I hope the ideas contained below, will provide you with some topics for discussion, at your Shabbos table.

There is a famous story from the Dubna Magid about a prince who wanted to be an expert archer. One day he was passing through a village and to his amazement he saw a series of arrows all exactly in the centre of their targets.
He found the archer who had shot the arrows, and asked him, “how do you manage to get such 100% accuracy. I never get anywhere near that?” The archer replied “when you practice archery, you set up the target and then fire the arrow. That way sometimes you get near the centre and sometimes you don`t. I fire the arrows first, and then I draw the circles around it, that way I always hit the centre.
I would like to suggest, this tale can serve as analogy to explain one of the most startling episodes in the Book of Ruth. We are told that Machlon and Chilyon married non-Jewish women (according to Rashi`s explanation). How did they come to do such a thing?
Similarly, in the second Parshah of Shema, we are told “If you will listen to Hashem and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul…..Beware in case your heart persuades you and you serve other Gods”. The question begs to be asked what would cause such a dramatic change from serving Hashem with all your heart, to serving idols without any spiritual halfway stage in between?
The answer is, (wrote Rav Shlomoh Wolbe,) if people around you laugh at you for serving Hashem, that can cause you to change your lifestyle very rapidly. I would add, every human wants to be respected by their peers. It is incredibly difficult to maintain a code of behaviour, if people around you think it is silly and ridiculous. Perhaps that is how Machlon and Chilyon came to marry non-Jewish women once they had moved to Moav. See a similar idea in Question 1 overleaf.
Like the archer who first fired the arrow then drew everything around it. The trick is to first decide on your beliefs and then build your life,-where you live-what you do-who your friends are, around them. If you build your life first, particularly your social circle, and then try to make your beliefs somehow fit in; the beliefs usually suffer.

SOURCES; Sefer Ali Shur Vol. 2.

QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK;

Question 1
Which group of people mentioned in this week`s Sedra, were influenced to the bad because the arrangement of the camp described in the Sedra gave them bad neighbours? Which people were influenced to the good because the arrangement gave them good neighbours?

ANSWER;
Some of the tribe of Reuvein were influenced to the bad because they were next to Korach. They were all on the south of the camp.
Some of the trbe of Yehudah & Yissachar& Zevulun were influenced to the good because they were next to Moshe Rabeinu. They were all on the east of the camp.

SOURCES; Rashi Chap. 3 Verse 29 & 38.

Question 2
The midrash statesthat at the giving of the Torah and at the confrontation between Eliyahu Hanavi and the prophets of the Baal, “not a bird called out, not a bird flew, not an ox bellowed the Ophanim(angels)did not move, the Seraphim (angels) did not say Holy(Etc.), the sea did not move, creatures did not speak, the whole world was silent” Why did Hashem make all that happen?

ANSWER:
The ancient Greeks and earlier generations, believed in a pantheon of Gods . They believed different Gods had control over different parts of nature. Therefore when Hashem said “I am Hashem …who brought you out of Egypt He wanted to show he contolled all of nature, so he brought all nature to a standstill. The same applied with Eliyahu Hanavi.

SOURCES: Sefer Yevakshu Torah by Rabbi P. Roberts.

If you have any comments, answers, or information, on any of the above, please E-mail me, or tell me.