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“The Chosen People”-Judaism
In the opening minutes of this film, we meet several different figures, among them Nathan Katz and Elie Wiesel(who reappear later), each of them telling something fundamental about Judaism (Wiesel talks of the irony of God revealing Himself on Sinai, and instead of revealing secrets of the universe, instead gives people simple moral rules—the lesson being that God can take care of himself, but what he had to give to people was human dignity.
This opening is followed by an interview with a Jewish musician, who talks about Judaism as being marked by inquiry and argument, with people having legitimate differences of opinion, just as musicians can care passionately about a piece of music, but interpret it differently. This image of musical/textual interpretation reappears later in the text.
In the next major segment we meet Pinkus Pele, a Jewish rabbi and a “modern-day Pharisee” who lives in Jerusalem. The narrator walks with him to the wailing wall, where Rabbi Pele says some prayers. He characterizes Judaism as a “system of communication” between God and Human Beings (the Torah), between human beings and God (worship), and between human beings themselves (through loving-kindness). It goes on to show Rabbi Pele’s daily prayer rituals, and talks about the importance of the tefillin—one attached to the head, as a symbol of restraint of the intellect, and another to the arm, as a symbol of restraint of action. Each one contains bits of parchment with 4 sets of Biblical verses, describing that God is One, that Human beings are free, that the human aspiration is to serve God, and that people belong to a group and in a land where this is possible. This section is mainly to illustrate the ritual duties incumbent on pious Jews.
The following section goes to morning prayer in a yeshiva (religious academy), and returns to need for interpretation, and the notion that this involves struggle. No one questions that God has spoken, but there is some disagreement about what God meant. And here there is the duty for study and interpretation, as both an intellectual and a spiritual duty. The product of this struggle is the Talmud, which is still studied orally, and in pairs.
After this the film turns to the subject of the Holocaust, which cannot be ignored. The main speaker here is Elie Wiesel, who was transported to Auschwitz from his home at the age of 16, who barely survived, and who has spent the rest of his life writing about this experience. On one hand, he talks about Auschwitz as an “encounter with the Absolute” (“perfect killers, perfect victims”), but on the other has clearly not made sense of it (he claims on one hand that the Allies could have halted this by some show of protest early on, and also talks about how he simply can’t understand the Germans who were responsible for this—many of whom had college degrees, or who came from old, aristocratic families. One of his stories about the camps talks of the “trial of God,” who is eventually found guilty, but after the verdict, the rabbis go to pray (could this be Wiesel’s own admission that this a mystery beyond his understanding?)
Pinkus Pele also speaks a little about the contemporary perspective on the Holocaust (among them the notion that “I’d like to find some way to be ennobled without suffering”), but both he and Wiesel return to declare their intention to survive and to carry on as Jews—perhaps as a conscious response to this evil, since to abandon the faith would mean giving Hitler a posthumous victory (in Fisher’s book, Emil Fackenheim also talks about this).
The final segment goes back to looking at specific Jewish practice, namely Shabbat. The film goes to Rabbi Pele’s house to film the Sabbath blessings and the meal (actually filmed on a Tuesday, since filming it on the Sabbath would involve work, which is forbidden). Rabbi Pele talks about the importance of the Shabbat and its themes, particularly peace, equality, and joy, and the way that the “restrictions” on work-related activities actually help to promote these (as well as to promote uninterrupted family time). The end result is to promote and enhance a certain (Jewish) quality of life, and as he notes in his final remark, “more than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has preserved the Jews.”
These pages are in progress.
Page maintained by James G. Lochtefeld.
Last modified 8 September 2003