What Is the Meaning of the Saying, “If I Am Not for Myself, Who Is for Me? If I Am Only for Myself, What Am I? If Not Now, When?”
These are words that call a person to action. They point to our need to take responsibility for our correction, i.e., for changing our egoistic human nature to its altruistic opposite.
No one else can perform that correction for us. If we do not become useful corrected elements in this world, then we have missed our role. Moreover, if we fail to carry out that role now, when the opportunity is in our hands, then when will we do it? There are no guarantees on what will happen tomorrow.
We should thus use the opportunity that presents itself to correct ourselves so that the world becomes corrected through us. As we each accept such a role, the positive force of love, bestowal, and connection that dwells in nature flows through us into the world. That is how correction spreads: by changing ourselves while in connection with others. We then become conduits or bridges that connect others. That is what it means to serve our purpose and bring ourselves into balance with nature.
What Is the Meaning of King Solomon’s Words, “What Has Been Will Be. What Happened Will Happen. There Is Nothing New Under the Sun”?
It means that the human ego develops through cycles of correction, where the details shift, circumstances evolve, but the core remains unchanged.
The final outcome of this developmental process is for egoism to transform into altruism, that we will rise above our egoistic nature and acquire a second nature consisting of the qualities of love, bestowal, and connection.
Until we reach such an attainment, we are on this repetitive path.
What, then, is new in this process? Only our inner changes. While these words of wisdom might be ancient, they live fresh in every moment we choose love over hatred, connection over separation, altruism over egoism, and unity over division.