Question: So far I receive pleasure from receiving, since I cannot be in contact with a higher level of receiving pleasure from bestowal, what can I do to change things?

Answer: You think that you should change the receiving with bestowal and to go on enjoying as if nothing has happened? It is impossible to simply switch from one to the other, after all, then you would bestow egoistically, in order to receive, in order to enjoy like before.

Comment: But I won’t be able to enjoy the receiving if I understand that the pleasure from bestowal itself is much more sublime and not because I gain something from it.

Answer: No, it is impossible to make a corporeal calculation and a spiritual calculation in the same vessels of receiving; when you compare between receiving and bestowal, you clarify what is more worthwhile.

In spirituality the account is totally different, I make it not based on what is in the desire, but in what is in the Creator—in order to bestow upon Him.

Comment: There have been many idealists throughout history, and we don’t see that they received any reward for their actions. Some even gave their lives for a sublime goal.

Answer: That’s the way it seems. However, our nature is totally egoistic, and it is all a desire to enjoy. We can see it in little children and even more in adults. If there is “matter” it cannot be anything but a desire to receive.

So the “idealists” as you see it do not exist. They are simply people whose desire is aimed differently; they enjoy giving to others and they feel good about it. Their intention is the same intention to enjoy, but externally it is expressed differently, it is expressed in giving.

How is an idealist different from a mother who takes care of her child? She also gives him everything. So why don’t we call her an “idealist”? It is because it is her child and we understand that nature obliges her to take care of him, just like animals do.

On the other hand, an idealist operates for the benefit of strangers, and we don’t see what motivates him. But the same concern is part of his nature too; he enjoys giving to others and so he acts accordingly. Eventually, there is no ideal here; it is nature that motivates such people. He doesn’t work against his ego, but rather in a way that is natural for him. If you forbid him to take care of others, he will be ready to kill you, since by that you will be depriving him of the possibility of enjoyment. So it is the same desire to receive that manages the idealist.
[82384]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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