Do You Know Where You’re Going In Life? - Einstein On The Train

A Torah Anytime original series. For a while, I gave outreach classes in Princeton University and spending a lot of time on the campus. I got to hear a lot of stories about Albert Einstein when he was a professor there. And one of those stories was the time that Einstein was on a train going from Princeton to give a major presentation on one of his latest scientific discoveries. And a few minutes after the train takes off, the conductor comes around asking for people's tickets. And he walks into Einstein's section of the train going from seat to seat asking for people's tickets so he could punch a hole in it. And he gets to Albert Einstein's seat and he says, "Ticket, please." And Einstein, he pats his pockets and he's nothing. And he's opening his briefcase. nothing. He checks every pocket again. Still nothing. And the conductor sees him and he says, "You know what, Professor Einstein? It's fine. I know who you are. You're Einstein. You're an honest man. I'm sure you bought a ticket. It's no big deal. I trust you. You don't have to show it to me. Don't worry about it." And he moves on. But a minute later, he looks around and Einstein is now standing looking in the overhead section for his ticket. And the conductor says, "Professor Einstein, don't worry about it. I know who you are. You're an honest man. I'm sure you bought a ticket." And the conductor walks away. But then a minute later, he turns around one last time and he sees Einstein, the man who basically rewrote physics, is on his hands and knees crawling under the seat, still searching for the ticket. And the conductor rushes back. Professor, I told you you don't need to find that ticket. I know who you are. Einstein looked from under his seat and he says, "Conductor, I also know who I am and I know that I need to find that ticket because if I don't have that ticket, I will have absolutely no idea where I'm going." The story is a cute one, but it hits home closer than some of us might be willing to admit. We live in an age that worships accumulation, information, knowledge, credentials, expertise. We collect facts and skills and sources and podcasts and articles and shiim. Always learning, always absorbing. And learning is beautiful. It matters. It builds worlds. There's nothing holier than learning. But knowledge alone doesn't always tell you where you're going in life. You can know a lot. In fact, you can be Einstein, but without knowing the destination, you can still be completely lost. Because without knowing where you're headed, you can walk carefully and correctly, even passionately, and still never arrive where you're supposed to go. You can know every single of Kaneka and still not know where Khan is trying to take you. You could know how to light and where to light and where not to light and still not have any idea where that light is trying to get you to. You can know every single of migillah and still miss the entire pim experience. You can know where to hear it, where to pause, what invalidates the reading, what doesn't invalidate the reading, and yet still have no idea which spiritual train station PM is trying to get you to. You can know all the intricate of fast days and still have absolutely no idea where the fast day is trying to bring you to, what you're meant to feel or regret or realign. You can know all of the and still never really davin. You can master all of Hil Shabas and still be left missing your ticket trying to figure out which spiritual place Shabas was supposed to transplant you to. The word comes from the word hik to go. It's a path, a way of moving through life. But even a perfect path means a destination. Because if you don't know where you're going, you can walk carefully your entire life and still never get there. It's not a coincidence that the great Musarim almost all have names that reflect the need to be going somewhere in life. Means the path of the upright means the ways of the righteous. Means the way of Hashem is the gates of return. Gates of holiness the straight line. Because Tyra was never meant to sit in your head as information. It was meant to move you to take you somewhere. Judaism doesn't just ask what do you know. It asks where are you going. And if you don't know the destination, you can study the map your whole life and still never get there. That's why Einstein kept searching for the ticket. Not because he forgot who he was, but because he understood something simple and profound. If you don't know where you're going in life, no amount of knowledge will get you there. Luckily, in Yiddish, we're not wandering. The path is mapped. The destination is meaningful. You just have to know what it is. Because once you know where you're going in life, knowledge stops being weight that you carry and starts being the train that gets you there.