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Below you can choose to read something nice on the weekly parsha, or on any parsha you wish. Perhaps you want to read some kollel jokes or peruse some of the latest events that have been happening in connection with the kollel.
If you want to copy and print or link to anything here on the site, publish it in your own website, whatever; feel free. I would like that you link back to here and attribute stuff to us, that's all.
I hope you enjoy the parshah ideas - these were the Shabbos table talk in our home, and the ideas came from all present, young and old. These are only suggestions and discussion headings; add your own to them and send them back to us! Usually I will ask a question and the children respond. Sometimes I also have ideas on the subject. We hope that the issues raised will bring out thoughts of your own. Anyhow, enjoy them and respond to them!
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Category Archives: Chumash Shmos
Shabbos, The Badge
What is the badge of Shabbos? How is it a sign of honor? We explained that Shabbos means Hashem lends us His personal day of rest for us to rest in, sort of like loaning us His bed! Mordechai was … Continue reading
Love Vs Obligation
The Torah says that the Jews gathered under the mountain. Chazal interpret this literally; Hashem raised the mountain and held it over them and threatened; “If you accept the Torah, fine. If not, you die here”. However the Jews had … Continue reading
Trusting your memory
The Torah tells us that the Jews went from Aileem to the Midbar Sinai, the Sinai desert. The very next pasuk reads “And the Bnei Yisroel complained against Moshe and Aharon in the Desert” (Their complaint? “Would that we had … Continue reading
Taking Yosef along
Yosef asked his brothers to promise to take his body out with them when they left Egypt. Chazal teach that all the brothers were taken out of Egypt when the Jews left. If so, why did Yosef need to ask … Continue reading
Are Miracles Hard for Hashem?
Why is it “hard” for Hashem to perform miracles, the children asked. Didn’t He make the world. Why can’t He just change it? Well, when He made it everything was created just so, and for good reason. In addition, the … Continue reading
Lurxury seeking
The Torah relates that as a result complaining the Jews received two things; Mon, or Manna, and the Slav, or quail. Mon was served in the morning, and Slav in the blackness of night. Rashi wonders why weren’t they both … Continue reading
Tip off
We asked why did Hashem instruct the Jews to return to Pi Hachiros; anyhow he was leading them around with the Cloud to wherever he wanted? One suggestion was that this way they would realize this was a premeditated and … Continue reading
Jewish Humor
The sea in front of them, the Egyptian army pressing their rear, the desperate Jews turned to Moshe; “Is there any lack of grave-land in Egypt that you have brought us out here to die?” Rabbi Shamshon (Ben) Refael Hirsch … Continue reading
Mind warp
We spoke of the utter madness on the part of the Egyptians to follow the Jews into an ocean, into a miraculous death-trap. Why did they do it?!?! The Ramban explains that an extra measure of heart-hardening (maybe a super-measure, … Continue reading
Wow food
Why was Mon, the Manna, given that name? Rashi explains “mon” means ‘food”. It was called “food” in generic terms because they did not know specifically what it was. Indeed, Chazal tell us that the Mon’s taste changed according to … Continue reading
The Chiel Syndrome
Paroh sent his royal investigators to see if any Jew’s cattle died during “Arov”. He found out that none did, and he stiffened his neck. We asked the kinderlach if indeed it made no difference, why did he send people … Continue reading
The G-d Fearing Wicked
Rashi (B’shalach) tells us that although the pasuk refers to those who brought their cattle indoors during the plague of Barad, hail, as “G-d-fearing” Egyptians, even they were rotten, for they afterwards donated their horses to Paroh’s army for pursuing … Continue reading
Plauge of Blood, how it was
How was the Makkah of blood? The blood was all over Egypt; probably even in the houses of the Jews. One of the kinderlach stated that only when a Jew began drinking did it turn back to water. (Why did … Continue reading
Violence…
Moshe saw the Egyptian overseer hitting the Jewish laborer, and struck him dead. What would the reaction be today? I surmise people would mutter about dina d’malchusa dina, perhaps they would discuss possible chillul Hashem, and the issue of preserving … Continue reading
The Jew, or The Jews?
Paroh described the Jewish threat to his country. He said “The nation of the Sons of Israel is bigger and stronger than us. Let us wise up on him, lest he becomes even bigger and he will fight against us … Continue reading
What was the Burning Bush?
When Moshe saw the bush ablaze yet not being eaten, he came to see what it was all about. The pasuk says there was an angel in that bush. Then Hashem called out to him “Moshe , Moshe” and Moshe … Continue reading
Did Moshe draw them water?
When Moshe saved the daughters of Yisro it says that they had already drawn water and filled the watering troughs. The other shepherds came and chased them away and Moshe saved the girls. It would seem that his job was … Continue reading
Limits to Gratitude
Someone at the table asked why at the same time that Moshe refused to hit the river because of the gratitude that he had for it saving him, he did hurt Paroh, despite the fact that he had spent his … Continue reading
Staying a Stranger
Moshe called his first son Gershom, indicating he was a stranger in a foreign land. What is the meaningfulness in that? The kinderlach suggested that he was noting how although he was in a foreign land Hashem still took care … Continue reading
Slander?
Moshe suggested the Jews would doubt his prophecy. This is reckoned as slander of the Jewish people, as hinted in the signs He gave Moshe; his stick turning a serpent – the symbol of malicious slander – and Moshe’s hand … Continue reading
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