Narnian Ba'alei Teshuva: Edmund (Part 2)

In our last post, we listed a few questions with respect to the repentance experienced by Edmund and suggested that perhaps a Jewish perspective on teshuva would help us interpret the story. In this post, we start that interpretation.

The Talmud (Pesachim 54a) tells us that there are seven ideas or concepts that precede Creation. These are: Torah, Repentance (Teshuva), the Garden of Eden, Hell, God’s Throne of Honor, the Temple and the name of the Messiah. All of these are integral to God’s plan for the universe. A universe in which humans have guidance from God but free will enables reward and punishment. However, none of these concepts arise from cosmology and the laws of nature.

The White Witch understood the laws of nature. Not just the physical laws, but she also understood the principles of sociology and civilization. A traitor, one who rebels against his master or his clan, must be expelled. What other option is there? How could anyone look such a person in the eye and again accept him as a fellow? How could a civilization take the risk of not punishing such a breach?

God, however, peers back before Creation where He has formulated the concept of repentance, teshuva. A regretted action can be nullified and the breach can be repaired as if it never occurred. The Stone Table, the tablets on which the laws of nature are recorded, cracks under the divine mandate: man’s ability to violate the arrow of time, to go back and erase an action.

Edmund experienced all of this. His sin was wiped away so thoroughly that he did not even comprehend that the discussion of the traitor centered on him. But he clearly had help: he was saved from the clutches of the White Witch by Aslan’s search and rescue party and was then brought to understanding via a conversation with Aslan himself. However, this too has its sources in Jewish lore as we will discuss in our next.

Always Winter and Never Christmas (Part 2)

 Always Winter and Never Christmas

In our first installment on the above words of the Faun Tumnus we asked the question, why is winter without Christmas such a tragedy? The answer we provided was motivated by the words of Pastor Ray Fowler, Christmas provides a respite to the hard winter and makes worthwhile the work and stress that the winter brings. In Narnia, however, there was no Christmas. There was no vacation and there was no satisfaction in a job well done. 

In this post I would like to explore an alternate reading of Always Winter and Never Christmas as suggested by Pastor Robert Marsh:

Each year, beginning on June 22, the number of minutes of sunlight we enjoy each day begins to shrink. From 15 hours and 2 minutes on that day, the time we have in the sun shrinks until December 22, when we have only 9 hours and 20 minutes. But as we approach that shortest day, I find myself telling people around me, and reminding myself, that the days immediately start getting longer again – gradually building till that wonderful 15 hour day in June! We need that hope – that reminder that things will once again return to the warmth and light of summer! 

But imagine if there were no hope – imagine if on December 23, the minutes of daylight kept getting fewer – and scientists told us that it would never get better – no hope! Imagine the despair of being hope-less! Of feeling there is no end to the misery, no light at the end of the tunnel – no reason or purpose to go on. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.” That’s how the world would be with no Christmas...

In this reading Christmas is not just a respite from difficult times, or even the reward or satisfaction achieved due to hard work. Rather, Christmas is a beacon of hope that things can improve. In a moment the world can be transformed for the better, things need not remain as they are now. 

While I appreciate Pastor Marsh’s insight and his entwinement of the darkness of winter due to the natural shortening of the day with the evil doings of the White Witch, I believe that some more depth can be provided to Christmas’ theme of hope. For that I would like to turn to perhaps an unlikely source: the Talmud. 

The incompatibility of Judaism with the pagan gods is such that Talmudic law forbids certain interaction with pagans lest they use items gained in such interactions as a means for worshipping their gods. Thus, a Jew must be especially careful around the time of pagan holidays when worshippers are more likely to make dedications to their temples. In order to facilitate this, the Mishna (Avoda Zara 1:3) provides a list of pagan holidays which includes Saturnalia and Kalenda. The Talmud (Avoda Zara 8a) explains that Kalenda is the celebration after the Winter Solstice (the kalends was the first day of the Roman month) and Saturnalia is the celebration before the Winter solstice. 

The Talmud then relates the origin of these holidays. After Adam’s sin and his exile from the Garden of Eden, he realized that the days were getting shorter and the nights longer. Perhaps, he thought, I have ruined the world and the darkness will continue to grow until the universe reverts to nothingness. He then spent 8 days in fasting and prayer. When the solstice came Adam realized that this was simply a natural cycle and he then spent the next 8 days in celebration. Starting the next year, he celebrated both sets of 8 days as holidays. Of course, Adam set aside these holidays to celebrate God’s command over nature, and the pagans came and misused them for idol-worship. 

The connections between Saturnalia and Christmas have been noted time and again. Unfortunately, these similarities are used as an attack on Christianity. The thought process appears to be that if a religious holiday grew out of a pagan ritual (though the religion now utterly rejects paganism) this somehow is a point of ridicule. I must admit, I fail to see why this should be so. The Christian faith (perhaps Pope Julius I) understood the importance of a celebration around the Winter Solstice as symbolic to the birth of the Christian Messiah. 

The (Christain) theology perhaps goes something like this: the time before said messiah came into the world was one of great troubles: God’s people had splintered into numerous, warring sects. The Pharisees who were teachers of law, were hypocritical and corrupt. They put minutiae before ethics and did not truly love God. This was a time of great spiritual darkness. At this time, when the world was at its bleakest, the messiah was born. He did not immediately engender change, but the moment before he was born was rock bottom, the nadir. After that the situation started to improve until such time that it will come to full day. 

This is symbolized by the natural cycle of light and darkness during the year. At the autumnal equinox, the amount of light and darkness are equal. After that, there is more darkness than light until the solstice, the day of greatest darkness. However, after the solstice the situation begins to improve. It is still dark for most of the day but the amount of light increases. The solstice may be rock bottom, but only because there is a rock bottom, can light start to increase.  

Christmas represents the turnaround from the darkest day of the year. It’s still dark and cold, and will be for quite a while, but at least it is getting lighter. But what if there was no Christmas? What if there was no rock bottom, but it always remained dark as it is on the day of the solstice? What if there could not be a turnaround because everything is (and always will be) static? That was the situation in Narnia. It was not just that there was no hope, but that there was no worst, and therefore no chance or possibility for improvement. It was just always winter, the White Witch would always be queen, and evil would always be triumphant. 

Therefore, the first step in the redemption of Narnia must be Christmas. The arrival of Santa Claus brings joy in hot drinks and a good breakfast, but that is only temporary. It is still cold, the White Witch is still queen, and she can (and does) still cause much harm. What Santa Claus permanently brings is the realization that the worst has past, and that the situation can be improved. It hasn’t improved yet, but he provides the tools that are needed induce change. Those tools, with determination and faith, will bring about the Narnian redemption.

Always Winter and Never Christmas (Part 1)

Always Winter and Never Christmas

Lucy’s first visit to Narnia almost ends in tragedy. Unbeknownst to her, the Faun Tumnus, whom she had befriended and whose house she was visiting, was covertly planning to lull her to sleep and hand her over to the queen of Narnia, the White Witch. The nefarious plan would have succeeded had Tumnus not been overcome by guilt. He repents, asks Lucy for forgiveness and explains that, though he was in the pay of the White Witch, he now understands the error of his ways. 

In the course of his confession, Tumnus attempts to convey to Lucy that his being in the pay of White Witch is indeed evil. He demonstrates her wickedness by explaining: 

Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!

As a child, this made a lot of sense to me. I knew, of course, that Christmas was a very important holiday because that was when non-Jewish children got presents (our parents told us that Santa Claus was not real, but we would never ruin the surprise for any non-Jewish children we might speak to). Due to the White Witch, the children in Narnia never got presents, and certainty it takes a singularly evil person to want to take away an opportunity to receive presents. 

Rereading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as an adult, I came to realize that Lewis probably had more in mind than presents and the like. But what is it? Why is winter without Christmas such a tragedy? Furthermore (as I am not Christian), is there a parallel to be drawn to the Jewish winter holiday, Hanukkah? 

Not surprisingly, there have been Christian pastors who have used this statement of Tumnus to demonstrate the importance of the Christmas holiday. Pastor Ray Fowler emphasized the importance of the holiday as follows:

Can you imagine what it would be like if it were always winter, never Christmas? First of all, just imagine if it were always winter. Now maybe some of you happen to love the winter, but how would you like to deal with ice and snow, sub-freezing temperatures, and having to clean and scrape your car every morning, every day? ...

So, this “always winter” thing would be bad enough. But what if it were always winter, never Christmas? That would be even worse! You know, we may not always like the ice and snow and cold, but at least when it gets cold around here, it’s a sign that Christmas is coming. And for many people, Christmas is that bright spot in the middle of winter that somehow makes it all worth it. But what if there were no Christmas? What if the Christmas season never came? Think about it – no holiday decorations, no family gatherings, no Bright Nights at Forest Park, no Christmas carols or concerts, no Christmas trees, no Christmas presents, no Christmas vacation (!), (kids, that means you would be in school all December long), no Charlie Brown Christmas specials, no Jimmy Stewart and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It would be all winter, all the time, but never any Christmas.

The pastor notes that Winter is difficult. It is cold and icy. But at least there is Christmas to look forward to, and that makes the troubles worthwhile. 

Transitioning this thought back to Narnia, we would then understand Tumnus’ statement as follows. The White Witch has made the lives of Narnians really difficult. It is always cold and icy, but it is worse than the winters we are used to, because there is no redeeming factor. Life in Narnia is all work and no reward, no validation, and no purpose. 

This reading of Tumnus’ statement is a straightforward or grown-up extension of the naive understanding I had as a child. A child might say, were things as they should be, children who are “good” would be rewarded with presents on Christmas. The White Witch is mean because, due to her, no Narnian children receive presents. The adult version of this is that winter is “hard,” and Christmas is a reward for the toil and a purpose of the hard work. The hours of hard work, celebrated with great joy surrounded by friends and family, become worthwhile. In Narnia such reward and purpose do not exist. 

Such a situation was in fact what the Israelites of old experienced in Egypt. Our sages tell us that the Jews were forced to work meaningless, non-constructive jobs with no ultimate purpose. They were thus lacking even the ability to even take pride in their work, to congratulate themselves on a job well-done. A similar cruelty was applied by the White Witch. There was work to be done but no ultimate satisfaction. 

(Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash)

In Every Generation...

Those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it. (The Silver Chair) 

In every generation they rise up to destroy us, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, saves us from their hands. (Passover Haggadah)

I have no idea whether or not C.S. Lewis was at all familiar with the details of the Passover seder, the ritual meal Jews partake in on the first night of Passover. At this meal, Jews celebrate and relive the Exodus from Egypt. The seder (Hebrew for 'order') ritual is laid out in the haggadah (Hebrew for 'tale') which presents the order of what is done at the meal. This includes the when to read the various texts about the Exodus, when to drink the four cups of wine, when to eat matza (the unleavened bread of affliction) and marror (the bitter herbs), and so on. 

Whether or not C.S. Lewis was familiar with the details of the seder, his description of the Northern Witches’ endless quest to rule over Narnia exactly echoes the haggadah’s assertion that evil will always attempt ultimate destruction of the Jewish people. Let us take a moment to understand the statement made by the oldest dwarf to Rilian, soon to be the young King of Narnia, in light of the statement in the haggadah, and vice-versa. 

In the haggadah, the assertion that evil will arise in every generation parallels a similar statement, “In every generation one is required to see themselves as if they left Egypt.” What does this mean? On the seder night, the night dedicated towards enmeshing and weaving Jewish youth into the tapestry of the Jewish people, time is put on hold. The myriad of threats, enemies, and evil that endanger Jews today, and have endangered them over the millennia, all become one with Pharaoh and his minions. Pogroms, inquisitions, and concentration camps all meld into an ongoing story of evil seeking to destroy the Jewish people. But no matter what form or shape evil takes, God will never allow it to triumph. Just as God emerged victorious in His battle against the Egyptians, He will also emerge victorious in the war against the current evil. 

This same lesson is that given to Prince Rilian. The prince spent ten years living in darkness. As Puddleglum worries, “Constitution ruined with living underground, I shouldn't wonder,” and this concern is certainly valid. How can someone recover from that experience? How can such a person see light without wincing? 

The oldest dwarf understood this challenge and devised a solution. It is the oldest dwarf who fits the Lewis' previous description as one who, “could just remember how his father, King Caspian, had looked when he was a young man, and saw the likeness.” And in this observation found a way to fully redeem the prince. The assertion that all Northern Witches mean the same thing takes Rilian back in time and demonstrates that he is part of a chain. His experience is only the latest battle in an ongoing war against evil. And just like Caspian and even Peter, with the help of Aslan, could overcome tremendous odds to defeat evil, so too Rilian can escape the trauma of his experience and emerge to rule justly and righteously. Times have not changed, the story is still the same, only a few irrelevant details of the plot have been rewritten. 

The oldest dwarf also has something to teach the Jewish People. What is the common denominator of the Northern Witches (of which we only know two, the White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle)? What characteristics do they share that they embody God's warning to Jeremiah, “From the North the evil will come forth” (Jeremiah 1:14)? Both witches deny the true God, and see themselves in His place. Any being that believes itself divine must conquer Narnia to demonstrate its power over Aslan. Any people or ideology, be it Communism, Nazism, or even humanism, that sees itself in place of God, must attack or erode the Jewish People to demonstrate they are not merely a cheap substitute. The war is ongoing. Each battle is the same, only the means of attack have changed. But, no matter the strategy, God will emerge victorious. 

Stay safe everyone! I’m back to blogging so come back soon!