What Is Your 
 Calling in Life?

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

