Chaburat Taryag: Parshas Toldos

Hello, dear children! It's Saba Kadisha. Oy, oy, oy! Last week I promised Chaburat Taryag a big surprise. And it really is big. And it smells like pizza! And a table everyone wants. But first, we learn! Sunday after school, the four friends came like every week to Saba Kadisha's room. This week we read Parshas Toldos. And it has three things every kid needs to know. Three? Star-counter ready. A star for each one. Easy! Number one: Yitzchak and Rivka davened for many years to have children. And Hashem heard their tefillos, and twins were born to them: Eisav and Yaakov. They grew up together, but each one chose a different path. Eisav was a man of the field. He loved to roam outside, in forests and fields. And Yaakov was a wholesome man, who sat in the tents. And which tents did Yaakov sit in? The tents of Shem and Ever. There he learned Torah day and night. It was his favorite place in the world. That means: whoever loves Torah finds a quiet corner and learns with all his strength. One star! Number two: one day Yaakov cooked a red lentil stew, and Eisav came back from the field, very tired, and said: Quick, give me some of that red, red stuff! Yaakov said to him: Sell me your bechorah. And Eisav sold it for a plate of lentils. He ate, drank, got up, and left. And the Torah says: Eisav scorned the bechorah. The bechorah, children, is the right to serve Hashem. Something precious forever. And Eisav traded it for a plate of food that was gone in a minute. For lentils? If it was schnitzel, then... Maybe... no, no. Not even for schnitzel! Two stars! Number three: Yitzchak Avinu dug wells of water. But the shepherds of Gerar came and argued: The water is ours! Yitzchak didn't fight with them. He named the well Esek and moved on. He dug a second well, and again they argued over it. Yitzchak named it Sitnah, and again they started a fight. He moved on and dug another well. Over the third well, nobody argued. And Yitzchak was happy and named it Rechovos, because now Hashem has made room for us, and there's room for everyone. So that's how we make peace: we don't argue about everything. We let it go, we move on, and Hashem helps. Three stars! The counter is full! And then the big surprise came. Saba Kadisha took out a letter from the gabbai of the shul. On Thursday there's a big quiz on the weekly parsha, for all the kids in the neighborhood. And the prize: a giant tray of pizzas for the winning chaburah! And remember, children: whoever wants to know the parsha needs to sit in the tent of Torah, like Yaakov. Easy! I have a quiz app on my gadget. We'll learn in the park, and between questions we'll play a little. Rubi, Yaakov didn't learn in the park. He sat in the tent. Friends, let's build ourselves a tent of Torah! A few minutes later, in the middle of Saba Kadisha's room stood a real tent, made of blankets, chairs and pillows. And inside, four Chumashim, open. He turned off the gadget and put it aside. And every day the friends sat in the tent and learned until they knew the whole parsha. And the first star lit up. A tent of Torah is the best thing there is. And if it has pillows too, even better! On Thursday, on the way to the quiz, the friends passed a new pizza shop. And outside they announced: Free pizza for the first 20! Now! Free pizza! Friends, just one slice! It'll take a minute. The quiz will wait for us. Yisrael, think for a second. Eisav sold the bechorah for a plate of lentils, something that was gone in a minute. And the quiz is Torah. That stays forever. You're right. I'm not selling my bechorah for a slice of pizza. But what a smell! Oy, what a smell! But the friends went straight to the shul, Chumashim in hand, because a Torah quiz is worth more than all the pizzas in the world. And the second star lit up. The shul was full of kids. The friends sat down at a table. But then another group came and said: This is our table! But we got here first! That's not fair! Yisrael, remember Yitzchak and the wells. We don't fight over a table. We move on. They moved to another table, but there too, someone said: Taken! Esek, Sitnah... And the friends waited again, just like in Yitzchak's time, without a fight. And then Rabbi Simcha the gabbai saw: What's going on? He opened a big, long table and called everyone: Come, there's room for everyone! And the third star lit up. The quiz began. Question after question, and the friends knew everything. And finally, the last question: What did Yitzchak Avinu name the third well? Rechovos! Because now Hashem has made room for us! And today, for us too! Chaburat Taryag won! And the pizzas were set down on the big table, and the friends shared them with the other group too, because peace tastes better than any pizza. And in the end, I got pizza too, without selling any bechorah! Friends, today we did just like in the parsha: we sat in the tent of Torah, we didn't trade something precious for something gone in a minute, and we made peace. Three stars! The mission is complete! On Shabbos night, at the Shabbos table, the friends told the whole family about Yitzchak's wells, and about the pizza, a little less. Dear children, this week you sat in the tent of Torah, you didn't trade something precious for something gone in a minute, and you chose peace. That's a very big message. And now, lentil stew? No, thank you. I'm sticking with the cholent. And next week, in Parshas Vayetzei, Yaakov sets out on a long journey. A special dream, a ladder that reaches the sky, and hard work at Lavan's. All this and more, in the next episodes of Chaburat Taryag!