Simon sat on the floor playing with his Lego. It was Shabbat afternoon; his parents were resting and he and his friend Levi were building a castle together. Simon was concentrating on building the turrets, while Levi was building the walls and gates and putting all the little Lego soldiers in the right places. They were having great fun.
'What are you doing?' said Ilana, Simon's older sister, in her big-sister voice. Simon hated it when she came in and disturbed their fun; she always had some problem or another. 'Just go away,' he mumbled under his breath; Levi laughed.
'What is so funny?' Ilana demanded of Levi. 'Umm.nothing,' he said, 'we are just building a Lego castle. Look, isn't it great?' Ilana peered over the boys' shoulders and grunted.
'Well, I wonder if you should be doing this on Shabbat,' she said, half talking to herself. 'And why is that?' Simon demanded, he was getting a bit frustrated with his sister. 'Didn't you learn about it in school, or anything?' Ilana replied, in mock surprise. 'Learn about what?' asked Levi.
'Building on Shabbat!' she said. 'We learn about it in this week's Torah portion. First the Torah tells us to work six days, and to keep the seventh day as a holy day of rest - Shabbat, and then it tells us about the building of the Sanctuary.'
'What does one have to do with another?' said Simon, feeling rather aggravated. 'If you'd let me explain.' Ilana tried to say, but Simon interrupted. 'Why don't you take your theories somewhere else and leave us in peace?' he said, gritting his teeth.
'Simon, listen! Our Rabbis tell us that the reason why the Torah tells us first about Shabbat and how we must rest on that day, and then about the building of the Sanctuary, is because it wants to tell us that even though building the Sanctuary is very important we must still not build on Shabbat. And the same goes for all types of building.'
'Well, who says that includes this Lego?' demanded Levi. 'I don't know,' said Ilana uncertainly. 'Maybe it doesn't! Perhaps it's not considered real building'.
'Of course not,' said Simon. 'Lego is made to be put together and taken apart again. It's not really building anything at all.'
'Maybe you're right,' said Ilana.
'So if I might be right, why did you say I'm not?' asked Simon, driving his victory home.
'Well, I don't know,' answered Ilana. 'There might be different opinions. We could ask Mummy or Daddy. Or Rabbi Silver.'
'Well, Mummy and Daddy are resting,' said Simon. 'We certainly cannot disturb them. And we won't see Rabbi Silver till Monday.'
'Ah,' said Levi resignedly, and he got up from the floor, 'I guess we can finish the fortress later,' he said. 'Look, the sun is shining. Let's go for a walk!'
