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The Most Egoistic Desire: to Be an Altruist

But being born selfish doesn’t mean we will remain selfish forever. Remember that the Creator is benevolent; He has nothing on His mind but giving. As a result, He creates creatures that want only to receive. These creatures begin to receive what He gives, more, and more, and more. Endlessly. As the will to receive evolves in creatures, an almost magical transformation takes place. They not only want what the Creator gives, but they also want to actually be Creators. Think of how every child wants to become like his or her parents. Think, too, how the very basis of learning is the little one’s desire to grow. Kabbalists say the child’s will to be a grown up stems from the creature’s desire to be like its Creator. 

If your parents are your
role models, you would
study their actions and do
your best to emulate them
and become a grownup, too.
Similarly, if the Creator is
your role model, you would study the Creator in order to become
like Him. If the Creator you study is all about giving, about
benevolence, you can see how the extreme egoism of wanting
to become “Creatorlike” can be turned into altruism (which we 

explore more fully in upcoming
chapters), because that’s
what He is. In Kabbalah, the
ability to be like the Creator
is called “achieving the attribute
of bestowal.”
The implication, though
it may sound like an oxymoron,
is that every person’s most egoistic desire is to be like the
Creator: a total altruist