Engaging our children in the parsha
The following are some suggestions of ideas for conversations with our children by the Shabbos meals. The key here is to get the children involved through debate and stimulation.
The Jewish Army
Picture the best army you can imagine. What would it have? What would their best men be like? What weapons would they have? How much training and tests would they have to pass before qualifying to serve in the army? What healthy and good food are they served before entering battle? Let us now turn to the Jewish Army as seen in Parshas Matos. How does it match up in comparison? The Jewish Army would be anyone over the age of twenty with a few exceptions (as listed in Parshas Kit Tseisei). The would wear tefillin and fast and would not necessarily have any major training. For each soldier on the battlefield there was allocated another person to daven for his welfare. The Jewish army was not cruel (think about the terrible things we hear about ISIS today). When besieging a town they would only surround it from three sides to enable the enemy to have a chance to escape. The usual procedure before battle would be to offer peace to the other nation and if refused would only then go to battle.
What lies behind this difference? The answer is the difference outlooks of how the battle was to be fought. The other nations believed in nature. In nature you must do all you can to win with physical strength. However, the Jews believed that all strength comes from Hashem and He fights their battle. Therefore, the Jewish criteria for battle was for people free of sin. Their whole emphasis was on the spiritual aspect of things since they knew that the outcome of the battle would be determined by Hashem and could be won with miracles.
Splitting the spoils of war:
Imagine you were a soldier in the Jewish Army fighting Midyon as described in Parshas Matos. You fought very hard and miraculously no Jew was killed. The enemy was captured and you were plundering the spoils of war. These include servants, animals, gold and silver. You work hard and then round everyone up and head back to the Jewish camp feeling triumphant. You start dreaming what you are going to do with all your new found wealth.
As you draw near to the camp, you see an entourage coming to greet you. This is when the surprises start! Moshe greets the leaders angrily for leaving alive the women who were the cause of the sin that led to the battle. Next, you are told that the booty you took would be split! You dreams of wealth suddenly seem to start disappearing. You are told that only living things need to be split. You start hoping it will only be a small percentage but are then told it will be half! Half were to be given to the other Jews who stood guard at home and didn’t come to the battlefield. On top of this, one out of every five hundred would have to be given as teruma to the kohanim.
What do you the soldiers reaction should be? Surely, they should argue and complain that this is not fair. What does the parsha tell us. These soldiers picked were tzaddikim and we do not find a word of complaint. On the contrary, they come forward and want to give from the gold spoils to Hashem to atone for any wrongdoing on their part! This gives us again an inkling into what types of people the Jewish Army was made up of! It is an army focused on the ruchniyous, spirituality. The physical side is not the main thing.