Exactly two weeks ago, in an e-mail to Tri-national Rabbi, I said "I think I'll stay away from the movie. The ads make it sound like 'Walt Disney Does Jews', for the family channel."
A day later my friend the BookSeller gave me a free-pass to an advance screening at the Embarcadero Cinemas. So of course I went.
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In short: likeable characters, utterly simplistic story. It has a predictable happy ending, and even the two rogues are, more or less, in the good lights of the movie maker when it finishes. There are no bad guys, everything works out for the best. Enjoyable, but missing real meat. Sweet fluff.
Not that I want buckets of existential angst, complexity, and despair over the fate of the world, but I don't normally watch fairytales.
The movie starts off by introducing us to the characters, in such a way as to tell us what to expect from there on in. Moishe, a Breslover Chossid, is first seen in a shop where three Yiddish speaking gentlemen are evaluating esrogim, it being just before sukkos. Naturally he wants the prize specimen they are pricing at elf shekelim (1,000), but cannot afford it (so you know that, through some miracle, he will be able to buy it later - it is indeed a lovely esrog).
Turns out Moishe is jobless, penniless, poor as a shul-mouse, and hasn't even the wherewithal to construct a sukka for the upcoming chag.
But he has faith!! And hope!! Hashem will provide!!
And for the next hour and a half, Hashem is the leading character in this miracle-play. Occasionally assisted by the wisdom of the Rebbe at Moishe's yeshiva.
Through a fortuitous sequence of events (a miracle), Moishe and his wife come into enough money to tide them over the holiday. Through a fortuitous sequence of events (a miracle), Moishe's friend Ben Baruch finds him an abandoned sukka (!). Through a fortuitous sequence of events (a miracle), they have two guests staying with them, which is a blessing on this holiday. Through a fortuitous sequence of events (a miracle), the guests don't stay the full eight days. Moishe's wife Mali (Malka: 'Queenie') finally becomes pregnant (another miracle). Nine months later there is joy, and the little fella is named Nachman (how predictable). Moishe and the two sukkos guests are reconciled.
The best part of the movie is what eventually happens to the ridiculously expensive esrog.
You will cringe.
Probably just as well that the movie takes our familiarity with Chassidism for granted - I don't think I could've sat still for the candy-striped taste that any explanation would've had in the context of this tale. There is more to Chassidus than you will see here, but you don't really need to know it to follow the story.
Visually it is excellent, and there are some very amusing parts. In particular, I enjoyed the horrible American accent of the neighbor-woman buying some snood-type thing from Malka early on in the movie, and the Jewish charity worker counting out bills in English - you'll understand why this tickled me when you see the movie. Also keep an ear out for Yiddish at the esrog sellers, and an eye for the fried potatoes Moishe makes for his guests.
Oh, and three types of Shtreimel are seen in the movie - Breslover flying saucers, Gallician pill-boxes and Russian kulpakim. Evidence of a veritable holocaust among the shualim.
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NOTES
Breslover Hasidim = The followers of Nachman Ben Simcha Ben Nachman mi Horodenka of Bratislava (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, 1772 – 1811), who was a great-grandson of the Besht (Baal Shem Tov; Rav Yisroel Ben Eliezer, 1700 – 1760), and formulator of the concept of the Tzadik as the leader of a community who takes upon himself the suffering and striving of that community, who enlarges the blessings of that community by obedience to Hashem and shomerus ha mitzvos (preserving the commandments).
His talmid Reb Nosson wrote down the teachings which have come down to us (principal among these is the idea that sincere joy counts as devotional service).
Perhaps best known to outsiders is a form of meditation called Hisbodidus (to become solitary) – a free flowing personal prayer during which one pours out one’s heart to the almighty as if to a bosom friend. Often this shades over into mantra-like repetition of words or phrases of especial significance, such as "Ribboyne shel oylom!" (Master of the universe!).
Another Breslover concept is that of the Tzadik Ha Dor – the saint of the generation, the quintessence of the saintliness of that generation, who might be the Moshiach.
Sukkos = The Feast of Booths, when you are supposed to separate yourself from the secular world and dwell in huts. Sukkos is also when the Moshiach will come. It lasts eight days (a parallel with Peysach), and comes after Rosh Hashana.
Esrog = A lumpy ancestor of the lemon, which symbolizes understanding and wisdom.
The esrog is one of the arba minim (four species) required for the feast, the others are palm tree fronds (lulav), myrtle twigs (hadas), and branches of brook-willow (arava). Three of the arba minim are bundled with the esrog held separate, and all four are waved in all directions - the waving, per the Mechaber, the Rama, and the Taz, is east, south, west, north, up, down; this is the most common order.
But Chassidim usually follow the Ari, as cited by the Magen Avraham, who paskenned south, north, east, up, down, west. This is what you will see, briefly, in this movie.
Per the Levush it should be east, south, north, up, down, west; the Tur – east, north, south, west, up, down. Whereas Rashi believed that it should be north, south, east, west, up down.
Mechaber = Yosef Karo (1488 – 1575), author of the Shulchan Aruch (Set Table), and the Beis Yosef (House of Joseph).
Ramah = Rav Moishe Ben Yisroel Isserless (born 1525 or 1530 in Krakow, died 1572).
Taz = Referent to Rabbi David Ben Shmuel HaLevi (Krakow 1586 - Lvov 1667).
The Ari = The Arizal, Rabbi Yitzhak Luria (Yerushalayim 1534 - Sfat 1572).
Magen Avraham = Referent to Rabbi Avraham Gumbiner of Kalicz (1637 – 1683).
Levush = Rav Mordechai Ben Avraham Yaffah (1535 - 1612).
Rashi = Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yitzhak, the commentator ha commentatrim. But you already knew that.
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1 comment:
Back of the hill is an absolute heretic and nobody should read his writings.
Anybody that reads this will be reading apikorsish garbage.
This is BITTUL TORAH.
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