Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What happens if a kid hits a teacher?“

Recently in Israel, a ninth grader at an art school in Tel Aviv slapped his teacher in the face, and it was followed by other students in the class applauding him. The student was suspended, and the teachers at the school spoke out against violence and discontinued their work that day.

I see this incident as a result of our current form of education. It is as if that boy gave a slap to the whole education system, and it could be that all teachers and the entire education system need to feel it. He is a result of that system, which includes not only the schooling he receives, but our society in general, our families, schools, workplaces, the media, TV, radio, and what goes on in the streets. If horrible examples are abundant in the environment that influences us, then what do we expect to see in our lives? Today’s youth are simply the results of this environment.

We need to completely change this education system because it currently has no aim of nurturing and growing children into happy, confident and well-connected human beings. Instead, it aims at nothing more than giving people a few subjects, and leading them to a certain grade standard. In other words, today’s education fails to develop the inner human in us.

What should be the main objective of the education system? It should be to develop human beings in the fullest sense of the term. In order to develop human beings, the educators themselves require learning of what that means and how to do it. If we bring about such a change, then we will start seeing the emergence of a whole new harmonious and peaceful society. Children and teens will have a positive attitude toward their parents, teachers and other people in general. We will also know how to positively connect with each other, why we connect, what is the meaning of life, and how to realize it.

That is of utmost importance in education. We will also learn different subjects and topics along the way, but we need a new foundation that defines who and what we are, why we are here, and how we can improve ourselves.

Based on the video “Ninth-Grader Slaps Teacher in the Face – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do people burn books?“

Book burning is an expression of destroying ideas that were built on a previous generation, which is considered outdated and opposed to the ideas of the new generation. Quite frankly, it is an easier action than educating the current generation.

Education, however, cannot be replaced by anything else because its goal is to bring about inner change in people. Everything other than education is something external. Expressing hatred toward certain writers and books is a departure from correct education.

Past writers wrote what they did in a way considered correct for their time. In general, each generation destroys what the previous generation built, but there is a correct way to destroy something in order to correctly build anew.

The correct form of education is when people are taught to love one another. By reaching a common love among everyone, we remove the basis of inequality. Book burning, however, lets hatred proliferate among all strata of the population.

We need an approach where we accept the occurrence of whatever happened in the past, and we should not burn anything or break any monuments. In other words, we should not recall the bad. Instead, from the present moment onward, we should adjust our attitudes to each other—to try and love one another. We would then have no need to destroy anything that came beforehand.

We would then also understand that whatever happened had to have happened the way that it did. We were all young, we soiled our diapers. That is how we grew up. We did silly things, smashed and broke dishes, or whatever else. We all went through such paths of growth.

We undergo natural stages of maturation, and we should not forget about what has happened. Moreover, we have nothing to be ashamed of nor to justify in our past. We just have to understand why nature made us the egoistic beings that we are, and that we have a massive ego still dwelling in us. We should then focus on what we need to do in order to correct our current ego.

The human ego is a desire to benefit at the expense of others and nature. It enslaves each and every one of us within ourselves. If we set ourselves on a path to break free from our enslavement to the ego, we would then become grateful for the pages of history, because they led to our current heightened awareness and the decision to realize our true freedom and independence.

We need to learn how to control the ego dwelling within us correctly. If we destroy it, then we correct nothing, and simply keep ourselves suspended in the air.

Based on the video “Why Do People Burn Books?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Brendan Stephens on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

Selected Highlights

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