The movie 15 Years and some thoughts on Yom Kippur

 15 Years: (15 Jahre) The movie with more on Yom Kippur

This is for some a review but maybe for others rather, some inspired thoughts after watching “15 years.”  What a tumultuous story of stories with Omar of Syria,  Harry and Dorothea Mangold, Fleischer or Gimmiemore, and of course the protagonist Jenny. Every character has some intersection with others and their backstories are often as complex as the mystery we are trying to solve.

 

Jenny was sentenced to prison for a murder she did not commit. In the framework of a love connection and a reality television show for people with disabilities, named Unicorn, Jenny deals with her pain and her desire for revenge, all in the matrix of the repeated message of Christianity: Jesus died to forgive us our many sins.

 

Mixed in is the troubled household of the religious ladies who deal in group therapy, and gain employment in odd jobs, cleaning at the airport or the conservatorium. They even sing an old favourite of mine and anyone who was born again in the 1970s, “Pass it on.” 

 

The head of the pseudo convent, Frau Markowski, has her own troubles and a visit by a celebrity to the home rekindles her past. It is at the conservatorium that all these worlds collide, and the iron pipe and a knife rear their ugly heads again and again.

 

For me it was a very real story of redemption and forgiveness, of revenge,  pain and suffering. Sometimes I go to the cinema and simply watch, sing along, or fog out. But this one, here on the airplane didn’t allow me to do that. What is my response to these challenging postulates and thoughts? What will be my response if I am falsely accused? 

 

At the outset, the screen shows a quote by Jack Kornfield which reads, “Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past.”  (Even though Jack attribes this quote to “someone”)^[1] I wonder if the message of the cross, the simple death of the Jewish man Jesus, causes us to ponder this message of Kornfield.

 

Earlier this week I met with a Jewish man who well described the passion of Jesus as a horrible death, and his question to me, amid several questions, had to do with comparing the crucifixion to the deaths of others. Why the blood? Why so much talk about death? And if his death did something good, surely others who die more violently should produce other things?  

 

All good questions, and reasonable. 

 

The substitution of a ram in Genesis 22 when Abraham was told to sacrifice his son shouts ‘mercy.’ On Yom Kippur, we are told to sprinkle blood at the altar of the Tabernacle so that atonement could be made. You see, forgiveness is the oxygen we all need to make the past and the future merge today with real hope. Like the Yom Kippur sacrifice of the two goats (found in the Bible in Leviticus 16), one for the slaughter and the other, the scapegoat sent into the wilderness, we can have a substitute that lasts more than this German-made movie or an annually renewable contract. 

 

More review: Some lines of significance are: “Do you listen to the lawyers when they tell you to lie?” That prompted many thoughts in my head. 

“Talent knows no bounds”—that one made me ponder boundaries and that’s always a good thing. What else has no bounds?

“Killing two flies with one swat” is too brutal for Omar, so he tells Jenny the Syrian citation which is similar but “more peaceful”, “Lure two white doves with one kernel.” 

 

Mixed in are great pieces by Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt which always is enjoyable.

 

Whether this was a good movie or not, this was a good-to-talk-about movie. As we enter the Jewish High Holidays season, forgiveness, the main component promised but rarely totally embraced, is God’s overarching desire to extend to Jewish people, and really, to all people. Jesus, accused of wrong-doing, innocent on all charges, dies in our place, as a substitute, and his blood was spilled about 2,000 years ago. Why? To be the kipporah, the sacrifice for atonement, for each of us, and to bring God’s love to the planet. 

 

How will that happen? When will the far-flung peoples of the earth hear the Good News message of the cross of Jesus and the forgiveness that God wants to extend to each one?

 

Kurt Kaiser’s song “Pass it on” sung at the beginning, reminded me

 

“It only takes a spark to get a fire going. 

And soon all those around can warm up to its glowing. 

That’s how it is with God’s love,

Once you’ve experienced it. 

You spread his love to everyone

You want to pass it on.” 

 

You hear the message; you believe, you pass it on. Let’s share God’s love today with others. What do you say? Talent and forgiveness know no bounds.

———————————————

^[1] We have all betrayed and hurt others, just as we have knowingly or unknowingly been harmed by them.  It is inevitable in this human realm. Sometimes our betrayals are small, sometimes terrible.  Extending and receiving forgiveness is essential for redemption from our past.  To forgive does not mean we condone the misdeeds of another. We can dedicate ourselves to making sure they never happen again. But without forgiveness, the world can never be released from the sorrows of the past.  Someone quipped, “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” Forgiveness is a way to move on.

Identity... where do I find mine?

The Talmud says: "Everyone is responsible to be as great as Moses." But then the Torah tells us in Deuteronomy 34.10  "no one will ever be as great as Moses!" How can I be expected to be as great as Moses, if no one will ever be as great?!

The answer is that just as Moses fulfilled his personal potential, we are also expected to fulfil ours. Each of us is born with a unique set of talents and tools. Some of us are rich, others are poor. Some are tall and some are short. One person can sing, another can write, etc. But these qualities are not what determines your greatness. Rather, it's how you deal with your circumstances.

Imagine two people competing in a 100-meter dash. One runs a world record time of 9.3 seconds. The other crosses the finish line in 30 seconds.

Who would you say is the success? The record breaker of course!

Now what if I told you that the one who clocked 30 seconds had developed polio as a child, was unable to walk until he was 14 years old, and had invested years of painful, gruelling exercise until he was finally able to even traverse that distance?

We can never know the circumstances another person has to deal with; we cannot see whether he's naturally calm or whether he's had to struggle to control his temper; whether he was born with great intelligence or whether he's had to overcome learning disabilities; whether he's been handed the best of everything or whether he's had to surmount many obstacles.

That's why Judaism says: It's not important where you are on the ladder, but how many rungs you've climbed.

This is a crucial concept for parents and teachers. Consider: Which is the more important grade on a child's report card: "achievement" or "effort"?

The answer is effort. The reason we need grades for "achievement" is simply to have an objective gauge of how much material the child is grasping. But in ultimate terms, all that matters is the effort.

The story is told of Zusia, the great Chassidic master, who lay crying on his deathbed. His students asked him, "Rebbe, why are you so sad? After all the mitzvahs and good deeds you have done, you will surely get a great reward in heaven!"

"I'm afraid!" said Zusia. "Because when I get to heaven, I know God's not going to ask me 'Why weren't you more like Moses?' or 'Why weren't you more like King David?' But I'm afraid that God will ask 'Zusia, why weren't you more like Zusia?' And then what will I say?!"

So, in answer to your question, the Talmudic statement that "Nobody will ever be as great as Moses" means that nobody again will have that same potential. But you can maximize that which you do have. Life is not a competition against anyone but yourself. May the Almighty grant you the strength and clarity to be... yourself!

Cal Newport in his most recent book “Slow Productivity” cites a story from the beginning of the pandemic. Brinda Narayan writes in her review of Newport’s book the following:

 

In 2021, Jonathan Frostick of HSBC suffered a heart attack. And then put out a LinkedIn post about how he planned to change his life. The post went viral, gathering 300,000 comments. His first resolution was: “I’m not spending all day on Zoom anymore.” After the pandemic, workers found themselves in more meetings, responding to more emails and messages.

 

Besides the core work that you are responsible for, scheduling meetings and other activities often have an “overhead tax”. Then you try to catch up on actual work on off-work hours – on weekends or early mornings or late nights. You find yourself working longer hours and still falling behind.

 

Since all tasks have an associated “overhead tax”, it’s best to do fewer things. You must reduce not just professional and personal obligations, but also social ones.

 

Or what about Louie Zamperini, the 1936 Olympian in Berlin, from the USA, Italian American parents, who was shot down in the Pacific by Japanese soldiers in WW2?  He had some significant moments on a raft, during which the bad boy of LA prayed and vowed to God that Louis would dedicate himself to the Lord if God were to save him. You might remember that prayer from the book or the movie Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand (movie by Angelina Jolie). He didn’t get out of the Japanese POW camps and immediately attend church, but he did eventually make good on that prayer. 

 

Life and death decisions... those really matter. 

What is your life today? 

I drove by a funeral on my way home last week. The minister was frocked, and the pallbearers were hauling the casket down the stairs to the waiting hearse. Had that person made peace with God? Had that person knelt and cried to the Lord, “Father please forgive me in Yeshua’s name!” That’s when peace comes. That’s when forgiveness comes. That’s when life comes, no matter when death joins us.

 

What about you? Today. Have you said, “yes” to Jesus? Have you repented and received his love and grace? If not, do it now. 

 

Don’t wait until Yom Kippur. 

Don’t wait until you can attend a synagogue or church service.

 

Do it now. 

God’s love is for you. He wants to embrace you. His arms are not so short that he cannot save you. (Isaiah 59.1-2) Repent. And receive his love and grace.

 

Then write me, won’t you?

 

 For more on finding your identity: https://www.healthline.com/health/sense-of-self#checking-yours

Standing with and speaking to Israel

For the record, I'm a Jew. I was born a Jew; I'll die a Jew. When I was 11 I stood in a protest rally outside the Jewish Community Center on 82nd and Holmes in Kansas City, attesting to the plight of Soviet Jews and begging the world community to amend its ways and 'let my people go.' We sang Holocaust songs in Yiddish and my commitment to activism was born. 

Again when I was 15, we held a 24-hour rally to bring to the world's attention the plight of our Soviet family of Jewish people. This time even Christians joined us in solidarity. That was a surprise to me. 

So when I watched rallies across the world, here and there, in and around the horrors of 7 October 2023, and the continuing plight of Jewish people, most notably the hostages captured on that fateful morning, my heart aches to help and my activist streak wants to kick in. What can I do to help? What can anyone do to help?

A friend of a friend on Facebook posted a link to an Israeli news outlet that chastised an American political party for what they deemed as an improper response at their national convention held in Chicago last month. 

"But rather than side unreservedly with Israel, the Democratic Party and the Biden administration have chosen to take unprecedented measures against the elected government of a friendly nation. With unspeakable impudence and cynical exploitation of his Jewish origins, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer purported to know better than the Israeli electorate what is good for it. In a desperate attempt to kowtow to his party’s increasingly assertive radical wing, he accused the elected Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of being an “obstacle to peace,” calling for early elections to replace him, despite the fact that, even today, he is the most popular politician in the country."

This sentiment was written by the journalist Dr. Martin Sherman. The crowds this weekend, and for months now, that are telling the government of Israel to make a deal, that are not agreeing with PM Netanyahu, that are calling for his removal, are not in the view of Dr Sherman. 

The BBC reported after the weekend's protests, "Tens of thousands of people have rallied across Israel after the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were recovered by soldiers, causing national outrage. Protesters - many clad in Israeli flags - descended on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, accusing PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of not doing enough to reach a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attacks.

Sunday's protests were largely peaceful - but crowds broke through police lines, blocking a major highway in Tel Aviv. This comes as a major Israeli labour union, Histadrut, called for a nationwide general strike on Monday, pressing for a hostage deal."

 

I'm very much still 'for Israel.' I would still march when global opinion would turn away from her. Here is a great resource if you are 'for Israel.' I read it as well. If you want to follow the Australian Jewish Association and all the media watch they perform here is the link: https://jewishassociation.org.au/news-media/ . 

 

AT THE SAME TIME, I will not stand idly by and let a seemingly uncaring government have full power. As long as we live in democracies, and we do, we should speak up when we see/ hear injustice. I hear the words of the prophets decrying Israel's duly 'elected' or 'appointed' leadership whether it is Jeremiah (chapter 23) or Ezekiel (chapter 34), and the judgment which befell Israel was God's doing. Yes, He uses the nations around Israel to accomplish these disciplines, but in the end, it is our responsibility to turn to God, and to repent, and to ask Him for His favour to be on us. 

All that said, what Schumer said in calling out Israel's PM is what we do in democracies. Schumer is not anti-Israel. He's opposed to stonewalling. I wish the PM would have made a deal before the 6 bodies were discovered this weekend having only recently been executed by Hamas. Bring them home, PM. Bring them home, world government. Bring them home, UN. Let's get it right. The evil violence of the 7 October attack should be rewarded with world rejection and not world sympathy for Hamas. 

What would you do if you were still PM today?