one of the things i like about chazara is that chana often asks questions after seeing the same information a few times. today she asked about eliezer's test: did hashem control rivka? because rivka said exactly what eliezer asked that she should say! and chana was under the impression that hashem gave free will.

so i said that rivka did control her own speech there. i gave an example. if i was looking for someone in the playground, and i was looking for someone with a DS who was good at pokemon. and i asked chana, "can you find X pokemon?" and i say to hashem, "and if she answers, 'not only can i find X, but i can also find Y and Z' then that is who i'm looking for." and just as i finished saying that to hashem, chana came to the playground and i ask her if she can find X pokemon, and if she answered, "yes, i can find that one and also Y and Z" is hashem making her say that?

so she understood. but then she felt it wasn't such a good example. (i supposed because why would i want someone who is good at finding pokemon? she said a lot of ppl can find pokemon). so i asked why she thought eliezer was looking for someone who would water all the camels. and she said he was looking for someone nice.

by the way, we did just sheni the milim and then shlishi today, and we were doing just fine and chana was in a good mood until we got to "kada al shichma" her jug on her shoulder, and chana yelled at me that the way i was trying to jog her memory was NOT right and i should have done it in such-and-such a way. and it felt to me that she was just yelling at me unjustly and i was not wrong for saying it the way i did. so i did not apologize and thereafter she became sour and dejected and slammed the chumash shut. i did not indulge this (but happily i did not feel anger and was able to remain emotionally even-keeled and respond in what i thought was best for her, vs responding from annoyance. also happily, my response wasn't much different--i was not accommodating to her hissy fit). so the last bunch of pesukim were less than pleasant. but we got through them.

then we did a very small piece of rashi which is a definition and we did it with nekudos. and i did not have the energy to fight with her to review one of the old ones. which she says she is sick of and she did so many times. {insert usual rashi lament here}