While other countries celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day separately, Israel celebrates its annual Family Day, to honor the family unit and its centrality to Israeli life. Each year, Family Day in Israel falls on a different date, as it follows the Hebrew calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, and this year it takes place tomorrow, February 1.
If you look at the statistics, it seems that the family has lost much of its centrality. This is as true for Israel as it is true for most of the world, especially the western world. As of 2021, “There were 37 million one-person households in 2021, or 28% of all U.S. households. In 1960, single-person households represented only 13% of all households.” Moreover, “34% of adults age 15 and over had never been married.” Clearly, the family institution has lost its shine.
There are several reasons for this. First, people live much longer today than they did a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago. At the same time, they are not taught about the importance of maintaining the family unit. When upbringing does not instill in us the importance of maintaining the family unit through trials and tribulations, people give it up quite easily.
In order to do something that is not immediately rewarding, people today need meaning. We live in a time when people cannot do what does not make sense to them, what seems to have no meaning. In order for people to maintain the family unit, they must feel that it is important. Otherwise, they will just get up and leave.
The world today does not support staying in the traditional family structure. People can take care of themselves financially and do not need the support of a spouse or a partner. As a result, as soon as there is a disagreement, and there are always disagreements because no two people are the same, they move out and move on.
Therefore, in order for people to choose to stay in a family unit, there must be a reason that is greater than the family itself. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we seek spiritual correction, then within the process of correction we will also develop a connection with a partner. In the end, nature will require this correction from us, and in the process of correction, we will feel the mutual commitment of a man to a woman and a woman to a man.
A corrected family relationship is part of our correction. Until we achieve correction, the state of humanity will continue to deteriorate. But perhaps if we can convey the benefits that a correct, spiritual relationship brings with it, people will not want to part ways. It all depends on the meaning that people find in their relationships because as I said above, without a spiritual connection, people will have no reason or ability to maintain family relationships.
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