A child needs to receive constant encouragement and positive feedback; parents who broadcast relentless criticism instead destroy him with their own hands. We must explain to our children again and again that we are proud of them and always happy with them — and thus build up their character!
To achieve the overarching goal of gathering and uniting all of Israel together, one must first unite his closest circle (his own household: his wife, his children, his parents); only thereafter is he granted from Heaven the power to broaden and enlarge those circles, until ultimately he will be privileged to unite the whole of the Jewish people.
As we said, one who wishes to successfully connect to his wife and children must look upon them with a good eye. Everyone has virtues and flaws; our duty is to find the virtues in others and magnify them...
Now let us turn to the discussion of the Shabbat table...
