Kitah Dalet: Finishing Samson
Posted on February 9, 2016
This Sunday, Kitah Dalet finished our exploration of the Samson story. We started the day with a set of trivia questions on Samson to remind ourselves of the parts of the story the students learned last week (the announcement of Samson’s death up to his capture by the Philistines). Students worked in groups to complete this assignment.
After this, student volunteers performed a skit depicting the final scene of Samson’s life: after being broken and captured by the Philistines, Samson is brought out to perform at a celebratory feast; instead, he brings the temple down, killing everyone inside. Students were asked to independently answer questions about the story, assessing whether they thought Samson’s actions and his treatment were fair or justified. They were also asked to think about whether Samson was a ruler they would want for their own country. After completion of these questions, we came back together for a group discussion about Samson, and found that opinions differed substantially on Samson’s character and the moral justification for his actions and others’ actions towards him. It was a great discussion, and I hope to have more like it as the year progresses.