Bringing the Megillah to Life Through Minecraft
When SAR Academy seventh-graders in Talya Laufer’s class were charged with creating five scenes from the Purim story in CIJE’s Minecraft Challenge, students Aaron, BB, and Dov thought bigger. Much bigger.
The challenge was part of CIJE’s expanding middle school offerings—three chag-themed Minecraft challenges spanning Sukkot, Chanukah, and Purim—that engage students in creative learning, bridging traditional Jewish education with modern technology.
The team decided to retell the entire Purim story in 40 scenes, creating an immersive journey through the entire Megillah in Minecraft, complete with advanced redstone circuitry and custom texture packs.
The students’ approach demonstrated the kind of iterative thinking that CIJE’s STEAM programs cultivate across 200+ partner schools. “Our original plan was to make a Megillah that opened to a couple of scenes, but as we built, we realized that the structure we set up was a way to travel through the whole story.”
Dov, who handled the project’s detailed designs, understood that success lay in the specifics: “The details are what takes a Minecraft build from a ‘block’ like project into a story – into something amazing.”
This attention to detail extended beyond aesthetics. “It is important to always map out what you’re doing because counting one block off, or not considering how things may be connected, can take away from the final project,” Dov noted, highlighting the precision and planning skills that transfer directly to engineering and design thinking.
Aaron tackled the project’s mechanical components, working with redstone and circuitry to bring their vision to life. “Many components have advanced commands or circuitry that make the functions work. It is challenging to figure out how to fit some of the complicated mechanics into small spaces,” he explained.
The technical problem-solving required balancing both functional and experiential elements. Aaron had to consider “the background components that make the machines work, and also the visual pieces like interlocking doors that the user experiences.”
The project became a vehicle for deeper learning on multiple levels. The team discovered advanced Minecraft features, such as Structure Void blocks. BB created custom “Hamentashens” that appeared in both a snack store at the beginning and end of the user experience.
Perhaps most significantly, the project deepened their understanding of the Megillah itself. “When we were trying to pick out scenes, we realized how many more scenes of the Megillah there are than people think,” the team reflected. “There are the big things everyone thinks about – Vashti not coming to the party, Esther being selected, Bigtan and Teresh, the fast, etc – but there is so much more going on.” (Click here to watch their submission.)
Among more than 85 individual and team submissions to CIJE’s Minecraft challenges, the students now see far-reaching applications for their skills.”The best part is that we can take an idea and learn everything we need to take a project from start to completion to make something amazing.”
The project exemplified how CIJE’s approach integrates technology with traditional learning. “We know a lot more about circuitry due to Minecraft. We learn about and use coding to make things happen,” the students explained. “A lot of STEAM is problem solving faced during design, and we had to iterate and redesign a lot of times to make our project work.”
Aaron offered encouragement to educators who might hesitate to embrace gaming in learning: “For people who are scared of Minecraft, while it is a video game, you should know you can learn so much from it. I have, and in a way that feels fun and exciting!”
“Using Minecraft in classes can be great,” Dov said. “Imagine recreating scenes in Tanach class or history. It offers so much space for creativity.”
Minecraft challenges like this one showcase exactly what CIJE aims to achieve; through 40 carefully crafted scenes, Aaron, BB, and Dov transformed both their understanding of an ancient story and their mastery of modern technical skills.