Moses, the Mandalorian, and Me PAS Lunch and Learn – February 3, 2021 Presented by Rabbi Charlie Savenor
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Moses, The Mandalorian, and Me PAS Lunch and Learn – February 3, 2021 Presented by Rabbi Charlie Savenor The epic story of The Mandalorian, featuring a child searching for his way home, is reminiscent of Moses and the Israelites’ experience in the Torah. In this session, we will explore not only how faith and responsibility both elevate and complicate our lives, but also learn about Jewish family values that are as relevant in our world as they are to a galaxy far, far away. Roadmap 1) Blessing for Torah Learning 2) Introductions: The Binging Torah Series and the Maimonidean Approach 3) What does it mean to connect to another person? (Please put something in chat) 4) “Is There a Jew Under the Mandalorian’s Mask?” by Charlotte Gartenberg in Tablet 5) Exodus 2:1-10 6) Origin Story: Moses, Mando, and Baby Yoda 7) Joseph Campell – “The Hero Myth” 8) Talmud Tractate Megillah 28a - “The Way/ The Law” 9) “The Way” - Clip from “The Mandalorian” Season 2, Episode 3 [0:45 seconds] 10) Exodus 33: 18-20 -Seeing the Face of God 11) Exodus 34: 29-35 – Moses and the Two Tablets 12) Rabbi Jonathan Sacks – “God’s Hidden Call” 13) Exodus 18:1-7 - Moses’ Family Reunion 14) “The Rescue” - Clip from “The Mandalorian” Season 2, Episode 8 [1:50] 15) The Blizzard of 1978 16) Mask As Metaphor: Face to Face vs. Inside 1 Is There a Jew Under the Mandalorian’s Mask?” by Charlotte Gartenberg in Tablet - -November 19, 2019 When Disney debuted its new streaming service earlier this week, nerds across the country rejoiced: The app, called Disney Plus, featured an embarrassment of entertainment riches, but, most importantly, it featured a new show set in the Star Wars universe, which Disney now controls. Called “The Mandalorian,” the show follows the race of bounty-hunters made famous by the series’ iconic hero, Boba Fett. And even though there’s only one episode available so far, I have a wild theory: The Mandalorian, I think, may very well be Jewish. Consider the following evidence: According to the Star Wars movies, animated shows, and novels, the Mandalorian is an ancient race that predates even the Old Republic. This near mythic people is known for a tendency to zealousness in their beliefs and, simultaneously, an impressive ability to adapt. In a time too distant to remember, they were warriors, consolidating their tribes and establishing their own kingdom on the promised planet of Mandalore. This eventually put them at odds with their nemeses: the Jedi. Finding themselves at war with those who command the Force, the Mandalorians were forced to innovate. The canny Mandalorians invented new weapons, shields, and fighting techniques to combat the superior forces surrounding them. But even this start-up nation in a galaxy far away couldn’t withstand the might of the Jedi, which brought about the destruction of Mandalore, the genocide of many of its people, and the dispersal of most of the survivors into exile. Unfortunately, small and embattled as it already was, Mandalore was soon plunged into civil war. A few of those who had returned from exile pronounced themselves New Mandalorians. Renouncing their brethren’s extreme attachment to their warlike past, they pronounced themselves pacifists and dedicated themselves to art and education. They soon got more than they wished for when Emperor Palpatine and his forces occupied their planet, committing another genocide and once again sending the Mandalorians into exile. Still, this tiny and war-torn people persisted. So, to sum up: The Mandolorians are a race of people repeatedly almost decimated by genocide who now live scattered across the galaxy. These rootless cosmopolitans sometimes blend into their new societies. More often, however, they’re forced to support themselves by turning to professions their societies despise. Here, bounty hunting plays proxy for money lending. Next Stop: Yavneh 2 Exodus 2:1-10 3 Talmud Tractate Megillah 28a The School of Eliyahu taught: “Anyone who studies Torah laws every day, this person is guaranteed a place in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “The ways of the world are God’s.” (Habakkuk 3:6). - Do not read the verse as halikhot [ways]; rather, read it as halakhot [the Law]. Thus, the verse indicates that the Law brings one to eternal life. “The Way” - Clip from “The Mandalorian” Season 2, Episode 3 [0:45 seconds] Exodus 33:18-20 18) Moses said, “Oh, let me behold Your Presence!” 19) And God answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Lord, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. 20) But,” God said, “you cannot see My face, for no human can see My face and live.” 4 Exodus 34:29-35 29. So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Covenant, Moses was not aware that his face was radiant, since he had spoken with God. 30.Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; and they shrank from coming near him. 31. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the chieftains in the assembly returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he instructed them concerning all that the Lord had imparted to him on Mount Sinai. 33. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34.Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would leave the veil off until he came out; and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35. the Israelites would see how radiant the skin of Moses’ face was. Moses would then put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with Him. In the Latin translation, it says that Moses “et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua,” meaning “he did not know his face had become horned.” 5 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks – “God’s Hidden Call” (2016) Our Sages, asked a strange question in the Talmud Tractate Chullin (39b):Esther min haTorah minayin? “Where do we find a hint in the Torah to the book of Esther?”, the last book of Tanach to be canonised. The Gemara answers with the words,”v’anochi haster astir panai,” “I will hide my face on that day.” Hashem’s most fearful warning had always been that there would come a time when there would be hester panim, the concealed face of God, when it would look as if, God forbid, Hashem has stopped communicating with us. That is how the rabbis found a hint of Esther. We know that Esther is one of the only two books in the Hebrew Bible which don’t contain the name of Hashem, the other one being Shir HaShirim. But whereas Shir HaShirim is a book about Hashem’s love for us, Esther is a fearful book because it records the moment when it was resolved..“to destroy, to slay, and to exterminate all Jews, young and old, children and women, in a single day,” when the first warrant for genocide against the Jewish people was issued. Purim is the only festival in the Jewish year set entirely in Galut, in Exile. Every other festival is either based on an event that happened in Israel or on the journey toward Israel. Purim alone is set in the place of hester panim, when we are out of Israel and where it is harder to feel the presence of God. That is the book of Esther. It comes from an almost secularised world, where we search for the presence of God in history and we fail to find it. Yet there is one line in the Megillah that cuts through me like a knife and represents the most powerful statement in Judaism I know that Hashem has not abandoned us. Towards the end of the fourth chapter, we find Esther telling her uncle Mordechai about all the problems there might be in interceding with King Achashverosh regarding the fate of the Jewish people. Mordechai listens and then responds to her with the famous words, “If you are silent and you do nothing at this time somebody else will save the Jewish people. But who knows, was it not for just this moment that you became a Queen?!” 6 Exodus 18:1-7 Moshe Rabbenu “The Rescue” - Clip from “The Mandalorian” Season 2, Episode 8 [1:50] 7 The Blizzard of 78 May The Force Be With You 8 .