{"id":61,"date":"2018-03-14T21:53:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T21:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/positivejudaism\/?p=61"},"modified":"2018-03-14T21:54:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T21:54:12","slug":"3-qualities-teach-humanity-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/positivejudaism\/2018\/03\/3-qualities-teach-humanity-children.html","title":{"rendered":"3 Qualities to Teach Humanity to your Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our world needs more unity and less division and caring parents and teachers are in a great place to guide the way. It\u2019s our responsibility to develop the instincts for humanity in our young people and to help them develop authentic human connections and friendship in through three elements: Love, Kindness, and Social Intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>#1 Love (<\/b><b><i>Ahavah<\/i><\/b><b> in Hebrew)<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is about valuing and caring relationships and the ability to share and to be in genuine relationship with others. Rabbi Akiva taught that \u201cAnd you shall love your neighbor as yourself\u201d was the all-embracing principle in the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the commandment to \u201clove your neighbor as yourself,\u201d the Moses Maimonides taught that this is the basis for many of the rabbinic mitzvot such as visiting the sick, comforting mourners, caring for the dead, providing a dowry for the bride, escorting guests, performing burial rites, rejoicing with bride and groom and helping support them with necessary provisions ( Hilchot Avel 4:1). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>#2 Kindness (<\/b><b><i>chesed<\/i><\/b><b> in Hebrew)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the ability to be compassionate, nurturing, caring, and generous with others. Great is the virtue of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">gemilut chasadim<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (love and kindness) because it is one of the thirteen attributes ascribed to God. As it is written: \u201cAdonai, Adonai. . . long suffering and abundant in kindness (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">rav chesed<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).\u201d -Exodus 34:6<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>#3 Social Intelligence (<\/b><b><i>chochma chevrati <\/i><\/b><b>in Hebrew)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">capability to effectively navigate and negotiate complex social relationships and environments and to have common sense. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The One Who had provided man with intelligence certainly expects that we use our (social) intelligence to legislate such basic laws without which life on earth would become intolerable, anarchic. We must view our common sense as a messenger from God, an instrument that acts as a protection against man experiencing all kinds of harm and problems in his life on earth. When man commits violence against his fellow man this reflects an absence of common sense. -Radak on Genesis 20:6:2<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I believe each person was born with the characteristics for loving humanity but over time, our life experiences can teach us to be defensive and guarded. It\u2019s never too late to open a heart and to teach the elements of love, kindness, and social intelligence one step at a time. As the Talmud says, \u201cone good deed leads to another.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our world needs more unity and less division and caring parents and teachers are in a great place to guide the way. It\u2019s our responsibility to develop the instincts for humanity in our young people and to help them develop authentic human connections and friendship in through three elements: Love, Kindness, and Social Intelligence. #1&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Qualities to Teach Humanity to your Children - Positive Judaism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/positivejudaism\/2018\/03\/3-qualities-teach-humanity-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Qualities to Teach Humanity to your Children - Positive Judaism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our world needs more unity and less division and caring parents and teachers are in a great place to guide the way. It\u2019s our responsibility to develop the instincts for humanity in our young people and to help them develop authentic human connections and friendship in through three elements: Love, Kindness, and Social Intelligence. #1&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/positivejudaism\/2018\/03\/3-qualities-teach-humanity-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Positive Judaism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-14T21:53:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-14T21:54:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darren Levine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 Qualities to Teach Humanity to your Children - Positive Judaism","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/positivejudaism\/2018\/03\/3-qualities-teach-humanity-children.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"3 Qualities to Teach Humanity to your Children - Positive Judaism","og_description":"Our world needs more unity and less division and caring parents and teachers are in a great place to guide the way. 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