Peula Shabbat Parashat Noach

Written by: Cleveland

Goal: To get the chanichim to be "jealous" of people who live in Israel.

Materials: prizes, string to tie the kids legs with, parsha questions

Suitable for Shabbat

Suggested Age: Taf or Aleph

The theme for this peula is how Israel is on a higher level than any other place just because God said so. In other words, if you are in America, you automatically can not achieve the same spiritual level than if you lived in Israel. Being in Israel gives you an automatic advantage over any other place just because you are in Israel, the soil in israel is just holier than the soil in America.

Peula:  In order to illustrate this point, there will be two games that we will play. From the outset it may seem that we are being cruel, but bear with me, and you will see the greatness of this peula.  One of the goals of the peula is to incite jealousy within the chanichim.

1^st game: we will divide the group into pairs.) We then tie one of the chanichim’s legs together with a string or rope. Give each Chanich with free legs a number 1 and the Chanich with tied legs a number 2. We then explain to the chanichim that it is a race between the two people in a pair- whoever gets to the finish line first wins a prize. Obviously, the Chanich with free legs will win and gets the prize - that is the point. If people complain that it is unfair- tell them that that is the point and that they will understand later.  Play the game again- but KEEP THE SAME EXACT ARRANGEMENT AS BEFORE.

 2^nd Game: This game will combine both our theme of the peula and the parasha. Divide the chanichim into two groups- have both groups have kids that were tied up and not tied up.  There will be a list of parsha questions that will accompany the peula- the questions will be hard. Place another Madrich with one group and DO NOT PLACE A MADRICH WITH THE OTHER GROUP. The Madrich will serve to help that side, and only that side, with the questions. The group that answers the most will win- obviously the one with the Madrich. You will then give a prize to all the members of the winning team. There will be a consolations prize for those kids that didn’t get a prize in either game.

Conclusion: We must understand that there is a big difference between Israel and all the other countries in the world. According to Rav Kook, a person living outside of Israel, like in America, no matter how hard he tries, he will never be on the same level, had he been in Israel. Being in Israel automatically gives the person an extra advantage- just like in the games we played- in the race where one person was tied up and in the parsha game where one team had a Madrich to help- they just had an extra advantage- there was no way of stopping it, so too with Israel. Hashem chose Israel to be the holiest place on Earth. Therefore, it has an advantage over all the other countries, because Hashem said so. Therefore, in order for us to really get on a high level, we all have to move to Israel.

Note:  Try to get the audience as involved as possible for the conclusion.

Parasha Questions:

(you can come up with them on the spot, it's an easy parsha)