Why Do We Dress Up In Costumes On Purim? - למה מתחפשים בפורים?
File details:
Resource
Type:
Peula
in:
English
Age:
8-12
Group Size:
8-30
Estimated Time:
45
minutes
Download this fileResource Goal
Noseh: Purim, why do we dress up in costumes, and what this symbolizes.
Resource Contents
Goal: The chanichim should understand that:
(1) Just as Hashem saved the Jews in a hidden way, we act “hidden” on Purim by dressing up in costumes.
(2) Just as Esther and Mordechai had to hide their identity as Jews and take on fake roles, we too take on hidden roles by disguising ourselves on Purim.
Game #1: Indian Chief
The chanichim sit in a circle on the floor. One kid leaves the room. Then the kids pick one chanich to be the Indian chief or leader. The point of the game is that the Indian chief will start different hand motions (hand clapping, slapping your knees, snapping your fingers, drumming on the ground… etc), which all the chanichim will do in unison, and the Indian chief will keep switching the motions every so often. The chanich who was outside has to try and guess which other chanich is the Indian chief and leading the motions. The Indian chief and the chanichim have to try and make sure that it’s not obvious who the Indian chief is. If the chanich picks correctly, then that chanich must go outside and a new chief is chosen.
Game #2: Murder
One player is secretly chosen by the madrich/a to be the murderer. He can "kill" any player by winking at him. If that player sees the wink, he must "die" very dramatically. The players try to identify the murderer without being "murdered" themselves. If a player thinks he knows who it is, he whispers to the madrich that person's identity. If he is right, he wins. But if he is wrong, he too must “die.”
Variation: Play this game the way Indian chief is played, where all the chanichim know who the “murderer” is, except for one who is waiting outside. When he returns, he must guess the correct “murderer” before all the other chanichim are killed.
Game #3: “Who’s Line is it Anyway” - Live from Shushan!!
(1) You’re at Achashverosh’s party! Pick one kid to be Achashverosh the host and send him out of the room. Meanwhile, pick 3 chanichim to be guests at this party, and give them each a weird quirk, or have the rest of the chanichim assign the quirks for each guest (His feet are tied together, he is walking on his hands, he is insane, he is being chased by a dog, bees are stinging him, he is eating a giant 25 pound hamburger – in fact, the world’s largest hamburger from Nathan’s in Jerusalem, he is a dancing elf…. etc…). Then bring Achashverosh back into the room, and have him act like he is hosting a party. One by one each of the 3 “guests” return, and the “host” has to figure out which each one’s quirk is.
(2) Same set up, but now it’s the beauty contest to pick the new queen, who will win the prestigious Ms. Shushan title! Pick on kid to be Achashverosh the judge, and three chanichim to be the beauty contestants (Esther, Vashti and Zeresh). Same as before, pick a quirk for each contestant and Achashverosh has to pick what it is.
Game #4: Drama Directors
Write up a short, funny, 5-minute script dialogue between Bigshan and Teresh.
Pick 2 chanichim to act out this script. Now the issue is, this script is basically just 2 people having a conversation so it’s not so interesting, so the rest of the chanichim have to become the directors. Divide the rest of the chanichim up into 3 group, and whenever the madrich points at their group, then that group picks a something cool that the 2 actors have to implement in their scene (French accent, jumping up and down, on a roller coaster, they are scary monsters, in a moving car, getting chased by dogs...). You could pick a chanich to point between the different the groups, and pick a few madrichim as the judges for the group that came up with the craziest and wackiest scene additions.
Sicha: Ask the chanichim why they think we dress up on Purim? What does dressing up symbolize? What happens when we dress up? Do people recognize us? Explain to the chanichim that most minhagim that we do on holidays, like here with dressing up, come with a reason behind them. Ask them what they think this reason could be. Try to direct the answers to come to a common theme of hidden ness. But why this theme of hidden ness? Ask the chanichim what things are hidden in the Megilah? Let’s focus on the role of Hashem. Who saved the Jews at Purim? G-d? Where does it say that? Does it say Hashem’s name anywhere in the Megilah? Some commentators say that wherever it says Melech it is referring to Hashem, and that certain acrostics spell out Hashem’s name, but it does not say anywhere clearly that Hashem is involved at all in this story, everything is done in a hidden way.
Ask the chanichim – if they were living in Shushan at the time of the Purim story and all these terrible things were happening – decrees against the Jews, Haman…etc, how would they feel? Would they feel that Hashem was with them or no?? Later, when things start to go well, would they think these things are Hashem acting, or just coincidences?
Remind the chanichim about the games we played before. In Indian chief, if you had been watching from the outside, would you have thought someone was directing the game, or that people were falling at random? Sometimes Hashem is nistar and hidden, and it is hard to see that He is really directing everything. Point out the differences between the Murder game and the Indian chief game, compared to the last drama game. In the murder/Indian chief games not everyone knew who was directing the action, sometimes people didn’t know who the Indian chief or murderer was. But in the drama game, it was obvious that the “directors” in the audience were controlling the people on stage. Sometimes when you look at the world you think everything is coincidence, but Jews know that sometimes Hashem works in an obvious way, sometimes in a hidden way. Ask the chanichim why they think Hashem would work in a hidden way? You could point out how in times of Galut, there is hester panim and Hashem’s actions are hidden. But in times of geulah, we have clear hashgacha from Hashem and it is clear that He is in charge.
What is another theme of hidden ness in the Megilah? Does anyone hide their identity in the story and take on other roles? Who? (Esther hides her Jewishness, and Mordechai hides that he and Esther are related). Why? (So Esther and Mordechai can stay undercover). Ask the chanichim if they ever had to hide who they were? Can they think of other people in history who had to hide their identity as Jews? (Marranos, people during the Holocaust…etc). Remind the chanichim about the “Whose line is it anyway” games that we played. How did it feel to be playing a role that wasn’t really them? Is this like wearing a costume? How do you think Esther and Mordechai felt when they had to pretend that they weren’t who they really were? Do you think that was hard? This is another reason why we dress up, because when were in costume we hide our true selves. (Food for thought: Sometimes we hide our true selves even without costumes – like acting cool and making fun of other kids, lying and saying we don’t watch a TV. show that we really like, because we’re afraid other kids will think it’s dorky. Sometimes it’s hard not to put on fake roles and costumes, but we have to try and be our real selves whenever we can.)
Story/Joke: It was a sweltering August day when the Greenberg brothers entered the posh Dearborn, Michigan offices of the notoriously anti-Semitic carmaker, Henry Ford. "Mr. Ford," announced Hyman Greenberg, the eldest of the three, "we have a remarkable invention that will revolutionize the automobile industry. " Ford looked skeptical, but their threats to offer it to the competition kept his interest piqued. "We would like to demonstrate it to you in person." After a little cajoling, they brought Mr. Ford outside and asked him to enter a black Edsel that was parked in front of the building. Norman Greenberg, the middle brother, opened the door of the car. "Please step inside Mr. Ford." "What!" shouted the tycoon, "are you crazy? It must be two hundred degrees in that car!" "It is," smiled the youngest brother, Max, "but sit down, Mr. Ford, and push the white button." Intrigued, Ford pushed the button. All of a sudden a whoosh of freezing air started blowing from vents all around the car, and within seconds the automobile was not only comfortable, it was quite cool! "This is amazing!" exclaimed Ford. "How much do you want for the patent?" Norman spoke up. "The price is one million dollars." Then he paused, "And there is something else. We want the name 'Greenberg Brothers Air Conditioning' to be stamped right next to the Ford logo." "Money is no problem," retorted Ford, "but no way will I have a 'Jew-name' next to my logo on my cars!" They haggled back and forth for a while and finally they settled. One and one half million dollars, and the name Greenberg would be left off. However, the first names of the Greenberg brothers would be forever emblazoned upon the console of every Ford air conditioning system. And that is why today, whenever you enter a Ford vehicle you will see those three names clearly defined on the air-conditioning control panel: HI -- NORM -- MAX.
Just as in the joke, the real name of the Greenbergs wasn’t clearly marked on the bumper where everyone could see it, but instead hinted to in a more hidden place, so too, Hashem’s name is not openly seen in the Purim story but only hinted to. But though it is hidden we know that Hashem is always there, we just sometimes have to search a bit more to see how He is really intervening and pulling all the strings in history.
Conclusion: Dressing up on Purim reminds us of the theme of hidden ness, in how Esther and Mordechai had to conceal their true identity, and also in how Hashem’s hashgacha in the Purim story is also done in a hidden way.
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