The Hidden World

By Yaakov and Varda Branfman

There is a world that exists besides the world we know. It’s a world where every instance and every happening presents itself as an opportunity to perform a kindness for someone, and almost every object is a possible vehicle of kindness. The person who lives in that world has experienced a paradigm shift, a reprogramming, an awakening to the importance of giving to others and using the things at his disposal for giving.
 
Enter the phenomenon of free-loaning. Lend out a book, an article of clothing, or a sum of money, and see how the emphasis gets taken off the thing and put on the people involved in a spirit of one human being happily helping another. You are now engaged in an interaction that is free of any hidden agenda for self-aggrandizement or profit.

The closest thing to it is the barter system which became popular in the late sixties, and still flourishes. In this system, people decide they want to reduce their reliance on money through bartering goods and services. If you need something and I need something, we might be able to make a switch.

But free-loaning is something else entirely. It’s when you don’t take anything for what you give. You just give. That’s revolutionary.

Here, it is people and not things that matter. When the focus shifts to people, the quality of life improves dramatically. “The Hidden World” explores specific areas where free loaning has been applied with wonderful results, even to the point of saving people’s lives.

This is truly revolutionary. In fact, the revolutionaries are doing very staid and conventional things compared to this. They’re not breaking down any of the basic tenets of society. They’re just talking about changing politics and economics. Maybe they want the wealth to be more equally shared, or they want to make more opportunities for people.

But we’re talking about a society that doesn’t have competitive or materialistic goals as its root value system. It’s simply about people helping people.   

It sounds like a utopian society. Or one that exists only in the World to Come, the next world after this one, where there isn’t going to be any money and no stores, no buying and selling. In the World to Come, when something is needed, it’s just going to be there.

Free-loaning is happening now in this world, and it’s giving us a taste of the World to Come.