In his Criticism on Charles Darwin‘s “The Origin of Species” Thomas Henry Huxley wrote:

Cats catch mice, small birds and the like, very well. Teleology tells us that they do so because they were expressly constructed for so doing—that they are perfect mousing apparatuses, so perfect and so delicately adjusted that no one of their organs could be altered, without the change involving the alteration of all the rest. Darwinism affirms on the contrary, that there was no express construction concerned in the matter; but that among the multitudinous variations of the Feline stock, many of which died out from want of power to resist opposing influences, some, the cats, were better fitted to catch mice than others, whence they throve and persisted, in proportion to the advantage over their fellows thus offered to them. Far from imagining that cats exist ‘in order’ to catch mice well, Darwinism  supposes that cats exist ‘because’ they catch mice well—mousing being not the end, but the condition, of their existence. And if the cat type has long persisted as we know it, the interpretation of the fact upon Darwinian principles would be, not that the cats have remained invariable, but that such varieties as have incessantly occurred have been, on the whole, less fitted to get on in the world than the existing stock.

Criticism on “Origin of the Species”

What is the reason that a cat was created? The revolution of Darwinism was that there was a lack of purpose in creation. This points to the wisdom of Albert Einstein who famously said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Within Darwinism we would lose the experience of miracle that the cat was created as the “perfect mousing apparatus”. But we still could reconcile that natural selection itself is a miracle.

I was thinking about this question of teleology in my preparation for Rosh HaShanah. What do we celebrate in this holiday? One of the themes of Rosh Hashanah is the coronation of G‑d as King over us. A coronation is a solemn and awe-inspiring ceremony, and the holy trembling in every Jew’s heart at the onset of the “Days of Awe” goes far beyond fear of punishment. Rosh HaShana is also Yom HaDin-the day of judgement. Who have we been this last year? What will we be this coming year?

And yet there are still other themes of the day. On Rosh HaShanah we say- HaYom HaRa’at Olam– today is the day the world was conceived. In this way God models for us what it means to create. God is conscious of the threats that we, God’s children, live all around us. And despite the horrible dangers, Rosh HaShanah is a celebration. We celebrate that every part and the entirety of creation is a miracle.

Within the context of exploring this teleological question it is interesting to look at the overlap of Rosh HaShanah being the Day of Judgement and the day the world was conceived. What is our purpose? Why were we created?

As I have written about in the past, over the summer I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with my wife alone with our 8 year old daughter Libi. As she is the youngest of four this is pretty rare. Her siblings are all at overnight camps so we decided to see the new Barbie Movie. I had not heard much about that movie. I just assumed it was something appropriate for a girl of eight who likes to play with dolls. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised. It is a deep movie.

One of the lingering lessons of the movie is the earworm that Billie Eilish wrote for the movie. Her bittersweet song What Was I Made For? lightly touches on our teleological question. There she sings:

I used to float, now I just fall down
I used to know but I’m not sure now
What I was made for
What was I made for?

Takin’ a drive, I was an ideal
Looked so alive, turns out I’m not real
Just something you paid for
What was I made for?

Barbie represents the best and the very worst of a capitalist society. That plastic perfect life and the happiness it represents is an ideal but not something that can by bought. Despite what we are told, consumerism is not the reason for our being. As we prepare Rosh HaShanah we should contemplate the purpose of the world as it the day the world was conceived. We also need to reflect on who we are as it will be the Day of Judgement. We all “fall down”, deal with uncertainty, and do not live up to our ideals. None of us are just characters in someone else’s narrative. Maybe the teleological question is out of reach. It seems like a rather fitting, accessible, and profound question for the day, ” What was I made for?”

But even this simple question of ” What was I made for?” can have two divergent meanings. It could be left as an existential question. Should I have been made at all if I do not know why I was created? This is dark, but true. Another version of this question assumes that I exist for a good reason and I am are just seeking a path to actualize my purpose. What is my strategy?

As we learn on Rosh Hashanah, the world was created for a purpose as were each of us. Each of us is a miracle because creation itself a miracle. Each of us needs to find out what we were made for. Each of us just needs to do the work of finding out path of self-actualization.

Shana Tova- Have a wonderful year of purpose and productivity.

*Last post on Barbie