Post by Cary Friedman on Mar 19, 2007 10:44:46 GMT -5
Rachel Esserman
The Reporter
Binghamton, NY
March 16, 2007
Everyone knows that Superman is Jewish. Well, maybe not everyone, maybe only comic book lovers who enjoy reading about the Jewish artists who created the superhero comics of the 1930s, ‘40s and beyond. Yet, even though I’m more than willing to embrace Superman as one of the family (think if he were called up to be hagbah, the person who lifts the Torah scroll – I imagine we would see far more than three columns of writing), it’s hard for me to see Batman as Jewish. Now Rabbi Cary A. Friedman doesn’t go as far as claiming Batman as a member of the tribe, but in his new work Wisdom from the Batcave: How to Live a Super, Heroic Life (Compass Books), he does believe that although he “learned many of the ideas [he teaches in his book] from the Bible and other primary texts while in yeshiva and rabbinical school,†the first place he encountered them was in the Batman comic books he read as a youth.
What ideas are these? The blessing of family, the value of willpower, the value of hard work, the value of inspiring others, the value of idealism, the value of strong principles, the value of study and the value of friendship are only some of the lessons he teaches. Why use Batman? Because Batman is different from all the other superheroes: he has no super powers. Everything he has accomplished comes from hard work and self discipline. According to Friedman, “The Batman represents the best of human resolve, will, sacrifice, strength, justice and courage – all that is most nobly human, most genuinely spiritual.†So everyone, just like Batman, can strive to be the best person they can be, to attempt to achieve greatness in body and spirit, and to find ways, as large as fighting crime or as small as helping a person in need, to make the world a better place.
Friedman fills this short work (95 pages) with illustrations from Batman comics, quotations from Jewish sources and his own words of wisdom, all of which seek to teach how to create your own heroic life. For example, in the chapter called “Don’t Talk Too Much,†he suggests how someone can learn to control their speech: “Jewish tradition provides for periods of fasting – not from food, but from words. Try it. Don’t talk for five minutes. That’s much harder than it sounds at first. Build up slowly from there to, say, seven minutes. If you can do it, you are on your way to being in control of that great power of speech and of yourself.†He also suggests that “if it is not necessary to speak, it’s necessary not to speak. Instead, keep quiet. Or do something totally radical: listen.â€
I have to admit that my first reaction to reading the press release about Wisdom from the Batcave was to laugh. After all, a rabbi using a superhero to teach Jewish lessons? How ridiculous! However, as Friedman rightly notes, people learn more from stories, from examples of ways to behave, than they do from straight moralizing. His book, which contains “truths culled from both the Batman mythos and Jewish tradition,†offers an interesting message and will certainly appeal to those of us who spent our youth dreaming of superheros and longing to enter their world.
The Reporter
Binghamton, NY
March 16, 2007
Everyone knows that Superman is Jewish. Well, maybe not everyone, maybe only comic book lovers who enjoy reading about the Jewish artists who created the superhero comics of the 1930s, ‘40s and beyond. Yet, even though I’m more than willing to embrace Superman as one of the family (think if he were called up to be hagbah, the person who lifts the Torah scroll – I imagine we would see far more than three columns of writing), it’s hard for me to see Batman as Jewish. Now Rabbi Cary A. Friedman doesn’t go as far as claiming Batman as a member of the tribe, but in his new work Wisdom from the Batcave: How to Live a Super, Heroic Life (Compass Books), he does believe that although he “learned many of the ideas [he teaches in his book] from the Bible and other primary texts while in yeshiva and rabbinical school,†the first place he encountered them was in the Batman comic books he read as a youth.
What ideas are these? The blessing of family, the value of willpower, the value of hard work, the value of inspiring others, the value of idealism, the value of strong principles, the value of study and the value of friendship are only some of the lessons he teaches. Why use Batman? Because Batman is different from all the other superheroes: he has no super powers. Everything he has accomplished comes from hard work and self discipline. According to Friedman, “The Batman represents the best of human resolve, will, sacrifice, strength, justice and courage – all that is most nobly human, most genuinely spiritual.†So everyone, just like Batman, can strive to be the best person they can be, to attempt to achieve greatness in body and spirit, and to find ways, as large as fighting crime or as small as helping a person in need, to make the world a better place.
Friedman fills this short work (95 pages) with illustrations from Batman comics, quotations from Jewish sources and his own words of wisdom, all of which seek to teach how to create your own heroic life. For example, in the chapter called “Don’t Talk Too Much,†he suggests how someone can learn to control their speech: “Jewish tradition provides for periods of fasting – not from food, but from words. Try it. Don’t talk for five minutes. That’s much harder than it sounds at first. Build up slowly from there to, say, seven minutes. If you can do it, you are on your way to being in control of that great power of speech and of yourself.†He also suggests that “if it is not necessary to speak, it’s necessary not to speak. Instead, keep quiet. Or do something totally radical: listen.â€
I have to admit that my first reaction to reading the press release about Wisdom from the Batcave was to laugh. After all, a rabbi using a superhero to teach Jewish lessons? How ridiculous! However, as Friedman rightly notes, people learn more from stories, from examples of ways to behave, than they do from straight moralizing. His book, which contains “truths culled from both the Batman mythos and Jewish tradition,†offers an interesting message and will certainly appeal to those of us who spent our youth dreaming of superheros and longing to enter their world.