Thanks for the reply, Gordon! I wondered what the flashbacks were, and somehow I thought that it would be revealed that a child of Miriam's and Saul's had died in a crash or something. When that was never revealed, I figured the images were metaphors of the "broken vessel" and shattering of her own soul. But I guess I missed Elly's question about Miriam's parents' death.
Now this is making me think back to another flashback that Miriam had. When teh kids were in bed and Saul was playing his violin (or was it cello? can't remember) she was about to head out the door because she "had had enough". But she paused at the door, thinking back to a quiet moment in bed with Saul when he told her they would together "fix the broken pieces". This thought was so powerful and hope-filled to her that it made her decide to go back inside and go to him, asking for affection. Now I'm thinking that the broken pieces he was talking about (in this scene from an earlier time in their marriage), must have surely been referring to this death of her parents and the emotional blow it dealt her. Which suggests that this was probably her main attraction to Saul; she saw him and his philosophy/religion as a means for some emotional resolve for her; her "savior". And certainly in the beginning of their relationship, at one point, she had been his main focus, but now it had been withdrawn; and a possible reason (as she intereprets it) it was withdrawn, as I mentioned earlier, was because she had "let him down" by not excelling at the Kabbalist goal which he may have tried coaching her in earlier, as we see him now doing with Elly (and which he had probably coached Aaron in -- and failed -- as we might gather from Aaron's outburst, his religious rebellion, and his warning to his sister the night before the bee).
The more I think about it, the more I really like this movie.
Someone in another thread asks if we are meant to "hate Saul". But I think it is not that at all. Saul is the center, the main focus of this family. He is the spiritual dynamo, the strong, father figure, the leader, the savior for them all. Miriam and Aaron worship him and seek his attention, and when it is withdrawn, they are shaken -- or shattered (as in Miriam's case). It is only Elly who can stand on her own. Perhaps this is the reason she alone can achieve the mystical goal. The other two family members made Saul their "god", whereas Elly did not, allowing her to really commune with the True God. But for a family to truly work well, both the father and mother must stand together, interdependant, as the focus and strength of the family -- and Elly was the only one who realized that, when she answered her brother as he was telling her that their Dad needs to control them all; she replied to him: No, Dad needs Mom.
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