Hello! Purim is in the air and Jewish kids all over the world are psyching up for a day full of fun, costumes, friends, and a ridiculous amount of candy. We've been having a unique kind of experience, which may or may not intrigue you.
Back to the subject: Haman psychosis.
(Description of subject Before this week)
This is the condition in which an otherwise normal young child for no clearly definable reason reacts in a psychotically insane manner when hearing the name Haman (pronounced the Hebrew way, Hah-Mahn) or any word that is similar or hints of the name. By child I mean my three year old girl, M, by "psychotic manner" I mean crying and screaming and heaving melt-down for up to 10 minutes upon hearing the name at any place, any time, from any one.
By "similiar words" I mean that if one begins a word starting with "Hamah--" (there is a game, Hama, apparently, which my husband unfortunately discovered in mall while WITH dear M), the same reaction takes place. By "hints of the name" I mean that for the last while, M will not even go near anything or discuss anything having to do with Purim, as she knows that "he who must not be named" will possibly come up (thank you to our cousin for creating that association with Voldemort of Harry Potter).
We believe this phobia began at some point when M was around 15 months, possibly while we were at a community Purim seudah and the Megillah was being read on the microphone (no, we were not being yotzeih the mitzva, nor were most people) and when the rabbi read "Haman" there was an unbelievable noise from the loudspeakers which truly scared baby M. She was not old enough to really understand anything about Haman at that time other than that we had a finger puppet of him and she eventually became scared of that finger puppet too.
It's not even that Haman was an evil villain who wanted to kill the Jews which is why she is scared- we haven't really discussed that with her. M knows waaay more about the atrocities of Paroah and Anitiochus than about Haman- yet they don't scare her- it is a deep seated fear that we cannot reason with her- and until now has only been getting worse. M had been so scared of her own reaction that anything about Purim had been taboo in our house.
This situation has baffled many a family member, friend, and teacher, and we were really getting quite worried that she would always live in unexplainable fear of a holiday which should objectively be every kid's favorite!
Now that Purim is quite soon, we began a plan to tackle this psychosis of our otherwise pleasant and happy daughter. I will now share with you the plan and procedure of OPERATION HAMAN. Tomorrow, b"n.
Good night and stay tuned, thanks for reading!
-Yael
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