Parshas Vayeira Shabbos Times Erev Shabbos Shabbos Day Plag HaMincha 6:34pm Latest time for Shema 9:35am Candle Lighting 7:42pm Shabbos Ends 8:48pm Shkiya 8:00pm Shaarei Shabbos Riddles 1. Where in our Shabbos davening do you find four different, consecutive words that all have the same root? 2. Of which two people in Sefer berieshis can it be said that their names spelled backwards are words used by the Torah to describe them? 3. With regard to which events does the Torah state that Avroham "arose early in the morning"? (3 answers) 4. In this parsha, which two people make a Mishteh - "a feast"? SMS your answers to 0425858502 to enter into the raffle to win a prize Short Vort on the Parsha The Torah tells us that after Yishmoel was sent away from the home of Avraham Avinu, Hashem personally raised Yishmoel (Bereishis 21:20). What did this child turn out to be? The possuk continues and tells us that he became an archer; he shot arrows. What?!?! Hashem raises a child and he only turns out able to shoot arrows - today a parent would be kicking himself if that was all the chinuch of his children produced. What's the message? Rav Yitzchak Berkovits answers that the idea of chinuch is, as Shlomo Hamelech writes in Mishlei (22;6) 'to educate a child according to HIS way' - according to the way of the child. That means that education does not mean making the child be the person that you want them to be, but rather the parent is to harness and increase the child's personal talents and potential as much as they can. In short, the parent teaches the child to reach the best of their potential that they can. But each child will naturally have a different potential and talents to improve. Thus, the potential of Yishmoel lay in merely shooting arrows, and so Hashem raised him to be the best archer he could be. We are not trying to produce clones, we are trying to make each child harness their talents for the good and to be the best that they can.