“The questions which bring most people to Faith are, in the very simplest words, “What is the meaning of all this? What is the purpose?”
These are questions that, basically, do not have answers—unless one makes the leap of faith.
Each of us asks our own question in our own way, at our own time.
Sometimes, questions are asked in a moment of crisis, but often, in the midst of ordinary life, a person will say to himself:
“I have a busy life; I do things, I run from place to place, I live, I eat, I go through the motions, but where am I running to? What is the meaning and purpose of all this?”
Then the search for an answer begins.
Walking through life is like wandering in a labyrinth, constantly probing and searching for the opening, the answer to that riddle.
It is depressing enough when we feel that we are not getting anywhere, but the deepest despair is when one knows that the labyrinth has no way out, that one will wander aimlessly from corridor to corridor until death.
We do not always think about meaning and purpose, but when this question does come to awareness, it becomes a haunting, gnawing pain.
We want a response to our deep existential questions, and we want a nontrivial answer.
We have trivial, temporary answers—too many of them. “I am here to make money” and “I am here to devour as many hamburgers as possible” may be purposes, but they are not fulfilling ones.
The very concept of purpose is essentially a religious statement, and the quest for purpose is a spiritual journey.”
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz