“Opposites Abstract” is a profound children’s picture book by Mo Willems with plenty of food for thought for adult readers, too.
You may know Mo Willems from his Pigeon books, the Knufflebunny, or Piggy and Gerald. He might be considered a Dr. Seuss of this generation’s Beginner Readers. But his books always have an extra layer, something for the adult reader, too, as quality children’s books ought to.
We’ve taken out this book before, but it so happens that we have it in the house again as we read Parsha Vaeira, with the first 7 of the 10 Plagues, and on the same weekend that we commemorate the Alter Rebbe’s yartzeit on Tevet 24.
Opposites are relevant in this week’s Torah portion of Vaeira. The Rebbe points out that the cold-blood amphibeans of the plague of frogs entered the hot ovens of the Egyptians. And the last plague in this week’s reading speaks of an icy hail that had a fiery component.
Mo Willems asks some open-ended questions in this picture book: Is this dark? Is this light? At first the light page is lighter, but it also lacks contrast and makes you think that the eclipsed page with its darker core, may bring out the light even more! Very much aligned with Alter Rebbe’s teaching (based on Proverbs): There is a special advantage to light that emerges from darkness!
What’s organic and what’s mechanical? The book seems to suggest, but also questions that assumption. These are not clear-cut black/white answers.
The Alter Rebbe was a master of paradox! His Chabad teachings and visionary perspective is a synthesis of opposites, a blend of angles, a rich tapestry that is a harmony of varied colors and layers. So much of the Alter Rebbe’s teaching is a balance, a synthesis, a complementary viewpoint.
We delved a lot into this understanding over the years, seeing how it is at the heart of so much of what Chabad believes and what Chabad does, and it all traces and stems back from the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Chassidism and its first Rebbe.
We created a game (and curriculum) on this titled “Chasynthesis” which I am teaching again this year at Maimonides, and hope to finally get to publishing as a card game with the help of the daughters.