When Growth Hurts: Teaching Kids to Embrace Life’s Next Level

In this week’s Guiding Generations, Rabbi Shifman unpacks the powerful lessons of Parshas Shlach and the story of the Meraglim (spies), showing how even righteous leaders can resist growth when it threatens comfort. Through the lens of parenting, he explores how relationships—whether with Hashem, a spouse, or our children—are tested not at their beginning, but when they’re called to evolve. What do we do when our kids resist the next stage of independence or responsibility? How do we teach them to embrace discomfort as the path to deeper connection and meaning? Tune in for a moving reflection on how challenge doesn’t break relationships—it reveals their true strength.