When you go out in the pouring rain, you don’t slap on a yarmulke to keep you dry, then complain that it was a bad yarmulke because you got soaked. You don’t recommend a good doctor based on her golf score, and you don’t consider someone a bad parent because he can’t perform heart surgery.

Of course you don’t. You judge things and people by how well they serve their given purpose. And maybe that’s something we need to remember during these Days of Awe from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur.

The Days of Awe offer us a unique and collective sense of intentionality about facing our failings, repenting, and making amends. For many, these days culminate in a mixture of hope and uncertainty. Will it be enough? Will we come through the High Holidays as better people who, in turn, can work together for a better world? And if not, why not?

Trying to be better people implies striving for a certain level of morality, like consistently treating others the way we want to be treated. But there’s another aspect of being good people that is often overlooked. Like a yarmulke, a doctor, and a parent, human beings have a purpose. So, morality, while important, is not the only basis for evaluating how good we are.

We are also “good or bad” depending on how well we fulfill our purpose, both as Jews and as human beings. What purpose is that? That’s a great question to ponder as we approach Yom Kippur.

If we don’t know the purpose of being Jewish, how will we know how to be good Jews? And if we don’t recognize our underlying purpose as human beings, how can we aim to be truly good people?

The idea of a shared, unchanging purpose that dates back to the genesis of the Jewish people—and even further to the genesis of the human race—is predicated on the existence of a God who is not only real, but who knows us personally. He would naturally evaluate our goodness, in large part, according to how we fulfill the purpose for which he brought us to life. And yet, many Jewish people who profess to be agnostic still take the High Holidays as a challenge to become better people.

When we all do what is right in our own eyes, we create self-righteousness, tyranny, or both.

That’s interesting because if we don’t have a God-given purpose, or if we “might” have one but can’t really know it, we are free to assess our goodness based on our own purposes and points of view. And many people, Jews and Gentiles alike, prefer it that way. But when we all do “what is right in our own eyes,”¹ we create situations and relationships ruled by self-righteousness, tyranny, or both.

Of course, people who do believe in God, or profess to, can still be self-righteous and use their professed beliefs to oppress others. But that is because they have forgotten, never understood, or rejected God’s purpose for them.

Knowing and accepting our God-given purpose doesn’t make us good people—but it reorients us and helps us repent when we subvert his purpose to serve our own. Pursuing his purpose for us gets at the heart of who we are and shows us how much we need the atonement we talk about during this season.

So here’s a High Holiday hack as you wrap up these days of reflection leading to Yom Kippur. If you want to be a better person in the fullest sense of the word, ask yourself—and God—“What is my purpose?” and see what happens.

Read more from the About Jesus project:

Explore how the original Yom Kippur observances were ultimately fulfilled by Jesus:  The Ultimate Scapegoat in the Bible

And learn about Jesus’ teaching on fasting: What Did Jesus Say About Fasting?

If you want to connect with others about this article or those mentioned above, please shoot us a message or catch us on our LiveChat.

Endnotes

1 This phrase is often repeated throughout the biblical book of Judges.