The 3 mitzvos of women

amother

OP ↓

Fri, Nov 22 2024, 1:11 am

My 5 yo dd (with her 9 year old brother listening) was talking about the 3 things in the tent coming back when Rivka came.

I told her that the 3 things are similar to the 3 special women’s mitzvos. I wanted her to have a primary understanding of this without going into too much detail.

So I said HaShem gave made certain rules about something called Tahor, which means pure, and the women are in charge of this for their families when they get married and that brings the Shechina to the house (just like the clouds brought the Shechina in the tent).

Even though it was my choice to bring this up, they didn’t really understand what I meant and I found that I couldn’t really explain it better without getting into more detail. (My son told me to ask Siri, I said, that is not the explanation we want).

In the end we left it alone. Any tips how to explain it better on their level without too much info?

amother

RosePink

Fri, Nov 22 2024, 2:09 am

I don't think you did anything wrong, OP.

Do your kids know what tumah and tahara are?

I'm sure they know what things have kedusha. A siddur has kedusha, a Sefer Torah has kedusha, Tefillin have kedusha.

Yidden are able to feel kedusha!

But tumah is something that blocks kedusha from being there.

If something is tomei, it can't have kedusha.

Many things can be tomei. A non-kosher animal is tomei. An animal that wasn't shechted right is tomei.

Even people can become tomei!

In the times of the Beis Hamikdash, if someone was tomei, they couldn't go into the Beis Hamikdash until they took away the tumah and became tahor again.

When we get married, we want to have kedusha in our family. So the mommy is in charge of making sure that we take away the tumah that could block us from having a family full of kedusha.

If they ask for more information, you can share that different kinds of tumah have different ways of taking it away.

Tumas Meis, when a person passes away, is a very strong tumah. The only way to really take it away is with a Parah Adumah!

Many kinds of tumah need a korban to be brought to take them away.

And for most other kinds of tumah, we need to dip things in the Mikvah. A mikvah is able to take tumah away. Did you ever toivel dishes? We dip them into a mikvah to take away the tumah from them so we can use them in our homes.

A mother is in charge of taking away the kinds of tumah that should not be in a Yiddishe home.

If they still press for more, you can say that there are a lot of halachos about this, and they will learn more about it when they are ready to get married.

ittsamother

Fri, Nov 22 2024, 2:11 am

amother RosePink wrote:

I think you did a great job of writing this out! Gonna save it for the future when I need it!