Metaphors

Revi'i of Ki Sisa was completely frustrating to Chana.  She started out in a bad mood.  We had a bit of a time crunch today, with a lot going on.

The entire aliya is anthropomorphic, about Hashem's honor crossing over and His palms covering Moshe to protect him and showing His back but not His front.  Chana expressed frustration numerous times that she didn't understand it.  I attempted to explain basic pshat, and she got more frustrated.

And yet she does not want to sit through an explanation of the metaphor.

I often find that my kids have a lot more energy about the question than they do to find the answer.

I feel it's better to leave it as a question than to try to sit them down and give an answer.  Without an answer, the question will hopefully burn brightly in their hearts.  Maybe one day they will be motivated to search hard, and to work until they understand.

metaphor

so i chose to do the famous rashi about the stones arguing over who would be the pillow of the tzadik. little known is that rashi first gives the pshat that yaakov took the stones to build himself a fortress because he was concerned about wild animals.

chana was astonished by this rashi. she looked at me like the world had gone mad. i said, do you think this happened?

she was reluctant to say it didn't (hashem changed all the rocks into one rock; after all, He certainly can). but she did say, "rocks don't speak." and i agreed.

i told her that rashi and chazal speak in riddles, and it's a riddle.

she asked me if i knew what the riddle means.

i said i have maybe a little bit of an idea. she pressed me. i said that if i wanted to help a tzadik and she wanted to help a tzadik, maybe hashem would help us do it together.

she frowned and said, "yes, but we aren't rocks."

she has a little way to go before she grasps the concept of metaphor. actually, i had a sheet that i used to illustrate the idea that i used to use for classes. maybe i'll see if i can dig that up.

what's a metaphor?

chana had a mild screechfest when i said we were starting by her reviewing the pesukim in the perek today. like after yesterday, it was still a surprise. but she got ok with the idea.

she has 2 questions:

1. why didn't hashem just stop them from making the tower if he thought it was a bad idea?
(actually, chana said her question was why didn't hashem just prevent them from going into the valley before they got there). (i answered because hashem lets people make choices and do what they want)

2. why does the pasuk say hashem went down when he doesn't go down to see and he already knows?

i began to introduce the concept of metaphor. chana can't quite grasp it yet.