IN this toy store, Batman and Spider-Man are not heroes.

For one thing, said Barbara Shine, manager of Double Play Toys in Borough Park, Brooklyn, the characters encourage interest in television, and the Orthodox Jewish families who make up her clientele do not watch television. More important, those toys might also teach lessons Hasidic parents don’t want their children to learn.

Thomas the Tank Engine “is a kosher character,” she said, illustrating her store’s philosophy. “He’s not hitting and killing people. We don’t want kids to learn violence.”

Even if gift-giving is not central to Hasidic celebrations of Hanukkah, which begins Tuesday evening, toys are crucial year round. Families tend to have flocks of children, and mothers need ways to amuse them when the fathers are at synagogue or study hall and when the parents take their customary Sabbath naps. So Mrs. Shine, an effervescent mother of seven who is strictly Orthodox but does not follow any sect’s grand rabbi the way most Hasidim do, knows she has a ready market. And her business flourishes because she understands the neighborhood’s unwritten codes.