Yesterday I taught our 12 older students in our after school Hebrew School. They are bright, enthusiastic, energetic. They want to learn. As I have done with many classes through the years, we read the Book of Esther out of the tanach (the Hebrew Bible). The real English, not the fairy tale version we usually tell the younger kids. I divided the group into four subgroups and each group was to present 3 chapters and tell us 3 new things they learned and stage those chapters. Some students had fun going on a treasure hunt for props–we will use them on Sunday.
We talked about the PG, PG13, and R movies and what rating they would give the Book of Esther. Would it win an Academy Award for best picture? Who would you cast to play Esther? Vashti? Mordechai? Haman? Ashashvarus? No question, some of the Book of Esther is at least PG13 rated. Some is double entendre and appeals especially well to 7th grade boys. Ironically, in most cases the girls raised those questions first.

Other topics we covered:

Why did Vashti say no to the king? Is it ever OK to say no to your husband? Is this like Jasmine and Aladin who sing, “No one to tell me no, or where to go” on their magic carpet ride?
How many parties are there in the Book of Esther. I am not sure we ever got the final count.
If there is that much partying and drinking can you make good decisions? Why or why not?
Esther hides her Jewishness. Is this a good thing? Have you even hidden your Jewishness at school, why or why not?
The action changes in Chapter 4–Mordechai tells her that she must speak up to save her people. When should you speak up? What about in cases of bullying? What is a bystander? An upstander? How can you be an upstander–have you ever been? For me this is the key concept of the whole Book of Esther?
Yom Kippur is called Yom Hakippurim in Hebrew, a Day Like Purim. How is Yom Kippur like Purim? One of the kids pointed out that on Jonah’s boat they cast lots to see whose fault it is–like they cast lots, purim to see which day the Jews should die, hence the name. Other reasons include that once we atone, we are cleansed and we should celebrate. Esther and Mordechai fast for three days before she goes to the king. Mordechai wears sackcloth (I had to explain that one) and ashes as a sign of mourning.
Where is G-d? Is G-d hidden? One of two books in the Bible that never mentions G-d. The other one is Song of Songs–a book of love poetry which was my Bat Mitzvah haftarah portion and I wasn’t comfortable reading it with my other 7th grade classmates.
How fast can you say the 10 names of Haman’s sons? The rabbis teach we should say them all in one breathe. Can you do it?
How do we celebrate our victory? With hamantaschen–which we tasted, thanks Torah School Moms, with parties, with reading the WHOLE MEGILAH, which your children have now done, with noisemakers drowing out Haman’s name and very importantly with giving gifts of food to each other and to the poor. We are commanded to do this last one so we will be making lunches for the Crisis Center on Sunday as part of our celebrations.
And yes, the kids brought up Vashti’s wearing only a crown, was she banished or killed, the golden scepter, Haman on the couch with Esther. All of them are in there. What they mean is open to wide levels of interpretation, which is what I said. No inappropriate words used but there was much snickering. Even the rabbis are puzzled and some of the Talmudic rabbis weren’t even sure they wanted to include Esther in the cannon.
Wow! We really did a lot in an hour and a half. As you can see the book can be read at lots of different levels and is not just for little kids.