Try This for Size...
If you are always on the look out for something Jewish to read, listen to, or watch, then this post is for you. I'll try to keep the recommendations coming. This time we’ll look at a book, and three Israeli movies you might want to consider checking out.
If you are anything like most of us you have often grappled with prayer. Particularly with the High Holy Days just fresh in our memory, this might be a good time to wrap your head around it? Entering Jewish Prayer by Reuven Hammer (Schocken, 1994) is not the easiest of books to read, but he explores the “how”, “why”, “when”, “where”, and “what” of Jewish prayer in a really loving way. The author obviously has a very personal grasp of Jewish prayer, but he presents it in an inaccessible way.
Through Hammer’s explanations I was able to get a firmer grasp on the act of prayer – both solitary prayer, and as part of community. There is a real sense that if you work at this prayer “thing” it really will serve you well. It is a dense read, so pace your self. I also took notes in the margins, which helped me a ton.
Film can be an incredible mode of transportation. Through film we are able to travel beyond the present time and our current location and visit whatever time and place we choose. Israel has recently been a frequent destination for me, and you might enjoy it too. With the Rabbi in Israel this summer, and the war and all its news exposure I felt a need to connect with what the Israeli experience is, today. So I “queued” some on NetFlix™.
I really enjoy the way director Amos Gitai tells a story. He is a master of the panoramic shot, and the monologue. In Kedma (2001) we are treated firstly to a monologue given by a shell-shocked Arab man as he, his wife, and his donkey are taken prisoner by a group of Jewish fighters in the Israeli War of Independence (1947). It is funny, poignant and downright sad as we listen to him prophesy. Then, at the end of the film we hear from one of the Jewish fighters. The camera follows him as he staggers along a line of departing jeeps and trucks after the battle, revealing to us the horror that awaited so many of our European kin who went to Israel as refugees after the Shoah.
Gitai does something similar in Kippur (1999). After shocking me a tad with the graphically erotic opening sequence, Gitai jolts us into what it must have been like to be caught completely off guard as Israel was in the Yom Kippur War (1973). Here the panoramic shot is one of the chaos and disorder that was the initial days of the war. Traffic jams, revving engines, arguing motorists, and reservists stumbling about the north – having lost their unit. There is also an incredible scene where stretcher bearers contend with heavy mud while evacuating an injured soldier from the battlefield. There is a real sense of the reality of battlefield time.
My final Israeli flick is a must see. This is a sweet flick called Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi (2003). Shlomi (Oshri Cohen) is a cute Tel Aviv high school boy with a crazy family. An overbearing, works-too-hard Mother, a brother (who at first seems to be smarter, sexier, and so much cooler than Shlomi), an invalid grandfather (who I think has the best lines in the film), and a sappy Dad who has recently been kicked out by Mom. As the film goes on we learn more about the family, their tsuris, and begin to see a sweet boy begin grow into a man. I guess it is an Israeli coming of age flick.
Just like any non-English language film, you don’t have to understand Hebrew to get insight to the Israeli experience. Just be prepared to listen to how they are saying what they are saying. Hebrew is an incredibly emotive language, and film is one great way to experience it.
If you are anything like most of us you have often grappled with prayer. Particularly with the High Holy Days just fresh in our memory, this might be a good time to wrap your head around it? Entering Jewish Prayer by Reuven Hammer (Schocken, 1994) is not the easiest of books to read, but he explores the “how”, “why”, “when”, “where”, and “what” of Jewish prayer in a really loving way. The author obviously has a very personal grasp of Jewish prayer, but he presents it in an inaccessible way.
Through Hammer’s explanations I was able to get a firmer grasp on the act of prayer – both solitary prayer, and as part of community. There is a real sense that if you work at this prayer “thing” it really will serve you well. It is a dense read, so pace your self. I also took notes in the margins, which helped me a ton.
Film can be an incredible mode of transportation. Through film we are able to travel beyond the present time and our current location and visit whatever time and place we choose. Israel has recently been a frequent destination for me, and you might enjoy it too. With the Rabbi in Israel this summer, and the war and all its news exposure I felt a need to connect with what the Israeli experience is, today. So I “queued” some on NetFlix™.
I really enjoy the way director Amos Gitai tells a story. He is a master of the panoramic shot, and the monologue. In Kedma (2001) we are treated firstly to a monologue given by a shell-shocked Arab man as he, his wife, and his donkey are taken prisoner by a group of Jewish fighters in the Israeli War of Independence (1947). It is funny, poignant and downright sad as we listen to him prophesy. Then, at the end of the film we hear from one of the Jewish fighters. The camera follows him as he staggers along a line of departing jeeps and trucks after the battle, revealing to us the horror that awaited so many of our European kin who went to Israel as refugees after the Shoah.
Gitai does something similar in Kippur (1999). After shocking me a tad with the graphically erotic opening sequence, Gitai jolts us into what it must have been like to be caught completely off guard as Israel was in the Yom Kippur War (1973). Here the panoramic shot is one of the chaos and disorder that was the initial days of the war. Traffic jams, revving engines, arguing motorists, and reservists stumbling about the north – having lost their unit. There is also an incredible scene where stretcher bearers contend with heavy mud while evacuating an injured soldier from the battlefield. There is a real sense of the reality of battlefield time.
My final Israeli flick is a must see. This is a sweet flick called Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi (2003). Shlomi (Oshri Cohen) is a cute Tel Aviv high school boy with a crazy family. An overbearing, works-too-hard Mother, a brother (who at first seems to be smarter, sexier, and so much cooler than Shlomi), an invalid grandfather (who I think has the best lines in the film), and a sappy Dad who has recently been kicked out by Mom. As the film goes on we learn more about the family, their tsuris, and begin to see a sweet boy begin grow into a man. I guess it is an Israeli coming of age flick.
Just like any non-English language film, you don’t have to understand Hebrew to get insight to the Israeli experience. Just be prepared to listen to how they are saying what they are saying. Hebrew is an incredibly emotive language, and film is one great way to experience it.
posted by simpletruths at 14:50
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