A child is raised and taught; and not
trained.
Chinuch/education of a child is so that
he will continue to grow and go on his own way.
Even the lower levels of thought speech
and actions should not be taught in isolation, but rather connected
back to the sechel/mind and midot/emotions.
Tanya describes a benoni – an
intermediate person, and yet at the outset there is the description the nefesh/soul. Why did he not start with of thought, speech and action - the primarily level of the benoni's work/service?
Life is a Godly phenomenon – it is
not worldly and not open to understanding. The animal has a living
body, but not life independent of body. A human being is
categorically different – he is life in a body. He is primarily
life. What he does with his body is directed by life and not by the
body...!
When we walk and eat it is a
chochmah/wisdom activity. We eat to be healthy, and what is health
to a human being? It is that the chochmah will function properly.
And what is the difference if you view
things from a chochmah perspective or a worldly perception – its
the same world! But if you see from a worldly perception then it is
imposing itself on you. If you have a chochmah/wisdom view then you
see the way things should be – everything has a message of truth.
A soul is something that is Godly –
it is connected to God! It sees from that perspective – it sees
what things stand for... the task of education is to have that
element express itself in sechel/mind and midot/emotions.
Respect is not just perfunctory. Even
if a person is wrong, it is recognized, 'this is how he thinks...'
and this is real to him from a soul level... So whatever he is
learning is on 3 different levels. He senses a truth to what he's
learning, and that it makes sense, and that he can relate to it. But
if he learns to relate to something that does not have a sense of
truth, then he is giving up his own sense of value and judgement.
Sechel/mind is a miraculous gift. The
first connection to the truth is via chochmah/wisdom. Children
believe what they see, and people say they are gullible, but that is
not so. They see from a truth perception. They see everything is
beautiful. They see they way the soul sees.
So the Alte Rebbe explains that the
conflict is not on the level of illicit desire, but rather on the
level of truth...
education must preserve this 'life'
element that a child and human being have. We direct their action,
but this must be in a way that there is confirmation of what the soul
knows.
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