24 – Vayikra Torah Tales Levt 1 :1 – 5:26
     

From Mrs. Noah

Join Hannah, Max, Mrs. Noah and many of their friends as

they explore the Torah and the awesome stories and

lessons waiting to be found.

Part 1

In Mrs. Noah’s Attic

 Continued from last week: Hannah and Max were at the Tabernacle, Max disappeared – AGAIN! Meanwhile, Cecil was hiding again, or really sneaking around, in Mrs. Noah’s attic. He poked here and there, looking for some stale cookies (they are much better than fresh ones). He thought he might take one to his friend, Max. Max was downstairs looking for more information about the Hebrews – the children of Avraham,Yitz’chak and Ya’acov.

Suddenly, Cecil heard some muffled crying. He listened closely, then slowly followed the sound to a large box stuck back in a corner of the old attic. He peeked inside. There he saw a plastic bag, with lots of brightly colored teddy bears inside! But one little bear, a pink one, was sitting on top of the bag – crying!

“Wat’s yo probwem?” Cecil snapped at the little, weeping teddy bear.

She looked frightened as she tried to speak to the small mouse. “I, I, didn’t get to go to Is, Is, Israel!” she sputtered.

“Is-weal?” Now that sounded familiar to Cecil. “Why do YOU want to go to Is-weal?” he asked.

She sniffled and told him, “Miss Jere’ and Miss Louise went to Israel to take warm coats, hats and gloves to some of the people who were kicked out of their homes in Gush Katif – in the Gaza. Those people lost everything!”

“Watz dat dot to do wit a fuzzy  widdle bear?” he snarled.

“Miss Jere’ got almost 200  of us bears to take to the children. It was VERY hard  for them to lose their homes,  schools, and all of their  friends, too. But …,” she started to cry again. “There wasn’t enough room for  all of us, so some of us got left behind!” she sobbed.

Cecil was curious now. “So watz Mrs. Noah gonna do  whit’ all jue guys?”

“Well,”she told him, “since Mrs. Noah got us, she decided to give us to children in the hospital – or children having other tough times – like being sick or when someone dies. See my tag?” He looked at the tag. It said, “SOMEBODY LOVES YOU”. “But, I – I wanted to go to Israel!” She began crying AGAIN. Her soft fuzzy fur was getting matted.

“Ahh – I tan help jue wit dat. I jus dot back from dere!” he bragged. “Hey, watz jue name?”

“Uh, uh … I don’t have a name.” Then, she started crying again.

“Stop dat!” he demanded. “We jus’ give jue one! Ahhhh … who waz it dat waz suppoze ta take jue ta Is-weal?”

“Miss Jere’ and Miss Louise,” she sniffled.

“Ok. We call jue Jere’ or Wol-ise. PICK! Wat jue want?” His impatience was beginning to show.

She thought for a minute. “I think I like Louise best,” she decided.

“Ok, Wol-ise. Here’s wat jue do. Ca-wose jue eyes, tink ob da Is-weal-ites, and stick ca-wose to me,” Cecil instructed.

      Part 2

       At Mt. Sinai

Louise opened her eyes and gasped. They were in  a big yard with a fence all around them. She saw  saw a funny house in front of her, mostly covered with a big cloud! She could see animal skins were covering the house, like a tent. She also saw that the front of the tent had 5 gold posts with beautiful blue, red and purple curtains covering the entrance. Fire and light glowed from inside the cloud. [Ex 36:8-9, 39:32, 40:34]

“Where are we?” she whispered .

“See datt man in font of da tent? Datt’s Moshee. He tawts wit da Dod Man,” Cecil told her. “AN, da Dod Man tawts to Moshee.”

They listened for a few minutes. Louise didn’t understand what she was hearing. “Off-rings? What’s off-rings? An-a-moes? Cecil, what is this place?” she demanded. “Why do an-a-moes have to be put on a fire?” [Levit 2:6]

“Uh, uh,” Cecil stuttered, “I tink maybe ….” and he was gone.

Part 3

Back at Mrs. Noah’s

“Where did you go?” Hannah snapped at Max. “I was all alone out there watching the cloud filled with fire!”

Max frowned, got a cookie and tried to ignore her. Then he noticed Cecil. “Oh, hi, Cecil. Where ya been?” he asked as he noticed Cecil sneaking a cookie off the table. Cecil looked guilty. “What have you been up to?” Max asked, still ignoring Hannah.

“Nutt’n,” he said as he stuffed some crumbs in his mouth and more in his secret pocket. But he didn’t look at Max, or any of the others. Mrs. Noah watched as Cecil fidgeted with the spoon on the table. He pushed it, pulled it, and even sat on it. He still didn’t look at any of the others. He was very quiet.  “Cecil?” Her voice was soft, but firm.

The little mouse looked up at her, his face filled with guilt.

“Otay. I waz up in da attic, an, an,” he sputtered, “I foun a widdle oh teddy bear.”

“A TEDDY BEAR? One of MY teddy bears – that didn’t get taken to Isra’el?” Mrs. Noah exclaimed.

“Uh, huh,” he admitted. “She waz – ah – sorta cwy’n, ‘cause she di-n’t get ta go ta Is-weal. So, I twook her.”

“You took her – to Isra’el?” Hannah gasped.

“Where in Isra’el did you take her? Cecil, you’re not good at using your imagination yet. Where did you leave her?” Mrs. Noah was getting upset.

“I, I tink we waz back where I waz wost. Dat guy, Moshe, was wistening at da place where da cwoud waz. Da God waz twelling him summ stuff bout off-ring an-ni-mules,” Cecil grumbled.

Now, Max was getting worried. “The Mountain? Mt. Sinai? Where the smoke and fire …? We better go find her – right away!”

                                                                   

Part 4 

Mt. Sinai – AGAIN  

Hannah looked around. She saw Moshe still listening to YHWH as He gave the instructions about offerings and sacrifices for the people to give Him.

“Psst, Hannah,” Max whispered, “look over there.”

Behind the laver, the basin for washing hands and feet, something VERY pink seemed to be hiding.

Hannah went around to see what it was.There, curled up so no one would notice her, was the little teddy bear.

Louise looked up at Hannah. She was scared – and had been crying again. “Hello,” Hannah said softly. “My name is Hannah. That’s Max over there.”

Just then they all heard YHWH explaining to Moshe about a grain offering. [Levit
2:1-16]

Louise looked at Hannah with her dark eyes. “Where are we?” she sniffled.

“Come on. We’ll take you back to Mrs. Noah’s,” Max told her.

Part 5

Cookies with Mrs. Noah

Mrs. Noah had fresh oatmeal cookies and hot apple cider waiting for them. She smiled at the little bear. “And what is your name?” she asked.

“I think it’s Louise,” she mumbled softly. She looked around and saw Cecil, who wouldn’t look at her at all.

“Cecil, do you have anything to say to Louise?” Mrs. Noah said.

Cecil grumbled something and slipped off the table, ran across the room and disappeared through a crack in the wall. Mrs. Noah just shook her head.

Louise looked confused. “What is off-rings? Why does The God want off-rings?”

“Louise, let’s see if I can explain. Do you know about different languages?” Mrs. Noah asked her.

Louise looked puzzled.

“Well, people from other parts of the world speak different words. In Mexico they speak Spanish. In Germany they speak German. In Israel they speak Hebrew. The Hebrew language is fun. It’s like making a cake,” Mrs. Noah told her. “Each letter is a new ingredient. So, just as each cake has different ingredients, and each new item changes the taste – Hebrew words change with each new letter or – make another meaning.”

Hannah, Max, Miss B, and Moogy all listened, too.

“Each letter has a meaning?” Hannah asked.

“Yes. Each letter is like a little picture – all on its own. When you put them together, they make a new word picture – or a new kind of cake,” she said. 

“OK, OK. What does that have to do with offerings?” Max snapped.

“The picture that the Hebrew letters in the word for ‘offering’ show us is that offerings are there to bring us closer to Ya-hu’wah,” Mrs. Noah said.

“Ya–hoo–wha? Is that The God? The one Moshe was talking to?” Louise asked.

“Yes.” Mrs. Noah told her. “He was telling Moshe how people could get closer to Him. He explained that there are different kinds of offerings. Some are like gifts. Some are to pay for sin,” she said.

“Sin?” Louise asked. “What is sin?”

“Hmmm. Well, many, many years ago The GOD – His name is Abba Yah – made the very first man and woman. He gave them all the instructions so they would always follow the right road and have a good life,” she told her.

“Oh, I know, that was Adam and Eve!”  Max said. [Gen 2:18-24]

“Havah,” Hannah snapped, “her real name was Havah.”

Max glared back at her. “They didn’t listen to YHWH’s instructions. They listened to a bad serpent that wanted them to miss out on the good stuff – he wanted them to follow him,” Miss B said. [Gen 3:1– ]

Hannah got another cookie. “And that started it! Once they listened to the serpent, their children followed the serpent, too.”  

“Before they did that, didn’t Yah walk and talk with them?” Max asked. [Gen 3:8-]

Mrs. Noah pulled out a book with funny letters on it. “Yes. But when they disobeyed Him, it changed their HEARTS. It hurt their friendship with YHWH. An evil seed was put into them. So, He planned a way to fix their hearts so He could be friends with them and their children again.”

“But,” Louise insisted, “I still don’t know what SIN IS.” [I John 3:4]

“Hmmm. Well, let’s go back to the Hebrew letters again. The Torah is the book we’ re reading. The pictures in the Hebrew letters for the word TORAH tell us, the Torah is an ARROW pointing – or guiding and directing us.” Mrs. Noah told her. “And what is sin? Alright. The Hebrew letters show
that to sin means to ‘miss the mark’. ”

“What’s the ‘mark’ that people aren’t supposed to miss?” Louise asked.

“I think I know that!” Max was excited. “If Torah is like an arrow guiding or pointing, the Torah must have a place or a ‘mark’ to shoot for.”

“Sooo, if we miss doing what the Torah teaches, then we have missedTHE MARK,” Hannah added.

Max scowled at Hannah. “I knew that.”

“Very good, Max,” Mrs. Noah told him.

Hannah couldn’t believe Max actually knew that. “Little twirp,” she muttered so softly that Mrs. Noah couldn’t hear it. Then she added, “Since Adam and Havah listened to the snake and did what it said, they learned to follow ITS ways. If we study Torah and the words He gaveto Moshe, then we will get to know Yah – The God of our Fathers, Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’acov – and follow HIM.”

Mrs. Noah smiled. “That’s right, Hannah.”

“And, the more we want to know about Him, the more He puts HIS ways into our hearts,” Hannah added. She felt better now and smirked at Max. He, in turn, stuck his tongue out at her.

“How do we miss the mark? Is it like shooting darts?” Max asked.

“We can think of it like shooting darts,” Mrs. Noah told him. “It would be like the darts are the things we do each day. Everyday we ALL shoot lots and lots of darts toward the ‘mark’ that YHWH has set for us.”

“Then, the closer we walk to His teachings, the more of our darts will hit that ‘mark’?” Hannah asked.

“And, WE chose them by what we do and even what we think about,” Mrs. Noah added.

“Like,” Max wondered, “what would be a GOOD dart to shoot?”

“I know a good one!” Hannah said quickly. “Helping someone who is sick.”

“And, reading a story to them,”Moogy added.

“How about making your bed and helping your mother?” Miss B added.

“Telling the truth; giving food to the poor; cleaning up the kitchen …” Hannah said as she began listing all the things to show how to follow Torah.

“So, then, this sin stuff – when we miss the mark – it’s doing bad things that we have to do an off-ring for?” Max asked.

“Yes. And, that would include lying and stealing,” Hannah told him.

“Or, hurting someone, or leaving them in a strange place so they are scared,” Moogy said, as he looked at Cecil poking out of his mouse house.

“Making golden calves to worship and bowing down to them would miss the mark, too,” Miss B added. [Ex 32]

“Any time we break any of the Commandments YHWH Elohim gave to Moshe, we are ‘missing the mark,’” Mrs. Noah reminded them.

Louise thought for a minute. “When those people in Israel took away the homes, businesses, schools – everything, from the Jewish families in Gush
Katif – that was bad! They missed the mark,” she said sadly. “Will they have to do a sin off-ring?”

“Yes. Sin has a price tag that everyone has to pay. But, there is a lot more to learn about the offerings, including the sin offering,” she told the worried little bear.

“We pay for sin?” Louise asked. “Is it expensive? Why would we want to buy sin?”

Suddenly, Mrs. Noah heard something funny. 

Hannah smelled something weird.

Then, everyone SAW smoke, as it poured into the room! “Where’s Max?” they all shouted together!

 

            * * * * *
________________________________________________________ 

Here is a verse to memorize

 Memory Verse

Colossians 3: 12 -14

“Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and
forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord
forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in
perfect unity.” NIV

Be a Detective

Instructions:

Below are spaces for 16 words found in this week’s Torah Times, with
squares for the letters in each word. Shaded squares are for vowels and
white squares are for consonants. For example, word 1 has three letters:
two consonants with a vowel between them. To fill in the missing letters,
use the letters provided. Use each letter only once.

For more stories and books:

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      ©Children Are Forever, 3/2012. Denver, CO

Thanks to the Lanford family!

Answers to puzzle on pg 11

________

 1. Sin 2. Tent 3. Moses 4. Arrow 5. Torah 6. Moshe 7. Offering 8. Mt. Sinai

9. Hebrew 10. Bet (Hebrew Letter)

BONUS: miss the mark – hit the mark