We can and must use a child’s egoism to help him develop and advance. As Kabbalists say, “The shell protects the fruit.” We have to encourage a child’s egoistic aspirations, since otherwise he won’t have the energy to advance. We have to entice him with rewards that await him and that the science of Kabbalah will give him.

Let him start studying Kabbalah for his own sake, in order to conquer the world, according to the principle, “From ‘for my sake’ to ‘for the sake of others’” (Mi Lo Lishma, Lishma). We only have to direct this energy the right way.

Children learn from examples, and that’s why we have to teach them Kabbalah’s message by setting the right examples. In order for a child to learn something, we have to show it to him. This is the only way we will be able to plant a useful seed in the child – by giving an obvious example, rather than through words.

The child has to see the ideal expressed through relationships or interactions, instead of lectures about how he should behave. The example has to be external and real, but not directed at him. Otherwise his egoism won’t want to accept it. Rather, by observing a certain type of behavior among others, the child’s egoism will push him to imitate them. So, all we have to do is set the right examples for our children.

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Judging by the young people who come to Kabbalah today, I don’t think they will have to go through the same long and difficult path as the Kabbalists of the past. Those starting their spiritual correction today will have an easier path. They are ready for it, and we have prepared the world for them!

They are like an infant: what can infants do? Not much. But the parents provide them with everything they need, such as toys and food. But what did a child born in the wild jungle have? He grew up in very difficult conditions. Today, a ten or fifteen year old child knows how to use cell phones and computers even better than the grown ups. The kids simply know their way around this world.

However, I, the adult, who created all these tools for them, am not as proficient in using them as the children. This is because they were born into this, despite the fact that they did not create any of it! So, how is it that they know all this so well? Shouldn’t I know it better, since I created it? No! And the reason for this is that the children are already prepared on the inside, in virtue of the connection between all the souls. This is why they subconsciously understand and feel everything. Everything is very simple and clear to them, and this is why we have nothing to teach them.

That is why the young generation will not need a lengthy period of preparation to enter the spiritual world.

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Question: How can we educate children today, when they are surrounded by so many temptations? How can we help them avoid the influence of the environment on their small egos, and give them an education that will make spiritual development become the most important thing in their lives?

Answer: This is much easier than it seems. If we give children the right examples, then they will copy them onto their relatively pure matter. It’s written that educating a child is like writing on a clean sheet of paper, since he is still not damaged by all the social “garbage,” confusion and egoistical calculations, as is the case with adults.

Obviously, children are also egoists; they want to deceive one another in order to succeed. They make calculations very quickly and act for the sake of self-interest. But their behavior is natural and, therefore, it appears different than ours. With the same natural ease, they absorb our explanations about the system they exist in, about the world and the correct kind of relationships. Such explanations penetrate deep into their feelings, and thus you are able to build their inner system.

It can be compared to a computer system. By itself, the PC is nothing but a piece of metal that is incapable of doing anything. But when you install a program into it, the program determines how all of the computer’s components will connect and how they will function. If you install another program into the computer, then it will cancel the previous one and instruct the components to connect differently.

In the same way, when you install a new program into the child’s “hardware,” he will live according to the program’s instructions. This is called “raising a human being,” and the outcome depends on the spiritual level of the adults that are raising the child.

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In the News (from University of Washington): “Screening for childhood depressive symptoms could start in second grade” New research indicates that screening children for symptoms of depression, the most common mental health disorder in the United States, can begin a lot earlier than previously thought, as early as the second grade.

My Comment: And the number of depressed people will rise even higher, because their egoism is increasing, but the possibilities to fulfill it are not. The main question, “What for?” is what leads to depression.

It is getting more and more difficult for people to find something appealing for kids in our world. And thus, they “go away” into their own world…

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Two questions I received regarding relationships and the spiritual path:

Question: I got married in Peru. After a few years of marriage, my husband left me and our two daughters. Out of despair, I left to go work in Korea. There, I met a good man and we’ve been together 12 years, and have a son who is 9. Is it necessary for me to get an official divorce in order to form a Kabbalistic family?

My Answer: No. No method of registering a person’s marital status invented and performed in this world has any influence on your spiritual development.

Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for almost two years and have been actively involved in dissemination. My partner has also been doing the same. Since I started studying Kabbalah, I’ve come to understand that I want our relationship to be formalized through marriage and that I want to have children. However, he doesn’t feel the same, although he wants to continue living with me. Is my desire proper?

My Answer: You are right to demand marriage and children. Pass my opinion on to him. A person who is working on his spiritual correction has to do everything that regular people do in this world. It is said: “I dwell among my people,” (Be toch ami anochi echevet).

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In the News (from The Guardian): “Young, jobless, broke: today’s lost generation” – A recent survey by Post Office financial services found that most 16- to 24-year-olds believe that it will take a decade for their living standards to return to pre-crisis levels. On the wider labour market survey measure, an alarming 18.3% of 16-to 25-year-olds are unemployed. David Blanchflower, the labour market expert, said, “The danger is that we have a lost generation.”

My Comment: This means that their children will be just like them.

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In the News (from The Guardian): Eastern Europe is heading for a violent “spring of discontent.” Hit increasingly hard by the financial crisis, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states face deep political destabilization and social strife. “We are fed up with living in the poorest and most corrupt country,” the Sofia protest organizers said.

My Comment: The only way to calm down the masses is by immediately implementing a new global education. And more than calming this down, this will give them an explanation of how to succeed in the new world; not just of how to survive, but how to turn around all of nature so it will influence us positively. We must set a condition that people will receive benefits only if they study. Like children, we all have to learn about how to live in the new world!

People shouldn’t think that the path to the new life is long, because as soon as we begin acting in agreement with the program of our development, according to Nature, we will feel the positive results in everything, including all our actions, the climate and so on.

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In the News (from AFP): Japan’s Sony Corp. said Tuesday that it was cutting more than 8,000 jobs worldwide and shutting plants as part of an overhaul of its business to cope with the global economic downturn. The electronics giant said it would axe about 10 percent of its manufacturing sites, cut investment in its electronics business by about 30 percent.

My Comment: Only the necessities will remain!

In the News (from The Daily Telegraph): Pubs are closing at a record rate, with six closing every day because of the economic downturn. The British Beer & Pub Association says that 39 pubs a week are closing in Britain, a rate 20 times faster than three years ago. It is estimated that 44,000 jobs in pubs and bars have been lost in the past couple of years and that 60,000 more jobs will go shortly.

My Comment: Could anyone imagine this happening?! Truly, the world will be different…

In the News (translated from Newsland.ru): “Will the crisis turn women into wives and mothers?” Being mother and wife is the only worthwhile way for a woman to realize herself. Most women toil in order to earn a salary, but not for self-actualization. Meanwhile their children grow up lacking a mother’s attention and develop inferiority complexes. However, the crisis is forcing women to return home.

My Comment: Kabbalah views the crisis as correction. The disappearance of excess will help us to better prioritize life and its values.

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In the News (from The Associated Press): “Group of 6 arrested in western Ariz. fires includes 4 firemen” Four firefighters and two others have been arrested on suspicion of igniting between 15 and 20 fires in western Arizona to make money by fighting the very blazes they lit, officials said Tuesday.

My Comment: Egoism forces people to harm others in any way possible for the sake of their own benefit. The same can be said of doctors and others who manufacture food fillers, useless and harmful drugs, and so on. Our society is built so as to use people in every way possible. Instead of, “Everything for the people, everything for their benefit,” what we have is, “Everything for the sake of one’s profit, everything to harm people” (and this harms both those who do it and to whom they do it).

In the News (from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany): “Does persistent low fertility threaten the future of European populations?” Three stylized demographic facts are nowadays taken for granted by many Europeans: First, European birth rates are very low and further declining. Second, the currently low fertility will inevitably lead to rapid population aging and population decline in the future. Third, these trends are unsustainable in the long run… Perhaps no one summarized the fears of shrinking Europe more succinctly than Pope Benedict XVI: “…the problem of Europe, which it seems no longer wants to have children, penetrated my soul. To foreigners this Europe seems to be tired, indeed it seems to be wishing to take its leave of history” (Vatican 2006).

My Comment: Egoism doesn’t need anybody; it wants to feel special and unique. The same thing will happen in all the countries as their population’s egoism develops. But the emergence of the quality of bestowal and love in people will naturally make them desire to have children in order to continue their kind.

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Three questions I received on the spiritual desire:

Question: First of all, thanks for a great Congress at Blackpool which I thoroughly enjoyed. Which prayers should we be saying as potential Kabbalists? I have watched the children’s lesson on prayer but cannot find the answer. Is there a particular prayer book we should use?

My Answer: A prayer is the heart’s desire. One should do all that one can to make his heart desire the goal of creation – the revelation of the Creator.

Question: Why does the Creator want us to need Him?

My Answer: Because He is the quality of “bestowal and love” within us. And this quality creates a sensation – within us – of an eternal and perfect life.

Question: You say that a person needs to feel a “deficiency.” What kind of deficiency are you talking about: spiritual or corporeal?

My Answer: This means that you must reveal that you don’t love others, and reveal it in such a way that it will suppress your self-love. It is as though you ascend on top of the mountain of your egoism through love for others, and to this degree, the Creator will be revealed to you, or rather, in you.

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