What does it really mean?
Published: Sunday, October 11, 2009
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Visitor Comments: 5
About the Author
Rabbi Yaakov Salomon
Rabbi Yaakov Salomon, C.S.W. is a noted psychotherapist, in private practice in Brooklyn, N.Y. for over 25 years. He is a Senior Lecturer and the Creative Director of Aish Hatorah's Discovery Productions.
He is also an editor and author for the Artscroll Publishing Series' and a member of the Kollel of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.
Rabbi Salomon is co-author, with Rabbi Noah Weinberg, of the best selling book "What the Angel Taught You; Seven Keys to Life Fulfillment," (Mesorah), and is also the co-producer of the highly-acclaimed film, "Inspired." His most recent book is "Something to Think About; Extraordinary Reflections About Ordinary Events (Mesorah)."
His speaking, writing and musical talents have delighted audiences from Harvard to Broadway and everything in between. Rabbi Salomon shares his life with his wife, Temmy, and their unpredictable family.
(5) yehudit , October 14, 2009
beautiful
It is always beautiful to feel the love of your parents.Their love is really unconditional. And because this is just a piece of the eternal love - can you imagine the love of the Creator?!
(4) Anonymous , October 14, 2009
thank you so much for this video, unconditional love is so important, but what the definition of it is can sometimes be misinterpreted. thanks for clarifying this crucial part of love.
(3) ruth housman , October 13, 2009
don't you know, the word is LOVE
Unconditional love for me has to do with the notion of forgiveness, that those we love, deeply, we can forgive for acts of unkindness, whether intentional or not, and to forgive does I believe, require some knowledge of hurt and repentance on the part of the "other". To love unconditionally your children, has to mean there are conditions, as within the word, or codicils to teaching them how to love, how to protect themselves, and how to proceed in life with appropriate boundaries to their own behaviors, meaning the teaching of sensitivity and love. So to have unconditional love is to express the conditions that bound love itself. And sure, love does break all the rules, because when our children do something we consider "wrong" we forgive them out of love. Some wrongs, that break deep commandments, however, are hopefully those we do not have to encounter in our children because this can tear us, apart, a part. As tears, meaning weeping, is also for tears. A rip in the fabric of our lives.
(2) Iris Moskovitz , October 12, 2009
Truly something to think about.
When I observe children in my childrens' school, acting like wild animals in front of their parents, and the parents simply continuing to speak with a friend, or not showing any type of discipline, my blood begins to boil. I want to go up to both the child and parent, and slap them both. When I was little, this type of behavior was simply not tolerated. The young parents want to be more like a friend, than a parent. They need to wake up and smell the coffee. Children are wanting to be given discipline, and shown between right and wrong. When there is this sort of out of control behavior, the child is screaming out for attention. Children will respect the parents that will take the time for them, that is the bottom line. In this busy,run, gotta do attitude, the child becomes like an obstacle in what the parent has "planned" for the day. The bottom line is, the parent does not to be bothered with their children. They expect the school and or babysitter to raise their child. Pathetic, is'nt, it?
(1) Anonymous , October 12, 2009
children need to feel secure
Children need the adults in their lives to set limits. A child who is allowed to do whatever he wants will engage in increasingly outrageous behavior until someone makes him stop because he needs the reassurance that there is an adult strong enough, who cares enough, to protect him from himself. Children want to feel secure in the knowledge that someone cares enough to prevent them from hurting themselves. A parent who will go to the trouble, and sometimes face some unpleasantness in the process (the child will test you to the max- count on it) demonstrates, thereby, his love for his child, and the child knows it. Someone who does not care about him is not going to go to the trouble to set limits. It's so much easier to just look away. If the parent goes to the trouble of correcting him, the child is secure in the knowledge that his parent loves him. (Of course, a parent has to know how to correct a child, keeping the child's self-esteem intact, and without being overly harsh. Censor the behavior, not the child.) Love for the child is a constant; condoning poor behavior is not.