Review Details

Mashal Tov!

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Product Review (submitted on January 8, 2014):

Thousands of books have been written by Jews around the world on the Chumash, the Five Books of Moses that we are commanded by our rabbis over the Millennium to read in shul on Shabbos morning. If you would examine these books you would find that the authors in each and every century managed to find relevance in the weekly Torah reading from this timeless treasure that G-d revealed to His beloved Chosen People via the quill of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher.)
The level of erudition varies according to the audience that the author or Torah scholar is trying to reach out to, from the sophisticated student trying to comprehend the commentaries of the Ramban to the simple family man living in Turkey more than 300 years ago during the time of the author of the Meam Loez.

Parables to Enliven Your Shabbos Table
Recently a review copy of a collection of parables on the weekly Torah parashah arrived in my home via the courtesy of the United States Postal Service. Based on the method of Rabbi Yeshaya Greenberger who for decades taught as a yeshiva rebbe to American-bom students, "Mashal Tov!: Perfect Parables for the Shabbos Tables Based on the Weekly Parashah" was written by a friend of the Rabbi Greenberger — Rabbi Tzvi Moshe Schultz.
If you are teaching Ameri¬can yeshiva students and you want to get them excited about the weekly Torah reading, a good teacher has to try to give over lessons that are both entertaining and stimulating. Parables have from time immemorial been the honey that many educators like Rabbi Greenberger have used. Indeed a well delivered story or mashal (parable) has the ability to remain embedded in the mind and hearts of talmidim years if not decades after the lesson was delivered.

Parables Relevant for The 21st Century
In creating this new charming collection of parables that are relevant for the English-speaking Jew in the beginning of the 21st Century of the Common Era, Rabbi Greenberger used many classical sources including Rashi, Ray Saadia Gaon, Chovos HaLevavos, the Kuzari, the writings of the Ram-barn, Derashos HaRan, Sefer HaChinuch, the Ohr Hashem, the Sefer Halkarim, the writings of the Abarbanel, the Chasid Ya' avetz and Ray Shimshon Raphael Hirsch.

"Mashal Tov!" is perfect for the Shabbos table all year round, including those summer months when Rabbi Greenberger's yeshiva was in recess. Perhaps he was a camp rebbe in those summer months and thus continued to create the parables for those non-school parshas.
So even if your son (or even daughter) does not have a rebbe in yeshiva who can tell over delightful parable stories in the manner of Rabbi Greenberger with the new release of "Mashal Tov!" you can give your child a precious gift that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
A Precious Opportunity After your child gives over the appropriate week's Torah parashah parable, you can utilize this as a precious opportunity to create a discussion that will interest the entire family and make the Torah portion truly come alive for family members and guests alike.
For example when dealing with the Torah portion of Tazria that deals with what happens when a Jew unfortunately sins by speaking lashon hora (negative speech about others) and is punished by G-d with a terrible outbreak of tzara'as, a spiritual type of leprosy that forces him to leave his family, his home and his community, Rabbi Greenberger gives the mashal of Nuclear Power. In describing the Nimshal, he writes:

"The amazing thing about nuclear power is that it's so powerful, and yet it comes from some¬thing so small. It all starts with a tiny atom. The same is true with the words we speak. They may seem small, but they are actually very powerful. They are like nuclear power! And just as nuclear power is able to either turn on all of the lights in a city or destroy it, so too our words have the power to do tremendous good or cause tremendous harm."