Kabbalah on Education

Kabbalah comes to the rescue to today’s education and parenting crisis

Sibling jealousy is a natural reaction of egoism.

This is a natural reaction of egoism. Parents may try to explain to a younger child how they would like him to behave, but it’s impossible to demand a correct reaction from him. It’s written, “Educate a lad according to his path.” This means that parents have to compensate their elder child for his new position in the family, so that he feels that a good attitude towards the newborn is advantageous for him.

When a younger child is born, a mother feels excited that the family has become larger. An elder child should feel the same. How? For instance, he can receive a present “from” a younger sibling. That is, a child should see that a new baby allows him to derive something positive for his egoism. Otherwise the elder sibling will hate the younger one, as he senses that his mother’s attention is switched to the baby, everyone takes care of it, and not him. 

In previous generations, sibling jealousy probably wasn’t so acute, because people lived in more modest conditions, or elder children had more friends with whom they could play and thus paid less attention to their younger siblings. But today, parents need to fulfill the desires of the elder children, showing them that they receive something good thanks to a newborn baby in the family.

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