Word: rabbis
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is possessed by a primal memory: a rabbi instructing the boy Judah that the eye of God is all seeing; no crime ever escapes it. Now successful and middle aged, Judah self-deprecatingly suggests to the audience at a testimonial dinner on his behalf that perhaps he became an ophthalmologist because he is haunted by that recollection...
This way, even if one does not agree with the sentiment of a prayer, one can accept it and learn from it in a historical-religious context. I reflected on this bit of wisdom from the rabbi several times that evening, and, by doing so, felt a strong sense of unity with many generations of Jews who had read the very same prayers over hundreds of years...
LATER, during the rabbi's sermon, he read a story written by the Jewish novelist Isaac Bashevis Singer about a man and his ill-tempered father-in-law. As I listened to the tale woven by Singer, I looked around at the assembled crowd. Everywhere in the world, I thought, Jews are listening to their rabbis. They will pray some more; they will go home and return the next morning to pray; they will fast for a full day; they will break the fast with relatives and friends...
...fact, as the rabbi read his words, Singer himself was undoubtedly seated in another synagogue, listening to the words of his rabbi. At this moment, I felt a strong bond, this time with my Jewish contemporaries...
...cultural unity which Jews strive for does not always come easily. In his sermon, the rabbi reminded us that it has often been difficult for Jews to maintain their religion and culture due to destructive and often catastrophic influences that have occurred through out history. In particular, the rabbi referred to the outright war against Judaism known as the Holocaust...