This new book I'm reading

I've been reading a book called "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok which is about the friendship of two boys growing up as Orthodox Jews in New York City. It's very intriguting because I know almost nothing of this type of belief system and the story itself is very interesting. I'm not sure how many people today still live according to this same tradition, but I think that it's more common then it may seem. We have many Jews that live right around my church although I'm not sure if they are orthodox or not. Anyway, I was reading last night trying to get my mind off things enough to fall asleep, and came across this quote. Reuven (Hebrew for Robert I believe) is one of the boys and his father said this to him soon after WWII ended and it was discovered that over 6 million Jews were killed:

"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of any eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Do you understanding what I am saying?"

It's interesting too regarding the reference Reuven's dad makes to an "eye" because at the beginning of the book Reuven was hit in the eye with a baseball. He almost went blind from the glass that was embedded in it as a result. So Reuven developed a new found gratefulness for eyesight.