Parashas Nitzavim & Vayelech - Vivid memories...

This week's Dvar Torah has been sponsored for:
Refua Shelema: Leah Ayala Bas Yehudis
May you and your family have health, happiness, peace and success!
(If you would like to sponsor a Dvar Torah, feel free to email me: SharingTorah@gmail.com)
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This week is a double parasha (Nitzavim and Vayelech). Two short parashas, however, combined together makes it long. Actually, (food for thought) a person might feel a little scared/worried to take upon themselves a goal because it might be too big and impossible to complete. That is just our mind playing tricks. For example: Someone can look at a masechta of Gemara and think it's out of his league - too big for him to finish. However, if you break it into smaller parts, something that was once intimidating isn't anymore.

Another example is when someone is stressed out because he/she is so overwhelmed with work, studies, family etc... A lot of people think they have BIG issues, but if they categorize them and list their issues, they will be surprised to see it's not such a big issue after all. It just seems big because it's not organized into different segments. We see the same tactics apply - breaking something into smaller parts. You can look at cleaning the WHOLE house, or cleaning one room after the other.

Now back to this week's parasha - but before I begin, I just want to let you in on a personal story.

My wife and I bought a 'One-Year Pass' to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo (in Bayit Vegan.) We had a lot of fun, sadly though, it just expired a couple weeks ago. Before buying it, we were trying to weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of buying it. The only disadvantage we could think of was that the bus ride was an hour and thirty minute away from our apartment. Going with two kids for an hour and a half each way was no walk in the park. It required a lot of patience and nosh. (Using the tactic above, we looked at it as if we were only taking the kids on one bus at a time. Incidentally, when we approached the second bus stop, we had just missed the bus, and had to wait an hour for the next one. Can you imagine? But we had a great time and the kids were well behaved, baruch Hashem. Always bring animal crackers to the zoo, hehe.)

The biggest advantage we took in account which lead us to buy the pass was: being able to give our kids a fun learning experience. We thought it would be easier for them to learn their animals. As a matter a fact, it worked very nicely. We went a bunch of times throughout the year and with every visit, it was more educational.

In this week's Parasha (if you're still reading, thanks for hanging in there,) there's the mitzvah of Hakhel. It's a national assembly event every seven years, where you hear the king read the Torah. The posuk says, "Assemble the nation - the men, women, children, and the convert of your towns. In order for them to hear and learn to fear Hashem, your G-d, and they will make sure to fulfill all the words of the Torah." Rashi asks, I understand the men would come to learn and the women would come to hear, but why the children? He answers, "To bring merit to those (the parents) who brought them."

Another answer is because a child will gain much more from the experience of traveling up to Yerushalayim, holding his parents' hand, going to hear the king read from the Torah. It's exciting for a child and when you bring them and they see what's going on with their own eyes, as opposed to hearing about it, the child remembers it more. It's more vivid to him/her.

That's the reason why my wife and I bought the yearly passes to the zoo. The experience of being there and seeing as opposed to hearing can have a great impact on our children. My daughter knows her animals very well, bli ayin hara. Now when we show her a book with animals in it, she's able to tell us what type of animal they are.

Make sure to make our kids' learning experiences 'hands on' in order for it to be memorable for them. This also applies to us grown-ups as well. When there's a practical application to something we've learned, it stays with us longer.

Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Nisso

P.S. Thanks for reading!