The Law of Giving and Receiving is one of the Laws of Creation, yet most people ignore it, and then wonder why their lives never truly improve.
The meaning of this Law is simple and unequivocal: only giving makes receiving possible — never the other way around.
For example, a person may spend years listening to lectures and reading articles and posts that are freely and readily available. Yet somehow, despite all the groundbreaking knowledge they have consumed and absorbed, their life remains stuck, unchanged, and without any real transformation.
Why?
Because they never saw fit to give something in return for all that they have received.
In more extreme cases, a materialistic and self-centered person may even complain when asked to pay for a course or a book, believing that anything spiritual should be free of charge.(And yet, when it comes to a vacation or a good meal at a restaurant, they have no problem spending money, and it would never occur to them to expect those things for free.)
However, only giving opens the channel through which receiving becomes possible. Therefore, one who is unwilling to give anything will ultimately receive nothing.
All the blessings granted to those who truly know how to give, will be withheld from him.
And what is true giving?
True giving is giving solely for the highest good of another (not for the benefit of our own ego).
At this point, many people will immediately think to themselves:
“That doesn’t apply to me. I always give only to make others happy.”
But the ego is far more cunning and sophisticated than most human beings realize.
The ego is a brilliant actor. It knows how to disguise itself as generosity, love, and the desire to give — while in reality, it is merely seeking recognition, control, or validation.
The ego is like a “deep state” operating in the shadows of our inner world, drawing power from others for itself in countless ways that may outwardly appear altruistic.
For example: a mother who swears she would give everything for her children, while in truth, it is her ego that wants her children to fulfill everything she herself failed to achieve.
Another example is a performer who steps onto the stage “to bring joy to others,” while in reality, all of this giving serves only to feed his ego whose hunger for recognition and attention can never be satisfied.
Of course, there are mothers and performers whose giving is genuinely pure, but in the ego-driven world we live in, they are not the majority.
Still, there is a simple test that anyone can use to discover whether their giving is pure or self-serving:
A mother can ask herself:
“If my children choose a path different from my own, will I still remain happy? Or is my happiness dependent on them fulfilling my own wishes?”
A performer can honestly ask himself:
“Am I still happy when I’m not on stage, and there is no audience applauding me? Or does emptiness and depression take over, making drugs or other escapes necessary to numb the gap between what happens on stage and my private life?”
(By the way, the renowned Rabbi Nachman of Breslov referred to people who live such double lives as “false celebrities.”)
By contrast, let us consider the blessing that descends upon a person who has reached the level where whatever he gives — whether a gift, an act of kindness, or even simple advice — is completely free of ego.
Naturally, people will feel gratitude toward such a person. That gratitude rises upward like a prayer and then returns to the giver as a blessing visible to all. This happens in accordance with another fundamental Law of Creation: The Law of Reciprocal Action.
However, because the Laws of Creation cannot be deceived, for they discern the deepest intentions of the heart, if gratitude is directed toward someone whose motives are impure, the blessing cannot truly rest upon him. It simply will not find suitable ground in which to take root.
At most, such a person — even if he donated millions to the poor — may gain temporary earthly fame, but never the true reward that can only be received by one who lives in harmony with God’s Divine Will within Creation.