Haman on a Tree - Kids projects

amother

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 1:19 pm

Does it bother anyone when kids come home with a project of Haman hanging on a tree?

Am I the only one who finds it disturbing?

coffee icecream

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 1:35 pm

Why the need to focus on that to the extent of the boys coming home with it?
We sent big bag of projects without that- masks, arts and crafts hamentash, megillah, gragger, Purim puppets, clowns, mishloach manos basket..

amother

Aquamarine

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 1:39 pm

coffee icecream wrote:

What's the problem with focusing on it though? Because it makes people uncomfortable? Because its unpleasant?

Hashem didn't remove focus on Haman and his sons being hanged in the megillah. Why should we? It's part of our story. We have a mitzvah to remember what Amalek did to us and we are supposed to wipe them out.

amother

Camellia

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:11 pm

A family in my community hangs a dummy on a noose outside their window for all of chodesh Adar. That’s just asking for controversy. It makes me cringe to pass there.

csstb

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:15 pm

giftedmom wrote:

Are we PC’ing tanach now? What’s next?

מעשה בני טובעים ואתם אומרים שירה is very much a Torah (shebeal peh) concept. This comment negates that.

csstb

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:17 pm

amother Aquamarine wrote:

We neither teach nor celebrate everything in all of Tanach to little kids.

amother

Aquamarine

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:20 pm

csstb wrote:

We neither teach nor celebrate everything in all of Tanach to little kids.

It's not about celebrating. Art projects are one of the best ways children learn.

WonderIma

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:28 pm

csstb wrote:

מעשה בני טובעים ואתם אומרים שירה is very much a Torah (shebeal peh) concept. This comment negates that.

That was Hashem's comment to the Malochim that were singing Shira. But for the Jews it was appropriate and encouraged for them to sing Shira. THe difference was that we were the actual benificiaries of the salvation. The same is true for Purim; It is highly appropriate and to be happy and exalt in the destruction of those who are trying to kill us.

As an aside, I do also think it is important to realize that people from the outside, might not understand the context and I don't support hanging a noose publicly. Not because celebrating Haman's defeat like that is wrong, but because observers will misunderstand the meaning and it can create C"H and Eiva.

csstb

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:30 pm

amother Aquamarine wrote:

It's not about celebrating. Art projects are one of the best ways children learn.

Sending home masks, groggers, paper megillahs and then a Haman on the tree project is very much celebrating it. Coloring pages of the whole Megillah that include a page with Haman on the tree is different.

csstb

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:32 pm

WonderIma wrote:

Great, so I’ll go with בנפל אויביך אל תשמח instead.

amother

Aquamarine

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:37 pm

csstb wrote:

Could not agree less.

Would you like Hashem to have skipped over how Haman was killed? Maybe he should have alluded to him being hanged by just saying "Haman was taken care of"

This is so so PC, woke, liberal, whatever you want to call it.

I wouldn't hang a dummy from my yard because it's creepy and I don't think we need to draw attention to ourselves like that. But for kids to come home with haman hanging from a tree is literally a way to bring the story to life. It's part of purim which is a day of celebration.

WonderIma

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 2:39 pm

csstb wrote:

Great, so I’ll go with בנפל אויביך אל תשמח instead.

That is also misapplied. This passuk refers to Jewish opponents. It means don't revel in the failure of another Jew that you dislike. It does not refer to Non-Jewish enemies, especially those who want to harm us for being Jewish. If I'm not mistaken there is actually a recorded dialogue between Mordechai and Haman about this. Haman said that Mordechai shouldn't celebrate his downfall based on the passuk you cited, and Mordechai responded au contraire.

patzer

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 3:20 pm

I think that this conversation should be relocated to a more private forum.
I don't think anyone here wants to find themselves being quoted on Reddit tomorrow.

Rappel

Thu, Mar 21 2024, 3:24 pm

amother Aquamarine wrote:

Why train them to focus on vengeance, rather than Mordechai, who was a true leader of Israel and someone to learn from?

That mitzvah comes into play when a man is 20. Until then, he needs to build himself into a Mordechai in order to be worthy of it.