Our view of the world and its Creator’s view are very different.
From our perspective, there is always a giver and a taker. Whether the merchandise be knowledge, affection, or money, somebody always comes out on top and the other on the bottom.
In the Creator’s view, giver and taker are one. The taker is really giving and the giver, receiving.
For without the opportunity to give, the giver would be forever imprisoned within his own self.
For Feige in Jerusalem How taking can be giving is discussed in depth in "The Lunar File" Reply
I always enjoy your daily chizuk. It gives me much food for thought as I go about my day.
But this one perplexes me... yes, I understand (between the lines) that we should aim for a higher level to emulate G-d in His Being a simultaneous Giver and Taker.
But I don't understand how the "taker" is really giving in the same moment. Besides a) my giving an acknowledgment of gratitude and b) my feeling that I want to LATER reciprocate (give back to the other person or to Hashem), I assume you're implying something deeper. Do you mean that taking should permeate within me a feeling that I want/need to give back? If so, then I'm always thinking of the quid-proquo and not able to accept and be grateful for the other's "unconditional" giving?
Spiritually, it is clear to me that the "giver also takes" and this is (or should be) even inherent to the unconditional giving process. But I don't understand this inherent parallel to the "taking" process...
Much appreciation If you can clarify!
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Here is an example. When I was a young man and going through some financial distress, my loving grandfather, who was on fixed income, unsolicited offered...no, make that, handed me some money. I immediately refused the money, telling him I would be okay without it. When I told him that he immediately began to sadly cry, saying he wanted to give me the money to help me. At that moment it clicked with me. I was tge giver that moment for if I accepted his gift, I would be giving my grandfather the pleasure he wanted of giving to me, his grandson. And, thus, he became the receiver of the joy of giving that my receiving his giving gave to him. That lesson, that sometimes receiving can be giving and giving can be receiving stayed with me now for all the years since (about 40 years, as I am now 65.) And, that true experience story still resonates with me as I now am getting pleasure in sharing it here. Reply
In response to Jeff.
Your sharing this story, the point is made.
The act of taking allows that person to express gratitude, and gives the giver the opportunity of generosity for an act of virtue. The act of giving allows that taker that accepting the kindness of another expresses their own humility....also a virtue.
It is all one.
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Thank you your experience of taking and giving. It is a beautiful example of how giving and receiving works well.
I have experienced the giving of love and feeling good to give love all within myself. If i give love i receive the feeling and the pleasure of love.
An extreme example of give and take is between two people, one a total giver and one a total receiver. When the taker is taking all the time that creates chaos. Between two people the taker needs to give more than allowing the giver person to take. The giver needs to receive from another person.
I think of the story of Leah and Rachel and how Rachel gave Jacob to Leah. What were the lessons? Am i confusing taking and receiving?
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In the Creator's view there is no top, no bottom. There is, between humans, only the horizontal... Mutual respect ..
No "taker" (sounds "greedy") but a "receiver" - open hands, not grasping ones..
Great.
Giver and taker one, as in "communicating vessels", receiving.... giving.... giving...receiving... and so on. In material ways and/or spiritually there is always (for one who sees) interaction both ways ..
What about those that manipulate and force their taking? In this case, you haven't had an opportunity to give.
I have witnessed gentiles laughing about how much they can get from minorities, because, especially Jews (unlike non-Jews) will give everything they have got in their relationships, eager to date those that were once off limits. Hence everyone knows Jews can be badly exploited.
I have a major problem with non-Jews pressuring me to have relationships with them (and I'm not particularly physically attractive). People no longer accept boundaries. They laugh and say "so what?" when I say I am Jewish.
There is a point where it is not spirituality, but a matter of being controlled (even willingly).
This "providing" behavior has caused countless Jewish women and Christian men to be lonely, because the Christians left their men, taking the men away from the Jewish women, and leaving their own men desperate. Why do you think our country is so divided & Jews are hated again?
On point with the word "receiver" Marianne!
Don't listen to the ideologues of the "majority" just because they are the majority, does not deem them to have good character. At one point nazi's were the majority, something to think about. What you speak of is an awareness in having good judgment with people. Educate yourself, be aware, listen to your gut and don't push it down. God is within you.
The modern social issue stems from this poor and ill-perceived ideology of "equality" and "feminism" in the secular world. The consequence of that is that men become nihilistic because their role as a man is taken away from them by the modern "feminist." A loss of spiritual faith, lack of responsibility, poor ethics, moral character, and self-regulation. This causes an imbalance by devaluing family, motherhood, having children, and it is not a healthy direction for meaning in our society.
I was not blessed with a Jewish birth. But If I had. No human would be able to take that from me.