When Maya and her siblings got home from school on Friday, they saw that a great rabbi had come to visit from Israel. They were so excited when their parents told them that he was staying for Shabbat. Maya rushed to the Shabbat table to set it because it was a great mitzvah. She was about to get out the china plates her mom used for special guests, but her siblings had the same idea and they all started to fight over who would take out the plates. One second Maya was holding the plate—and then it was on the floor, broken into tiny pieces. Her mother came into the room to see what had happened, and Maya could see how upset she was. Maya felt terrible and said she would give her all her money to pay for it. Her mom said, “I’m more upset about the way you treated each other than about some broken plates.”

Connection to the parsha:

The midrash tells us that in this week’s parsha the leviim fought about who would carry the Aron in the midbar. But even though carrying the Aron is a great mitzvah, it’s more important not to fight than it is to carry the Aron. And it’s an even bigger aveira to fight in front of something as holy as the Aron.

Questions for the parsha:

1. Do you fight with your siblings?

2. Do you regret fighting after you do it?

3. Do you ever set the table for Shabbat?

Challenge for the week:

Try not to fight, even to do a mitzvah.

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