When Ima got home from work, she told all the kids to clean up the house. Max wanted to help, but he wanted to let Ella and Mia clean up too, so he went upstairs to do his homework and would come down later to finish cleaning up. When he went back downstairs he saw the whole house was clean. He was so annoyed. He wanted his siblings to get a mitzvah, but now they got the whole mitzvah and he got nothing. He asked his mom if there was anything left for him to clean up. She said there were still some dishes left in the dishwasher that he could empty. Max was really upset because that wasn’t as good as being able to clean up the whole house.

Connection to the parsha:

When Bnei Yisrael were donating their gold, silver, copper and fabrics to build the Mishkan, the Nesi’im thought they would let the people finish donating, and then they would donate whatever else was needed. Bnei Yisrael were so happy to give to the Mishkan and gave so much that by the time they finished donating there was no need for anything else. The Nesi’im were very upset because they wanted to share the mitzvah with Bnei Yisrael, but now they were left with no mitzvah. So Hashem told the Nesi’im they can still donate the gems for the kohen gadol’s Ephod and Choshen Hamishpat. We learn from here that you should never wait to do a mitzvah. The Nesi’im waited and they almost did not have a chance to help make the Mishkan.

Questions for the family

1.Do you think it was right for Max to let his siblings tidy up first?

2. What would you do?

3. Do you ever wait to do mitzvot?

Challenge for the week

Try not to wait to do a mitzvah, because you might miss out on the opportunity.

Maayan Singer is a third grader at Yeshivat He’atid who loves to find lessons in the parsha and share them with the world.