Created to Act: Discovering Your Purpose Through Action

Human beings have an inherent need to act. The Torah describes Noach as “a righteous man.” He was devoted to God, morally upright, and spiritually pure, even while living among a corrupt generation. Yet many Torah commentators explain that vbraham reached a higher spiritual level than Noach. Why? Because Avraham was a man of action.

Avraham did not limit himself to personal spiritual growth. He took responsibility for the world around him, actively seeking to improve society and spread truth among those unfamiliar with it. Through acts of kindness and moral leadership, he transformed his surroundings. For this reason, his descendants were chosen to lead a universal mission.

How To Discover Your Role in the World

There are several ways to uncover your personal role in society. One of the most direct is to examine your strongest abilities and most developed talents. God grants each person the tools necessary to fulfill their unique purpose.

Someone who feels naturally drawn to Torah study is likely meant to learn and teach. A physically strong and capable individual may be called upon to defend the Jewish people. A person with a beautiful voice may fulfill their mission through song, opening hearts to the love of God. A gifted businessperson may be meant to generate wealth in order to support charitable causes. An entertainer can bring joy to the sorrowful, and an artist can bring beauty and inspiration into the world.

At the same time, when it comes to mitzvot, a person’s mission may be revealed in the opposite way: precisely in the areas they find most difficult. God often places our greatest challenges directly along the path of our purpose, so that the effort invested will bring greater merit. If, for example, honoring one’s parents is especially challenging, that may be a key mission in that person’s life.

Self-Awareness Without Ego

To fulfill your role, you must first know yourself. Awareness of your strengths is not arrogance — as long as you remember that your talents come from God. Recognizing that you are intelligent, talented, or capable is healthy when it is understood as a responsibility rather than a source of pride. Acknowledging your abilities is a crucial step toward using them for good.

However, we must be careful not to fall into self-delusion. Psychology has identified a tendency in human beings to judge themselves by their strengths while projecting their weaknesses onto others — a process known as projection. We see this when someone leaves a movie and begins imitating the main character without realizing it.

To avoid this trap, humility is essential. We should be willing to ask others for honest feedback, as another perspective is often less biased than our own.

Using Talents for Good

Once we recognize our abilities, the next question is how to use them ethically. A scientific genius can cure disease, or create devastating weapons. Who better than God to define what is good and what is harmful?

That is why Torah study is essential in the creative process. It provides the moral compass that ensures our talents are used constructively.

And still, knowing what is right is not enough. Wisdom also requires discernment — acting in the right way, at the right time, and in the right place. Charity given publicly in a way that humiliates the recipient is not kindness. Only discernment leads to truly good action.

Removing Obstacles — External and Internal

Turning potential into action requires identifying and removing obstacles, both external and internal.

Every meaningful project encounters resistance. Imagine someone with leadership skills, pedagogical training, and a strong connection to children who notices that several Jewish children in their community lack access to Jewish education. They decide to establish a new school. The vision is noble, but the obstacles are many: lack of funding, bureaucracy, limited community support, resistance from others, time constraints, and more.

Beyond these external challenges are internal ones, often far more powerful. These internal forces emerged after the sin of Adam and are known as the yetzer hara (the inclination toward negativity). Laziness, distraction, and the desire for comfort are among its most common expressions. They appear as rationalizations: “This is too difficult,” or “I’ve already done enough good; now I deserve to focus on myself.” Sometimes they surface as resistance to change: “I’ve always lived this way, and nothing terrible happened — why change now?”

These excuses are fundamentally flawed, and we must not surrender to them. This is precisely how the yetzer hara undermines growth.

The Torah teaches that we do not defeat temptation through debate. Temptation demands immediate response and does not yield to logic. Therefore, it often wins arguments. The wiser approach is to flee — to immerse oneself in Torah study and to avoid environments that stimulate negative tendencies, such as empty social scenes, unhealthy relationships, or non-kosher settings.

Once we do this, we move from potential to action.

The Creative Being

The Torah teaches that human beings were created “in the image of God.” Since God has no physical form, this idea must be understood spiritually. God endowed humanity with certain divine attributes — one of the most significant being the ability to create.

Every human being possesses creative potential waiting to be realized. Some people express it more visibly than others and therefore stand out in society. Scientists, philosophers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators have shaped the world through their creative drive. Others have made profound contributions quietly, behind the scenes, such as an employee in a large research company whose innovation transforms an industry, even though the recognition goes to the organization.

Those who create more did not necessarily receive greater talent at birth; they simply learned how to develop what they were given.

Action as a Path to Growth

Human beings were created to act and to create. It is always better to act than to remain stagnant. When there is nothing urgent to do, one should still engage in meaningful activity rather than fall into passivity. Any positive action is better than inertia, as long as it does not lead to harm.

Creative engagement is a path to spiritual growth. Contrary to the teachings of certain religious movements that promote withdrawal or asceticism, Judaism does not advocate disengagement from society. People are meant to function within the world. Isolation weakens both the individual and the community.

We are not meant to escape life — but to elevate it through purposeful action.

Adapted from the book “Dan’s Journey in Search of the Meaning of Life” by Roni Dayan.