OyChicago blog

Avatar is so totally Jewish!

01/11/2010

Just saw Avatar at Navy Pier’s Imax theater…LOVED IT!! Wow!! As I watched, I kept thinking about how this movie is totally Jewish. In fact, I think that the movie is so darn Jewish that Mr. Cameron should send a big fat royalty check (to the tune of 1.34 Billion) to JUF. That would be so great! (In the meantime, don’t forget to make your JUF donation this year!)

Anyway, here are some of the Jewish connections I noticed. Love to hear what you think:

1. The movie is long—really long—like 3 hours long—but good—just like a Shabbat service.

2. Hmmmm… a story about a little band of warriors with a lot of heart, but far less sophisticated weapons, who challenge a much better organized and equipped army in order protect their land? Sounds familiar...Oh, I know! It’s Chanukah!!

3. Neytiri, Jake’s Na’vi Beshert, is the embodiment of every gorgeous Israeli woman I ever dreamed of dating. She’s got swagger and confidence, she’s fierce, fearless, passionate, and at the same time she’s extremely loving and loyal once you win her respect. Sure, she might make you learn Hebrew and move to Israel, and she will likely dare you to jump off a huge tree, but know this—if you ever get attacked by a pack of wolves, (or ten angry terrorists) she’ll take em’ all down.

4. Na’vi, the name of the indigenous people of Pandora means “prophet” in Hebrew. The name of their god—Eywa if you rearrange the letters, spells Yawe…which is just like YAHWEH (the name of our God) and if you add just one letter to Tsahik, the name of the spiritual leaders of Na'vi clans, you get tzadik, the Hebrew word for a righteous person (as noted in other blogs).

5. The unlikely hero of the story, Jake Sully, had a physical impairment. He cannot walk. With the use of another body (the Avatar) Jake is able transform the world. Moses, one the greatest Jewish heroes of all time, also had a physical impairment. He was “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex. 3:10) and like Jake, Moses, with the use of another body, (that of his brother Aaron, who had no trouble speaking), and with the help of God, (actually it was the other way around) overcomes the mighty Pharaoh.

6. The notion from the movie that “All living things are one—zalelu”—is Jewish. Note this story about the late Rabbi Isaac Kook, first chief Rabbi of Israel: One day Rav Kook was walking in the fields with a student when the young man carelessly plucked a leaf off a branch. Visibly shaken by this act, Rav Kook turned to his companion and said gently, “Believe me when I tell you I never simply pluck a leaf or a blade of grass or any living thing unless I have to. Every part of the vegetable world is singing a song breathing forth a secret of the diving mystery of creation.” For the first time the young student understood the meaning of showing compassion to all living things. (Spirit in Nature: Teaching Judaism and Ecology on the Trail, Biers-Ariel, Newborn and Smart, pg 22)

7. The big Tree—“Home Tree” is clearly like the Tree of Knowledge from the first story of Genesis and the Na’vi are living in the Garden of Eden. Problem is the evil General doesn’t heed Deuteronomy 20:19 which states, “when you wage war against a city…you must not destroy its trees.” When the tree is destroyed, the people are exiled, reminding us all of the destruction of the Temple in 70CE. The “Tree of Souls,” the center of the Na’vi’s religious and cultural life and a place where the Na’vi can connect to all the ancestors of the past, is an obvious metaphor for the Torah, which is a “Tree of Life to all who hold fast to it.” Like the “Tree of Souls”, the Torah is our connection to God, to our people past and present and our center of religious life. That is why when our enemies have persecuted us in the past, the first symbolic target in their crosshairs is the Torah.

8. Some say Pandora's floating "Hallelujah Mountains" were inspired by the Chinese Huang Shan mountains, I say the inspiration came from the following Midrash:

At the foot of Mt. Sinai, God's words boomed down upon the Israelites. The people stood, flabbergasted and stupefied with fear. Slowly, apprehensively, they moved closer. As they drew nearer, God lifted Mt. Sinai and held it over their heads: IF YOU ACCEPT MY TORAH, FINE! God said. IF NOT, YOUR GRAVES WILL BE UNDER THIS MOUNTAIN! The people shouted, WE ACCEPT!

9. When Jake becomes a Na’vi, we can’t help but be reminded of the process of becoming a Jew. As a rite of passage to become an adult Na’vi, Jake must tame and fly an Ikran, a terrifying wild birdlike creature. To become Jewish adults, we have to tame our nerves and fly by the seat of our pants during our Bar or Bat Mitzvah. After much practice, we find that we soar. Also, when Jake is completely immersed in Na’vi culture, to his surprise, he falls in love with their people, religion, culture and God. As is noted elsewhere, Jake’s trip to forests of Pandora does for him what an Israel trip does for many American Jews. Jake’s encounter then leads him to what I saw as the last scene in the movie—a beautiful conversion ceremony, not unlike what we have in Judaism. Jake, with the support of the entire community, the Kehilla, who are singing and swaying with total Kavanah, hears sacred words chanted, and awakens with his eyes open, now ready to see the world through new and excited eyes—much like the experience of someone who converts to Judaism and suddenly sees the world through Jewish eyes.

10. Finally, when the movie trailer opens Jake’s states that he wants to make a difference and hopes to find something worth fighting for. In other words, Jake is searching for his Holy Mission, his opportunity to impact the world for the better. This is ultimately a religious search and the point of Judaism—for each of us to find what God has put us on this planet to do and to serve that Holy Mission in a way that brings honor to ourselves, our families, our people and all of humanity. In a way, we Jews are just like the Jake character in the movie, searching for our best selves, always striving to learn what really matters in life and always making a positive difference in the lives of others. I think therefore, that it is more than mere coincidence the main character’s name is Jake. To us, he is Jacob, which is of course another name for ISRAEL—which really means that he is all of us.

Comments

Posted by Lindsey Bissett at 1/11/2010 4:46 PM

Very nice drash! Without giving away any of the movie's secrets... (I'll try not to), there must be also a theme of "total transformation." It seems like there are a lot of allegories to our Jacob's stories--his dreaming of the ladder, his quest and hard work to win his love Rachel, his wrestling with the angel... these all seem to be there. Perhaps their symbolism is also just quite universal.
Posted by: David R. at 1/12/2010 10:25 PM

Um, the Na'vi are the Palestinians. The evil colonialists/oppressors/hate are the Zionists. How can you not see this??
Posted by: msdamimonde at 1/13/2010 12:35 PM

Dear Msdanimonde--hmmmm.... I know that people see this movie as a critique about a host of things ranging from America's role in Iraq, to corporate dominance, to national imperialism, to colonialism, to an environmental message, to "blood" diamonds, to the history of the Native Americans in US and every other similar story in human history. Some see the Home Tree getting destroyed as a symbolic representation of the Twin Towers falling--thereby muddling up the whole metaphor of America as the aggressors. Of course you see what makes sense to you, you have a right to your opinion, and I won't be able to convince you otherwise, but I do think the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians is much more complex than this Hollywood Style Film.
At the same time, much has been said about the irony of spending so much energy (and carbon production) and money to produce a movie that was supposed to be about the environment and protecting oppressed people--let's face it, the main point of this movie wasn't to convey a message but to make boatloads of money--for the producers as this film did!
Posted by: Taron Tachman( Visit ) at 1/13/2010 5:03 PM

Gee and I thought it was an environmental statement about our country's roll in the destruction of the rain forest and it's affects on the planet and wildlife. How could I be so wrong. And maybe a little bit about the war in Iraq - lives for oil. Could Mr. Cameron be a democrat? ;-)
Posted by: Aaron at 1/14/2010 5:41 PM

Thank you for this interpretation, much of it is very thought-provoking. The common criticism of this movie, as of many Hollywood blockbusters, is that the main plot elements are a set of familiar conventions, even cliches (such as the member of a colonial power who 'goes native' to defend a native culture against his own, or the defeat of a seemingly technologically superior imperial enemy by a seemingly under-equipped indigenous group of Ewoks or Maccabees), whose familiarity means that you don't need to think too much as you watch the spectacle. But one can also point out that these conventions are part of a deep cultural inheritance, and are drawn from ancient stories and hero narratives like those in Exodus, that speak timelessly to our collective human condition. So Cameron can use them as a kind of shorthand (or even abuse them, depending on what you think of his movies), but the stories end up being older, deeper, and more powerful than any ephemeral medium in which they are borrowed or retold or distorted. The above analysis speaks to this.

I have one substantial disagreement, which is with point 9, the notion of rites of passage. As a Jew-in-progress or a Jew-by-choice, I strongly disagree with the notion of Jewish conversion as a singular ecstatic moment of sudden transformation or awakening. It is precisely not that. Of course, everyone's experience is different, but I think this is a very limiting narrative about this particular right of passage, and even a strangely Christian one in this context. For me, practicing Judaism or the doing/being/becoming of Judaism happens in a continuous, gradual, day-to-day way, in which that newness isn't momentary, but continuous, and in that sense is a sort of oldness. Part of this is, I think, because to be/become Jewish is not to ceremonially or otherwise enact or assert some kind of faith statement or catechism (as in subsequent Abrahamic traditions), but perhaps is primarily to introduce practice and prayer comprehensively and intimately into daily life, from kashrut to remembering the blessing for rainbows, and every other action...

It's common, and necessary, to have ceremonial events that stand-in for lifelong projects, (just as a wedding stands in for a marriage, perhaps). But I think that especially for conversion in Judaism, an emphasis on the event, or on the sort of wholesale transformation or transubstantiation symbolized by assuming a new (ten foot tall and blue!) body, is utterly off-base. It's not about having new eyes, it's about looking.

Thanks for listening to my two cents, and for the thought-provoking teaching!
Posted by: Thomas at 1/16/2010 7:29 PM

Thomas---Well said!!!! Thank you! (Can I change my answer to number 9?) :)
Posted by: Taron Tachman at 1/17/2010 12:06 PM

Very well written and on the money. Conversion isn't easy.
Posted by: Daniel Dunchack at 1/18/2010 10:42 PM

All this debate dialogue is completely consistent with the age old practice of interpretation aka responsa among Jews. Many "sage" opinions.
Posted by: Helene at 1/25/2010 10:11 AM