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Kabbalah
and Education A Kabbalistic Approach to Spiritual Growth |
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Part
65 This
last skill of understanding and properly implementing reward and punishment
corresponds to the sefirah of malchut ("kingdom"),
which is the realm of manifest reality. When
we examined the sefirot of chochmah ("wisdom"), binah
("understanding"), and da'at ("knowledge"), we
saw their influence on the educator's design of a general, theoretical
approach to education. When we examined the sefirah of yesod
("foundation"), we saw it as the intermediate state between pure,
abstract knowledge and action. Malchut is the concrete realization of
the plans formulated earlier. At this point the education has either worked
or not, and the teacher must implement the tools of both reward and
punishment to ensure that the original intention is accomplished. Malchut
("kingdom") is the domain of the king, who has the authority and
know-how to rule his subjects. For this he needs various implements of
control--weapons, so to speak. The king has a vision of the perfection of
his kingdom and he must bring this idea into actuality, utilizing the tools
of reward and punishment, praise and criticism. The
king's knowledge of how to distribute proper reward and punishment comes
from his own obedience to the King of Kings. The inner expression of
spiritual service in the sefirah of malchut is humility. The
king can rule justly, only when he epitomizes a state of submission to God. God
utilizes the cosmic system of reward and punishment to perfect the human
being's mental, emotional, and physical bodies. The king--or the educator in
this case--uses these same tools, reflecting Divine Providence in his
actions. Thus
we see that malchut is the sphere advising and correcting the student's
response. Essential to both is a developed sense of timing, the ability to
recognize the appropriate moment and to wait if need be. Both
Adam's sin with the Tree of Knowledge and David's sin with Bathsheba were
sins of mistiming. In both cases, the time had not come, the moment had not
ripened. Eventually, Adam would have been allowed to eat from the Tree, and
David was clearly meant to marry Bathsheba, who became the mother of King
Solomon. This
sensitivity to timing is a property of the king. In Hebrew the word for
"crown" (keter) can also means "wait." The king
is one who understands the secret of waiting, and can sense the proper
moment for action. IN CONCLUSION: In
Hebrew, the word for "face," panim, shares a root with the
word for "inner dimension," pnimiut. Rectified education,
on all levels, must be "face to face." It is upon the educator to focus on the very inner dimension
of his/her students. He must evaluate and respond to his student's needs and
talents, and discover the areas in which they "shine." The
detailed description of the different stages of education brought to you in
this series should help every person in an educating role to focus on the
inner dimension of his/her students, and to build a truly caring
relationship with them, according to each individual's particular aptitudes. Modern
society focuses on fulfilling the personal desires of the individual. This
creates a society of "back to back" relationships, with each
individual interested in pleasing only himself. The beginning of the
rectification of this sorry state is to implement the "face to
face" approach in our relationships with others--to create true and
rectified education, predicated on honest caring for the student. This type
of education requires of the educator to be committed to others. It leads to
rectified interpersonal relationships in which each person can apply his
rectified inner self to our ultimate goal--to help to rectify the world and
to bring the Mashiach. Next
week:
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