Just in time for Rosh HaShanah my article "Four Facets of the Love of God," is now freely available on the Tradition website. While not Narnia related, the article utilizes the categorization and description of C.S. Lewis' "The Four Loves" (with some modifications), but applies them to the God-man relationship. Perhaps soon we'll take some time to discuss further. But for now, enjoy!
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Monday, September 14, 2020
The Sefirot (Part 1)
In our last post we forwarded the kabbalistic Sefirot as an overarching construct for a Jewish parallel to the Chronicles of Narnia. Let us now expand on this idea and try to outline what themes and accompanying motifs would be manifested in each volume of such a series. In this post we’ll start with the first two, Kindness and Strength.
The first of the lower Sefirot, which encompass our perception of how God interacts with man, is kindness. In fact, it is God’s unbounding kindness that motivated Him to create the world and humanity. No doubt, then, our first book would be permeated with kindness with characters perhaps reflecting on biblical figures who exemplified this trait such as Abraham and Rebecca. The sefirah of kindness also has a color, white, and is symbolized by water (Rebecca’s kindness is demonstrated by her giving water to Abraham's servant, Eliezer, and his donkeys). We can thus paint a setting for at least part of our story.
Kindness, left alone, can become overwhelming and smothering. God’s kindness is infinite and creation based on kindness alone would leave no room for the initiative, creativity, and independence of finite humans. Similarly, a child treated with only kindness will not become an individual and will instead be spoiled. Thus, the second Sefirah, that of strength or judgment. God, as it were, held Himself back to create ‘space’ in His infinity for the finite world. God’s willingness to ‘limit’ Himself as it were, provides humans space to develop and grow, and also to degrade and fail. Paraphrasing C.S. Lewis (Screwtape Letters) “He cannot ravish but can only woo,” for He wants humans to become sons. Biblically, the paradigm of strength is Isaac who, without protest, allows his father to bind him in sacrifice to God.
With this in mind, the characters in our second book manifest strength and the unswerving belief in their ideals. They resist the sirens of sin and desire as stated by our Sages, “Who is strong? One who conquers his evil nature.” Judgement is symbolized by fire and is represented by the color red. Thus, the evil cities of Sodom and Gemorrah are punished with fire while on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the thread attached to the entranceway of the Temple goes from red (judgement) to white (kindness) to demonstrate that God has granted forgiveness.
Wishing everyone to be inscribed in the Book of Life on the upcoming Day of Judgement.
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Coming Soon...
Apologies for the lack of recent posts. The realities of the kids going back to school and preparing for the upcoming Days of Awe has taken precedence.
Still we have lots to look forward to. I would like to continue to flesh out the themes of the Sefirot as they may be applied to a Jewish version of The Chronicles of Narnia. I even would like to suggest that there is already a book of the bible written to manifest one of the Sefirot (stay tuned for which).
In addition, we are trying to understand the religious value of "valiance" and why the Chronicles two greatest heroes (perhaps), Lucy and Reepicheep, are defined by that term.
Stay tuned!
Monday, August 24, 2020
Introduction to Attempt #4: The Sefirot
In our last post, we concluded that we cannot utilize astrology as a means within Judaism to convey the relationship between God and man. Thus, it cannot be used as a basis for constructing a Jewish Narnia. Nonetheless, our latest attempts have been along the right track. What we need is an alternate construct, one that is authentically and a priori Jewish, that categorizes the different modes in which God interacts with man. A series amplifying those categories could then serve as a blueprint for a Jewish Narnia.
There are two such constructs that come to mind. The first is the names of God. While modern academic scholars pointed to the names of God as proof to multiple authorships and manuscripts in the Torah, our Sages and great commentators properly realized that the names of God reflected different modes of God’s interaction with man. In fact, God Himself says this to Moses when informing him of the future Redemption from Egypt. Thus, the different books could manifest the themes of Judgement, Mercy, Omniscience, Almighty, and so forth.
The Kabbalists, however, have already given us a similarly comprehensive categorization, and one which I think fits better with our goals: the Sefirot. The Sefirot have been defined and redefined numerous times over the centuries, and are taken to reflect God’s Will, His character traits, the forces He used in creation of the world, and the portals of the human soul which themselves mirror Godliness.
Specifically, one could imagine seven books each of which reflect the seven “lower” Sefirot: Kindness, Strength, Beauty, Eternity, Splendor, Foundation, and Kingship. Each of these Sefirot has attached to them great Jewish personalities, biblical verses, one of the plagues that afflicted Egypt, part of the Creation story, a color and more. The richness of the kabbalistic and chassidic literature guarantee a myriad of themes that could be used to build the stories.
Perhaps most importantly, while a Jewish construct, the Sefirot are universal. All of humanity can resonate with the themes manifested by the Sefirot. Hence, an author could write an unmistakably Judaic series that could attract universal acclaim while teaching the foundations of how a Jew should relate to God.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Israel Has No Mazal
Our first two attempts to formulate a Jewish Narnia were based on Talmudic statements regarding the personality traits of those born under the influence of various astronomical orbs. For our third attempt we studied the numerous ways in which the Sages utilized the signs of the zodiac to symbolize Jewish concepts. However, if our goal is to write a Jewish Narnia that reflects through story how God interacts with His creations (or at a minimum with His Chosen People), there is much evidence advising us to look elsewhere.
Immediately after the Talmudic horoscopes regarding the nature of those born on a given day or under the influence of a given planet, the Talmud (Shabbat 156a) records an argument as to whether the Jews are subject to ‘mazal,’ loosely translated as astrological signs or luck. The greatest of the Talmudic scholars believed that there is no such concept as mazal with respect to Jews and this opinion appears to be the more accepted one by later generations.
The rationale behind this statement is straightforward. Belief that our lives are governed by the stars would appear to nullify the efficacy of prayer and omnipotence of God. Furthermore, the Torah’s prohibitions against magic, divination, and necromancy (Deuteronomy 18:9-15) point to the inappropriateness of astrology and its related beliefs.
Of course, the Talmudic assertion in no way closed the book on this subject. Many of the Medieval Sages still take the Talmud’s astrology at face value but state that its dictates can be changed via prayer. On the other side of the spectrum, those of the Maimonidean school insist that the entire concept is false and belief in any influence of the stars borders on apostasy. A modern, rationalist viewpoint is forwarded by R’ Yisrael Lipschutz (commentary on the last mishna in Kiddushin). He rejects out of hand the notion of an astrological influence in favor of genetics, family wealth, and the circumstances of one’s birth, combined with inscrutability of God’s decision to arrange that each person would be born under their particular circumstances. The Talmud’s decision to record these astrological beliefs, says R’ Lipschutz, is, like with all aggadic statements, to teach us a variety of moral lessons but not that they should be taken at face value.
The casting of astrological influence as (at most) changeable for a Jew, speaks to the inappropriateness as a means of reflecting God’s relationship with humanity. Even those Sages who claim the truth of Jewish astrology would acknowledge that it is ‘natural,’ simply the way God created the universe. Having a relationship with God allows one to circumvent or undermine this natural influence. Certainly the more rationalist approach would claim that belief in astrology is more akin to idol worship. Thus, writing a Jewish Narnia with Jewish astrology as its underlying theme is at best missing the point and at worse bordering blasphemy.
This conclusion, however, puts us back to square one. What is the overarching theme within which we can build a Jewish Narnia? We’ll try again in our next post.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
A Jewish Alternative: Attempt 3 (Part 2)
In our last iteration attempting to find a model for a Jewish Narnia we explored several of the themes the Sages saw manifest in the zodiac. Specifically, we saw how they reflect the themes of the months during which each zodiac is ascendant. We noted that each of the 12 tribes corresponded to a sign of the zodiac and that each of the zodiac had a certain merit thereby causing it to be an unfavorable time for Haman’s attempt to destroy the Jewish nation.
The zodiac reflects additional themes explained as midrashic (Pesikta Rabbati 27) rationales given by God as to why the Temple could not be destroyed in that month. “God desired to destroy [the Temple] in the first month. The merit of Isaac arose and said, ‘Master of the Universe! Recall the Binding, when I was bound before you (and almost sacrificed by Abraham), and gave ram, in place of a ram [Aries being the sign for the first month].” God was unable to destroy the Temple in the second month due to the merit of Abraham who ran to the cattle (Taurus) to prepare meat for his guests. For the third month it was the merit of Jacob who was a twin [Gemini]. The fourth month was not possible either due to the merit of Moses who was saved from the water (similar to Cancer, who is a beast created from water). Finally, in the fifth month represented by a lion (Leo) God destroyed the Temple which is compared to a lion, smote Israel (Judea) which is compared to lion, because they disregarded the words of the prophets whose message is compared the roar of a lion.
Another midrash interprets the creation of the zodiac as symbolic of the actions of man (Pesikta Rabbati 20). And a final one (Tanchuma Ha’azinu 1) invokes the zodiac to define the stages of a man’s life. All of these are compiled in the below table.
The above table provides useful themes to model God’s interactions with man and, perhaps, as a basis for a Jewish based Narnia.
However, there is a fundamental problem with using the planets or the zodiac as our themes. You can already see it in the Table. We’ll discuss in our next post.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Valiance (Part 1)
The Whole Wide World Is a Very Narrow Bridge, and The Important Thing Is to Not Be Afraid
A quick interlude to our search for a Jewish Narnia, motivated by a discussion I had with my kids…
There are three characters in the Chronicles of Narnia described by Lewis as valiant: Queen Lucy the Valiant, Trumpkin the Dwarf, and Reepicheep, the most valiant of all the Talking Beasts of Narnia. The theme of valiance, as manifested by Reepicheep, plays an especially prevalent role in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That book was described by Lewis (in a letter to a fan quoted in Prof. Ward’s “Planet Narnia”) as “presenting the spiritual life (especially in Reepicheep).” Why is valiance so important to the spiritual life? Why does R’ Nachman of Breslov (in the above maxim) call not being afraid an ikkar, something centrally important? We will try to answer this question by understanding Reepicheep.
There are a few useful things to know about Reepicheep:
First, Reepicheep is bad at chess. Of course, lots of people are bad at chess, but Reepicheep is bad at chess because he sees himself in the pieces he controls. If Reepicheep was a piece, he would certainly put himself into a dangerous battle position irrespective of the likely consequences.
Second, Caspian warns Reepicheep not to challenge a dragon single-handedly. Caspian does not see fit to warn anyone else.
Third, Reepicheep has no problem landing on an island that is pitch-black in the middle of the day. No one else thought this was a very good idea.
Fourth, Reepicheep jumped into the sea to fight seemingly dangerous mermen even though there was no sign of danger and no other obvious reason to do so, except that a challenge was given.
The above clearly shows that Reepicheep is valiant. But does one really have to be so valiant? Maybe sometimes one should try to avoid danger, rather than jumping in headfirst? Maybe a bit of caution?
There are a few stages in our quest (if we’re following Reepicheep it should be a quest) to understand the value of valiance in the spiritual persona. We will try to explore them over a few posts.
Let us start with the concept of fear, the actual subject of R’ Nachman’s verse (now turned song). True fear, not fear that you might miss your bus, but existential fear must be reserved for God alone. Anything else borders on blasphemy (though God has commanded fear of, for example, one’s parents, this is likely because they reflect God). Certainly, one cannot fear a physical enemy knowing that God can sweep them away in a moment!
Besides the theological pitfalls of fear, lack of fear enables freedom of action. Reepicheep is described as one who lacks fear, “... no one had ever known Reepicheep to be afraid of anything.” He, therefore, can properly judge whether Lucy should face the magician. Others have to be concerned that perhaps they are motivated, or demotivated, by fear thus coloring their judgement. Reepicheep, “could say this (that Lucy should face the magician) without feeling at all awkward.” Thus, it is Lucy’s valiance, combined with Reepicheep’s, that propels Lucy forward.
However, lack of fear cannot explain the actions of Reepicheep. Lack of fear will allow one to explore the Dark Island, but alone it will not demand the island be explored. Reepicheep must be motivated by a positive force from which his valiance arises. We will explore this force in later posts.
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