The Next Generation of Dissemination

Thursday Youth Community Lesson/Meeting/Festive Meal

Every Thursday, our young friends in the youth community meet to discuss how they can take an active role in dissemination — how to bring the message of connection and mutual responsibility to their generation in a way that is natural, relevant and alive.

What makes these meetings especially meaningful is that the our young friends are not simply listening to older generations telling them what to do. They are beginning to take responsibility themselves.

The session was led by a 33-year-old woman who grew up in Bnei Baruch. Today she is married, a mother of four, and has built a professional career that gives her valuable tools for dissemination. She' s a wonderful example of what we would like to see more of among our young adults: people who build their own lives, develop professionally, create families, and at the same time remain connected to the values they grew up with and find ways to pass them on to the next generation.

This is an important stage in the development of our youth community. We don't want young people simply to inherit ideas from us. We want them to understand these ideas, make them their own, and eventually become the ones who bring them forward.

Every generation has to receive something from the previous one and then find its own way to give it to the next.

This is especially important today. Young people are growing up in a world of enormous technological change, uncertainty and increasing disconnection. They need something that can help them understand human nature and build healthier relationships with one another. They need tools to navigate today's shifting reality.

Our role as heads of the organization is to give them the foundation. Their role is to take it further.

When we see our young friends who grew up with these values now building families, careers, actively contributing to our community; and then asking themselves how they can contribute and influence others beyond our group, it inspires all of us. The whole point of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to pass it forward.

This is how a value becomes a living tradition - not because we tell the next generation what to believe, but because we give them the tools, environment and plenty of examples to build the next stage themselves.