Last week the Launchers went to a circus! It was so cool! we saw so many animals and Launcher Shea even got to chase a lion!
After the circus they went to the circus man and asked him for a tour of the animals, the circus man was friends with Avi’s Tatty so he said sure!
When he showed us the elephant they noticed that the elephant was tied down by a short and thin rope! They asked Avi’s Tatty’s friend how the elephant never escapes!
He told them that when the elephant was a baby they tied him to the rope and whenever he tried to escape the rope would pull him back because at the time he was a baby, so now it’s so engraved in his brain that he can’t escape from the rope that he doesn’t even try! Even though he’s huge!
On the car ride back they were thinking about this and realized that it can teach us a valuable lesson for Parshas Vayeitzei!
And that’s when Shea began Farbrenging:
When Yaakov made it to Charan with the intention of getting married and running away from his brother, Eisav, the first he did was go to the well where he saw all the Shepards of Charan waiting around the well which was covered by a big rock. Yaakov asked them: why don’t you just remove the rock? they told him: “we can’t do it” Yaakov then went and took the rock off the well all by himself!
Wait a minute! was Yaakov trying to show off to the shepherds? Why didn’t he just wait till they all got there and took it off together? and even if he wanted to take it off by himself why did he make such a big show about it? he could have just don’t it and walked away but instead, he waited for them to tell him that it’s impossible and then took it off proving them wrong!???
The answer is as follows:
Yaakov didn’t wait because he was trying to teach the shepherds a lesson that just because yesterday you couldn’t do it and just because other people told you that you cant do it – doesn’t mean that you cant do it today! Did you try it yet today? Yes, yesterday you couldn’t do it – but what about today?
Avi WAKE UP!!!
Do you understand this beautiful lesson we learned from the elephant?
We can’t just not try because people or even our brains tell us we can’t do it!
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that we can imagine that we can turn into rocket ships and fly to Mars, but every camper on their own level definitely has certain things in Avodas Hashem that we convinced ourselves is not Shayich to us…
Well, Parshas Vayeitzei come to tell us that we can do it! As long as we keep trying!
Then Avi woke up:
“WOW! Shea that was beautiful! But the car just pulled up to Kingston Pizza so let’s go inside and order 3 pies.”
“3 Pies! Avi, you invited friends?” Shea asked
“NO!” Avi responded
Wishing you and your family a good Shabbos!
From your Dear Launchers
P.S. This Shabbos is Tes Kislev, the birthday and Yartzeit of the Miteler Rebbe – don’t forget to hold a Chassidishe Farbrengen with your family!