Question: The Rambam says that the truth should be revealed gradually to those who are small. When working with children, we do not impose unification on them directly, but try to weave this message into games and studies. Can an overly direct message harm and repel a child?

Answer: As we develop we go through four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. As a rule, on the still level objects usually take on whatever form you give them if you have enough energy to do that. By exerting the right amount of energy, you can destroy the structure of a metal and rebuild it through heating, pressure, and other such influences.

On the vegetative level the situation is different: In order to give a plant a different form, you have to understand its nature. Say, a tree requires specific types of cultivation and care, and if you are an expert at what you do, then you will receive the necessary form by accompanying the tree in the process of its growth.

Stated differently, you have to grow to a level where you can take care of the tree, which involves bringing it inside of yourself and getting to know it. Then, based on this inner image, you can carry out work with the external form and receive a result.

In order to deal with the animate level of development, it is again necessary to learn its nature, to ascend above it, and include it inside of you. Then you can tame and train animals. Of course, it has to happen within specific boundaries, but you can train them to carry out certain forms of behavior which they are able to learn. And a children’s instructor works analogously.

These levels of development—still, vegetative, and animate—are small, “childish” states compared to an adult, and they end at the degree of “age 13.” From “age 13″ on, you are dealing with the human being in a person, and accordingly, you treat him completely differently. You accept him into your group, treat him as a friend, and raise him through examples of mutual partnership, offering him a place for work.

These are the phases of work with children’s groups.
[46759]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: What happens “behind the scenes” of my actions when during the reading of The Book of Zohar I make repeated efforts to return to the intention, but they seem futile to me?

Answer: Your efforts determine your qualities of perception, your sensitivity, and then you make the revelation. Everything is in front of you, but your lack of sensitivity does not allow you to reveal the system of connection between the souls that The Zohar tells you about. Your efforts and prayer build the instruments of perception inside of you in order to feel that picture.

Question: I repeatedly keep trying to build my intention anew, but it seems like I make the same efforts and feel the same thing I did a week ago, as if nothing changed….

Answer: Suppose I am among musicians. Looking at them, I see how they listen to every sound and discern the combination of different sounds, and I see how important this is to them. As I look at them, I learn about how to treat sounds. Then, as a result of my efforts, I become more sensitive and begin feeling them.

Then I ask the musicians questions and they explain things to me, but I don’t understand their explanations. “A fourth,” “a fifth,” “glissando, “forte”—these words don’t say anything to me, just like the unintelligible terminology in The Book of Zohar.

But I want to learn them! That is why I try to become a bit more sensitive to them and to feel them. Then, because we are in a special system, according to my efforts, desire, and aspiration, I begin to feel. That is how a child develops as well: He wants to become big and is always running around, never tiring and researching everything around.

We wonder: How can children watch the same cartoon or listen to the same story a thousand times over? However, it’s a thousand times to us because we don’t develop any longer. But a child lives in that story. When he listens to the tale about Little Red Riding Hood today, to him this is a completely new story, not like yesterday. You look at him and think, “Fine, I’ll tell him the story. Let him sit quietly, calm down, and enjoy it….” But he hears this story anew every time! And even though he also knows it by heart, when he repeats it together with you, he relives it all over again. It’s similar to how you have to eat today even though you ate yesterday. That’s what happens to him too!

Therefore, our entire work is to develop the sensitivity to acquire new qualities of perception.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/11, The Zohar

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Unity is not equalization, but mutual inclusion. The method of education is based on this idea as well: Everyone is unique, and hence children develop through discussions that allow them to learn other children’s opinions no matter how numerous these opinions are.

Thanks to this method, each child absorbs from the others, becomes imbued with their way of being, and grows to be even more unique. The child receives from everyone else and grows on that, developing his own properties.

This is what we want to achieve with our method of education. People unite correctly, making a contact, communicating with each other, and build a human society themselves, a society which is based on mutual inclusion of each into all and all into each. As a result, everybody’s uniqueness flourishes even more.

To do this, children conduct discussions, which we direct and manage just a little bit. Meanwhile, everybody has an opportunity to speak out, experience the role of a judge and defendant, advocate and prosecutor. We develop a human being in each child only through mutual inclusion.

Then, from year to year, children will grow more different from each other. The difference between them will strike one’s eye every time, but so what? Namely this will give power to the following unification. That’s the entire point: Without suppressing the individual, we build a community from great personalities.

Thereby the method of Kabbalah allows us to use the entire creation. Otherwise, we simply destroy a person, reducing him to a cog in the machine, whereas in fact, each detail, conscious of its indispensability, should put this machine into action.
[42866]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, “Peace in the World”

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Education is a special topic. It is interesting that people almost did not think about education over the course of human history. A little person grew among the grown-ups and learned from them. Parents did not need to take special classes to learn how to raise their children. Like animals, we practiced regular and natural education.

Kindergartens and schools appeared during the industrialization period, when people started working in factories, and mothers also had to start working. Until then, most children grew naturally at home.

In reality, nothing is more important than education. No wonder we are now experiencing a crisis in this area. People never thought that they needed to follow a certain system in education and that the growing generation requires a sensible approach. Take us: Who teaches us? What criteria do they follow, which method, which program? Instead of receiving education in schools, we receive knowledge.

Overall, schools appeared when a need arose to bring peasants to the cities, so they needed to be taught elementary grammar and arithmetic in order to work with simple industrial machines. People needed to be taught to read and understand manuals. This was the beginning of the two hundred year old institution of school for the masses.

We envision general education as the continuation of the ancient human wisdom. However, essentially, people only began to rise above the animate level in the nineteenth to twentieth century.

People never gave a serious thought to proper education. What should a person become when he or she grows up? Do we turn him into a Human? These questions are ignored even now. We send a child to math, physics, or computer specialized schools, without thinking of the individual this person will become. Who cares about the individual? What matters is to find a good job in our “bourgeois” life.

Moreover, this is happening because humanity has not come to a consensus, a common opinion of what it means “to be a human.” We tell the child: “Be good to others so they will enjoy dealing with you.” This is what out education mostly comes down to.

The problem is that society does not demand a connection between people. And today, once we have come to a general crisis, the crisis of education especially stands out. This is because the young generation is new souls with new demands of the new world. We call them the “Indigo children,” stuff them with Ritalin, and think that they do not understand us. In reality, we are the ones who do not understand them; we are the ones lagging behind life. We were not taught to understand these children.

They demand development at a new level. Similarly, a person whose point in the heart awakens ceases to understand other people who live a regular, “corporeal” life. And our children also look at us and do not understand: “What are you living for? We do not want your life, we are not willing to live like you and are incapable of it.”

If we want to find a connection with them, we need to introduce a new kind of education. And even though we fall short of this role, being the transitional stage before the new generation, we still need to complete this stage to the end.
[40961]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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We found the topic of education to be in high demand within the framework of mass dissemination of Kabbalah. Suddenly, this channel has opened wide before us. Everyone is ready to forge relationships and listen: “Just advise us about what to do with the growing generation which we are unable to approach.”

Our children are a completely different story: Judging by their questions and answers and their attitude towards life, we can see that they represent a completely different generation. We have put a lot of effort into them; let us hope that this will serve all of us.

We have named the upcoming year the year of education. We have dedicated the third hour of the morning lesson to developing the principles which we will use to formulate the method. We are beginning to document the materials, so you will soon be receiving them in all the different languages.

Moreover, it is very important to involve children in our website for children, try to push them, give them prizes for participation. We need to develop a connection between them—this guarantees success. We bring them closer to Kabbalistic sources and teach them unity in a simple way. At the same time, the Light flows through these sources, and we discover how advanced our beloved children are.

For example, in Israel 13-14 year-old children enroll in college level classes. Colleges are not ready to accept them to study psychology, assuming that these are regular children, so they will study education, communications, and other disciplines. This way they will finish high school and have a college diploma at the age of 17-18. And they are ready for this.

Moreover, our mentors and some parents will study together with them. We are referring to an education diploma, and education is our specialty. We need to become teachers, educators of the entire world. I hope that you will take this as good advice.

We are discussing joint programs with the UN and UNESCO. Over the course of the year, you will receive many books, films, and educational games from us. We will try to create a large children’s portal on the Internet, designed for gradual advancement, as well as a virtual community, which will enable the children to feel much more united than we are. The entire world will be at their disposal for them to unite around the world, armed with the method, knowledge, and education and to become people in the full sense of the word.
[40955]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: What are our plans regarding the education of Palestinian children?

Answer: We have students from Arabic countries and other Muslim regions. I do not see any difference between them and all the others. We have students from the Palestinian Authority, Iran; during the lessons, we receive questions from people from Syria and other places. One of the international meetings about educational issues within the UNESCO framework was organized by a Saudi prince, and we received a personal invitation from him.

Education is a world problem, and through it, we can establish connections over countries and differences. Of course, there is the question of religion, and this will remain a source of deep separation between people until, in the words of  Baal HaSulam, we establish a single religion, that of love and bestowal.

Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” that there is no other religion besides love. Everything else is customs that people have accepted. Let us hope that the different crises together with our dissemination will make the world understand that they need to rise above the differences.

The education that we are developing is common for everyone, it does not have any specificity. So I think that as soon as our Arabic brothers will want to accept it and will be ready for it, there will be a method waiting for them: We are preparing it in Arabic as well.

Moreover, since the times of Abraham, Islam has a movement called Sufism. I have met its representatives many times. Naturally, they understand what it is we are talking about, and we can work with them to disseminate the new method of education.

The problem is that radical Islamic circles do not recognize them: Sufis have been exiled from Arabic countries and live in the US and in England. I hope that this position will change because nature prevails regardless. We must go through these stages—The Zohar describes this particular course of development. Soon the transition period will be over, and people will feel that they exist in a global world.
[41081]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: How can a person know that he is ready to be a teacher, and are there classes for this?

Answer: First of all, a person must have a disposition to teach, meaning not to lecture (every person can do this egoistically), but to explain, to observe how the student works and whether he accepts the teacher’s opinion. A teacher also needs to possess the ability to learn from the students, adapt and explain according to the changes.

I do not think that every person is capable of doing this; however, there are many areas in education. Some people do not like to speak and explain things, but suddenly prove themselves as good practical leaders. They play with the children, organize groups, and take them on field trips.

Our education is different in the way that we, primarily, want to teach the children about life. We show them museums, factories, and hospitals, although this, of course, depends on their age. They become acquainted with the operations of an airport, railway station, and bank. We make plans with the managers of a facility ahead of time, and when the children arrive, they are explained the production process.

We explain to them where they are going to ahead of time. Once the children return, they sit together in a circle and discuss the things they understood, how a certain mechanism operates and its purpose, and so on. We want them to know everything about life: how restaurants, hospitals, factories, and zoos operate. They take notes during the field trip, and then they write an essay and discuss it together with their teachers. This expands their world view.

We do many things within the framework of mutual agreement. When someone gets in a fight, argues, or has a misunderstanding, this is discussed among everyone. Sometimes we even have a mock trial: We assign children to be the judge, the attorney, the jury, the witnesses, and the audience. Roles change next time around.

This way every child learns to see himself or herself through the eyes of others: how a judge, the prosecutor, the audience, and others see him or her. A child begins to develop and see a wider world than his narrow view.

There are other examples, but the key element is to have a discussion in a circle. There is no such thing that children sit in class and look at the teacher: Everyone is equal in a circle, including the teachers.

The teacher lowers himself to the common level and remains among the children, without standing out. He manages them in such an unnoticeable way that they do not perceive it. And we teach them to be responsible: judge, defend, accuse. Children have an enormous ability to absorb, and we must use it.

Any person able to teach or manage a group, prepare material, or develop the method can be a teacher. We need different professionals to work with children, both boys and girls. Usually, they study separately, but sometimes we combine them.
[41084]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: What is the method of teaching Kabbalah to children?

Answer: It is very easy to explain any phenomenon to a child. It only seems difficult to us; however, that is not so.

It is written that the one teaching a child is as if writing on a blank sheet of paper, whereas we, grown-ups, must write on paper we ourselves have doodled on. First we must neutralize our thoughts, desires, prejudices, and preconceptions, erase many things within, and only after we can try writing something. But experience shows that it is easy working with children.

I have seen this in my son’s example. When I began studying with Rabash, I would repeat the material we read during the lesson at home. My seven year-old son would sit next to me, and I would recite the text back to him in order to better take in the material. I saw that he perceived and remembered it better than I did. I asked him questions, and he answered correctly.

Then I understood that the more pure the person, even still a child, the more naturally he perceives Kabbalah. This is because in reality, it is a science of nature, and we see this on the children. I am jealous of how naturally they all perceive it!

Many things register in them simply through repetition, without having to sense them, because their sensory mechanism has not yet been developed. The sensation will come at a later time, during the time of the eruption of hormones. But by then, they will already be filled with different laws and formulas. So once their hormones will start working and desires will begin to surge, they will know how to regulate them.
[41087]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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We are developing the method of correction during our daily lessons. We build it from the primary sources and their explanations, from questions and answers. We are creating an educational system within the same framework.

A special channel of dissemination of Kabbalah for the entire world opens here. After all, education is every parent’s headache or, actually, a heartache. Everyone is concerned about their children in every part of the world, North and South America, Asia, Africa, Russia and Europe, China and Japan. The problem of education is awakening everywhere to various extents.

This is why the world is ready to listen to our developments in this area. We are communicating with UNESCO, the top organization responsible for education around the world. We were very well received, and our representatives have already participated in two events in New York and Moscow.

We have discovered that the world is aching to solve this problem, but no one has the solution. UNESCO has high expectations for us, and they are inspired with the quantity of our materials regarding this topic. It is true that today, our materials are breaking all boundaries. Every week we produce 50-100 pages of new text. At the same time, we are working on a new book which will be published under the aegis of UNESCO. Several more large projects are waiting in line.

There is no doubt that if we manage to create one “good” generation, in their turn, they will know how to raise their children. For this reason, the entire problem is in figuring out a way to form one generation that will receive an education instead of plain knowledge, which will give us the ability to turn the children into human beings in the  full sense of this word.

They will know the reason and purpose of their existence, how they can connect with one another, why they begin with the breaking, and why they need to correct themselves. Briefly speaking, they will know how to have a proper attitude toward the world.

Next, we are realizing educational programs with the group of our children. We correct it and find many new approaches along the way. For example, we have discovered that children teach one another very well. For instance, the fourteen-year-old teaches the ten-year-old.

This is because the younger ones see the older ones as role models, and they want to be like them, while the older ones are proud of their role. In the end, the age difference creates a great bond. Overall, children growing up according to the new method become completely different.

Essentially, the entirety of Kabbalah is a science of education; we use it to educate ourselves. However, this becomes very evident among children. It is no mistake that they happen to be growing up in our arms from their infancy. The matter depends on us because they are already prepared to receive the spiritual method of education from us.

The Study of the Ten Sefirot explains the growth of the spiritual person within us. We can raise a child according to the same principles as we take him through the years (degrees) toward maturity, not just the physical one, but the spiritual one. This is the method we are trying to develop, build, and realize.

This summer, we are planning to open a two-week summer camp for children around the world. The program will be broadcast over the Internet so that every child can connect to the common activities since this will be happening over the summer vacation. We will try to support the children’s unity in the future as well so that they will eventually grow into the new, international, virtual as well as physical group.
[40957]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: My three year old daughter watches your lessons together with me. Is this material enough for her, or does she need other content?

Answer: I am hearing many similar questions here, and it surprises me a lot. What do you expect of such young children? Who told you that you should drag a three-year-old girl to the lesson? Where have you seen this? Why are you not learning from what we do with our children?

We do not do this. See what we do, and do the same. We gradually let children older than six listen to certain things and sing together with us.
[41460]
From Lesson 7, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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