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Ideas to Jump-Start Your own Creative Interpretations

Some Ideas to Jump-start your own Creative Interpretations

Choose one of these verses and write, draw, dance or sing about it:

  • And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter (Verse 34)
  • And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said: ‘Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art become my troubler; for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.’  (Verse 35)
  • And she said unto him: ‘My father, thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD; do unto me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth (Verse 36)
  • And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed; and she had not known man (Verse 39)
  • And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year (Verse 39-30)
  • Or try one of these:

    Visual

    Retell this story in images by representing the objects that seem most important, either drawing or in collage (Some examples: veil, knife, mountain, fire, hut, hands)

    Choose a scene from the story, use any available materials to stage or build a sculpture of this scene, and photograph it with your phone camera

    Music

    Write a mourning melody for Yiftach’s daughter, to be sung by the girls each year

    Write a song in Yiftach’s daughter’s voice describing how you think she might have experienced the story

    Movement

    Create a series of positions or tableaux describing Yiftach’s daughter’s feelings at different moments in the story

    Make a dance in which you go back and forth between being Yiftach and his daughter

    Writing

    Write a letter from Yiftach’s daughter explaining why she returned after two months away

    Write about a personal experience you had that feels connected to the story of Yiftach’s daughter

    Create a ritual memorializing Yiftach’s daughter to be observed in her memory each year

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Ideas to Jump-Start Your own Creative Interpretations." (Viewed on October 13, 2024) <https://jwa.org/node/23118>.