Amitai Vales

Chesed in the Musical Mean Girls

Amitai Vales, RZJHS 2021

No one wants to be hit by a bus. Well, that’s exactly what happens in the movie Mean Girls. A girl comes to a new high school and creates a huge mess out of things resulting with a girl getting hit by a bus. My point is not entirely about the bus, but the fact that the way you treat others has a huge impact on people and their future.

In the movie and in the musical Mean Girls, Cady Heron attends a new high school and has trouble fitting in. This situation is probably easy for most of us to imagine, so it is also probably easy to imagine, that in people’s desperation to fit in with kids at school, they find themselves doing things they wouldn’t normally do.

Well, in Cady’s desperation, she finds herself hurting the feelings of others, and ultimately hurting someone physically as a girl ends up getting hit by a bus. However, in Cady’s realization of her wrongdoing, she sings a song at the end of the Broadway musical called ‘I See Stars’, which acknowledges what she has learned through her mistakes. Over the course of the song, she helps others understand how they can make their high school expe

Art by Marc Luban, RZJHS 2020

rience better by treating people with respect.

One of the main metaphors utilized in the song compares people to ‘stars’, highlighting the brightness and uniqueness within every single human being. The song begins as Cady says how everyone is “Cheap, fake, Easy to break” but follows that by stating how “Now I’m awake, I’ll tell you what I see, Plastic don’t shine, Glitter don’t shine, Rhinestones don’t shine the way you do.” Cady starts by acknowledging how she used to see herself and others as imperfect and breakable, but counters that by saying how she is now awake, suggesting that she was not seeing clearly before.

None of what she saw was true because she was constantly being blinded by a false image of how people were supposed to be. Now, she explains that not even the brightest diamond could outshine any of them, conveying the idea that everyone holds a unique element about them that cannot be outshined by anything else. Later, Cady sings that “The darker the night, The brighter you shine.” See Vales, next page

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Vales, from previous page ery corner. Relating to these definitions, David Brooks Cady reveals that it is in the worst of times that there is to become a better person and how to act in ways filled an opening for people to use their own unique strengths with understanding and compassion. to better the lives of those around them. Last semester in our Talmud class, we focused on the “Many of us are clearer on how to build an external importance of chesed, acting in the ways of God in orcareer than on how to build inner character” (Brooks, der to have a positive impact on yourself and others. “The Moral Bucket List”). Brooks seems concerned with Similar to this song, various texts in Talmud talk about the idea that people are having trouble connecting with chesed and how to execute it in a correct manner. In one their inner selves. essay by Rabbi Shai Held, he states that to have chesed is This quote suggests that acts of chesed can be found slightest bit. Every act of chesed builds up and makes it writes in his essay “The Moral Bucket List” about how Brooks begins his essay and highlights the idea that “To serve as an earthly reflection of God’s own infinite These days, it is easier for people to feel more concompassion” (Shai Held, “Daring to Dream with God”). nected with the hobbies they do rather than the actual people they are and strive to be. Rabbi Held is attempting to conThis concern connects directly to vey the idea that chesed involves Chesed involves following after chesed, as David Brooks addressfollowing after God, holding God, holding onto the compassion es that in order to have chesed, onto the compassion God gives God gives you, and giving that someone must understand who you, and giving that compassion compassion to a fellow human... they are as a person so that they to a fellow human. Held suggests that one of the main components of chesed is following the One of the main components of chesed is following the example can go into the world and influ ence others with the understand ing that they have gained. example of God, who, out of an of God, who, out of an act of pure act of pure compassion, created compassion, created humanity Now, from knowing the definihumanity and the world around and the world around us. tion of chesed, it is clear that it us. Besides these definitions of plays a major role in the song ‘I chesed, a Talmudic text explains See Stars’. As shown before, the how much chesed a person should have within their song has a line saying “Now I’m awake, I’ll tell you what lives by using the term Gemilut Chasadim, meaning to I see, Plastic don’t shine, Glitter don’t shine, Rhinestones do acts of chesed. The Talmud suggests that the Torah’s don’t shine the way you do”. This quote seems directly “beginning is gemilut chasadim and its end is gemilut related to the definition of chesed and how the Talmud chasadim” (Sotah 14a). sees it as well. This quote points out everyone’s unique throughout the Torah, from the very beginning to the This part of the song connects to God’s compassion, for very end. Since the Torah can act as a guidebook for our Cady is seeing everyone in their own light and treatlives, one can also interpret this quote to suggest that ing people knowing that they were made in the image chesed should play out throughout the entire length of of God. At a later point in the song we find a lyric ensomeone’s life. From the time someone is born to the couraging everyone to bring themselves “Up in the sky, time they die, every moment should contain an essence Enjoy the view, You star!” This line seems to reflect the of chesed and relationship with God, because that is the way in which someone follows in God’s ways. People only way you can leave a positive impact on yourself should be metaphorically up in the sky so that they can and the people around you. see everyone as a unique being, similar to how God sees Sitting next to someone when they are alone, listenDavid Brooks, the song opens as Cady says she used to ing to someone when they need someone to talk to, or be concerned with physical, unimportant things, what even just saying hi to someone to brighten their day the Brooks calls “resume virtues.” and special factor. each of His individual creations. Following the ideas of easier for you to live a life filled with chesed around evSee Vales, page 32