Tag: Judaism

iopele:

piratetokensandsecretpotions:

alternativetodiscourse:

I’ve been thinking a lot about compassion in Judaism, and being kind. In that light, I would like everyone to know that my current favorite Jewish supernatural headcanon is that, instead of driving vampires away with crosses or stakes through the heart, we say the Mourner’s Kaddish for them. I mean, that’s just so adorable. You see this threatening undead creature, and instead of yelling murder, you feel bad for them, and you mourn for them. Imagine being a vampire at the receiving end of that, having been chased away for years and years and told you’re a monster when you come across someone who sees you and your existence and accepts that you’re in a pretty bad place and offers help in the best way they can. I’m actually tearing up about this a little. If someone adds to this post I’ll love them forever.

“what are they doing?” 

“

Yit’gadal v’yit’kadash sh’mei raba...

The murmurs started out quiet, hidden behind loaded shelves of an empty warehouse. The smell of musk and soggy cardboard almost being potent enough to mask the reek of fear, the hesitance and tension coming close to smoothing the beat of a quickened pulse. 

“B’al’ma di v’ra khir’utei…”

With each word spilled it got louder, loud enough to trace to one place, a small corner riddled with cobwebs and dust, mouse droppings and old nails never used. Apart from the creepish details, it housed a small, overly shaken man, one who showed fear, but also a heart breaking sadness. His wide eyes gleaming with tears, but not one’s of panic, wet tears of grief and mourning. 

“V’yam’likh mal’khutei b’chayeikhon uv’yomeikhon…” 

It was so strange… why would he say these things, mourn for a monster who crazes to tear every drop of life from his veins and bleed him to be dry as leather. A monster that was written about to be a vile creature, a sin in many cutlers. 

“uv’chayei d’khol beit yis’ra’eil…”

With a hateful growl the creature raised it’s fist, wanting nothing more than to drink in this man’s life, but he couldn’t, his body wouldn’t allow it. 

“Ba’agala uviz’man kariv v’im’ru:…”

The compassion, the sympathy, the mourning. It triggered feelings that were all too human, emotions that he hadn’t felt since he had turned. 

“Amein. Y’hei sh’mei raba m’varakh l’alam ul’al’mei al’maya…”

He ached to killed but all that came from his body was stray tears, something he didn’t know he could form. The lust for blood was fading, the urge to kill no longer eventide in the vampire’s instincts. He didn’t understand, not one bit of this. All throughout time he was chased, hunter’s screaming chants and curses while stabbing at him with wooden stakes and dead man’s blood always being shot toward him. 

“Yit’barakh v’yish’tabach v’yit’pa’ar v’yit’romam v’yit’nasei.”

What was compassion, why did he deserve it? This confusion was so raw, so foreign and unknown, it brought a fresh wave of grief to wash over the creature.  

“V’yit’hadar v’yit’aleh v’yit’halal sh’mei d’kud’sha…” 

The murmuring from the man was no longer hesitant and fearful, but soft and genuine, undertones of sympathy and sadness for a creature that had no connection to the man, for a creature that had tried to kill him. Why did he cae, why was he the first to show acceptance?

I know I’ve reblogged this 3 times in a row but that’s because these are 3 awesome bits of writing and I want them all on my blog

the mourner’s Kaddish doesn’t mourn or accept the dead though…

if you want a prayer that does that you need “El male rachamim” or “mi sheberach” and then you would need the dead person’s and his mother’s/father’s name

zionistmooncolony:

fromchaostocosmos:

When Superman: Man of Steel came out people were saying that the film was too gritty and cynical and it was that cynicism that destroyed the Superman we have always know and loved.

That it was that very cynicism that had Superman break his cardinal rule of do not kill and had him that very thing, kill.

As the reviews come out about Batman vs Superman and the bleakness and cynicism of that film I posit that the reason Superman has killed and the reason he is so unrecognizable as the hero we grew up with and the hero we loved and looked up to is because every essence of his Jewishness has been meticulously and calculatingly been scrubbed out.

Superman was written by two Jewish teens in the early 30′s and they imprinted onto Superman a Jewish identity.

Superman is in Diaspora. His homeland gone, his language, his culture, and his heritage both alien and foreign to were he lives. Living day to day with a part of himself hidden so as to be live a somewhat unmolested life.

He must struggle with what it means to be a member of his people while not having his people or culture around him and while having the outside culture imposed upon him and expected to assimilate to this outside force.

A great example of this can be seen oddly enough in Man of Steel when Lois Lane asks Superman what the S on his chest stands for. He tells it means hope in his people’s language and Lois responds by saying that here it is a S.

Superman is expected to accept this new reality and to let go of his culture and understand that he must rather assimilate instead. That he must let go of what it means in his language and culture and understand that it is now a S.

It is the internal struggle of the Jew. To survive in Diaspora. To endure and still maintain a sense of self and one’s roots. To keep your people’s language, customs, and culture alive especially surrounded by a world where you are the alien. You are the foreign being and you must assimilate and then be grateful that you were allowed to be forced to assimilate in the first place.

Superman has two masks. The mask of Superman and the mask of Clark Kent. Kal-el, is the face of Superman and not the mask. Kal-el is the struggle to survive when you are the alien.

Superman in the films and especially Man of Steel and even more so in Batman vs Superman is meant to be a jesus figure. A Messiah.

But that is not what he really is. He is rather the personification of Tikkun Olam.

Tikkun Olam is that each and every person is obligated to fix the world. To leave it a better place that when it was when you got there. To work towards justice, peace, and truth, the three pillars of Judaism.

Superman is meant to reflect what each of us can be. What we should be and should do. That when given the opportunity to good we should take it with both hands. That is whatever way we can with whatever our own abilities and powers are we should help others when given the chance. That is Tikkun Olam and that is Superman.

The new Superman does not fail because it is cynical. The new Superman fails because he is not Jewish.

You forgot to mention that kal-el, which in Hebrew is famously and intentionally spelled קל א-ל means “voice of G-d”. His story specifically was based on that of Moshe in many ways. His father and mother – knowing that if he stayed with them he would only find death – placed him in a basket. And that basket, they floated down a vast river. The river of stars and particles, and seemingly nothingness. A nothingness that swallows everything which has falls into it. And that basket came to a place where he could grow up, and where in the end, he was needed. I personally don’t know much about the movies – my job as colony paper pusher leaves no time for such fun, but I agree with you. To erase superman’s jewish identity is to erase superman and create an entirely new character, empty and devoid of its original meaning and purpose.

–
Administrator

THIS. all of this.