חלק 1 סצנת פתיחה: הורים לילד בן 13, שהיה מעורב בתקרית אלימה, מנהלים ויכוח סביב האירוח. האב רוצה להעניש את הילד ואולי אף להגיש נגדו תלונה במשטרה והאם רוצה להגן על הילד מול המערכת; חלק 2 שאלות ותשובות עם הרב ד"ר מיכאל לייטמן: מה העצה שאפשר לתת להורים שלהם גישות הפוכות לגבי חינוך ילדיהם? איזה חינוך לתת לילדים בכדי שידעו לבחור להתנהג נכון? מה משמעות המשפט "חנך הנער על פי דרכו?" האם נכון לתת לילד להתמודד עם התוצאות של המעשים שלו? מה תפקידה של האם ומה תפקידו של האב בחינוך הילדי

Recently in Israel, a ninth grader at an art school in Tel Aviv slapped his teacher in the face, and it was followed by other students in the class applauding him. The student was suspended, and the teachers at the school spoke out against violence and discontinued their work that day. I see this incident as a result of our current form of education. It is as if that boy gave a slap to the whole education system, and it could be that all teachers and the entire education system need to feel it. He is a result of this system, which includes not only the schooling he receives, but our society in general, our families, schools, workplaces, the media, TV, radio and what goes on in the streets. If horrible examples are abundant in the environment that influences us, then what do we expect to see in our lives? Today’s youth are simply the results of this environment. We need to completely change this education system because it currently has no aim of nurturing and growing children into happy, confident and well-connected human beings. Instead, it aims at nothing more than giving people a few subjects, and leading them to a certain grade standard. In other words, today’s education fails to develop the inner human in us. What should be the main objective of the education system? It should be to develop human beings in the fullest sense of the term. In order to develop human beings, the educators themselves require learning of what that means and how to do it. If we bring about such a change, then we will start seeing the emergence of a whole new harmonious and peaceful society. Children and teens will have a positive attitude toward their parents, teachers and other people in general. We will also know how to positively connect with each other, why we connect, what is the meaning of life, and how to realize it. That is of utmost importance in education. We will also learn different subjects and topics along the way, but we need a new foundation that defines who and what we are, why we are here, and how we can improve ourselves.

During the 2021-22 winter in Israel, there were several cases of elderly people found on the verge of hypothermia due to their inability to pay the costs involved in heating their homes. As such, a petition emerged that called to cover the heating costs for all elderly people who could not afford their electricity bills. I would take such a proposal a step further: that a national plan should be prepared whereby the elderly would not need to pay for heating in the winter at all. In general, such a situation brings up the question of empathy, namely: what do we need to do in order to feel the pain of others? That is, when we ourselves are freezing cold, we feel such pain distinctly and act on it immediately. However, if we know about others who are cold, we are inclined not to act with the same level of urgency. To empathize with the pain of others, we need to open our hearts to them. “Opening our hearts” means participating in their sorrow. In this particular instance, it means that we should act toward them as we would act for ourselves if we were freezing cold. The problem is that our nature makes us take care of ourselves while keeping others at a distance. Yet, we should know that the upper force, the Creator, which is a force of love, bestowal and connection, holds our nature, our hearts. Therefore, if we would ask the Creator to open our hearts to the sorrows of others, then we would receive an open gate to the world’s correction, i.e. to a state where we become sorrow-free and achieve balance, peace and harmony. Moreover, by doing so, we would receive a feeling of the upper force, which would fulfill us completely. As for this particular case with heating for the elderly in winter, there is a key argument—“Where would we get the money to pay for all of that electricity?”—to which I think that if the people in this country were all concerned about fixing this problem, then we would find that it is no large sum of money. All we need is to care.

There is a new campaign in Israel, calling on people to check on their neighbors. Daily, there are terrible cases of people that passed away at home and no one knows about it. How did we come to such a reality? Why is everything falling apart? Our ego does not let us live closer to each other. We stand in each other's way, I feel that others are bothering me. I want to live on my own. I don't want anyone to pry into my family life. My kid also wants a room of his own and does not want me to interfere in his life. We have no real love between people. What can put love in our hearts? Only if we work on it together can we draw the force of love that exists in nature. We will then sense that we cannot feel good unless we do good to others.

How can a mother—a symbol of devotion, love and care toward her children—pay more attention to her phone than to her baby? A lack of maternal interaction can have a very damaging effect on a child's development. Research shows that mothers talked four times less to their babies while engaging with their phones. Where did maternal instincts go? Cell phones are an addition to the phenomenon of the growing ego, which disconnects us from our children. In several places around the world, people don’t even want to have children anymore. The ego is growing in the world, and as a result, the natural connection and devotion between mother and child is weakening. In our times, we are discovering the evil of our egoistic nature more and more, and such a phenomenon as mothers paying more attention to their phones than to their babies adds to this discovery. Indeed, in order for us to truly recognize the evil of our egoistic nature, it needs to be a great evil. As such, we are arriving at the correct diagnosis of our major problem. Yet, what is the cure? We must not listen to our evil inclination. We must view our ego as existing outside of ourselves, instead of immediately approaching it as if it were “me.” It is not me. This is how we can identify our evil inclination and even correct it. It tells us to love only ourselves, so much so that we do not even love our babies as much anymore, never mind loving our spouses or parents. We need to exclude the ego from ourselves and cease identifying ourselves with it. How can we stop identifying ourselves with our ego? We need to cultivate more nurturing relations in our environment, where we relate more considerately and supportively to one another. We are all like relatives. We once used to feel instinctively close, and today we need to develop and rediscover our closeness anew. Mothers will then treat their children with love, but this love will be more conscious, aware, and it will emerge from a deeper feeling. Mothers will want to be closer to their babies and also to foster a basic caring connection to their family and relatives. The maternal instincts that have been disintegrating for many years will become revived in a new, more conscious and aware form. It will shift from instinct to awareness.

Building children’s trust in their parents provides them with a firm foundation for confidence later in life. Trust must be taught by example through telling the truth, keeping one’s word, and cultivating love and respect within the family. Sometimes a parent is faced with a dilemma and must choose between keeping their word and doing what is right. In such a case, it is necessary that the child understand and feel the dilemma they faced and the parents’ pain from breaking the trust between them and that the parents love for her or him was greater than their word. We are connected as if in a single body in which we can approach life together.