Where Do You Want To Go Today?

The title of Microsoft's global image campaign a few years back was a question; where do you want to go today?

This question quite accurately implies that we human beings share a deep yearning, Not to be content with where we find ourselves today, but to continually strive to move beyond our current position.

However, as with any journey in life, before we can go anywhere, we first need to be clear on our current position. When setting our Nav Sat, along with identifying our destination, we also need to be clear about our current location. Without knowing where you are, it's impossible to reach a destination.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad, explained that this in fact was the meaning behind the very first question that G-d asked of man in the garden of Eden. The word was Ayekah, where are you? G-d was asking man the greatest question of all. This question is still reverberating in the conscience of every human being until this very day.

Let's take a deeper look. The deepest quest of man can be found in this question. The question is indeed twofold.

Firstly, on a simple level, the question is, where are you today? In other words, what have you up until this point in your life achieved in the fulfillment of your mission in this world. How have you added value in the lives of the people around you. Is the world a better place because of you?

To be sure, this is no easy task. Because we live in a world of pretentiousness, where we constantly try to maintain an illusion of who we are. We only surround ourselves with people who support this facade.

At a deeper level, the question being asked is: where are you today? compared to where you could have been had you made the right choices in life.

This question is timeless and resonates deeply within all of us. Occasionally, the question makes its way to the surface of our conscience.

Tomorrow, as we bless the final month of the Jewish year, Elul, we should be more aware and sensitive of this deepest quest of our souls. Let us listen carefully to this profound question: Where are you? And let us respond by being more honest about who we really are, by listening more carefully to what people say to us and to be more attentive to what they really think of us.

For it is only when we know who we really are that our journey may begin earnest.