Disney in Torah – part 2

                               

By Chany Rosenberg

Now let’s take a look at some Disney animals. First off, we have Simba. Simba is a young lion. When his father dies in a stampede because of his uncle, Scar’s, trickery, Simba must take the throne as king. Simba has the character trait of courage. There is a similar story in the T​orah; ​the story of Y​osef Hatzadik. H​e was a young man, and his brothers sold him into slavery. He was all alone in a foreign country. After being a slave for a while, Y​osef ​becomes second to the king. Y​osef h​ad a lot of courage to stay strong in his situation. So we see Simba’s trait of courage is found in the T​orah.

A​nother animal with character traits that can be found in the T​orah i​s Nemo. Nemo is the ultimate friend. He is very kind and sweet, and very patient with his friends. Two very famous people in N​avi​ had a friendship that was known to be the best kind of friendship there ever was. Those two people are Dovid a​nd Y​onasan.​ Nemo’s friendship is also from the Torah. Then we have an animal who was kind of a person, but kind of a bear. Don’t know who I’m talking about? It’s Kenai from Brother Bear. In this case it was his brother, Sidka, who showed some character traits found in the T​orah. W​e know we must all love all people equally as it says, “Love every person as you love yourself.” A​aron s​howed love to Moshe. N​ot only did A​aron n​ot complain that his younger brother would lead the nation, he was truly happy for his brother. This is a perfect example for the love shown in Brother Bear between Kenai and Sidka, as these were both cases of brotherly love. So, love and certainly brotherly love can be found in the T​orah. T​he character traits of the Disney animals all come from the Torah.

Finally, we have characters like Tadashi, from Big Hero Six; and Joy, from Inside Out. These characters aren’t princesses or animals; but they too have personality traits that connect to T​anach. O​f course we have Tadashi. Tadashi showed love and concern for people when he went into a burning building to save his professor. This situation once again shows, “Love everybody as you love yourself.” Tadashi is also selfless. He didn’t stop to think how running into a burning building would affect him. His only concern at that moment was that the professor was stuck in the building, and someone had to save him. D​ovid Hamelech f​ought G​oliath. H​e sacrificed himself for the rest of his people. He knew someone had to fight G​oliath; ​and, since no one else volunteered to do it, he did it.

Rachel I​mmeinu​ was also selfless. Y​aakov e​xpected to marry Rachel and she loved him; nonetheless, she gave the signs to Leah, so her sister shouldn’t be ashamed when she was under the c​huppah. L​ast of all, there is Joy. Joy is the happy emotion in Riley’s head, in the movie Inside Out. Happiness is in more than one place in Tanach.​ We get rewarded for being happy as it says, “It is a big m​itzva ​to be happy.” Also we must serve G-­d with happiness as it says, “Serve G-­d with happiness.”

From Disney princess to animals to new characters, we see that m​iddos a​re universal. We see all the Disney characters’ character traits in​ Tanach. M​aybe H​ashem ​gave us Disney to learn these good characteristics and to incorporate them into our lives.