Living with the Parsha
Pray Before Skiing?!

Year Four could barely contain their excitement within the four walls of their classroom. They were all sitting, during their break, with their teacher, Mr. Benson, and discussing their forthcoming ski trip. They had worked hard for this ski trip, and now—it was finally happening.

"Everyone should come to school on time on the day of the trip," Mr. Benson was saying, "so we will have enough time to pray before the coach comes to collect us."

Benjy gasped in outrage, as did some of his classmates. "Mr. Benson, we can't pray before our trip! That will waste time—and we want to spend the entire day on the slopes!"

Mr. Benson held up his hand to stop the barrage of complaints. "Hold it boys! We just learned this week's Torah reading together, Vayeitzei. What does it tell us about Jacob?"

Adam ventured a reply. "Well, Jacob leaves his birthplace, and his family. He leaves the holy land of Israel, and travels to Haran—a difficult and harsh place to live, where there were lots of idol worshippers."

Mr. Benson smiled. "Good. Now listen, boys. Jacob is leaving his family. How many of you have left your family for a time longer than a week or two?"

No one raised their hand.

Mr. Benson continued. "Jacob is travelling to place which would be extremely challenging for him to live in and keep G‑d's commandments. Have you ever been in a place which is really difficult and challenging?"

The boys began thinking about different challenging places they had visited, but no one raised their hand.

Mr. Benson was looking really serious. "Boys, Jacob was going to a strange land, and was going to have to learn how to cope with it. However, the first thing he did was pray. Yup, pray!"

Benjy nodded. "You mean when he dreamt about the ladder, which is sometimes called the ladder of prayer? I thought that was when he slept!"

Mr. Benson shook his head. "No, it was just before he lay down to sleep. Rashi tells us that he invented the evening prayer, and he prayed."

Benjy smiled. "Hey…I guess we should take a lesson from Jacob. He was going for much longer than a day trip and he made sure to pray first."

David, in a quiet voice, summed it up for everyone. "No matter what we do, and where we are, the first thing to do as Jews is—pray to G‑d!"