"Remember how short my lifetime is; for what falseness have You created all the sons of man (Psalm 89:48)?"    The psalmist alludes to two recurrent themes in our lives.  As we age, we have a growing sense of the brevity of our lives.   At the same time, we wonder why we have been created when so much of the human experience seems purposeless and meaningless.    But it is precisely the juxtaposition of these two ideas that give hope and meaning.  If one considers the very shortness of life, one feels compelled to invest one’s life with meaning.   If time is short, we must make every moment count.   It is in the struggle for meaning that man actualizes his creation.   He matters because he chooses to live with purpose, following the laws of the Torah.  It is not up to Hashem to impute meaning and worth to our lives; it is our task to identify and then embody the values that truly matter.   The psalmist acknowledges the difficulty of this task and asks Hashem to remember that his time is short.   To fulfill his purpose, the psalmist will need Hashem’s guidance and direction, and he does not hesitate to ask for it.   Hashem’s Truth will remove the sense of falseness that he feels.

Copyright, Rachel Lerner 2008