The existentialists among us say that existence precedes essence. In other words, we are born — we exist — without our identity handed to us, and so also without our purpose handed to us. The natural next step is to say that, even if our identity, essence or purpose is not handed to us, we can still create it for ourselves.

Have you ever wondered if there was more to “life” than what you were experiencing? Have you ever felt like “bad” things just happened to you; challenging situations that were out of your control? Have you ever been in a relationship that wasn’t ...

Is it being conscious, or having consciousness? Is it having independent existence? (And if this is the case, then we can contemplate whether anyone has independent existence, especially if we understand Hashem as the only one with complete independent ...