In my youth, I read in books that love should be completely selfless, asking for nothing in return. An egoist only takes, and that's very bad. On the other hand, an altruist is ready to give everything away, and that's very good. I constantly heard that a loving person should only give. But then time passed, and I realized that love not only gives but also takes. God not only gives us life but also takes it away. God not only gives us love — God also needs our love.

In the Old Testament, it is written that God is a jealous God and destroys those who turn away from Him. These words are like a parable where the content is hidden behind the form. In fact, God constantly gives us love and energy. And when we internally turn away from Him, our soul begins to die, followed by the destruction of our consciousness and body. Essentially, this is the decryption of the highest universal laws — those laws by which our soul lives. And all universal laws boil down to one.

...The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart [and in your soul]; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up... (Deut 6:4–7)

Usually, people think that the greatest misfortune is the death of loved ones. For many, it's the death of their own hopes and well-being. There are people for whom the worst thing is to lose a job. And there are those who are most afraid of losing money or physical health. What is the meaning of loss? Why is it so painfully perceived by everyone? Why does the soul suffer so much?

If you think about it, you come to an astonishing conclusion. The main pain we experience is not because we lose someone or something — it's all about the fact that, losing something, we lose the opportunity to love. The death of a loved one is the disappearance of the opportunity to give them soulful warmth, care, sacrifice for them, educate them, argue and conflict with them, it's a loss of the opportunity to receive from them pain and suffering, which further strengthens love. Losing a job or well-being is also the inability to give energy to maintain well-being and perform work.

Everything we love constantly requires energy from us. We must think, care, and strive for the object of our love — this is what makes us happy. And when we lose health, well-being, when close relatives leave life, then our soul is deprived of the opportunity to love, sacrifice, give. And this is the most severe torment and suffering for the soul.

One of the books of the Old Testament describes the sufferings of Job. But it doesn't explain why these sufferings are needed. In fact, suffering helps to transition from human logic — to Divine. Job lost everything. He could no longer love his body, eaten away by leprosy, he could not love and care for his property, his herds, his social status. Everyone he loved and cared for died. These unbearable sufferings pushed him to the last and only way out of the closed circle — to love God.

Love for God can be as strong as you like. No one will ever take this love away from us. It cannot be lost because God is eternity. Judaism, based on fear of God, compliance with His commandments, worship and submission to Him, laid the seeds for future transformation. Fear, worship, strict compliance with commandments were supposed to transform into love, independent of anything. Thanks to this new perception, God, from being a lord and master, became a caring and loving Father.

For many believers, the parable of poor Job seems cruel and illogical. After all, it is clearly stated in the Holy Scriptures that a person who follows the commandments will have a prosperous fate and physical health. His wives will not be barren, his herds will multiply abundantly, and misfortunes will bypass him.

Then why was Job punished? To the mind, this parable appears an unsolvable mystery. But if we think about the purpose of commandments, much becomes clear. For most people, following the commandments is a way to gain health and prosperity, a way to forgiveness of sins and the birth of healthy children. The more actively a person prays, the more secretly he expects that health will increase, and fate will be kind to him. And there will be plenty of money, a good job, interesting dreams and plans that come true. And there will be many close people whom this person can love.

But all that such a person dreams of and wants to receive by praying is just a means to give energy, care, and love. Therefore, in essence, following the commandments is not about gaining money, well-being, and a happy family. It's about the opportunity to open and strengthen love in one's soul. And all the riches of the surrounding world are just a reason for opening love in the soul.

To understand the content, sometimes the form needs to be destroyed. Job had to experience the collapse of everything just to understand the meaning of following the commandments. This meaning is simple: union with God, increasing love for God while becoming more like Him.

All the blessings surrounding a person are secondary. Divine love is primary; without it, a person cannot keep any blessings. In the Holy Scriptures, God, addressing people, shows the secondary nature of any values compared to the primacy of love.

Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not;

He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:2–3)

However, this question continues to be asked at my lectures again and again: «How to experience love for God, what is it?» I have to find new ways to explain.

-Imagine that you are in love,-I answer,-for every person experiences this feeling in youth. Now let's think about what a person in love feels and thinks.

He is completely dissolved in the beloved person. All the feelings and thoughts of the young man are dedicated to the beloved. The whole world narrows down to one point, one center. In this center is the girl he loves. That's the first point.

Second, he cannot think of anyone else. He stops paying attention to other girls. No matter how they tempt him, smile at him, or show signs of attention, inwardly the young man is free from them. Neither money, nor advantageous position, nor the beauty of other girls, nor their sensuality affect the one in love. He has that one and only, whom he dreams about.

Third, he treats the beloved with reverence. If previously he allowed himself flat jokes about women or mocking, now disrespectful attitude or frivolous mention of the beloved becomes simply impossible.

Fourth, the young man stops eating. He neglects all his affairs, forgets about his favorite work. Projects, dreams, successful initiatives - all this becomes bland and uninteresting. The best and most prestigious job loses its meaning for a while.

Fifth, his attitude towards people changes. If previously the young man saw around him cunning, evil, selfish, and cruel people, unexpectedly in the same people he discovers something else - kind-heartedness, benevolence, willingness to help and forgive. And first of all, he becomes softer, kinder, and more tolerant towards his close ones. There's a simple law: as you treat your close ones, so you will treat strangers; as you treat your parents, so you will treat all relatives and close ones. Because parents are your closest relatives in the world.

Sixth, the young man, who previously was ready to attack the offender with fists, suddenly forgives him and extends his hand to reconcile.

Seventh, all the pleasures that previously the young man considered the meaning of life suddenly sharply lose their attractiveness. Varied food, alcohol, various entertainments turn out to be boring and unnecessary. And the highest pleasure - sexual delights with girlfriends - becomes frankly unpleasant. And even memories of such pleasures become somewhat shameful because they infringe upon love in the soul.

Eighth, the young man always liked to receive gifts. The less effort he put in and the better he earned from it, the more he was pleased. But now, having fallen in love, he is surprised to find that freebies have become unpleasant, that he is happier giving than taking, that a thing he got without earning it poisons his soul. The desire to receive without earning leads to the soul's disability - he suddenly understood this sharply.

Ninth, in the past, selfishness was much more important than morality, and often for the sake of gain, the young man had to lie and deceive others. But now that he's in love, he feels he can't lie to his beloved, that insincerity kills love. He involuntarily transfers the same attitude to all those around him. And then he feels that his soul begins to open and fill with happiness. A lying person locks his soul in a prison because we deceive for gain. One who lies robs another at the soul level, and this is the heaviest kind of theft.

Tenth, the person in love does not envy. Envy is fear, jealousy, and greed. When a person lacks love, he lacks energy: he will not be able to catch up with the one who has outstripped him. Such a person, instead of earning money, tends to steal it or dreams of taking it from those who have it. The loving one is a source of happiness himself. The giver is happy, the taker is dependent and resentful. Love gives a person the main freedom, inner independence. Christ said: «...everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin», that is, a person who is internally unfree.

So, the state of a person in love: through love for a close person, the attitude towards the whole world changes, character and fate change. The first step determines all the others.

I think it's clear what we're discussing. The Ten Commandments given to Moses describe the state of a person in love. Only this love is directed towards God. This love allows a person to transform, to reach a completely new level of interaction between people.

To understand the meaning of the Ten Commandments, it is necessary to see their unity. The Ten Commandments, received by Moses, differ significantly from each other, but only at the superficial level. The essence of each commandment, in fact, is the same. They all call for one thing. They contain a single universal algorithm - love.

This algorithm is most clearly expressed in the first commandment. Therefore, all other commandments are derived from the first one. However, if we analyze at the superficial level, the Ten Commandments are divided into two streams, two directions. The first three commandments define our relationship with God. The fourth commandment is a transitional link from divine logic to human. The remaining six commandments define our relationship with people and the world.

At a seminar in Israel, I talked about how all 613 commandments of the Old Testament are reduced to the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and they stem from them. To be more precise, the 613 commandments are reduced to seven; seven to three; and three to one - the main one.

Thus, the first three commandments are dedicated to the relationship with God. What then are the remaining commandments dedicated to? Upon reflection, they are divided into two streams, two directions. The essence of these two directions is simple - they are our instincts.

No living being can live and develop if its instincts are extinguished. The desire to continue one's kind makes a person seek sustenance, enjoy food. This desire generates sexual feelings in a person, necessary for the birth of children, pushes him towards sexual pleasure.

The instinct of self-preservation makes a person run from danger. It prompts a person to build a dwelling, ensure their protection. This instinct makes one care about the future, generates ambition, the desire for power, forms the will to win. These instincts are necessary, but worshiping them imperceptibly turns a person into an animal.

The Holy Scriptures say that God will not allow a person to turn into an animal. Such people will be sick and die. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah began to worship the instinct of procreation, which led to the degeneration of their souls and then physical destruction. Worshiping instincts sooner or later leads to the degeneration of offspring.

Thus, the six commandments defining the relationship with people and the world are instructions for overcoming dependence on instincts. For those who restrain lust, gluttony, and covetousness, the instinct of procreation gradually becomes secondary. Those who restrain the desire to kill, rob, lie, those who overcome greed and envy, put the instinct of self-preservation in second place, and love for God - in the first.

Scientists now know for sure that not only animals but also insects have tools of labor, consciousness, and speech. Moreover, experiments prove that even bacteria have consciousness and their own social life. But only humans have religious beliefs. It is faith in God that allows overcoming dependence on instincts, helping to ensure strategic survival.

In monotheism, faith is combined with love and morality. Without this, higher levels of development are unattainable. The reason for the demise of many previous civilizations on Earth was that, realizing instincts, developing the body and consciousness, they forgot about the soul and morality. And with the loss of the first three commandments, it becomes impossible to fulfill the others. As long as the pursuit of God, conscious or intuitive, is primary for a person, they are allowed to develop, to have health and prosperity.

Today's civilization worships instincts. The television screen is filled with scenes of sex and violence. I never understood why the Roman people demanded: "Bread and circuses!" and why the highly developed Roman civilization perished from the invasion of barbarians. It turns out that this phrase embodies the worship of two instincts. The desire to which the Roman people were drawn was divided into two streams: bread - as a symbol of life continuation, and spectacles, entertainments - as the satisfaction of the instinct of self-preservation. The richer the state, the more pleasures the people received, the faster the souls degenerated, and the empire's decay and destruction approached.

But almost two thousand years before the fall of the Roman Empire, the commandments addressed to the people of Israel stated:

When you eat and are satisfied, and build good houses and live [in them], and when you have a lot of cattle and small livestock, and have a lot of silver and gold, and have a lot of everything, - then watch out lest your heart become haughty and you forget the Lord your God... (Deuteronomy 8:12-14)

But if you forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, and serve and worship them, then I testify to you today [by heaven and earth] that you will perish... (Deuteronomy 8:19)