{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Know Your Children with Rav Shlomo Katz","title":"8. Experiencing our Children as Souls","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3228,"description":"In this week’s Know Your Children, we take a courageous, very triggering step inward: Can I look at my child not only as “my kid,” but as a neshamah —a soul that may even be higher than mine?\nBuilding on our work about friendship and authority, Rav Shlomo Katz opens the inner story: our children are not our property, not our projects, and not our therapy. On the level of guf (body), we are the parents, we pay the bills, we set the rules. But on the level of neshamah, we are standing in front of a piece of Hashem that may have been here before us, in different gilgulim, in different roles.\nTogether we learn:\nThe difference between “guf perception” (I’m the parent, you’re the child) and “neshamah perception” (two souls meeting in this gilgul).\nWhy our children are absolutely included in “ואהבת לרעך כמוך”—and what it means to love them as “re’a,” not just as responsibility.\nHow seeing a child as a neshamah changes the tone of discipline without erasing clear hierarchy and boundaries.\nWhy cycles of blame (on our parents, and on ourselves) don’t heal—and how Da et Yeladecha really begins with da et neshamatam.\nA gentler way to daven for our kids: not “fix them,” but “help me see the soul You trusted me with.”\nPractical takeaways:\nBefore reacting, pause for one breath and whisper: “Li yesh neshamah, v’leyaldi yesh neshamah.” Let that shape your tone.\nIn hard moments (bedtime, screens, school), ask: “If I were talking to a neshamah right now, not just behavior, how would I speak?”\nOnce a day, look at each child for 10–15 seconds with no agenda—just “noticing the soul”—and only then say your message.\nWhen old pain with your own parents surfaces, name it, but don’t camp in blame; use it as fuel to open your heart wider to your children.\n----------\nFor more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com\nJoin Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/1kIczSvIsSLQhU43EiAuIwIwZqNhtmqJjeK1o3ZXq5s/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yYTUw/ODM2ZTE4ZTk5ZWI0/OTFhZTUwYmNkNzli/Y2RlZC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}