Dear Rabbi Ben-Chaim,
I
read your critique of Mel Gibson's movie with interest.
While there are many negative things to say about
the movie (and fortunately, many people are speaking
out strongly against this disgusting, anti-Semitic movie), the argument that
you put forward in this circumstance does not hold
water.
As you say, Torah would never condone
barbaric treatment and torture of any human being, even an
apostate.
Kavod Habriot should always be uppermost on the
mind of a truly observant Jew. But that is really the
key to this argument - a truly observant Jew. While
Torah would never sanction this type of treatment, one has to remember
historically what this period of time was like. These were the
last few decades before Churban Bayit Sheini, when evil rulers
like
Herod showed little care about the value of human life.
The Kehuna Gedolah was not much better, with people
buying the position and ending up dying on Yom Kippur
when entering the Kodesh Kodashim. This was the period
of time when Sinas Chinam was rampant and led to
the destruction of the Bait Hamikdash and Galus of the
Jewish people. So, in the absence of Torah leadership
in power, it is very possible that the Jewish leadership could have
perpetrated this kind of evil. For this reason we have to depend
more on the historical record (including Josephus and others), and
even
the Christian records which do not support Gibson's
warped views and calumnies.
Efraim
Weinblatt
Shalom!
I and my husband are Polish Christians. We are in very good relationships with Jewish community in our town. We have been for several years working in aid of peaceful and friendly relationship between Christians and Jews - not believing in Jesus. We try to fight anti-Semitism, try to change Christians' point of view about Jews and Judaism, show how anti-Semitic interpreters foolishly distorted the Gospel, and this is why we started some times ago with our page www.hatikvah.pl. And after “The Passion” by Mel Gibson (in Polish cinema since Friday) we felt as if somebody decided to squander our efforts, and not only ours, but also our friends' efforts here in Poland.
Before watching the film I thought two things:
1. Well, I am Christian, so despite the macabre, will I find anything in the film moving me?
2. Jews had very difficult history, full of persecutions organized by Christians, so perhaps their protest against this film stems from their oversensitive nature.
But even it is true, we- Christians- never should treat this touchiness as a “next Jewish sin”. We are responsible for this kind of reaction. But really this protest can be only partly - if at all - explained as “Jewish oversensitiveness”.
There is simple principle among people: if I harmed anybody and then want to reconcile, I avoid any behaviors, which could renew the conflict between us. Mel Gibson didn’t show this minimum of tact and decency for Jews. There are several scenes in the film neither from Gospels nor historical, which places Jews in very bad light.
The whole community of those times, Jews and Romans, were uncivilized, bordering on parody. Romans like in the cartoon about Asterix and Obelix: idiots with a smile of fool on their faces. In this film, Jews are not only uncivilized but also demonized. I had an impression that the film was based on the medieval idea about Jews - as demonic beings. The film doesn’t show Jesus’ death as the redemption but rather as an act of murder, committed by demonic Jews and barbaric Romans. Among the Jewish community we see only bad priests with their eyes narrowed hatefully to little gaps, or someone mentally ill or crazy. Jesus is plundered of his Jewish identity. We see him in several scenes according to not biblical but Gibson’s idea for example as a carpenter who invented modern kitchen table, but we do not see him even once in the Temple, reading Torah.
I think that film is also anti- Christian. Imagine that some man was convicted to death by torture but his friend decided to die instead of him. The man hangs on the wall in his flat, the pictures showing his friend’s body deformed by torture; he sculpts details of fleshy and bloody wounds. It is not normal. It is rather a miserable, mental distortion. And something like this horrifies me in the film.
Gospel means joyful message, not macabre! If this macabre film was to be “a label” of Christianity I think every Jew has right to go out from the cinema proud he is not Christian.
I think it is possible that the discussion about Jesus, if he is Messiah or not, about his Deity (even Christians are not agreeable in this point) between Jews and Christians can take place in the atmosphere of peace and love. We experience such a discussion here. But it should be casual, free, unconstrained theological conversation during which everyone has a right to his own conclusion and opinion. But through my coreligionists’ fault (Christians generally, Protestants and Catholics from past and present times), through my Christian ancestors’ fault this “conversation” stopped being free and unconstrained long time ago. Evangelizing missions taken in the name of falsely understood Gospel make that Jews are still “under the fire” in this “conversation”.
“The Passion” is an attempt making a step back in the process of regaining mutual respect and confidence. I enjoy that there are people on both sides whose good will is too strong to be broken by such a schematic way of thinking without respect for historical context and Jewish point of view.
I think this film can be “fine” only for someone who has never tried to make peace and for "Christians" without minimum of self-criticism, still wanting to pull out the mote from Jewish eye instead of pulling out the beam from their own eye. This kind of film doesn’t allow Christians to do their basic duty of Christian faith: the penance for sins of murdering not one but thousands innocent lives.
Best wishes,
Ewa Sidor with my
husband Darek.