“Kinderlach,” said Rebbi Bernchild. “I want you to pay attention to something in this week’s Parsha. The Torah just finished giving us scathing rebuke. It warned us of all of the terrible things which will happen to us when we don’t follow the ways of the Torah. These curses are so terrible that in previous generations when people took things more seriously, the Baal Korei would read these pesukim quickly so that people wouldn’t walk out of shul when hearing such horrible threats.
“But as soon as the Torah finishes with the tochacha, it suddenly switches topics completely and starts teaching us about Eirechin. Can anyone think of a reason why this is?”
The boys started thinking about their rebbi’s question, when they were startled by the sudden BWOOOOOEEEEEEOOOOO sound of air raid sirens.
“Okay, everyone walk calmly to the door!” Rebbi Bernchild instructed.
The boys hurried with their rebbi down the hall, along with the boys from several other classrooms, to the first grade classroom which was located in a “mamad” safe room. The first grade rebbi had just closed the heavy steel plate which covered the window and Rebbi Bernchild was about to close the door when a voice yelled out “wait - wait for me!”
A frantic police officer ran into the classroom.
“Thank you,” he said as Rebbi Bernchild slammed shut the heavy bomb-shelter door. “I was just passing by your school when the sirens went off.”
The boys and their rebbeim started saying Tehillim together, trying not to think about the rockets headed their way. “Shir lamaalos...” they chanted...
BOOM!!! Everyone in the room jumped as a loud explosion rocked the school building.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Explosion after explosion was heard as the boys said Tehillim with even more kavana.
The next few minutes passed in terrifying silence. The quiet was broken by a voice coming over the police officer’s radio, saying that several rockets had hit their generally busy neighborhood, but they all landed in construction sites and parking lots, and nobody was hurt.
“Boruch Hashem!” the boys cheered and started singing “Tov lehodos laShem”.
“It’s been ten minutes,” the police officer announced. “We can leave the mamad now”.
“Okay kinderlach, back to class,” said Rebbi Bernchild.
“Back to class?” asked the officer, surprised. “You are going to go straight back to learning right after such an event? Maybe you should take a break - or even send the children home. You can learn again tomorrow.”
Rebbi Bernchild smiled at the officer, before turning to his class.
“Boys,” he said. “Does anyone have an answer to the police officer’s question?”
Yanky raised his hand. “I think maybe it’s the same answer to the question rebbi asked right before the siren went off.”
“Ah, I was hoping somebody would say that,” Rebbi Bernchild replied. “Yanky, why don’t you tell everyone what you’re thinking.”
“The Torah tells us about the tochacha - the awful curses that will come upon us if we don’t listen to Hashem. It is traumatizing to hear such scary things - it shakes people up, just like sirens and rocket explosions. But after the excitement is over, we have to go back to Torah. It is the yetzer hara who wants us to get caught up and rattled by the excitement. But the right thing for us to do is to go right back to Meseches Eirechin - or whatever we are learning and keep shteiging.”
“Amazing!” Rebbi Bernchild said. “That’s exactly the answer I was looking for.”
“Wait, are you saying that I’m the yetzer hara?” the police officer asked, looking hurt. “I don’t know much about the Torah, but I didn’t think I was that bad.”
“No, chas veshalom!” Rebbi Bernchild said kindly. “You meant well - and we appreciate it. But the yetzer hara always wants to take us away from limud Torah. And the best way to fight that is by learning Torah!”
Have a Wonderful Shabbos!
Let’s review:
- Why did the police officer think the boys should go home?
- What is the best thing for a Yid to do after something exciting or scary happens?
