Using Multiple Intelligences to Teach Megillat Esther
In this lesson, students analyze sections of perek bet of Megillat Esther in groups and then create a related skit, drama pantomime, or an illustrated scene.
Introduction
This multiple intelligences lesson plan can be used as a model for teaching all of Megillat Esther. Students analyze perek bet of Megillat Esther in groups and then create a related skit, drama pantomime, or illustrated scene.
Lesson objectives
The student will be able to:
- Explain why a ‘Beauty Pageant’ was held in Persia during the Achaemenid Dynasty.
- Describe Mordechai and Esther and their relationship.
- Explain the process the women underwent after being introduced to the king.
- Relate why Esther did not reveal her identity.
- Describe how Esther was chosen queen despite her, or perhaps because of, her modesty.
- Recount how Mordechai overhears Bigtan and Teresh plotting to kill the king.
- Describe how Mordechai relates these plans to Esther, who reveals them to the king.
- Explain how the would-be assassins are punished and how Mordechai’s deed is written up in the King’s “Book of Chronicles.”
Skills
The student will:
- Read and comprehend text in a group setting.
- Identify the main idea in the text section and work together to give a title that expresses the main idea.
- Link the theme to the group’s text.
- Analyze the text further to complete the chosen project.
- Produce an engaging and creative presentation.
Values
The student will:
- Appreciate the concept of mitzvah gorret mitzvah (one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah) and middah k’neged middah (measure for measure) that are illustrated in the chapter—Mordechai saves Achashverosh’s life and later his own life is saved later on.
2. Appreciate the self-sacrifice demonstrated by Esther. Esther struggles and sacrifices her own needs for the greater good of her community (a common Biblical theme). This is the opposite of today’s “me, me, me” culture.
3. Appreciate Esther’s modesty. Instead of pursuing superficial beauty, she is satisfied with what she has.
4. Understand the disadvantages in ancient royal and public life (i.e. not making your own decisions, being forced to marry someone, women’s rights during the Achaemenid Dynasty).
5. Appreciate that to be a good leader, one needs to have confidence in decision-making.
Terms
one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah – מִצְוָה גּוֹרֶרֶת מִצְוָה
measure for measure – מִדָּה כְּנֶגֶד מִדָּה
Resources & Equipment needed
Copies of Megillat Esther for students (or Sefaria link here)
Procedure
Planning the unit:
- Review Megillat Esther perek bet. Divide the text into sections. The chapter can be divided as follows: pesukim 1-4, 5-8, 9-14, 15-18, and 19-23. Dividing text, especially into thematic units, is subjective. Most perakim can be looked at in a number of ways. The division above is one possibility.
- Identify the main themes that you would like the students to explore. These themes may only appear in perek bet, or they may be prevalent throughout the text.
- Public Life – The downside to royalty: Not making your own decisions; being forced to marry (not for love) and worst of all, having to keep your identity a secret!
- Leadership – Who makes the pageant decree? The Lose Vashti decree? Achashverosh is easily pushed into decisions. This makes him an easy candidate to be pushed around by Haman and then Esther.
- Individual vs. Collective Interests – Mordechai and Esther’s partnership protects the Jewish people from beginning to end. By putting the Jewish people’s needs before their own, they save the nation. You never know which good deed will merit another; thanks to Mordechai’s watchfulness, his kindness is repaid later on when we need him the most.
- Irony – The irony of spending a year in beauty treatments and not wanting one at all. What Esther really wanted was to get married to a Jew and build a house with him! What is the point of external beauty?
In class:
- Divide students into groups and assign each a section of the text.
- Students should read their section and decide on a title that reflects the main idea. Some student sample titles are listed here:
- Introducing Esther and Mordechai
- The Pageant Decree
- Esther is Taken as Queen
- Bigtan and Teresh: The Plot Lynched
- Preparing for Beauty
3. Groups present their text to the class and link it to their chosen theme.
4. Students can then choose a project:
- Write a one-page skit using one of the titles/themes above. Include a main character (Esther, King Achashverosh, Mordechai), and if you like, make up a minor character. Quote at least one verse from the text.
- Draw one of the titles/themes above. Include facial expressions and quote at least one verse from the text.
- Write a drama pantomime. Write a scene with a partner dramatizing one of the events above. One student reads the scene, while the other acts it out. Make sure to quote from the text.
Optional:
The following issues can be explored within group projects or discussed in class if time permits:
- Explore examples of irony in the text.
- Examine Esther’s self-sacrifice.
- Investigate the motive and result of chessed (Mordechai saves Achashverosh. When he is not immediately repaid, does he care? How does this affect him later on?)
- Analyze how Achashverosh does not create or enforce his own decisions. Compare this to modern and Biblical leaders. To whom do leaders turn to for advice?
- Compare and contrast ancient Persia and cultural differences (treatment of women, arranged marriages, marriages where only the man chooses, the role of gatekeepers and other royal functionaries, the caste system, the royal vizier, etc.) to modern times. Scenes can be recreated to create a holistic approach.
- Contrast leadership qualities between Mordechai and Esther and Haman and Achashverosh, and modern leaders.