The Whole Purpose of Life is Love

Is there really such a thing as love of others? That's what we'll discuss at this event and try to answer.

As Michael Laitman puts it - Love Is the Goal of Human Development

"Our entire life, history and evolution is to transition from unfounded hatred, which is our inborn egoistic nature, i.e., a quality of wishing to enjoy ourselves at the expense of others, and to achieve the love of others."

According to Kabbalist Michael Laitman, true love is not an emotional or corporeal feeling, but a spiritual state of absolute connection built precisely above human egoism. He explains that the Creator is not a personified entity, but the ultimate force of love and bestowal. This is why humans can only perceive or "reach" the Creator by creating a matching environment of love between each other.

"The Creator is love. Love thy neighbor as yourself is actually about the stages bringing us to true happiness.

Sometimes Rav says sentences that makes you think your whole life was worth living for just to hear them.

Rav is saying that love is the entire purpose of our development as humans, as individuals - of the entire world. There's a goal for this whole thing called life. And the goal is defined as love. It's great to know there is a beam of light in our grey lives, marking a high goal for us.

He has often explained that in order to attain love, we first need to be in an opposite state to it. Not everything is lovey dovey in life - sometimes we get tough blows. You fall in love and think you'll live happily ever after forever. Love is a very slippery thing in today's world. You want it and pray for it. You run after it - but once you find it, it's like sand running through your fingers on the beach. Suddenly the emotion simply disappears.

Where does love go? Everyone wants it, everyone needs it. It's the energy of life. And it's problematic. That's food for thought.

He also says there is a general force that we can discover in the connection between us. And that force is called love. It's also called Creator - meaning also giving life. It's like we have all these beginnings in life, in nature. We can grow with them by researching ourselves, others and our connections. This nature that we exist in.

In nature everything is so perfect. And with us everything is total chaos. Why is it like this? A little baby is born and wrapped in all good humanly possible. He grows up protected and develops nicely. Once he grows up life starts to give him blows. Kabbalists are people who investigated this existential puzzle. They discovered that a full solution to the puzzle requires us verifying the term love at a completely new level.

So the best thing we can do with our time here is to open our hearts to new horizons. There is a ladder of development in the degrees of love, and there awaits us all the good that we always dream of. The simplest. The purest. So we seek love. We will use the things that the Kabbalists wrote for us to find it.

You can watch the entire festive event/lesson here.

Excerpts used in the lesson -

Source 1

There is self-love, and there is love of God. And there is an average consideration, which is love of others, through which love of others comes love of God. (Rabbash. Article 410. "Self-love and love of God")

Source 2

And this is what Hillel the President thought, that "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" is the ultimate goal in deeds. Because it is the most obvious character and form for a person. And there is no mistake in deeds, for they are arranged before his eyes, and he knows that if he puts the needs of his neighbor before his own needs, then he is in a state of bestowal, and therefore he does not define the goal - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." For truly they were the same, because he must also love his neighbor with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might. For this is expressed in the word "as you are." Because he certainly loves himself with all his heart, soul and with all his might, and in the Lord he can deceive himself. And in his friend, the matter is always laid out before his eyes. (Baal HaSulam. Essay "Love of God and Love of Humanity")

Source 3

The most important of all matters is called "love," which is the spiritual connection between Israel and their Father in Heaven, as it is said: "And our approach to your great name, our King, is true in love," and as it is said: "He who chooses his people Israel in love." And this is the beginning of salvation, and the completion of correction, which the Creator reveals to His creatures that He created, all the love that was previously hidden in His heart. (Baal HaSulam. Letter 2)

Source 4

When does creation find favor in the eyes of the Blessed One, when all Israel is united together and there is no jealousy, hatred, or competition among them, and each one thinks of the good and well-being of his fellow, and then the Blessed One rejoices in His creation, and this is why it is said that the Lord will rejoice in His works. And by way of allusion we can explain this by the scripture "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord," meaning, if you will love your neighbor as yourself, then I am the Lord within you and I love you both. ("The Desire of Life." Remember Miriam)

Source 5

There is a spark of love for others in each of them. However, the spark could not ignite the light of love, which would illuminate every individual. Therefore, they agreed then that by joining together then, all that sparkled together would be made into one great flame. (Rabash, "A Man Will Never Sell the Timbers of His House")

Source 6

If there is a trick to increase love, and this does not add to the defect, consider: Similar to a man who gives a great gift to his neighbor, the love that is revealed in his heart at the time of the act is not like the love that remains in the heart after the act, but it grows colder day by day, until it is possible to come to a complete oblivion in the blessing of love, and the recipient of the gift is obliged to invent a trick every day to be as new in his eyes. And this is all our work, to reveal our love among us, every single day. (Baal HaSulam. Letter 2)

Source 7

There is a prayer, meaning that God, the Blessed One, will help him to feel the love of his friend and that his friend will be close to his heart. (Rabash. Letter 40)

Source 8

How much a person must love the Holy One, for there is no work before the Holy One except love. And whoever loves Him and does work with love, the Holy One calls him a lover. ("Zohar Le'am", Parashat Be'Shalach, Section 245)

Source 9

It is written, Why have I come and there is no one. How beloved are Israel before the Holy One, that wherever they are, the Holy One is among them, because He does not remove His love from them. As it is written, And they made Me a sanctuary and I dwelt among them. (Zohar Le'am, Parashat Neshua, Section 105)

Source 10

How many chambers upon chambers there are for the righteous in that world, and the highest chamber of all is for those in whom the love of their Lord is bound, because their chamber is bound in the temple that surpasses all, because the Holy One adorns Himself with love in this.

This temple, the highest of all, is called love, and on love everything stands. As the saying goes, many waters cannot quench love. And everything stands on love. ("Zohar Le'am", Parashat Va'Thachanan, sections 145-146)