A question I received: How can people determine what is a necessity today?

My Answer: The level of necessity of today is a medium level of well-being in the place where a person is living. There are many methods of verifying the actual mean level. Baal HaSulam covers that in detail in the article The Future Generation. He refers to creation of all kinds of committees that would check the actual needs of every person, and fulfill them.

All of that is measured according to the needs of an average person. Let’s say that each family must have a room for each of its members. Each person must have a job. The family must have a car to get to and from work and for other needs. All of that is determined in accordance with changes that occur in the world. Notwithstanding, a family must have everything it needs to exit normally.

As a matter of fact, the problem is not what you have, but your attitude towards it. After all, the Creator doesn’t want you to suffer. The purpose of creation is to delight the creatures. Therefore, you confine your earthly life to the needs of your physical body – no more and no less.

You have to fill your desires for food, sex, family, wealth, honor, power and knowledge. You should feel no lack in those desires, and they should be filled to the measure that is an essential necessity for the life of your animal body. Anything that is beyond a necessity should be used to bestow to your fellow man.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Bestowal Can Fulfill Us More Than Anything Else
Laitman.com Post: Why Our “Sacred Values” Aren’t Up For Sale
A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “The Creator Has to Give; We Have to Receive”
Spiritual Search: “Our World and the Spiritual”

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