Entries in the 'Children' Category

The End of The Slave Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday we have come up against the new generation, which can do anything only if it understands, feels, decides, and agrees with what has to be done. Otherwise it won’t do anything. We also see this by the events that are now happening all over the world. A new wave is rising, or in other words, a new level of the common soul is awakening in all of humanity.

The modern generation is contraindicative of a morally-righteous upbringing which threatens a person and forces moral teachings on him, telling him, “Look at us as an example and act the same way.” This is not enough for the young generation. They will not take this path. On the contrary, they will copy the worst examples and won’t be able to have a grip on themselves so as to abide by your wonderful models.

The new generation won’t accept anything just because that’s how it has to be. Even though a child absorbs many things automatically, still, if we raise the modern kids by reward and punishment, it won’t work. That’s because egoism grows from one day to the next and you won’t be able to withstand it. Therefore, habit will become second nature to them.

Right before our very eyes a new nature is maturing inside children, and it demands that you hand them a method. You want to give a child ready-made results that he will implement like a small machine that you operate where he looks at you and repeats everything. But that won’t work. Children see right through you. They are constantly studying and analyzing you. You are completely transparent to them.

We have to understand that this generation requires a very rational and logical method that it could understand and then use according to that understanding.

The slave generation has ended, or the generation of machines that were personified even by Charlie Chaplin. Today we have to think about how to give the youth an explanation of the process of development, reality and their place in it, the goal, the path of governance, and the opportunities standing before every person.

In short, it is necessary to show a person the limits within which he really is a free creature. The new generation is very different from us and therefore we shouldn’t develop methods to train them so they would obediently stay close by, but a method of passing on wisdom according to a person’s age. Then children will use and realize this wisdom through their behavior, and then all that will remain for us to do is to check whether we have given it to them correctly. We will see this by the results.

In the past education and upbringing were based on reward and punishment. Children were stuffed into different boundaries and held on a short leash. They were told, “This is how you have to act.” But today this won’t work because the Creator requires us to reach the realization of evil, the understanding of what happens in life. We have to learn to control ourselves according to the importance of the goal. This is a person’s independent work.

The soul has no age. It doesn’t matter in whom it awakens, an adult or a child. We have to understand that we are obligated to provide a method of correction for the young and the old so they would grow only by it.
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From the talk on education on 2/19/11

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Leading A Child To The Point Of Free Will

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I bring children up according to the method of Kabbalah, could it be that I am taking away their free will?

Answer: What does it mean to bring children up according to the method of Kabbalah? It implies that you strive to introduce them into the environment, to prepare them for Kabbalistic texts, to lead them to the point of free choice so that they realize that man is brought up by the Light that Reforms. It is precisely what they have to evoke.

Initially, “man” (Adam) is the root of the soul, and he is supposed to draw everything else to himself with the Light that develops him. This is what our free will is about. We are either led by Nature, or we evoke a special force that lies above it. It isn’t easy. This requires a person to overcome, to struggle against the impact of the ordinary environment, and toil in order to attract the influence of the Light. If I lead my children to this, do I take their free will away? No, I don’t.

First of all, they may ignore not only traditional “baby food,” but also what you are teaching them yourself. There is no difference between them.

A person receives free will only when a point of a new desire emerges in him which craves personal development that will allow him (and not you with your notions of "education") to make his decisions. So, by teaching him what you, yourself, adhere to, you still don’t go beyond tradition, although this tradition is closer to the point that has to unfold.

We see that this is how it happens in the world today. But previously, humanity had to develop by way of religion. It is written about Abraham that he sent out to the world the sons of his concubines and ordered them to enforce various religions.

Judaism was also founded after the wisdom of Kabbalah disappeared from the people’s view during the fall of the Temple when we fell from the degree of bestowal and love into hatred and egoism. Since then, the Jewish people act only on the external, corporeal level. Instead of working internally on transforming the soul, purifying desire with the Light that Reforms, we are carrying out physical actions mechanically, without correcting the heart.

This is what religion is about, unlike the wisdom of Kabbalah; it is externality instead of internality. For this reason, Kabbalah is regarded as the inner essence of the Torah.

However, exile is coming to an end since it was allotted a certain time. Changes have begun, and the point of free will is hatching in human hearts. They wish to get out of the enforced education and test themselves: “Whom do I wish to be? How can I be my own guide?”

Then, a person makes a choice: He needs a new type of upbringing. It’s not the kind that society is providing for him—he wants to receive it directly from the Creator. Let the Creator give it to him so that he may be called “man” (Adam) who is similar (Domeh) to the Supreme.

Usually, our upbringing is based on us receiving examples from those who surround us and becoming similar to them. Now, I wish to receive an example from the Creator so I may become like Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Upbringing Has To Catch Up To The Times

Dr. Michael LaitmanUpbringing as we understand it has lost the meaning it had in previous generations when we used to raise children so they would be good, kind, cheerful, and pleasant, behave properly, and so on. Upbringing today is something altogether different and we are increasingly sensing that it is necessary to all. That’s because “receiving an upbringing” or “education” means knowing how to act with yourself, with the environment, with the country and the world, as well as in different situations that happen to us.

Stated differently, “upbringing” is a person who changes inside of me, while my parents and surroundings help me to build myself correctly so I would know how to live my life well, confidently, and securely. After all, everything we learn as children later becomes our nature, and then we can behave well effortlessly. This is also confirmed by the latest research which shows that children’s education from the ages two until six or seven is what serves as their foundation.

Our development throughout all of human history unfolded in the egoistic direction where every person thought only of himself: How can I succeed, how can I earn, and how can I swindle everyone without being harmed myself? This is the simple, egoistic formula by which a person was previously taught how to arrange his life. And this really was considered the right education.

Today this is starting to change as we feel that the world has become integral, meaning connected with all of its parts, on all levels, and in all elements. We are facing a very serious problem because we do not correspond to the new world that is now appearing and coming to us. A new governance is becoming apparent, a new method, and a new law of Nature.

Previously I didn’t care about anything. I could cut down forests over here, dry up lakes over there, and do anything I wanted in society. Each of us personally was able to do anything he wished without asking others.

However, now we have reached a world in which there is no freedom of the individual. Now you cannot do anything you like even in your own backyard unless it is for our good because whether you want it or not, through the common connection between us you evoke a blow upon everyone.

We do not know which of our actions bring harm and what the consequences are because we aren’t yet integrally connected with one another in our consciousness. And if I want to have some work done or make a deal with someone, then I have to take the whole world into consideration. But I am unable to do so. I cannot accept the fact that I influence the world and I don’t know whether the world will benefit from this or not.

Yet since all of us together make up a single organism, even a small tremor will later influence the whole system, just like in our animate bodies. If we don’t have the right attitude to the nature that is now being revealed, then what will happen to us? It means that I will not be able to succeed in business, nor at work, nor in upbringing, nor in my attitude to anyone.

Soon the connection between us will manifest to such a degree that unless I consider all of the consequences of calling the police or my landlord, for example, then I will definitely cause harm. In other words, as the science of Kabbalah explains to us, having reached the current level of development, we are already required to correct man’s nature. This correction is for all of us to unite “as one man with one heart” by the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.”
From my lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 2/8/11

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Raising The Future Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the best way to educate a child in order to prepare him for the perception of the spiritual world?

Answer: We need to give a child the ability to work with a force called love, which can only be received from the correct environment. This is the only thing a person needs.

It’s essential to place a child in the correct environment. If he starts feeling what love and hate is in relation to a fellow human being, this feeling will help him resolve all problems independently. The sensitivity toward love and hatred for a fellow human being is what determines the human within us.

All that he sees and hears will pass through this perception and will allow him to interpret everything correctly. There won’t be any need to lecture or to force him into anything. A child only needs the society that will constantly engage him or her in relations of either confrontation or love, all for the sake of the spiritual goal. Such society has to be managed by proper educators, Kabbalists.

A child doesn’t need to know anything more: no special wisdom or “the number of angels in the sky.” We must only give him the ability to feel another, and by doing so we will solve all problems. He will begin to see a true reality because this is the only way that it can be revealed. He will see that all people are connected and will understand the relationships between all of them.

These aren’t psychological relationships: He will reveal the upper force hidden within and the program of creation according to which we are all interconnected.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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How To Teach A Child

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we teach children the language of branches so they will come to understand the roots as quickly as possible?

Answer: I would read the Tanakh (the Pentateuch) with your child and explain the inner meaning to him. Children have good memories and imaginations, and they can easily translate the superficial tale into the internal process that you explain to them.

Then I would suggest to them to do the opposite by writing down the things they see in our world from an internal point of view, using the language of roots instead of branches.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 2/10/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Children Of A Global Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The number of children with the inability to socialize is on the rise. Why is it happening and how can they be helped?

Answer: Today we witness many strange and unclear phenomena in humanity. The wisdom of Kabbalah gives them a general explanation: We are now completing the period of humanity’s egoistic development and entering a period of its correction. The period of egoistic development lasted for 5771 years, from the time of Adam up to our time. The correction consists of not employing the egoism for receiving and absorbing everything into oneself or using others for self-fulfillment.

Upon reaching the end of its development, the egoistic desire feels emptiness and a lack of fulfillment. It can’t develop any further, neither in regard to normal social behavior and interaction, nor in the sphere of science and culture, nor education and family relations. Humanity is experiencing a crisis because our life is built on the egoistic nature that has reached the end of its development. This is precisely the cause of social disorders, autism, and developmental and behavioral problems.

The affect of medical advances is also at work: In past generations such children simply didn’t survive because no one knew how to deal with them.

Only the general correction of egoism can help these children. After all, they are a part of society which is spoiled relative to the entire “organism” of humanity. If we begin to correct ourselves and strengthen the positive force of love and interaction within the society, we will cure these children.

We’ll suddenly see that they are beginning to feel, react, and understand more and simply live. We give them a life force by studying Kabbalah as it draws a positive force into our world. This is the only means for overcoming all problems related to the general crisis.
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From a TV Program “Ask the Kabbalist” No. 187 July 7, 2010

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Dr. Michael LaitmanPreviously, we used to teach ourselves and our children how to live in the old world based on all the experience we have accumulated over the course of our entire history. But today, all this experience is worth nothing. Day to day, month to month, we will be seeing more proof to that and will find ourselves in a completely foreign world.

We won’t understand what is suddenly happening with this world, one day in one place, next day in another. After all, now the world is unfolding for us as a coherent, analog system instead of a discrete, binary one. It is no longer comprised of isolated parts, each of which has certain freedom of action.

The property of an analog system is a total interconnection, from the initial point to the final one, in all its states. It is similar to a living organism, where nothing can be replaced without interfering with and changing the functioning of the other parts. If we, being in such a delicate, subordinate state, can’t feel what system we ended up in, we are doomed. Therefore, every person has to study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Previously, we used to teach our children how to live in this egoistic world. But it won’t help them today. We must give children and adults alike, everyone who is going to continue living on this earth, the knowledge about the world that has suddenly dropped on our head.

In the past, the system of the upper governance was descending on us so that it would give each of us a certain degree of freedom. Today, however, the system of forces that is coming down on us puts everyone in his or her place, leaving no freedom to the latter. If a person is moving, he or she is impacting the whole system.

Everyone who starts to deflect disturbs the entire system and that is why it acts so unpredictably today. This is precisely what is going to be revealed to us more and more in the most horrific form.

A few days ago, I had a meeting with the General Secretary of UNESCO who understood it very quickly and asked: “So, in your opinion, education has to be global as well, doesn’t it?” meaning it has to involve the entire system. The solution to the problem lies namely in this: We must educate children and adults alike how to live in the new world where we have suddenly found ourselves.

People neither understand it nor feel it so far; they accept it with difficulty. Although the consequences are clearly evident to all, man doesn’t see what he doesn’t wish to. In the end, pain will force him to open his eyes. But we need to spread this knowledge before the blows come, in order to reduce suffering to a minimum.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, “The Study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Renewing All The Sciences

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you envision a Kabbalistic school?

Answer: Humanity has to reveal that upbringing has to be based on allowing a person to understand that he exists in a common, integral, global system and that he has to treat the world based on its laws. If he doesn’t take them into consideration, then he will not be able to succeed in anything, even in the simplest things.

We have developed all of the existing systems and all of the natural sciences based on our egoistic nature. But now we have to develop a different kind of science, the science of the new world— the science of Kabbalah. This is because the more we reveal the mutual connection among all parts of the world, the more this will require us to have a new attitude to it.

No one will be able to follow the previous calculations: not in physics, nor in chemistry, nor in construction. And that is because the laws will become integral and this will be evident in everything!

We observe nature, but we have no idea how it will behave. We don’t have an ability to find out what will happen because we ourselves are not integral. For now we are still able to make some kind of forecasts using our previous premises, but very soon we won’t be able to anymore. That’s because we are unable to properly treat the altruistic (integral, analog) system based on our egoistic (numeric, singular) system.

These are completely different systems, having a different analysis, decision making, and control, similar to systems that work on alternating or direct current. They cannot work on both simultaneously.

Therefore, we will have to renew all of our sciences that were created by our egoistic qualities in the individual perspective of the world, and upgrade them according to the new forces of the single system that are being revealed in the world. This will affect absolutely all areas of our activity. Otherwise we won’t know how to do anything in our world! The world will start behaving according to the Upper System which descends or becomes revealed inside of our system, from within this world.

Therefore, unless we give children knowledge about this new system, they won’t be able to understand the new approach to all the natural sciences! All sciences talk about connections and interactions among forces and qualities in nature, and these will start being expressed as ever more corrected and interdependent. As such, they can only be understood by someone who will be on their level through the inner organization of his thoughts and desires.

I suppose that the process of learning will take place in the whole world over the Internet. All the different kinds of discussions and interactions among children will take place in order to teach them how to live in society, and this will happen in groups.

I think that school as it exists today where children come to class to listen to the teacher, will gradually die out. More and more attention will be devoted to unity among the children. And they will be taught special subjects by means of the Internet.
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From the talk about education on 2/4/11

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