Books like fairy tales and certain movies for children

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

You can't completely separate the two though. Folklore is an evolution and much of it has its roots in Tanach. So you can't say that it's purely evil. Nobody sat down one day and wrote these stories off the tops of their heads.
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Platinum Member Joined: Sep 20 2004 Posts: 17151

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

Because folk tales aren't claiming to be replacement for the revelation at Sinai.

We read a lot of 'non jewish' litterature to our kids. Fairy tales? truthfully they aren't so interested. They tend to drag and my kids aren't so wrapped up in the ideas. Nursery Rhymes (traditional ones at least) aren't much better in their content: Ring Around the Roses? It's about the plague. Sur le Pont D'Avignon: it's about insanity. I caould go on and on.

As for the comment that they were written by Germans - what was the significance there? There were also many talmidei Chochomim from Germany and an entire Frum culture which endures today from Germany.

These stories were written down folklore, as already mentioned, and designed to be cautionary tales for youngsters (no different from baba maisehs. The truth is in young children, the words don't matter as much as the tone and atmosphere in which it is presented. So so so so many of our "kosher" kiddie songs are these exact nursery rhymes set to different words!

Dip the Apple: Oh My Darlin
Ring Around the Torah: Ring Around the Rosie
to name a few.

My kids don't yet read, they look at the pictures and we make up a story to match! My kids don't watch movies so I guess they don't know what the pictures "are supposed to mean"

oh my darlin clementine is not a folksong or fairy tale. it is a miner's song, in which darlin clementine drowns. it doesn't have any moral or warning, other than maybe stay away from streams? doesn't count, wrong genre.

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 15 2007 Posts: 5828

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

Ring around the roses has nothing to do with the plague.
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Posted: Tue, May 06 2008, 6:54 pm Post subject:

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

Even if many people believe something that is not true, that fact remains untrue.

Thank you for the incorrect explanation of Ring around the roses.

http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp

I don't consider snopes to be an authority on literature.
folklore was meant to be transmitted orally. why would you write down something to publish when every child knows it by heart?
Confused

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

I consider snopes to be the authority on everything.

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 15 2007 Posts: 5828

I haven't finished my rant yet.

now I'm on to fairys.

We have a rich true culture full of Hashem and Elokus, tzadikim, melochim, etc, what on earth do we need wimpy fairys for?

furthermore, eventually they find out those fairy's don't exist, but I think a parent should prefer to keep their child's trust rather then destroy it with falsehood.

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

But if you're going to give these ideas over to your kids, why davka pick the non-Jewish version instead of the Jewish version?

For once I have to agree with Estis Very Happy

. Nursery rymes, fairy tales are all that, junk that fill a childs mind when they could be dreaming about and absorbing, fantasising so much more toichendika stuff.
What makes it childish,the pictures Confused

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 15 2007 Posts: 5828

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

Because I'd rather they grow out of their interest in fantasy and view the world in a more sophisticated way. If we make religion out to be fantastical it minimizes it. Let them think of fairies as something from their fun from childhood, and when they are older they can try and understand the more spiritual realm using their intellects. As it is my kids don't believe in this stuff, having a cynical mom and all.

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 15 2007 Posts: 5828