As I youngster I was a sci-if fan. Not an official Trekkie, but I did like Star Trek. In the episodes at times an unknown crew member would appear who My friends would call an expendable crew member. During the course of the episode they would expire.

The main characters would remain. (By the way, did you know Spock and Kirk were Jewish?)

Our job in life is to break out of the flow of society and to do something significant to better the world. To break out of our comfort zone if the truth or Torah demands. Society pushes you to follow the maxim: “Drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.” Judaism adds one small point to that caveat – but accomplish something to better the world before you do.

Our goal is to better the world. That is what G-d expects of us.

Self-Improvement / Mussar

One way to better the world is to better ourselves. Intriguing that many know this already for the best selling books are cookbooks and self-improvement works. Why self-improvement? Apparently people intrinsically know that is one of the goals in life.

Torah taught self-improvement for thousands of years. Some classic Torah works on self improvement  / also known as Mussar works include – Messilat Yesharim / the Path of the Just, Shaarei HaAvodah by Rabbeinu Yona of Gerondi, Shaarei Teshuvah – the Gates of  Repentance, Duties of the Heart, The Ways of the Tzaddikim–Orchos Tzaddikim

A person who wants to make their acts more significant may start by learning to better themselves. Studying the above works – with a rabbi, a friend or even alone is an excellent starting point.

Knowing What is Good & Evil

Apparently people intrinsically know also what is good and evil. Yet the heart of man can deceive a person to think what is good is evil or vice versa. Look at people who condone terrorism. Obviously terrorism is wrong and evil, but people can find justifications for it.

Thus everyone can be tricked to think what is good is evil. Everyone who doesn’t believe in G-d can be fooled. And many who do believe in G-d are fooled. Look at the inquisition, auto-dafe, the crusades – all done in the name of religion.

No one is immune. Religions are accused of being cruel by atheists. Religions accuse atheists of being cruel. Both have some truth to their accusations.

So where is the truth?

The simple answer:

Torah.

Why Torah? There are thousands of Religions in the world. Atheism on a logical standpoint is illogical. Can you really believe that every single cell, every single animal, every single living plant, every single microscopic organism was created by random molecules flying around? It is illogical. As Spock would say.

Ok. So there is a G-d. How do I know he cares about what I do?

The Only Divine Revelation to a Nation

Basically G-d appeared only once in the history of man to a nation of millions of people – when G-d gave the Torah to the Jews about 3,000 years ago at Mount Sinai. He never repealed His laws. Thus they are still in effect.

In the Torah, G-d gave commandments for all people and commandments for the Jews.
G-d gave the 7 Noahide laws in the Torah to the Jews to teach mankind – for all people of the world to follow. He gave the Jews 613 commandments – as explained in the Shulchan Aruch, the Jewish Code of Law by Rabby Yosef Caro.

True Morality

Many religions committed atrocities in the name of religion. Atheists and idol-worshippers did the same. But the Torah is G-D’s word. True morality. The yardstick to use to know what is truly morality.

Let’s take one statement of the Torah. It says :

A person who is merciful with the merciless ends up being merciless to the merciful. 

One can understand it in one way – that by constantly being “merciful” with killers one ends up developing traits of cruelty. But there is a more basic explanation. Some people today condone Terrorism. They say, the terrorists, were oppressed by a nation (usually, they point the finger to Israel) and thus one should have mercy upon them.

The problem is is that when one gives no consequences to evil – those people end up doing more evil to the innocent. So by a person being merciful to the merciless, he ends up being merciless to the merciful, the innocent, the frail and helpless.

The first step in making one’s life more significant is to align one’s outlook and philosophy with that of the Torah. Then one can do true kindness. You do kind with the kind. And punish the wicked for their crimes.

What is Tolerance? Tolerance vs. Decadence

People have mixed up what is tolerance. Tolerance is not accepting any person’s wicked actions – that is decadence. According to Torah, Tolerance is being respectful to all people regardless of their actions. But if they committed or want to commit actions against others – they are punished or prevented.

The Torah is not naive. It says a person who wants to kill an innocent person, get up and kill that person. If a person says they want to kill others, we don’t hand them a gun – or a bomb for that matter.

In Pirkei Avot (Ch. 2 Mishna 4) it Sums it up Nicely on  Doing the Will of Hash·m:

4. He (Rabban Gamliel son of Rabbi son of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi) used to say, make His [G·d’s / Hash·m’s] will as your will in order that He will make your will as His will. Nullify your will before His will in order that He will nullify the will of others because of your will.

Knowing what G-d wants, and seeing His philosophy from Torah – allows one to think clearly about morality. It is not the heart that directs the mind. Or one’s supposed “thought out position” that drives a person. It’s G-d’s will.

You Are What You Read

I used to learn with a rabbi who basically explained – that You are what you read. A person who constantly reads the New York Times begins to have the same positions as their writers.

If a writer is anti-Israel – the reader may develops an anti-Israel attitude. If the writer has a liberal attitude one becomes more liberal.

If one learns Torah – ie, a Gentile about the Noahide Laws and a Jew about the Shulchan Aruch – one learns morality the way G-d defines it.

Ultimately G-d is good. We with our limited mind cannot fathom His kindness at times, but eventually in this world we will find out why everything that G-d does is good.

Thus, if we cannot understand G-d’s laws – it is up to us delve into them until we understand them. The mistake many make is they jump to a conclusion that either they are more moral than G-d or that they need not G-d to know morality.

Abraham & Morality

Abraham learned morality from his Innards. Apparently, he was so truthful with himself and others – he was able to learn truth from his innate, sincere and complete honesty. He also learned in a Yeshiva of Shem and Ever – descendants of Noah.

But really there cannot be morality without Torah. The Atheists that say they need not G-d to know morality are only affirming their morality usually by condoning the laws that were in the Torah for thousands of years. In the time period when Abraham, our Forefather was alive, people were sacrificing their children on altars. That was the morality of the day. Abraham, fought the world and taught them that it is immoral to kill.

A person living in that time period would also be able to condone child sacrifice. They would be able to deny the morality of the Torah. But now with hindsight we know that the Torah was right in condemning child sacrifice and the idol worshipers were wrong.

At the end of one’s life, one should look back and be thankful of what the added to better the world. One should not be like those expendable crew members, that are there just to fill up the scenery.

Eventually, people will realize that the values of the Torah are true values. The ones that learn them earlier than later will have a greater chance to achieve their potential in life – for they let their lives be directed by the master of all morality – G-d.