Determining the task
Upbringing is humanity’s central problem. If we could provide a correct form of education and grounding to at least one generation, we could then be certain that all future generations would be brought up suitably and live optimally. This is because each generation that receives the correct method of upbringing can and will be capable of adequately raising the next generation.
Alternatively, the failure to raise such a generation in even one society, and observing each succeeding generation as inferior compared to the previous, bears witness to the fact that humanity has never possessed the correct method of upbringing.
Method of Upbringing
The correct method of upbringing must be based on understanding:
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Humanity’s, society’s and the person’s true nature (the original state);
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The common goal of humanity, society and each person (the final state);
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The means of leading each person, society and humanity to this goal.
1. Our true nature is partially known. Life experience allows us to conclude that human beings are egoistic and egocentric, that everything we do is for the satisfaction of our needs.
2. Our life’s purpose, or our predestination, is unknown. We lack the knowledge of our final form of existence, the purpose for which we strive, and society’s and the world’s optimal organization. We can only suppose that nature holds such information about our future states, containing the knowledge about the goal of each person’s, society’s and humanity’s existence.
3. The means to reach this goal cannot be realized until we find out about it: “What is the purpose of our existence?” Knowing our true original nature and that final state which we, according to creation’s scheme, are required to reach, will let us understand what qualities we need in order to perform these changes. This will in turn determine the form that the upbringing’s foundation should take.
The reason for failures in upbringing
It follows from the above that until we come to realize the necessity to define the goal of creation, and then determine the means to reach that goal, all our efforts to create the correct method of upbringing will be unsuccessful. Human egoism will contribute to this failure if it continues to grow from generation to generation, and, for the sake of its private egoistic fulfillment, the human being’s egoistic character will consume everything.
Solution to the problem
It is necessary to broadly investigate human nature so that wide circles of society will become convinced that we, essentially, are egoistic beings. Although such is the nature of our world, human beings, contrary to the rest of nature, are not endowed with an inner behavioral program, and so we require one. Animals have no need for their offspring to undergo such an upbringing, since their behavioral instincts reside within their nature. This is sufficient for them to behave correctly their entire lives. Out of all living creatures, only humans lack nature’s program for correct behavior; only humans are free to choose their actions. Each person who lacks this awareness lives with a particular outlook on life, with self-made goals and a self-made character of actions. Such a person chooses and creates one’s own system of upbringing, and all such systems suffer the downfall.
The place of the missing instinctive rules of behavior must be filled with the correct method of upbringing. Until we learn nature’s laws, and learn how to live correctly in the world, we have nothing to pass down to the next generation. Moreover, we will remain uncertain as to whether we are raising the generations properly, and our entire life will be a sequence of repetitive mistakes. It thus follows that we are obliged to investigate our nature and goal, and on the basis of such investigations, create a program of behavior for our lives in this world; and then teach this to our offspring.
Upbringing – correspondence with the supreme nature
When observing the nature of our world, we find that every type of creation, whether any living thing, cell, or organ, serves the needs of others. This is the natural mechanism of the world, the universe, and reality. All life acts as a closed system according to a single program. In order to exist comfortably in this system, humanity has to be in likeness, homeostasis, and sameness to it. This is achieved by a correct balance between receiving and giving of every person in relation to the surrounding nature and society. Each person’s correct formula of behavior, depending on each person’s natural qualities and surrounding opportunities, is calculated in the science of Kabbalah. Thus, without having knowledge of this science, we cannot achieve the correctly balanced interaction with people around us, nature, and society. We will also have nothing to teach our offspring.