Does my mission in life have to help other people?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that serving others is one of the four signs that you are living your mission. “Number three, it serves others,” he says, and he grounds it in the words “Olam chesed yibaneh,” the world is built on kindness: “That's the whole creation of the world.”
The form it takes can vary. “Whatever you teach, you help, you build, or you inspire, it's all a part of the chesed.” A mission does not have to look like charity work to count; what matters is that it gives something to others.
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that every true mission includes giving to others, because that is the purpose of all of creation. All Jews are like one body, each a limb that affects the whole, so a mission that does not teach, build, help or wake someone up needs to be examined.
Related concepts: A mission with your name on it · Generosity that cannot be taken back
In A Soul at Peace: Four Signs That You Have Found Your Mission
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
A true mission serves others; the world itself is built on kindness.
What may be behind it
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that making a home for Hashem in this lower world always happens through the other person.
Deepest human truth
Whatever you teach, help, build or inspire is part of the chesed on which creation stands.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Purpose, Character, and Masculine Leadership · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz