The situation: my daughter is celebrating her bat Mitzva this Shabbat, B"H. For the past many months, she and I have been learning Mishnayot Zera'im together, and she's planning to make a siyum on it this Shabbat, B"H.

We're a little behind schedule learning it together, so she won't have finished all of Zera'im by this Shabbat, but I, racing ahead, will have, so we can make a siyum together. We'll continue learning together afterward to finish the rest together.

We learned out of order, starting with Orla. She will have finished Ma'asrot this week, and the last tractate I'm learning ahead and that we'll ultimately finish together is Challa.

Now, I need to guide her to develop a devar Torah to say at the siyum. The tricky part is somehow incorporating the learning of a final mishna, which is typically part of a siyum. I want to help her incorporate this into the flow of the devar Torah somehow, because she's not comfortable with standing up and straight-up teaching a mishna.

Helping make this tricky is that the last mishnayot of both Ma'asrot and Challa are quite dry, and not obviously amenable to an inspirational devar Torah.

The floor is open for ideas.

Here is one thought that you might build on if you like it. On Challa I don't know what to do since she won't have learned it. On the last mishna of Maasrot I also don't know. But on Maasrot in general and to link with yesterday's parasha, you could do something on the fact every person needs to get involved in Torah, whether on his own or though others

Maaser Sheni was supposed to be eaten in Jerusalem, why there? To learn Torah from those who reside there. And if someone can't get to Jerusalem, the Rambam (end of his commentary on 14:22) says those who set out to sea should take 10% of their profits to benefit those who learn Torah

You can link to the Rambam's brother who set out to sea while supporting the Rambam

In other words, a Jew can't live without intense Torah. Either the one he himself learns in Jerusalem every year while he redeems his maaser sheni (or every seventh year during shmitta - itself an intense year of learning since there was no work). Or he supports others who learn intensely while he works intensely

Sorry it is the RambaN at the end of 14:22

In Judaism, there is no distinction between the working class and the intellectuals. All Israel is meant to be engaged in Torah one way or another

As R Telushkin brings in one of his books, one can see in the yiddish museum books of mishna with the stamp of the "Society of woodcutters for the study of mishna" !

OK - have to run to a bar mitsva - hope this can serve to generate further thoughts

PS. AND MAZAL TOV !

@IsaacMoses The last Mishna in Challah is a perfect reminder that being a Zionist in the Diaspora and occasionally visiting Israel just doesn't cut it. That might be too harsh sounding for her audience (which might not be a bad thing), but maybe something about the importance of her full commitment to Adult mitzvot and not being half baked.

Or something about understanding/appreciating her Mesorah, something tying into Chava/snake and שמא יקבע חובה and לא תוסיף generic follow rules

@mbloch thanks very much

@DoubleAA thanks. Not merely coincidentally, we already did half of her bat Mitzva celebration by visiting Israel. If you've been in Bam, you know how well your harsh idea resonates with my ideals

Man. More than two fitting and/or developed ideas in under 3 hours. I love you people.

@DoubleAA If @IsaacMoses 's daughter is sufficiently like him, she'll use that pun.

@msh210 In the stereotypical roles of dads and daughters around puns, I'm in the dad role, and she's in the daughter role.