How Do I Overcome My Gambling Addiction?

Michael Laitman
3 min readSep 7, 2023

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The attraction to gambling stems from a strong feeling of lacking connection with fate.

What is a lack of connection with fate? It is a lack of a harmonious connection between people and nature, or to a pathway to such a goal.

At the basis of all of our desires is a desire to connect with the source of our lives, the force of love, bestowal and connection that created and sustains us, and which can fulfill us completely.

In terms of overcoming a destructive gambling addiction, then it is written that the Torah heals everyone. I recommend that anyone addicted to gambling open and read the books of Kabbalah. The method of Kabbalah provides a process of gambling, i.e., undertaking risks, experiments and searches to find and feel a certain spark that exists within us.

We are on a developmental course to discover that force, but we do not all know about that goal or about the process we are in toward its attainment.

We thus wish to know our fate, the process we are in, what is rooted in nature and the plan by which nature operates.

Accordingly, by gambling, we feel like scientists in a lab. We express our desire to reveal the formula by which nature and humanity operate.

I understand and feel gamblers, even though I am not a gambler myself and I have never held any attraction to gambling. My wife, however, an adult lady, has an interest in playing various gambling-style games. It stems from searching for the force of fate that works on us and if we will bring people an opportunity to meet that force, then they will feel it.

It might seem as if an obsessive gambler just wants to make money fast, but it is not about the money. They can happily lose and win money, so it is not about losing or gaining. Rather, internally, the gambling addict seeks connection with the upper force that is operating on us at every moment. There is a spiritual aspect to it, as there is with all games.

What is the spiritual aspect to games? Games are actions in which their players rise from one level to another. When we play games, we do not know their outcomes. That is how life is. In such a sense, we could say that a scientist conducting various experiments or research is a kind of gambler.

We behave likewise in many areas of our lives. If we wish to progress on safe grounds, then we need to detach ourselves from the idea of fate and enter into a gamble.

In terms of overcoming a destructive gambling addiction, then it is written that the Torah heals everyone. I recommend that anyone addicted to gambling open and read the books of Kabbalah. The method of Kabbalah provides a process of gambling, i.e., undertaking risks, experiments and searches to find and feel a certain spark that exists within us. It leaves us on the edge of our seats, so to speak, in that we could either lose that spark or increase its intensity at every moment. By applying ourselves to the Kabbalistic method, we gain a lot of fulfillment while acquiring more knowledge, awareness and wisdom about our lives, and we regularly engage in a game to progress ourselves to greater and higher levels of perception of reality.

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Michael Laitman

PhD in Philosophy and Kabbalah. MSc in Medical Bio-Cybernetics. Founder and president of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute.