Teach Our Children Why We Do What We Do

In his recent article, Mr. Meirov writes insightfully about the Zohar's impact on the younger generation of Bukharians. His viewpoint is one I have agreed with ever since I was on the receiving end of these conversations. Truth be told, the scare tactics work for a week. Then, you give in and are once again scared, over and over, until you truthfully feel as though there is an unattainable future for you in the world of Hashem and His people. Thankfully, I was exposed to enough rabbis and thinkers in the Jewish world to quickly become aware of the negative and harmful effects of this outlook on life. Of course, the dangerous worship of the Zohar as a magnum opus of Jewish intellectualism does not help. One may even be justified in believing that certain Jews would mistakenly hold the Zohar as the ultimate and final say on Jewish topics. This is distorted.

However, despite the questionable methods of fear used in educating our youth about sin, there are alternatives. One idea often overlooked is to ask, “Why does Hashem care about what I do with my eyes?” We must teach our children why we do what we do. We must focus on teaching our younger generations that they will most likely be among a select few in the world who do not give into the temptations of the animal spirit within and have a vital role to play for the future. This gives them the foundation to base all their responsibilities of virtue that Judaism demands. It teaches them that they will prevail even as artificial intelligence and a holographic reality can plunge our future generations so far into the depths of humanity’s lower will that they will soon forget they ever had a higher will, a soul. That it is the sacred responsibility of our Covenant to be a light unto the nations. I would wager that young children would be very receptive to this message. As psychologist Jean Piaget points out, the teenage and young adult years are the Messianic era in a human’s life, the age in which we most believe in our capacity to change the world around us. These years are vital, and it would be wise to maximize this message in our young adults. May we merit many more articles such as this one in the BJL.

Anonymous
Rego Park, NY