Not sure where to place the blame on this, because of course the story of Adam and Eve has all kinds of, um, interesting little side points, and I’m not sure exactly how much gets described in school beyond the fun things (“Oh, Adam got to name all the animals!”). We certainly haven’t gotten into the nitty-gritty at home.
But we let the kids play Sod Shel Maya, a computer game with Hebrew letters and math and animated Torah stories (in Hebrew, of course–if I hear them playing with the small English section they have to turn it off), including the one with Adam and Eve and a certain reptile. On the way home from school today, Miss M was explaining to me that they ate the “pri etz hadaat” [fruit of the tree of knowledge]. She didn’t quite get that they had been circumventing some rather specfic instructions in doing so; I filled her in on the instructions and the consequences.
She digested this and then said, “When I get home I’m going to write a story about what happened after Adam and Chava [Eve] left Gan Eden.”
“Um, sure you can, honey, but that’s kind of what the Torah is about. Adam and Chava are at the very beginning of the Torah, and what happened after comes after that.”
“Well, I’m going to write the story of the pri etz hadaat and how it was very good.”
Knock yourself out, kiddo.
Why is it a Fail? She’s inspired to write her own midrash. That’s fantastic.
Try a torn paper midrash activity with her- my students loved it when I taught first grade. (google it to get an idea of what it is)
I have no objection to her own midrash–it was that she was completely innocent of there being an “already-published, fairly-famous” version already.
I eagerly anticipate reading the story. Let me know when it’s available for purchase.
Man.. she is so funny – well done Miss M – can’t wait to read it!
Well, that will make for a very interesting story. I wonder how she will describe the pri etz hadaat. How good was it?
That does sound like it will be interesting!