Description

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD talks about why we need to discover that there is a purpose to life, and why specifically this need has arisen in our days. This clip was taken from an interview between Laitman, William Simon & Bill Gladstone.

Transcript

The Need for Purpose

We function in this world according to our ego, which constantly grows. This ego needs to go through several levels in its growth until it reaches a level that it can't fill itself. That is what is starting to happen in humanity at this time. That's the reason for the global crisis, and all that an individual has to deal with in this world—the crisis of family, education, and even the general perception of who he is, what is the point of his life. Man can’t find a reason to live, so he looks for an escape in drugs. We do anything to keep ourselves occupied, so that we don't feel empty.

All that has a goal. It is in order for us, after we have evolved, having gone through many reincarnations, and have accumulated a lot of bitter experience in all our previous reincarnations and in this life, that we are forced to face the question, “What is the meaning of life?” We are still trying somehow to quench that question, when it arises, but soon, people will not be able to do that. Even drugs will not help, they will loath them. They will simply feel a terrible void, and this is what brings humanity on a political level to a Nazi regime, and to terror.

It was written in the Book of Zohar—and this book has not lied or made any mistakes in the last 2000 years—it says, if we do not begin, by ourselves, to change the situation, we will reach a Nazi regime in all the developed countries, and we will have a third World War.

Why is there a need to bring us to such a situation? That after the development, from generation to generation, now we've reached a situation that our emptiness comes, because we don't feel the source of life. Where are we from, and what are we here for? This is the question that we need to solve, because it is initially found in our egoistical desire and that brings it to us, because our egoism has to bring us to Divinity, to the Upper Force. So, the wisdom of Kabbalah—which has been hidden by Kabbalists themselves throughout all the years, since the beginning of the history—is now is being revealed as a means for filling that emptiness, in order to help man feel the Upper Reality, or, the Upper Force. If one does not reach it, he will simply remain empty without any solution. We have encountered this problem for decades now. 

Our experience shows, that when we present the wisdom of Kabbalah to people, it opens their eyes. It gives them vigor in life; it gives them a new life (I am speaking from experience with students, groups of students throughout the world, thousands of people in our network) the realization of the fact that our life has a purpose, and that the goal needs to be revealed to us, because that is what we need to discover.