"A Big Yellow Spider"

"When you come see me, be sure to bring the original," said the Sudilkover Rebbe.

"The original?", I responded,

"Yes, you sent me a scan of the picture. Please bring me the original drawing that your daughter made me for my birthday.", said the Rebbe.

My six year-old daughter was thrilled to hear that the Rebbe wanted me to bring him the original picture that she had drawn for him. When he finally saw it in person, he smiled brightly and told me how much he liked it and how happy that it made him. He then pointed to the picture of the sun and gently mentioned to me that the commenter who had written that it was problematic according to halacha was correct. He said that when he was growing up he had been taught to put the sun in the corner of the picture so that not all of it appeared. The Rebbe then took out a pen and wrote בס"ד in the upper right corner of the picture. Once again, he told me that I could also instruct my daughter to follow this practice. Her talent for art was certainly a gift from Hashem, so adding בס"ד to her artwork would help her always remember the source of her gift.

I finally did broach this topic with my daughter about two week after returning from seeing the Rebbe and telling her how highly he had praised her artwork. Instead of beginning by telling her what she shouldn't do, I once again reiterated how much the Rebbe liked her picture and then told her that the Rebbe had said that the best way to draw the sun was to put it up in the corner. She nodded her head in agreement, smiled, and remarked, "Yeah, because otherwise it looks like a big yellow spider with long legs in the middle of the sky."

I then explained to her about adding בס"ד to her artwork. She immediately drew a new picture using colored pencils, drew the sun in the corner, and added בס"ד to the opposite corner. She then told me that she was happy that Rebbe liked her pictures and had spoken to me about her artwork.