SmallTalk: The Ultimate Parshah Challenge (with Rabbi Yitzy Fox)

In the middle of a conversation about his new book, Rabbi Yitzy Fox offers a sample question from Parshas Vayishlach: “On which day of creation would a flying elephant probably have been created?” The question is deliberately open-ended, designed to get everyone at the Shabbos table thinking, arguing, and talking about the parshah. It is not a trick; it is a mechanism. And it captures the central idea of The Ultimate Parshah Challenge — a book that aims to turn the Shabbos table from a place where one person delivers a dry dvar Torah into a place where everyone, from young children to grandparents, can participate in a real conversation about the week’s parshah.

From a COVID Project to a Published Sefer

Rabbi Fox began writing the questions during the COVID lockdown in 2020. He was part of a shul where the responsibility for creating a weekly question sheet fell to him. As he reviewed Shnayim Mikra v’Echad Targum, he started jotting down questions he noticed in the pesukim. He categorized them by difficulty — warm-up, more challenging, Rashi-based, bonus — and began sending the sheets out to friends and family. The email list grew quickly. Mechanchim told him they were using the sheets at their Shabbos tables. Eventually, he collected, edited, and published the material as a sefer through Mosaica Press.