Kudos to "My Name Is Earl" (or Even Guilty Pleasure TV Can Have Meaning)

I don't watch a lot of TV live because of the hours I work. But I do a lot of time-shifting using my DVR. Once I get through all the saved "must watch" shows, If there's time available, I might look at some of my "second tier" shows. One of those is "My Name is Earl." The show has an interesting premise, and the over-the-top stereotypes are amusing (and sometimes troubling.) Yet is has a certain something that connects with me enough that I enjoy watching it when the opportunity presents itself. My attitude was rewarded the other day when I happened to watch an episode of "My Name is Earl" that aired a few weeks back. In this episode, Earl starts out to make amends with a woman he had teased in school for having facial hair. Fast forward today and it turns out she's a bearded-lady with a circus, and lives in a community with other carnival "freaks." The episode was entitled "Sticks and Stones" and also featured another plot line with Marlee Maitlin play a lawyer whose deafness is made fun of by Joy.

Despite the somewhat obvious nature of the plot and how things might end up, I found the entire episode quite touching and with a valuable lesson for all. Now, I'm sensitive to the issues raised by this episode because I'm only 4'-10". However, I'm what the doctors refer to as "normal short." That means I'm extremely short-statured, but otherwise physically and medically normal. Unlike those who have one of the various forms of dwarfism or other conditions that can cause short stature, there's no clear underlying medical cause for my stature, and it is not accompanied by other conditions.

So, on the tone hand, when I encounter, whether in real-life or television, a character who is different from the "norm" I am empathetic. On the other hand, I'm sometimes a little jealous that they have a condition which might qualify them for special treatment and protection from discrimination, whereas I don't. And every time I think or say that, I get this huge twinge of regret for even thinking it. I should be counting my blessings that the worst I have to handle are things like a rude child in a supermarket, or having to climb up grocery shelves to reach a product, or up on my kitchen counters to retrieve items up high.

In the episode, it turns out that earl has a similarly insignificant defect-an unusually hair chest which made him the target of ridicule when he was young. Like Earl's "pool incident" I have my childhood memories of cruel and insensitive teachers like the one in second grade who passed me over when it was my turn to put up the flag at the front of the class. Or the phys ed teachers who not only didn't stop, but sometimes encouraged, my being chosen last for a team, or who refused to recognize that yes, it really was unfair that when rope climbing, I did actually have to climb more distance than others to reach the top!

So I found the entire episode a fair treatment from all sides-though I can't truly speak for those who are bearded ladies or elephant men, etc. And I offer my kudos to the writers and actors of the series for this touching episode.

Adrian (aka Migdalor Guy)

Random Musing Before Sukkot-Precious Congealed Light

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Sukkot 5767

Precious Congealed Light - Or Y'karot V'kipa'on

Ah, the poetic Hebrew of the prophets. even the best of linguistic scholars can be baffled by it. Take chapter 14 of Zechariah, which is the haftarah for the first day of Sukkot. It's a stunning and somewhat disturbing piece of prophetic vision about a day of judgment that is coming for the world and Israel. Though even Israel gets her share of doom and gloom, In the end, it predicts a time when those of all the nations who have survived G"d's judgment will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot, and acknowledge the One G"d. And woe to those who don't, for they shall not have rain (except for Egypt, where the rain doesn't seem to matter so much.)

The connections to the the prayers for rain and the water libation ceremony stand out, and remind us that Sukkot was not always just a holiday of cute little decorated huts. In the aftermath of the Yamim Noraim, the holiday of Sukkot, for most liberal Jews, has become an afterthought. Yet Sukkot is THE holiday-the biggest and most impressive of the three pilgrimage holidays - Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot. In the absence of a Holy Temple at which to make the required sacrifices (this is the holiday where the 70 bulls, representing the 70 nations of the world, are sacrificed. It's another reminder that despite its seeming particularity, Judaism was intended to be universalistic.) And the all important purification of the altar, the water libation ceremony, took place during Sukkot.

I could talk more about all the water/rain connections for Sukkot, but that's not where I wanted to go this year. I was struck more by a reference to another elemental, light.

This day that is coming, according to Zechariah, when G"d will rain down judgment first upon Israel, by calling all the nations to Jerusalem to attack, capture and plunder her. Then G"d will literally plant G"d's feet on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and wreak vengeance on Israel's enemies. Fresh water will flow from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean and the Dead seas! All the rest of Israel except for Jerusalem shall be lowered like the lands of the Arava, so that Jerusalem stands alone towering over the land. Flesh will rot away from Israel's enemies, panic shall fall upon them. Eventually, all the wealth of the world will be brought to Jerusalem, and, as I mentioned, those who survive will all make pilgrimage to Jerusalem to acknowledge the One G"d and observe the holiday of Sukkot.

Can you imagine this as a movie script? And those special effects....wow! But I digress.

This day that is coming is described in Zechariah 14:6-7 in a most interesting way:

6. In that day, there shall be neither sunlight nor cold moonlight;
7. but there shall be a continuous day-only the L"rd knows when-of neither day nor night, and there shall be light at eventide.

Perhaps one can see this (pun intended?) as the "light" equivalent of how at Sinai G"d's voice was seen and felt. This is a different kind of light. what kind?

Well, the committee of scholars that assembled the current JPS translation did their best to translate the Hebrew, and who am I to argue with them. But the Hebrew here is truly difficult to translate. What they translate as "sunlight nor cold moonlight" is, in Hebrew: or y'karot v'kipa'on.

"Or" is straightforward enough. It means light. Y'karot and k'pa'on, however, are horses of a different color. The root of Y'karot generally means splendid, precious, rare - it's the root used when we speak of "more precious than rubies." Only in this usage and on other in proverbs do we find y'karot translated as "cold." And the words for sun and moon just aren't there, and simply inferred by the scholars.

K'pa'on is another interesting word. Its root means to thicken or congeal, and k'pa'on is defined as meaning "congelation" or more plainly, congealment.

Some in the p'shat, the plain meaning, the words "or y'karot v'kipa'on" appear to say "precious and congealed light." Makes sense, sort of, in contest of what follows-that there will be a continuous day. So perhaps what we have is the congealment of sunlight and moonlight into one light that is continuous.

If so, do we have here something like the light that existed on the first day of creation - the light that existed before there was sun and moon and stars?

At the end of Sukkot we celebrate Simchat Torah. It's not really a separate holiday at all, just part of the overall holiday of Sukkot, indeed, part of the overall continuous holiday that starts in Elul, and runs through Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Hmm. Continuous holiday. Continuous light. There's food for thought-and yet another connection to the haftarah.

So maybe it's all a clue, pointing us to what we recognize at Simchat Torah, and the time of reading anew from the beginning- that Torah is this light that is nether sunlight nor moonlight - is this light that was created on the first day of creation.

This is metaphor, of course. Torah was given to us at Sinai. And, if we put on our scholar hats, the idea of a physical Torah existing on day one of creation (some sages have even suggested it existed before creation) feels false. Yet wearing our spiritual and theological hats - perhaps Torah was created as G"d congealed the light that G"d had created on that first day from the chaos that was the tohu vavohu. And now, on this day that is to come, G"d once again congeals the light into a continuous light, a continuous day - a day when "from out of Zion shall go forth the Torah." Puts a nice envelope, a bowtie, around creation and this ultimate day of judgment.

See what ya miss when you just read and accept a translation of the Tanakh done by someone else? Not to "dis" the great scholars who assemble the JPS translations, but as funky as the text reads, you might still have glossed over it (Zechariah 14:6-7) without much a second thought after some initial puzzlement.

So my challenge to you this Shabbat and Sukkot is to figure out for yourself what "or yikarot v'kipa'on" could mean - what kind of light is this, and why will it appear on this day to come, this day of judgment. And my continual challenge is to do the same with every little bit of text you encounter in Torah and Tanakh. That ought to keep you busy, perhaps too busy to have done a lot of things for which you'll be atoning next year around this time. A little less khol, and a little more holy.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sukkot Sameakh,

Adrian aka Migdalor Guy

©2006 by Adrian A. Durlester

Random Musings Before Shabbat-Ha'azinu-Redux and Updated from 5762-Trifles

Random Musings Before Shabbat-Ha'azinu-Redux and Updated from 5762

Trifles

There's a lot to consider. All the words spoken to the people by Moshe, not just in the song the comprises Ha'azinu, but in the entire discourse of D'varim. Indeed, in all of Torah, and that's "big T" and "little t" Torah.

Things we should do. Things we shouldn't do. Things we must always do, and things we must never do. (It's interesting how the Hebrew language has grammatical forms- "lo" and "al-" that allow one to express a "do not" and an emphatic "absolutely do not." I wonder what we are to make of that? Are some negative mitzvot more important? Also, oddly enough, while one might think that black and white things, absolute yes and no, would be easier to deal with, that's not always the case, is it?)

So, do the less emphatic yes and no become less important? Are we free to pick and choose from among the less emphatic commandments which ones to observe, but not free to do the same with the absolute ones (like the Aseret Hadibrot?) Liberal Judaism embraces the "informed choice" concept. It often becomes in practice, unfortunately, the "we don't have to" concept.

And that's just not good enough-at least, not for me. (I don't want to debate the relative merits of liberal informed choice versus traditional adherence-that wasn't my point in 2002 and it's not my point today.)

We are told something very important in D'varim 32:47, after Moshe reminds the people to heed the words he has spoken:

"This is no trifling matter for you, it is your very life."

The Hebrew word translated by the JPS committee as "trifling" is "reik" and it comes from a root (resh-yod-qof) that actually means empty, or sometimes vain. The verbal form can mean to empty, or even to pour out. The analogy is thought-provoking. If we simply empty ourselves of the mitzvot, or pour them out of ourselves, then we may be truly empty. Mitzvot can give our lives meaning, so we must be careful how we deal with them.

Using this Hebrew word "reik" also allows us to caution a Jew who blindly observes the commandments - for that can be just as empty or trifling an approach.

So, for the liberal Jew, it's not simply a matter of saying "that's too inconvenient and not relevant, I hereby discard it utterly." And for the traditional Jew, it's not simply a matter of saying "that's exactly what it says, so that's what I must exactly do." Either of those choices trivializes the words and their meanings. We are meant to engage the mitzvot. Grapple with them. Struggle. Search for meaning and understanding. We ignore them or blindly obey them at our own peril.

The words of Torah are no trifles, they are pearls. Let us value them.

We may each find a different meaning in them, but when we dig no deeper than a superficial reading, we haven't really found anything at all. When we allow others to determine the meaning for us, with no input of our own, we haven't really found anything at all.

It is time to start digging deeper. This Shabbat, grab those literary and intellectual shovels and start. Just don't dig yourself into a hole. (However, if you somehow mange to dig yourself into a "whole," that's another thing entirely.) Well (pun intended,) before I dig in any deeper, I'd better extricate myself.

I wish you a Shabbat Shalom, a Tzom Qal, and a G'mar Khatimah Tovah.

Adrian

©2001 & 2006 by Adrian A. Durlester

In the spirit of the Yamim Noraim, if I have done anything in the past year which caused you any hurt, embarrassment, pain, or difficulty, or was offensive to you in any way, I humbly offer my apologies and ask for your forgiveness.