Has anyone seen this?
I'm interested to know what people outside Israel think about it.
shareGreat great movie.
Beautifly presents the touch of Judaism with G-d.
A must see.
MovieChat Forums > Ha-Ushpizin (2005) Discussion > Has anyone seen this?
I saw it last night, It was amazing, I lived in the heart of me ashaarim and geulah two years ago in yeshiva and it was so live like it was amazing I want to purchase it!
shareHi there. Are you in Israel? Is this a hit in israel? We saw this film as part of a film series in the United States. I thought it was charming and fascinating. Could you give me some background on tihs film? Is the filmmaker well-know in israel? Are the actors well known as well? By the way, I spent time in both Jerusalem and Eilat-IsarAel is amazing...
Thanks
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This was a big hit in Israel. The male lead (Shuli Rand) was a successfull actor until he left the trade to join the religious life. He and the female lead are married in real life. This is her first acting experience and she turns in an outstanding performance. Rand and the director (Giddi Dar) collaberated on the screenplay. Dar is liberal, not religious, but insisted that everything be done in keeping with the religious strictures. All of the people seen on screen are religious. There were no actors pretending to be religious. This is the first film made this way. The actor playing the rabbi is a kung fu master and used to be Madonna's trainer before he went religious. Go figure.
Several people in the audience I saw it with said the characters were similar to people in their own catholic families. In any case, the film is not made any less accessible by the specifics of the religion.
It is well done and enjoyable. But the atheist in me wants to start distributing the dope slaps when people invoke deities to blame, praise, or cajole at every turn.
Dan
AMAZING MOVIE! LOVE IT! Shows the true spirit of orthodox jews and their faith!
share"But the atheist in me wants to start distributing the dope slaps when people invoke deities to blame, praise, or cajole at every turn."
I don't mean to attack you, but just to let you know, there are people who "invoke deities" and are rational human beings. Many of them have studied religion for years and have come to believe in God not out of superstition, but out of intellectual reasoning. Not everyone attributes all events to God because they need a scapegoat. I'm not saying that you think this way, but that is the way your closing line of your post comes across as such.
As sympathetic as this movie is to the observant community, it isn't going to convert any secular viewers. When I saw the desparate financial situation of the main character, I couldn't help but think that even if he wasn't bright enough to seek the obvious solution (get a J-O-B), he might try studying enough hours at the Yeshiva to get a stipend! His claim to religous devotion seems to based on a life of wandering around all day talking to God, mostly asking for things. That may seem like devotion to some, but to most people in the modern world it is more likely to seem like laziness and irresponsibility--and not all that morally superior to his former life as a criminal.
As for the rest of the community, one would think that the essence of the "religious" life would be a heightened sense of love and tolerance for one's fellows. As this movie honestly shows, however, a large part of religous observance seems to be to the monitoring and criticism of your neighbor's behavior, for the purpose of picking fights. Only the rabbi shows the good humor, affection for his fellow man and patience with others that mark the truly godly.
The rest of the movie is mostly a Cinderella type fantasy, and you can't really critque a religous fantasy any more than you can a secular one. The scene with his criminal pals attending the bris was a little much, however. What are they still doing on the loose, nine months later?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/movies/26gidi.html
shareI saw this with a small crowd in New York City this afternoon. The rest of the audience was laughing in what I guess were the right places. I found the characters so simple-minded that they just irritated me. I didn't care what happened to them; I didn't think they were funny, or sad, or interesting, just stupid. The story is pretty simple-minded as well. I guess we (the audience) are supposed to be all glowing with pleasure at the birth of this child? Why? Since he will presumably grow up to be just as dumb and superstitious and generally useless as his parents. If, that is, he is able to grow up at all, since these two fools are not likely to able to take care of a child any more than they are able to care for themselves. The performances are adequate, but I can't think of anything else to praise here.
shareDumb? Superstitious? Useless?
Gee, how about a little bit of respect for other cultures? Just because their values are different than your own doesn't mean that they are irresponsible. For some people, living a life of poverty is a price worth paying if it means you can study Torah all day. They made that choice; they were supportive of one another; furthermore, one of them would probably have started working for money once the child was born.
Stop dissing people for making decisions that you can't understand. Believe it or not, there are thousands of people like them who choose those kind of lifestyles due to their dreams and ideals and not laziness. Of course some people choose that kind of lifestyle because they are lazy, but you seem to take that for granted. Stop thinking of yourself as so much more open-minded that the people in the movie because you're not.
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I am of reformed judaism (we dont go to temple anymore but observe holidays, my mom isnt jewish so we have always celebrated pretty much all the holidays xmas et cet..) and i hadnt heard about this movie til tonight. my father called me up and told me to see it, that it was hilarious and wonderful and then he said this - "it's like beavis and butthead with hasidims"
i love him:) i cant wait to see this one!
>^..^<
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yeah not original, heard it. religion is whats in your heart and my parents made a decision a long time ago (like beore i was born) to raise me jewish , and if the temple accepted and bas mitzvah'ed me then im #uckin jewish, dont be a troll tryin to instigate
>^..^<
"religion is whats in your heart and my parents made a decision a long time ago"
You've just proven it... that's a Christian view of religion.
Judaism is decided based on what was given to us at Sinai and passed down for generations without any breaks.
"if the temple accepted and bas mitzvah'ed me then im #uckin jewish"
Reform doesn't even pretend to be part of the connection from Sinai. They openly broke away a long time ago and deny that it's even true. Can you imagine a Christian saying they are a believing Christian but the New Testament is true? A muslim who says the Koran isn't true? A Hindu who says the Vedas aren't true? I think not.
"halakhic notion put forth a thousand years ago (largely due to lack of DNA testing in those dark, dark ages) doesn't apply anymore. Anyone with at least one Jewish parent has enough Jewish DNA in him/her to be called a Jew"
First, the halachic notion was put forth at least two thousand years ago... it's codified in a mishnah. Second, the dark ages was not a Jewish thing (or Muslim for that matter). It was a time of great scholarship for Jews. Third, DNA evidence is irrelevant to the issue. Even if you want to make it an issue, what about mitochondrial DNA? That is only passed down from the mother. Fifth, it's not DNA that makes us Jewish or how would you explain converts?
I have to say that I must agree with Tostien on this one. If your mother isnt Jewish then you arent. The laws governing these issues have nothing to do with biology or DNA but instead have meaning *in and of themselves* based on thousands of years of religious law observance. If you want authoritative rules governing these issues *look them up* rather than make them up as the Reform congregations have done. "Whatever makes you feel good" is a dangerous trend in both Judaism and Christianity. Time honored rules and ritual exist to *define* a faith and cannot be invalidated just because they make some people unconfortable. The community of orthodox Jewish rabbis are the ones saying Reform Jews are wrong for making up their own rules so its them that the other poster has a problem with. He should consult one of those rabbis for his answers instead of naively defending himself against accusations from random people on the street.
http://www.jewsformorality.org/fooling.htm
I understand the need for rules and regulations and I know that 'mass marketing' religon can really dilute it, but it comes off as a little wierd with all the emphasis on if your mother isn't Jewish then 'you' will never be Jewish. I would like someone to answer this question: If God is a Jewish God, wouldn't God want the whole world to be Jewish? If not then the only reason I am here is as an aside, because I am not Jewish. Do you see what I mean, this is my reasoning: the Jews are Gods chosen people, you can never be Jewish, so God really doesn't care about you one way or another.
Aside from that I don't really know much about Israel or orthodox Judaism, but the movie was entertaining in a...humbling and humorous way. I would say it is a very positive portrayal, are most Israelis orthodox Jews? More than that I think it really stands in stark contrast to the where I am, the U.S. I think for many people-maybe just a vocal minority-religon is something that is done part time in between fancy entertainment and too much food. I think I have a lot more respect for a religon that makes you work, or earn the religon I guess. In the film I think I got to see some genuine religous people.
Kind of my dilema with religion and religous people...I don't really like being religous, but I am more comfortable around religous people for the most part.
Crmen,
It's an outdated view, subscribed to by the benighted and fossilized segment of world Jewry. But surely you are not a benighted person, and are able to understand that the halakhic notion put forth a thousand years ago (largely due to lack of DNA testing in those dark, dark ages) doesn't apply anymore. Anyone with at least one Jewish parent has enough Jewish DNA in him/her to be called a Jew. Period. So, don't you be too proud that both your mommy and daddy are Jews. Welcome to the extended mishpokha!
Thank You much Yuri!:)
The other rub is that it wasn't always the jewish kids in school it was the puerto ricans who told me "you're not puerto rican!" cos i have white skin and actually look irish:) I've really only been told "I'm not jewish" three times in my whole life, the third being in the above statement. the second time was seven years ago:)
>^..^<
Hi,
I would like to be the fourth person to confirm that you are not Jewish if your mother isn't. You can refer to a stone as a piece of wood for the same price. Once you deviate from the tradition of laws of Judaism that were passed down from generation to generation without interruption since the revelation and giving of the Torah at mount Sinai, you are no longer practicing Judaism. What you then have is your own made up religion. On a positive note, there is nothing wrong with not being Jewish. Non-Jews have a smaller set of commandments, the 7 Noahide laws, that they can observe in order to connect to the creator.
You're still Jewish enough in Israel to be in the army and die for a bunch of "pure-blooded" Jews that get exemptions because they're studying for all their lives in seminaries at public expense.
And if you're really unlucky, then you die for your country, and if you're even more unlucky for that, some religious fanatic digs up your grave because you aren't pure enough to be buried with "real" Jews.
Oi Vey Maria! Bitter much?
shareyour mother dosent have to be jewish exactly. jewish mother means automatic jew.
however, if you were taken to the mikvah as an infant and raised jewish then you are a jew.
if that isnt the case then you can meet with an orthodox rabbi and explain how you were raised jewish, go before a beit den and immerse in a mikvah and you will be jewish by all standards.
i am a ger tzedak myself and for a while i was dating a gentile woman. i asked many athourities about this very question.
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all i can say is that this film was fantastic.
shareNobody has seen it. And nobody ever will see it.
sharei saw it today and just loved the film. i thought the acting, in particular Moshe was superb. its a lot nicer if you understand Hebrew which i do as there are certain colloqualisms etc that make the film quite enjoyable.
shareI too loved this movie, rented it yesterday 5/19 and have seen it twice. I don't know much about their religion, I am a christian, but I saw the love for God that was portrayed in this movie and I in my heart celebrated our similarities not our differences. I just absolutely loved it I am going to buy it. I cried, I laughed, I felt I had spent time with God.
shareI've seen the film and loved it. I laughed through the tears. To those people who dismiss the characters' lives as driven by laziness, maybe you watched the film with your eyes wide shut. The devout religious life is obviously more difficult than what the ignorant would have you believe.
Primarily this is a film about faith, regardless of which that faith may be. I'm sure there are devout Christians and Muslems who will equally enjoy this film as I did. I hope so.
Sure, in Israel there are devout Muslims who vote for the various Jewish fundamalist parties, because they also benefit from lifetime welfare and unlimited child support.
The difference is, they don't get the extra allowance for spending their lives "studying."
I too have seen this and loved it for what it was, a chance to better understand the love for God. I have been reading much lately and have been trying to understand theism and anti-theism. In the end I do not want to be "blind" in any understanding that I come to believe. It is for films like this that make that understanding more relevant and pertinent for this world in which we live. In the end, it is a a fine film and I wish that others would follow its example.
shareI'm a jew living in America, but I am not religious. It was interesting to see how the ultra-orthodox jews live in israel. I have always been curious of these people with the beards, hats, and all black suits all the time, especially living in New York where there is quite a number of them. This movie really let me in to the their lives and helped me understand their hardships. And even if it wasn't for learning so much from the movie, it was still a very good and entertaining movie.
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