Education for mutual guarantee
An article in The Jerusalem Post:
My opinion:
Indeed, education – youth, adult or both – is the solution for any problems.
And most of the significant problems we observe in Israel and the world today is due to the lack of education or education which is unsuitable or simply wrong.
Great sages, like Rav Kook and Rav Yehuda Ashlag were already bemoaning the lack of proper Jewish education over a hundred years ago. And the situation has only become worse since.
“Jewish education” does not mean the education we have in certain parts of Israeli society today, which also does not provide “general education” for people to cope with life in modern society.
“Truly Jewish education” needs to return to the origins of our Jewish method, teaching us how Jewish – and actually human – life starts and depends on understanding, accepting and implementing the most important Mitzvah of the Torah: “Love your friend as yourself.”
This principle has been misused and misinterpreted for millennia.
This “brotherly love” means existing and acting above and against our inherently egocentric, selfish, individualistic and exploitative human nature.
Only the practical method of the Torah – teaching us how to love others against instinctive nature – can help us become healthy cells in the single living organism we are all part of, instead of behaving like cancer cells, the way we behave today.
We are also obligated to show everybody else – through our positive example – how to survive instinctive human nature.
Without this foundation, nothing else works.