People often look down on the idea of play. If you tell someone they are playing, they might take offense. “I’m not playing,” they will say with pride, as though play belongs only to children and has no place in serious adult life. Yet this attitude reveals a misunderstanding of what play truly is.
What does it mean to play? It does not mean escaping reality or living in fantasy. Play is the ability to aspire for something greater than your current state. It is the courage to imagine a higher possibility and to begin acting as though it already exists. In this sense, every meaningful form of growth begins with play.
Children understand this naturally. When they play, they try on new identities and possibilities. They imagine themselves stronger, wiser, braver, and more capable. Through play, they develop. They become something more than they were before. The tragedy is that adults mostly lose this ability. Somewhere along the way, they stop playing.
When we stop playing, life gradually loses its vitality. We become trapped in routine, weighed down by responsibilities, and disconnected from aspiration. Likewise, depression, apathy, and emptiness arise when people no longer feel drawn toward something higher than their present condition. Life no longer compels them to reach beyond themselves.
In reality, life itself is a kind of game, but not a childish one. It is a game of development. The question is whether we participate consciously or simply drift along. Even suffering has a role in this process. Difficulties and disappointments can push us to search for a better state, to imagine a different way of living, and to begin moving toward it.
Humanity today finds itself at a dead end. We have achieved unprecedented technological and material progress, yet many people feel lost, uncertain, and disconnected. What is the way forward? According to Kabbalah, the answer is that we must begin to play the state that we wish to attain.
What state is that? Friendship, love, mutual care, and positive human connection.
At first, such an idea might sound naïve or childish. Yet every significant change begins with imagination and effort. We do not wait until we naturally feel love for others before acting accordingly. We begin by behaving as if such a connection is possible. We make deliberate efforts to create it, even when it does not yet exist within us. Like actors rehearsing a role, we gradually grow into it.
This does not mean hypocrisy. It means conscious development. At first, I might not genuinely feel warmth toward another person. Yet if I consistently aspire for a benevolent attitude, I begin to create a new inner reality. What starts as an effort eventually becomes a feeling. What begins as a game gradually turns into life itself.
The most important game, then, is not competition, status, or achievement. It is the game of building good relationships between people. Perhaps we should not even call it friendship and love, because those words often sound sentimental. More accurately, it is the effort to create benevolent connection, mutual support, and a common understanding that our well-being depends on each other.
As such awareness develops, a new picture of reality emerges. We begin to see that we are deeply interconnected. My physical and emotional well-being depends on others, and theirs depends on me. We are parts of a single system in which every attitude, thought, and action influences the whole.
This interdependence is a law of nature. The way we relate to others shapes the world we experience. If we approach the world with hostility, separation, and suspicion, we strengthen those qualities in the environment around us. If we cultivate care, understanding, and connection, we gradually discover a different reality.
In this sense, every person is constantly painting the world they live in. The colors come from their attitude toward others. And if humanity is to enter a new stage of development, it will happen through this game: learning to build positive human connections until such connections become our new nature.
Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 13, 2026. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.