Healthy Living Through the Parasha

Bereshit: Finding the Why

Viktor Frankl survived the Holocaust and went on to ask one of the most important questions a person can ask: what is my life for? He taught that if a person can find the "why," he can live through almost any "how." His search for meaning shaped his whole approach to therapy.

The reverse is just as true. If a person lives in this world with no ultimate meaning, every action starts to feel empty. Work, effort and even relationships can lose their weight when nothing stands behind them.

That is why the Torah opens with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Before any law or any instruction, the Torah gives us one fact: the world was created. It didn't happen by accident. There was intent behind it, a sublime purpose rooted in Hashem's will.

When we know the world has a purpose, our own life has a place in it. Our struggles are part of something. Our actions matter. That is the "why" we can carry with us, even on the hard days.

And when the "why" feels far away, that is a good time to talk to someone and find it again.