Harry Potter and Torah back in stock in Israel

Harry Potter and Torah is now back in stock in Israel. Send e-mail to author@harrypottertorah.com for stores in your area or to buy it directly from the author.

The physics of flying carpets

This isn't really Harry Potter and Torah oriented, since it's not about Torah, and since flying carpets are illegal in Harry Potter's world, but I thought it might interest everyone anyway...

New Scientist discussed new research by a Harvard mathematician discussing how a carpet could actually fly. Click here to see New Scientist's discussion, or here for information on the research publication.

While I'm at it, I see this article at New Scientist that discussed the physics of levitation, and also makes reference to invisibility cloaks. It also says that if you wanted to levitate a small ball, it would be best to use gold. Golden Snitch, anyone?

The Torah says (e.g., Gen 1:28) that we are commanded to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the land and master it" (in Hebrew, kiv'shu'ha). Some commentaries say that mastering the world includes understanding how the world works. Might this make Physics and Math articles about levitation a fulfillment of a Biblical command?

Starting Exodus (Sh'mot) the Harry Potter way

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, life's been busy. I'll catch up with a few articles over the next few days.

As we start reading the book of Exodus (Sh'mot) in the weekly Torah portions, everyone might enjoy my article about Moses, the Egyptian, and the killing curse.

Of course, Harry Potter and Torah has several chapters relating to the book of Exodus, including the chapters on magical wands, magical protection, and unity.

Harry Potter and Torah ideas about the story of Joseph

Now that we're starting to read the Torah portions concerning Joseph and his dreams, descent to Egypt, and rise to power there, I thought I'd post links to book chapters and blog messages that relate. Besides the message I just posted on Joseph and the power of love, there's:

The Divine Hallows: Torah analogies to book seven's Deathly Hallows
Magical Protection: Magical protection like that which Harry received from his mother's sacrifice
Unity: A lesson to learn from Joseph's coat of many colors

And of course, see the book for more!

Harry Potter, Joseph, and the power of love

The following is revised from a previous post I made right before Book 7 came out.


Harry Potter, Joseph, and the Power of Love

Throughout the books we've read of Dumbeldore's belief that love is the the most powerful magic. Early in the series this seems to be a very abstact concept, such as in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Voldemort tries to magically enter Harry's brain but is unable to do so when Harry thinks about his love for his father-figure Serius. But in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price (chapter 23) the magical power of love is given a more concrete meaning:

[Dumbelore said:] It will take uncommon skill and power to kill a wizard
like Voldemort....

"But I haven't got uncommon skill and power," said Harry, before he could
stop himself.

"Yes, you have," said Dumbeldore firmly. "You have a power that Voldemort
has never had. You can ---"

"I know!" said Harry impatiently. "I can love!" It was only with difficulty
that he stopped himself from adding "Big Deal!"

"Yes, Harry, you can love," said Dumbeldore, who looked as though he knew
perfectly well what Harry had just refrained from saying. "Which, given
everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. You are
still yoo young to understand how unusual you are, Harry."

...

"It is essential that you understand this!" said Dumbeldore, standing up
and striding about the room, his glittering robes swooshing in his wake. Harry
had never seen him so agitated... "It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to
see into his thoughts, his ambitions, ... and yet, Harry, despite your
priviledged insight into Voldemort's world... you have never been seduced by the
Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of
Voldemort's followers!"

"Of course I haven't!" said Harry indignantly. "He killed my Mum and
Dad!"

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said Dumbeldore
loudly. "The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power
like Voldemorts! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the
suffering, you remain pure of heart...."

"But sir," said Harry, making valiant efforts not to sound argumentative,
"it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try to kill him,
or---"

"Got to?" said Dumbelore. "Of course you've got to! But not because of the
prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried! ...
Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy! How
would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!"

Harry ... thought of his mother, his father, and Sirius... A flame seemed
to leap inside his chest, searing his throat.

"I'd want him finished," said Harry quickly. "And I'd want to do it."

... He understood what Dumbeldore had been trying to tell him. It was, he
thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to
teh death and walking into the arena with your head held high... Dumbeldore knew
-- and so do I, and so did my parents -- that there was all the difference in
the world.

We see here that Harry's power of love is a concrete power that gives him magical motivation and strength against the black magic of Voldemort.

In the Torah this power of love, power based on relationship and based on emotion, is the power of Joseph. Joseph is the dreamer. Joseph is the only man in the Torah to be described in terms of his good looks (Gen 39:6, compare with 29:17, 24:16). Joseph is appointed leader of Egypt in a role that seems to be much more about the image of leadership than about management (Gen 41:42-43). And Joseph's blessing from his father is focused on his relationships (Gen 49:22).

On the other hand, the power of the strong rational and intellectual leader is Judah (eg Gen 44:18). Judah took charge of the plan to sell Joseph into slavery (Gen 37:26). And from Judah ultimately came King David and the royal line of kings. Judah was the source of Jewish leadership.

But, as an interesting analogue to the Harry Potter story quoted above, Judah did not have the power to withstand strong temptation from Tamar (Gen 38:15-16) while Joseph DID have the power to withstand similar temptations from Potifar's wife (Gen 39:12). Judah lost his Jewish purity in dealings with non-Jewish tribes (Gen 38:1, Rashi there) while Joseph fought to maintain Jewish seperation in Egypt (Gen 46:34).

However, as the paradigm of leadership by emotion and love and relationship, Joseph is held to a tremendously high standard. Joseph's relationships HAD to be altruistic and for the sake of the greater good. A tiny bit is self-interest (Gen 40:14) caused Joseph to be held in prison for two extra years (Gen 41:1, Rashi). If someone is going to be driven by love and emotion, it must be pure. Emotion of self-interest will not succeed.

Ultimately, the salvation of the Jews in Egypt started with Joseph, and only after that was Judah the leader. And ultimately we are told by the Prophets that Jewish salvation will come from the joining of forces between Joseph and Judah. "Take a stick, and write on it 'for Judah,' ... then take another stick and write on it 'for Joseph,' ... Join them together into one stick, so that they are one in your hand... behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations.. and will gather them on every side, and bring them to their own land" (Ezekiel 37:16-21, Haftara of VaYigash).

Ultimately the mission of the Jewish people is to combine these two approaches, as Harry had to in Book 7 in order to defeat Voldemort.

Quick note on Israel-Arab meetings in Anapolis

Hi everyone! I've always worked hard to keep my writings about Harry Potter and Torah and my writings and posts about Israel seperate, since people interested in one are often not interested in the other. But anyone following the meetings in Anapolis, or the peace process in general, might be interested in the following links, which raise issues that tend to be ignored in the press. The first is an article from the Wall Street Journal, the second is a letter I wrote in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/opinion/l09brooks.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119604260214503526.html

or you can see these collected at: http://israel-letters.blogspot.com/

I'll have more Harry Potter and Torah articles here in the upcoming week!

Angels use accio, conjunctivitis, and colloportus?

Couldn't help noticing the following verses describing the Angels rescuing Lot from Sodom:

"The townspeople shoved Lot, and tried to break down his door. The Angels sent forth their hands, bringing Lot towards them into the house, and closing the door. And the people in the doorway were struck with blindness..." (Gen 19:9-11)

The Hebrew word at the end, "sanverim," is usually translated as I said above, "blindness," but presumably is referring to some kind of eye disease.

So the angels help sounds a lot like use of accio (summoning), colloportus (door closing), and conjunctivitis (eye-damaging) curses!

Boston's Jewish Advocate: Teaching Torah by Magic and Spells

This week's Jewish Advocate, published in Boston, has an article about Harry Potter and Torah titled Teaching Torah by Magic and Spells. Here's an excerpt and link:

When Dov Krulwich had some trouble engaging his young children in religious discussion around the Shabbat table, he turned to the narrative sensation that has been engaging children and adults alike the world over: Harry Potter. In the years since, Krulwich has grown his idea into a book, and “Harry Potter and Torah” was published in March.

“I found that if I could make analogies between the Jewish texts and Harry Potter, suddenly they were interested,” said Krulwich, 42, a Maryland native who now lives in Bet Shemesh, Israel. “The adults would become more interested, too.”

(Continues...)

http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=3865

Start the Torah cycle the Harry Potter way

If you haven't bought Harry Potter and Torah, now's the time! We've just started the new cycle of Torah portions back at Bereisheet (Genesis), and Harry Potter and Torah has chapters for every Torah portion in Bereisheet, along with many throughout the rest of the Torah. So you can have Harry Potter perspectives for every week's Torah portion!

Parshat Lech Lecha (Oct 20) has a chapter on ghosts, and also relates to the chapter on Magical Protection. Parshat VaYeira (Oct 27) has the chapter with my favorite title: Mudbloods, Moabites, and Moshiach, and also a chapter titled Whomping Willows and Monotheistic Maples. (To see more sample chapters on-line, see the book's home page.)

Below is the full table of contents. Click here to buy it now!

1. In the Beginning There Were Magic Words
2. Talking Snakes and Human Souls
3. Day of Rest, Day of Magic
4. Noah's Care of Magical Creatures
5. Owl post, Raven post, and dove post
6. Ghosts and curtains
7. Mudbloods, Moabites, and Moshiach
8. Whomping Willows & Monotheistic Maples
9. Everyday Magic, Everyday Miracles
10. Nicolas Flamel and the Children of Ketura
11. When One Rises, the Other Will Fall
12. Destiny and Decisions
13. Magic Wands
14. Go to the Hippogriff, thy Sluggard
15. Creating Bodies
16. Rights of Magical Creatures
17. Dreams: Divination or Digestion?
18. Everything Happens for a Reason
19. We are as Strong as we are United
20. Magic Shows: Kosher Fun or Idolatry?
21. Magical Protection

Lecha Lecha and Harry Potter's magical protection

In the Torah portion of Lech Lecha we see Abraham's aliya to Israel, during which travels through the land, stopping in Shchem and building an altar in Beit El.

Would you believe that Abraham's doing this is similar to Harry Potter's mother dying to save Harry's life? Check out this previous blog message about Harry Potter's Magical Protection, which is an excerpt from the book Harry Potter and Torah.

Fawkes the Phoenix in the Garden of Eden and Noah's Ark

Could Fawkes, Dumbeldore's immortal phoenix, have been in the Garden of Eden or on Noah's Ark?

Read the answer in the following excerpt from Harry Potter and Torah, which was printed in the Washington Jewish Week last July:

Was Fawkes the Phoenix on Noah's Ark?

When we think about Noah collecting the animals to bring into the ark, most of us tend to imagine lions and tigers, cows and rams, and other "regular" animals. After all, Torah does not talk about mythical animals like those found in Harry Potter.

Or does it? Might Fawkes the Phoenix have been on Noah's ark?

The Talmud tells the following midrashic story about Noah on the ark:

"Noah found the phoenix hiding in the bottom of the Ark. He said to it, 'Don't you want food?' It replied, 'I saw you were busy, and did not want to trouble you.' He said to it, 'May it be God's will that you never die.' "

The midrash elaborates on the phoenix's immortality as follows: "It lives for a thousand years, and at the end of this thousand years, a fire emerges from its nest and incinerates it. A volume equivalent to an egg is left, which grows limbs and lives." The Prophet Job refers to the phoenix's immortality when he says "Like a phoenix I increase my life's days."

So we see the magical phoenix quite clearly in Torah literature! This sounds just like Dumbeldore's explanation to Harry in the middle of Chamber of Secrets (chapter 12):

"Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them
to die and are reborn from the ashes."

Interestingly, the same midrash gives a second, very different explanation of the phoenix's immortality: "Eve fed the animals and birds from the Tree of Knowledge. They all listened to her, except for one bird, called the phoenix."

Since all people and animals were immortal until eating from the tree of knowledge, the phoenix's not eating from the tree of knowledge meant it would never die.

So which is the reason that the midrashic phoenix lives forever? Is it because it did not eat from the tree of knowledge, or because of Noah's blessing?

Commentaries on the midrash give two possibilities. One is that the sages simply disagree, that the sage quoted in the midrash attributes the phoenix's longevity to the Garden of Eden, and the sage quoted in the Talmud attributes it to Noah's blessing.

The second possibility is that the phoenix's longevity was earned in two stages. It lives a long time, and does not die a natural death like other animals, because it did not eat from the tree of knowledge. Then Noah's blessing added to its immortality, either by giving it the process of rejuvenation by burning up and being reborn, or by giving it Divine protection from hunters and accidents.

Many commentaries, however, take all the biblical and midrashic discussions of the phoenix to be metaphorical. The Book of Job, for example, used the bird as a metaphor for long life, and did not refer to actually seeing one. Both the above stories from the midrash can be understood this way, as lessons about the importance of caring for other people's difficulties (the midrash of Noah) and about doing the right thing in the face of a temptation (the midrash of Eve). Each, according to the midrash, merits a lot of Divine reward, metaphorically earning long life or immortality.

Other commentaries say that the phoenix is used by our sages as a metaphor for "the soaring of the intellect, which continues even when man's body becomes weak." Others see the phoenix as a metaphor for the Jewish people throughout history, often appearing "burnt up" but always being reborn.

All in all, the magical phoenix has left us a lot to think about. Anyone intrigued by the existence of magical animals has no shortage of Torah sources for them. And anyone looking for metaphors for a soaring intellect or the everlasting Jewish people need look no further.
But, most important, we see two things that we can think about in our own lives, doing what is right when we're given a temptation not to (as in the story of Eve) and caring that others not work too hard for our own sake (the story of Noah). According to the midrash, these are how immortality is earned, either real or metaphorical. Even without spells or incantations, our own behavior can be as hot as a phoenix.


Interested in more about magical creatures in Torah? Harry Potter and Torah discusses talking snakes, owl post, and more! I also recommend Rabbi Slifkin's new book Sacred Monsters.

Material for Jewish teachers based on Harry Potter

I just came across some material for Jewish teachers based on Harry Potter that I thought readers (especially teachers and parents) here might enjoy:

http://www.babaganewz.com/teachers/index_main.cfm?cat=10&sub=1809lesson

Kudos to Babaganewz for integrating enjoyability and innovation into what look like serious educational materials!

The Lulav chooses the Jew...

A quick note some of you might enjoy:

In shul on the first day of Sukkot, when everyone had the lulav and etrog that they'd found and chosen from the several nearby lulav markets ("shuks"), a neighbor turned to me and said "it's really the Lulav that chooses the Jew, you know...."

Sukkot: Celebrating magically protected dwellings

Sukkot: Celebrating magically protected dwellings

We read a lot in the Harry Potter series about magically protected houses and other places. Hogwarts is magically protected against unwanted entry or other harm to the students inside. The Order headquarters is protected against even being seen. The Quidditch Cup stadium magically causes muggles coming nearby to remember other things they have to do. And so on, for many houses and other places throughout the series.

The Torah tells us that G-d gave the Jewish people magically (Divinely) protected houses as well, during our 40 journey through the desert from Egypt to the Holy Land of Israel.

Wednesday night begins the holiday of Sukkot (aka Sukkos) which remembers the "Sukkah" booths (huts) that the Jewish people lived in for these 40 years in the desert. To celebrate Sukkot, Jews traditionally build Sukkos in their yards or porches, and spend a week eating in them and generally living in them as much as possible. As the Torah says, "You should sit in Sukkos for seven days... Because I (G-d) caused you to live in Sukkos...."

On the surface, leaving our houses to spend time in a Sukkah is a simple memorial act. We're remembering the Sukkos that the Jews lived in. And we show our dedication by being willing to leave comfortable air-conditioned and heated houses to eat in our Sukkos.

But if we look more closely at Sukkot, we'll see that what we're in fact celebrating isn't just life in a flimsier dwelling, but rather the Divine magical protection that we received during that time.

The Vilna Gaon asked a simple but profound question about the holiday of Sukkot: Why are we celebrating it now? The Jews started living in Sukkos immediately after the Exodous from Egypt, so we should really celebrate a holiday remembering the Sukkos right after Passover.

He answered this question by detailing the sequence of events after the exodous from Egypt. The Jews left Egypt at Passover time, and immediately started living in Sukkos, and received G-d's Divine protection from the Egyptians (and the elements) in the form of the "clouds of glory." 49 days later was the giving of the Torah, followed unfortunately by the sin of the golden calf. Among the consequences of the sin of the golden calf was that the clouds of glory left, leaving the Jews ezposed to dangers of the desert. The Jews repented, Moses prayed for G-d to forgive them, and on Yom Kippur G-d proclaimed that He forgave the sin. A few days later, the clouds of glory, representing G-d's protection, returned.

So we see something interesting here. Sukkot isn't just remembering the Sukkos. This we would do in the spring right after Passover. Rather, Sukkos is remembering G-d giving us back His Divine magical protection on our dwellings. To celebrate this, we brave the elements a bit, trusting G-d to keep us comfortable.

Our Sukkah boothes, then, are a lot more like the magically-protected houses in Harry Potter's world than we might have thought. Sukkos, like Harry, Ron and Hermione's tent, rely on the Supernatural to protect them.

And on the holiday of Sukkot we're remembering magic at its finest, the magical protection we received from G-d for 40 years.

Of course, our Sukkos don't always feel so magically protected. Wind comes in, rain drips, and the sun beats down. But if we work on our simple faith and reliance on G-d, maybe we can feel some of G-d's protection, in the Sukkah and in our daily lives.

Happy Sukkot everyone!

Final thoughts about Harry Potter and the power of teshuva

As we leave the time period of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, I want to respond to a few comments left by readers to my previous messages.

(If you didn't read the previous messages, check here, here, here, and here for posts on repentance, and here for another Yom Kippur thought.)

One reader pointed out someone I left out of my list of people in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that repented: Grindelwald. I think it's hard to tell from the book how much he repented, but certainly he seems to have left evil to some extent, so I agree, he should be on the list.

Another reader pointed out that Rashi's Talmud commentary (on AZ 17a) says explicitly what Hermione says about repentance: that sometimes it can be so painful it can kill the repenter. This is a great source, and I'll come back to it in another message sometime.

Another commenter pointed out that I may have been too hard on Harry. Harry does indeed improve himself, learn to control his temper, and admit mistakes. He turned around his opinion of Snape, and apologized for his temper in Order of the Phoenix.

Lastly, one commenter wrote that I should have included Pettigrew on my list of repenters. Maybe, but I think of Pettigrew's actions in the basement in Deathly Hallows as paying back a magical debt to Harry, not as any choice on his part. But actions do count, I suppose...

That's it fro the season of repentance, now on to the holiday of Sukkot...

Harry's good heart: Not just light, but happiness

Hi everyone! I only have a few minutes to write, but wanted to pass on a quick thought today, Erev Yom Kippur, the day that Yom Kippur starts.

(See here , here , and here and here for other Harry Potter related thoughts on Yom Kippur.)

We read repeatedly that Dumbeldore praises Harry for having a uniquely pure heart. This pure heart enables him to get the socerers stone, and to survive being posessed while Voldemort can't continue to posess him, and ultimately helps him defeat Voldemort at the end of the series.

In traditional Yom Kippur prayerbooks, before Kol Nidrei, there's a tradition to read the verse "Light is sown (saved away) for the righteous, and for the straight hearted, happiness" (or zarua la'tzadik, u'le'yishrei lev, simcha). This is a line that many ignore or miss as they come late for Kol Nidrei, or are simply looking forward to the higher profile Kol Nidrei prayer.

Rabbi Matisyahu Solomon wrote at length about this verse, and to summarize his message, the verse is telling us an important message. We spend the High Holidays thinking about being righteous, and how we can be more righteous. But we need to know that righteousness isn't the highest goal. Above being righteous is being straight-hearted.

Straight-hearted means not just doing the right thing, but having no deceit or ulterior motives or back-handedness in our hearts while we're doing whatever we're doing. There are many people who are righteous but not necessarily straight-hearted. But on Yom Kippur, when we're doing a "gap analysis" to see where we've fallen short in the past, and asking G-d for atonement for any mistakes we've made, it's important to have our eye on the biggest goal, being straight-hearted.

As I wrote above, I don't have time to expand on this, but I think that if we all think about it, and think about the intent behind the conversations in Harry Potter about Harry's pure heart and its importance and uniqueness, we'll have more to think about on Yom Kippur.

I hope everyone has a great Yom Kippur and an easy fast, and that we all have a new year with not only the light (clarity) of righteousness, but the happiness that G-d promises to the straight-hearted.

Yom Kippur: Take Harry Potter's advice and feel some remorse!

WARNING: This message discusses details of the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

We can learn the key lesson of Yom Kippur from something Harry Potter tells the evil Voldemort in the final battle at the end of Deathly Hallows:

"Before you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've done ... think, and try for some remorse ..."

"What is this?" [Voldemort replied.]

Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Harry saw his pupils contract to thin slits, saw the skin around his eyes whiten.

"It's your one last chance," said Harry, "it's all you've got left ... I've seen what you'll be otherwise ... be a man ... try ... try for some remorse..."

Harry's point, which Voldemort may have understood at some level, is that remorse was the only way that Voldemort could save his soul, which had been damaged by all the dark magic and evil that he had done. He learned this lesson from Hermione in chapter six, when the three of them are learning about destroying Horcruxes:

"And the more I've read about them," said Hermione, "the more horrible they seem ... It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul...."

Harry remembered what Dumbeldore had said, about Voldemort moving beyond "usual evil."

"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked.

"Yes," said Hermione, with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful."

"Why? How do you do it?" asked Harry.

"Remorse," said Hermione. "You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it...."

This, in a nutshell, is the lesson and purpose of Yom Kippur. The day is designed for us to feel remorse, and by doing so we have the power to repair our souls, to clean them back to their pure state.

We start with Kol Nidre, where we express remorse for any vows or promises we may have made, intentionally or not, during the year. We continue with repeated renditions of the vidui prayer, hitting our chests while confessing all the types of bad things we may possibly have done. We recite "Avinu Malkeinu," our Father our King, "we have sinned before you." And we pray for G-d to accept our remorse and wipe the slates clean, giving us a fresh start for the new year.

The midrash I've quoted previously states that if we truly feel remorse during the time from Rosh HaShana to Yom Kippur, G-d will judge us as brand new creations, with clean slates.

Jewish Law also tells us that our remorse should start with things that we may have done to other people. With that in mind, I'd like to ask that anyone reading this, people I know or don't know, who I've bothered or offended in any way whatsoever, please forgive me. And I'll say publically that I forgive anyone who's done anything at all to me.

As Hermione said, true remorse can be painful. We don't want to admit things we've done, we're conditioned to make excuses for them. But on Yom Kippur, remorse is the theme of the day. And at the end of the day, the slates are wiped clean, and all mistakes are erased as if they never existed. As painful as remorse can be, the goal is a positive one -- the chance to start again, to start the new year as pure as newly created, with no baggage, only opportunity.

As Harry said, this is the chance we have for our souls. Let's use it!

I hope everyone has a meaningful Yom Kippur and as easy a fast as can be meaningful.

Blowing the shofar and Jewish unity

Below is an excerpt from Harry Potter and Torah on the subject of blowing the shofar and Jewish unity. Part of the chapter on unity appeared on the aish.com website, but the part about the shofar was not included, so I'm posting it here now.

Other Rosh HaShana thoughts related to Harry Potter are here, here, and here.

Shana tova everyone!

Harry Potter, blowing the shofar, and Jewish unity

At the end of the Goblet of Fire, Professor delivers some well-chosen words about the need for unity among students and all "wizardfolk" who oppose the evil wizard Voldemort:

"Every guest in this hall ... will be welcomed back here, at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again -- in light of Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.

"Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can
only fight it by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.
Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical
and our hearts are open." (Goblets of Fire, chapter 37)

The next year, the sorting hat, the magical talking hat whose job it is to divide the students into the four schoolhouses, infuses the same theme into its start-of-year song:

"...And now the sorting hat is here
And you all know the score:
I sort you into houses
Because that's what I'm for.
But this year I'll go further,
Listen closely to my song:
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong....
Oh, know the peril, read the signs,
The warning history shows.
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external deadly foes.
And we must unite inside her
Or we'll crumble from within.
I have told you, I have warned you...
Let the Sorting now begin."
(Order of the Phoenix, chapter 11)

The same lesson of the importance of unity is pervasive throughout the Torah and Jewish prayer. Jewish unity is both a Torah-ordained objective and a source of Divine strength.

Before blowing the shofar on Rosh HaShana we read Tehilim (Psalms) chapter 47. Obviously one reason is that it mentions shofar blasts. But at the end of the paragraph we read the following:

"Representatives of nations gathered, the nation of the G-d of Abraham, for the protectors of the land are G-d's, He is greatly exalted."

Rav Salomon explained this as referring to the Jewish people whenever we gather together. We're all different, "representatives of nations," all with different customs and practices, but when we gather together for the sake of being Jews, as "the nation of the G-d of Abraham," then we have the collective ability to be "protectors of the land," and the power and beauty of this unity leads to G-d's being "greatly exalted."

In 1914, the Chassidic Rebbe of Belz made the following succinct statement concerning the difficult times felt by Jews of that era: "It is of the utmost importance that the Jews love one another. One must love even the lowliest Jew as himself. One must engender unity and keep far away from anything that causes disunity. The salvation of Israel during times of trouble rests on this".

Note that unity does not require agreeing with everyone. The Rebbe of Belz was not suggesting
condoning the actions of "even the lowliest Jew." Rather, unity means disagreeing respectfully and treating others with love regardless of agreement or disagreement, and caring about the needs of others as we care about our own.

Satmar Chassidic teachings explain that suspecting another Jew of wrongdoing is sometimes necessary, but nonetheless is something that we should literally cry for ever having to do. This teaching is based on the events described in the Yom Kippur musaf service, where the sages cried at suspecting the High Priest of wrongdoing in the Yom Kippur Temple service, based on the Talmud (Yoma 18b, Mishna 1:5).

Our goal as Jews should be to have so much unity that we become "representatives of nations, the nation of the G-d of Abraham," with all of our differences and yet complete unity of purpose.

We need, as Dumbeldore said:

"… an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and
language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."

Shana Tova!

Rosh HaShana: Even Malfoy's or Wormtail's repentance counts!

Following up on my long message about teshuva (repentance) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and my follow-up message and many comments, I think it's critical to approach Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur with the following thought in mind:

All teshuva is good teshuva

In my previous messages I discussed Jewish writings about the steps necessary in full teshuva, and how many characters in Deathly Hallows seem to have repented very seriously, and others seem to have repented fairly light-heartedly. While some comment-writers disagreed with me, my conclusion is that the Malfoy's turning away from following Voldemort, and Pettigrew's not killing Harry when ordered to, were both fairly weak forms of repentance, since they were not motivated by a realization that their actions had been wrong, but rather by self-interest or debt.

However, as Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur approach, we need to keep in mind that all repentance is good repentance.

There's an interesting statement in the Talmud (Kiddushin 49a) about this. What happens, the Talmud asks, if someone says that a deal will be made if, and only if, he himself is completely righteous? The Talmud answers that the deal is made, even if the person is known to be less than righteous, because "he may have thought about teshuva when making the deal."

All the commentaries are shocked by this Talmudic statement. How can someone known to do wrong things be considered legally to be "completely righteous" just on the basis of a fleeting thought about teshuva? He didn't do any of the steps of teshuva that I outlined previously! He may return to his evil ways immediately after making the deal! But bottom line, a simple thought of teshuva is enough to make someone righteous, at least for a moment, and that's enough that the deal is made.

The lesson for us as Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur approach is clear. The Day of Judgement and the Day of Atonement don't require huge impossible acts of repentance. We can start with simple thoughts about things we'd like to do differently in the upcoming year, and simple thoughts admitting that things in the past year could have been better. That's enough for G-d to consider us completely righteous.

We don't need to turn around our lives like Percy did, or spend our entire lives repenting like Snape did, or sacrifice our lives like Regulus did. Even the simple changes like the Malfoys did is enough for atonement.

With even a simple thought of teshuva, we can achieve the magical effect that I quoted in Harry Potter and Torah: G-d promises us that if we repent on Rosh HaShana, He will credit us on Yom Kippur as if we were new people (Yerushalmi Rosh HaShana 4:8, Baal HaTurim on Num 29:2).

I want to wish everyone a Happy Rosh HaShana, a sweet new year, a magical year and a Jewishly-meaningful year. May we all be signed and sealed in the Book of Life.

Please pray for a heathy recovery for...

Please, anyone who can, add a prayer in synagogue this Shabbat for Tzivya bat Beila, a friend just diagnosed with cancer. Thanks!

Percy's teshuva (repentance) and Yom Kippur

Following up on my previous message about Teshuva (repentance) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a commenter wrote that I had left out Percy. Big omission! Percy is one of the most notable examples of teshuva in the book.

(Note, by the way, that I don't mean below to base moral lessons on characters as if they really exist. Yes, the books are fiction. But I believe that J. K. Rowling wrote them with a keen eye for human psychology, and that we can use the characters to explore moral lessons based on the way that G-d has built human psychology.)

In the Yom Kippur vidui (confession) service, we repeatedly refer to mistakes that we made because of "Timhon Levav," confusion of the heart, and "kashyut oref," usually translated as stubbornness. The idea in these two confessions, I think, is that people have a tendency to become very invested in what we think is true, basing our actions on huge sets of facts that follow, or that we think follow, from a small set of beliefs. Since our actions are based on our entire belief systems, it's very hard to admit that we've made a mistake, since it would require us to reexamine everything we believe.

But this is the lesson of Percy. Even after years of sticking with our belief systems, believing that we're right, we still have the power to reexamine our belief systems to find things that we want to change.

In the final few Harry Potter books, Percy stuck to his beliefs, since they were all predicated on a view of the world that he was convinced was right. But once he was really pushed to think about it, for his own internal reasons and not because of outside pressure, the house of cards that he was believing in fell to the ground. In the end, he not only changed sides in the fight against Voldemort, but changed all those aspects of his life that were built on that house of cards.

It's also important to note, by the way, that Percy couldn't make this change when pushed by others. He had to realize it himself and make the changes to his beliefs from within. This is because the house of cards of beliefs could answer the claims that others were making. He could only realize the mistakes when he was forced in his own mind to think about the underpinnings of his beliefs. I think that this is worth thinking about for all parents, teachers, and others who try to help others improve -- core changes often need to come from within.

Ultimately, I think that the type of teshuva exemplified by Percy is what we're meant to do during the month leading up to Rosh HaShana, and during the time period between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. As I quoted in the Harry Potter and Torah chapter on Destiny and Decisions, the midrash tells us that if we repent properly during the time between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, G-d will credit us on Yom Kippur as if we were entirely new people.

NOTE that I posted a follow-up message, with more elaboration, here:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/09/rosh-hashana-even-malfoys-or-wormtails.html

Harry Potter and the Power of Teshuva (repentance)

Harry Potter and the Power of Teshuva (Repentence)

It seems very appropriate during the month and a half right before Rosh HaShana for everyone to be reading and talking about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, because the theme of Teshuva, repentence, runs throughout the book and throughout all the characters that we all love reading about.

What is Teshuva? Translated as repentence, teshuva in a nutshell is the mitzvah (commandment) to examine and improve our lives, to identify things that we have done wrong, or which we could do better, and commit ourselves to improvement in the future.

Note that Judaism sees teshuvah as something incumbant on everyone, not just "sinners." The ability to identify things that can be done better is a sign of righteousness, not sinfulness, since everyone has areas in which they can improve. We'l return to this point at the end.

Jewish philosophy teaches that teshuva, when carried out completely, can achieve not only forgiveness from G-d, but complete clensing of the person's soul as if the mistakes were never made, and even transform the mistakes into mitzvas for which the person is credited!

Consider all the teshuva that we see in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

1. Snape doing teshuva for his actions that led to Harry's mother's death
2. Dumbeldore doing teshuva for his childhood mistake that led to his sister's death and Grindewald's rise to power
3. Ron doing teshuva after losing his temper and running away
4. The Malfoy family all doing teshuva for their involvement as death eaters
5. Lupin doing teshuva for running away from his family
6. Regulus Black doing teshuva for being a death eater
7. Dudley Dursley and Petunia, in the early scene before they leave Harry

On the other hand, when Harry offers Voldemort the chance to do teshuva, to at least feel some remorse for what he's done, Voldemort is unable to do so. He does seem, however, to sense the magical power in Harry's question.

Indeed, Hermione comments earlier that remorse has the magical power to repair a soul that's been damaged by creating Horcruxes. But she reads that this remorse is so painful that few wizards who have created Horcruxes are able to do it.

So what does Judaism say about the repentance that we see in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

The most famous codification of the process of teshuva is that of Rambam, who identified three steps that must be carried out in order for full atonement to be achieved (Hilchos Teshuva chapter 2):

1. Remorse for the mistakes that were made
2. Commitment to never again making the same mistakes
3. Confessing the mistake orally, in the form of a vidui prayer (as recited on Yom Kippur)

Others specify a final requirement, which is not necessarily part of the process of teshuva itself, but which is necessary in order to be sure that the person’s repentance is complete:

4. Having an opportunity to make the same mistake again, and not making it

I’m sure that everyone will have their own opinions about which Deathly Hallows characters did proper repentance according to Judaism. But it seems to me that Snape’s repentance was the most complete, since he spent years of his life in a situation where Voldemort and others wanted information from him, and he gave them only certain information and not all. Dumbeldore says this explicitly in one of the remembered scenes at the end of Deathly Hallows. This indicates that Snape not only carried out the process of remorse, commitment to proper behavior, and confessing orally, all of which we see in his memories, but he also was in the same situation again and did not make the mistake again. This would make his repentance the most complete. (Note that I’m not a big Snape fan, and do not think that his lifelong love for Lilly was in fact true love, but that’s the subject of another message.)

Dumbeldore’s repentance also seems fairly complete, although it’s not clear that he ever spoke of his mistake. Ron’s repentance when he returns to Harry and Hermione also seems pretty complete, as does Lupin’s when he returns to Tonks, although these are obviously smaller repentance than the others.

The Malfoy’s repentance, however helpful it was to Harry, seems to be lacking. On the one hand, they indeed seem to have been sorry for their actions, and Narcissa in particular has the opportunity to have Harry killed and did not do so. But it’s not clear, however, that they really thought that their actions were wrong. Rather, their change in life was motivated by wanting to save Draco’s life. This does not seem to me to be true remorse.

Regulus Black’s repentance, lastly, appears to me to also be complete. It’s not clear what made him have a change of heart, and whether he felt true remorse or had other motivations, but everything that we do know indicates that he carried out all the steps of repentance, and then not only refrained from death eater activity but tried to undo the damage he had done, as well as prevent future evil.

The Dursley’s repentance also seems to be fairly complete, although brief. It’s interesting that this isn’t developed at all later in the book, but it seems that both Petunia and Dudley are truly remorseful as the truth of Harry’s life becomes clear to them.

Which brings me to the one person that isn’t on our list: Harry Potter himself.

What teshuva has Harry done over the course of the series?

It seems to me that the stories are written such that Harry Potter himself is pure throughout the books. While this is probably an important and good thing within JK Rowling’s religious views, I don’t think that this is a Jewish ideal. Jews need to grow, morally and spiritually and in their actions, and its not realistic or even ideal for anyone to stay the same.

Even the Jewish savior, the Moshiach, needs to grow. This is discussed in the Harry Potter and Torah chapter titled Mudbloods, Moabites, and Moshiach.

In summary, I think that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is full of examples of teshuva. We can learn from these examples all of the elements of Jewish teshuva, and think about this in our preparations for Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.

And I think we can all keep in mind that the Jewish ideal is not life-long purity, but rather growth and achieving purity through effort and self-growth. To reach our Jewish ideal, we don’t need scars and we don’t need to have pure motives throughout our lives, we rather need the growth and self-improvement that we call teshuva.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are welcome, either through the blog comment link below or by e-mail to author@harrypottertorah.com

NOTE that I posted a follow-up message, with more on the idea here:

http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/09/percys-teshuva-repentance-and-yom.html

The Divine Hallows

The Divine Hallows

The final Harry Potter book introduces three magical objects called the Deathly Hallows. Would you believe that two of the three have very close analogues in the Torah and Midrash? Read on!

(If you want to read other Torah perspectives on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, click here or here. Or click here for more about the book Harry Potter and Torah.)

The Deathly Hallows are introduced in a fairy tale that Hermione reads in chapter 21, which tells a fable of three men who were awarded magical prizes from Death:

There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight... when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure... And Death spoke to them... and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him....

The oldest brother, who was a combatative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for is owner... So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.

Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead...

The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers... so he asked for something that would enable him to go forth... without being followed by Death. So Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of invisibility."

These three magical gifts, the Elder Wand, the invisibility cloak, and the ressurection stone, are
the three Deathly Hallows that help Harry Potter beat Voldemort at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

If we look at the Torah, the Midrash, and the Talmud, we'll see very close analogues to two of these three magical objects: the wand and the cloak. The analogous things found in the Torah, which I think of as the Divine Hallows, aren't exactly the same as Harry Potter's Deathly Hallows, but they're intriguingly close. (I haven't found a good analogue for the stone yet, but feel free to add comments with your suggestions!)

In the story of Joseph and his brothers, when the brothers attack Joseph and sell him into slavery, the Torah tells us as follows:

"And when Joseph arrived to his brothers, they removed Joseph's coat, the coat of many colors, which he was wearing" (Ber 37:23).

The Zohar elaborates as follows: "Had the coat remained on Joseph, they could not have overpowered him. So first they stripped it from him...." (#1)

The idea that Joseph's coat being a magical coat that protected him has its roots in several other stories in the Torah and Midrash. The story begins back in the dawn of time, with Adam in the
Garden of Eden. Combining various accounts in the Midrash we get the following history of Joseph's magical coat: (#7)

"And G-d made for Adam and his wife clothes of skin, and clothed them." (Ber 3:21)

"They were embroidered with images of all the animals (to protect them from the animals). Adam bequeathed them to Cain. (#2) They were taken into Noah's ark, and when they left the ark, Ham, Noah's son, took them, and then passed them on to Nimrod... Therefore Nimrod is described as "a mighty hunter" (Gen 10:9) (#3). Later, when Esau saw this coat, he coveted it, and killed Nimrod to take it. This made him also a mighty hunter (Gen 25:27). (#4) Later, Rebekah took "Esau's special clothes" for Jacob to wear (Gen 27:15), which refered to this same magical coat. (#5) When the Torah says that Jacob then gave a "coat of many colors" to Joseph (Gen 37:3) it is referring to this same coat, passed down from Adam, to Nimrod, to Esau, to Jacob, and finally to Joseph. (#6) It was stripped from Joseph by his brothers (#1) and then given back to Jacob(Gen 37:32). (#7)

So we see the Midrash revealing a thread through a half dozen Biblical stories, of a Divinely-given coat the gave strength to whoever wore it. Sound familiar? It wasn't a coat of invisibility, but it was a magical cost that made the wearer a mighty warrior. This coat is what I might call the first "Divine Hallow."

The second Divine Hallow in the Torah, as some readers may have guessed, is Moses's staff. As I discuss in details in Harry Potter and Torah's chapter on magic wands, Moses's staff was linked to magical power throughout the Torah, including the signs shown to Pharoah, the plagues, splitting the sea, and winning battles in the desert. (See the book for more details.)

But the Talmud and Midrash tell us that Moses's staff had a longer and more illustrious history.
The Mishna in Ethics of the Fathers (5:6) tells us that Moses's staff was created on the sixth day of creation, at twilight right before the first Sabbath, when G-d created all the things in creation
that were in some sense exceptions to the rules of nature.

The Midrash (#8) tells the following history of Moses's staff: The staff which was created at
twilight was given to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam gave it to Enoch, and Enoch to Noah, and Noah to Abraham. Abraham gave it to Isaac, who gave it to Jacob (Gen 32:11), who took it down to Egypt and gave it to Joseph. When Joseph died, it was taken to Pharoah's palace. Jethro (Yitro) was a palace magician, and he made off with the staff, until Moses saw it and read the letters on it and took it. Jethro realized that Moses was destined for greatness and gave him the staff, and permitted him to marry Tziporah his daughter.

Another Midrash (#9) continues: With this staff Moses split the sea, split the rock to produce
water, and defeated the Amalekites. This rod was then deposited in the tent of meeting, and later in the Temple, until the days of Jeremiah. Then it was hidden along with the Ark... until G-d will deliver the Jews from exile through the Messiah who will use the staff as Moses did.

So we see a second "Divine Hallow," created by G-d to give power to leaders carrying out His
direction in the world.

As I write in the introduction to Harry Potter and Torah, there are a wide variety of opinions of
how to understand stories told in the Midrash. Many take them literally. Many prefer to take them as lessons, which they were undoubtedly intended to teach us. Regardless of whether we take the Midrashim about Moses's staff and Joseph's coat literally, they tell us the source of power and protection in the world: The Al-mighty.

At the same time, however, Harry Potter fans will note the striking similarity between Harry
Potter's Deathly Hallows and the Torah's "Divine Hallows." As we enjoy reading and re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we can also enjoy our own Divine folklore from the Torah.


Comments? Disagreement? Other suggestions for Divine Hallows, particularly the stone? Comments are welcome, just clink the "comments" link below, or e-mail author@harrypottertorah.com


Notes:

(#1) Zohar 1, 185a, as cited in Torah Shleima on Ber 37:23
(#2) Midrash quoted by Rav Yosef Karo, cited in Torah Shleima on Ber 3:21
(#3) Midrash PRE, cited in Torah Shleima on Gen 10:9
(#4) Midrash Yalkut Shimoni 115, cited in Torah Shleima on Gen 25:27; also Midrash Beresheet Rabba 63, cited in Torah Shleima on Ber 25:32.
(#5) Midrash Beresheet Raba 65, cited in Torah Shleima on Gen 27:15
(#6) Midrash HaBiur, cited in Torah Shleima on Gen 37:3
(#7) The entire story is summarized by Rashi, commenting on Talmud Psachim 54b.
(#8) Midrash PRE 40, cited in Torah Shleima on Ex 2:21
(#9) Yalkut Shimoni 1, 171, also Lekach Tov, both on Ex 4:17

Tree of Life Judaica in Seattle now selling Harry Potter and Torah

A new featured store selling Harry Potter and Torah is Tree of Life Judaica and Books in Seattle, WA:

Seattle Address: 2201 NE 65th Street * Phone: 206-527-1130
Bellevue Address: 137 106th Ave NE * Phone: 425-646-6466
Toll-Free: 1-866-282-6657

The book is also still for sale at Judaica House in Teaneck, NJ, and through their Web site, and at several stores in Israel. Ask for it at a store near you, and tell them they can e-mail the author at author@harrypottertorah.com for more info.

Should Harry Potter have fought Voldemort with a disarming curse or a killing curse?

Below is another Jewish perspective on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in the spirit of the book Harry Potter and Torah.

WARNING: This message contains spoilers about the ending of Deathly Hallows.

From the first chase scene at the beginning of Deathly Hallows, to the final fight between Harry and Voldemort, the book discusses Harry's use of Expelliarmus, the disarming curse that causes a wizard's magic wand to fly from his hand, instead of more damaging curses. Harry does this in the final scene of Goblet of Fire, and again in the broomstick chase scene at the beginning of Deathly Hallows, and the characters discuss how fighting to disarm is a unique characteristic of Harry's. In the final clash between Harry and Voldemort, Harry again uses Expelliarmus, while Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. Voldemort ends up dead, but not directly because of the curse that Harry used.

The implication in Deathly Hallows, I think, is that Harry's use of Expelliarmus is noble, or honorable, and that it keeps Harry pure throughout the conflict. But it raises the following question: Should Harry have fought Voldemort with Expelliarmus or with Avada Kedavra, the killing curse?

Note that my question is focused primarily on the final scene. Certainly in the early chase scene it made sense to only disarm Stan the bus conductor, since he was fighting against his will. But the fight with Voldemort was clearly a fight to the death. Was Harry's Expelliarmus the honorable thing to do?

The start of a Jewish answer is Lev 19:16: "Do not stand idly when your neighbor's blood is spilled." The Torah is stating very clearly that we have an obligation to save the life of another. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 73a) clarifies that this is true when the other person's life is threatened by natural events (such as falling into a river) or by another person. In other words, when other people's lives are threatened by a murderer, we have to do whatever we can do to stop the murderer and save the lives of the victims.

The Torah elaborates on this in Ex 22:1: "If a burglar is found sneaking into a house, and is hit, and dies as a result, the person who hit him is not guilty." The Torah's reasoning is that a burglar who sneaks into someone else's house at night is willing to kill someone who catches him in order to escape. If the homeowner catches such a burglar, attacking the burglar is an act of self-defense.

Jewish Law generalizes these cases to the general case of a "rodef," a person who is chasing after someone with intent or willingness to kill. Whoever sees such a circumstance, where the chaser is clearly going to kill the person they're chasing, the bystander is obligated to stop the rodef, the chaser, using any means necessary. If the bystander can save the victim without killing the rodef, obviously he should do so. But if killing the rodef is the only way to save the victim, then killing the rodef is a mitzvah, a commandment and a good deed, because it's the only way to fulfill the Torah's obligation not to stand by idly when your neighbor's blood is spilled.

Based on this analysis, I think that from a Jewish perspective, and indeed from a moral perspective, Harry did not do the right thing when he used Expelliarmus on Voldemort. Voldemort was clearly killing others, and Harry knew that he was the one that had to kill Voldemort. In this circumstance killing Voldemort would become a mitzvah, not only a commandment but a good deed in every sense of the words.

Harry in fact says this in the powerful scene in chapter 23 of Half Blood Prince. Thinking about Voldemort's having killed his parents, and Sirius, and Cedric Diggory, and all the other damage that Voldemort had done, Harry concluded that even without the prophecy: "I'd want him finished... and I'd want to do it." This was a consequence of Harry's honor and love, and not in any way a bad feeling or desire.

I can speculate that J. K. Rowling wrote Harry's use of Expelliarmus based on her own religious beliefs about "turning the other cheek," and about "letting he who is without sin throw the first stone." But the Torah tells us clearly that sometimes it's the moral thing to do to throw the first stone, if this stone will prevent murder.

For Harry, alls wells that ends well. We're all happy that Harry defeated Voldemort, and Harry's use of Expelliarmus doesn't detract from the story. But as we think about the moral message of the books, we should keep in mind that saving lives is a high moral imperitive, as we see in the Torah's law of Rodef.


Comments welcome -- just click on the "comments" link below the message, or e-mail author@harrypottertorah.com. Future messages will discuss other themes from Deathly Hallows. Subscribe by e-mail or check back soon!

Article by Rabbi Slifkin on Jewish magical creatures

Readers of Harry Potter and Torah will enjoy an article in this week's Jewish Press from Rabbi Natan Slifkin, titled Harry Potter's Fabulous Jewish Monsters.

I also recommend Rabbi Slifkin's books, including Mysterious Creatures, and expect to enjoy his new book as well.

Featured bookstores carrying Harry Potter and Torah

Jewish bookstores in New Jersey (Teaneck) and in Israel (Beit Shemesh and Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef) have replenished their supplies of Harry Potter and Torah.

The newest bookstore to carry the book is in Seattle, check back soon for details when it's in stock!

If your local store is interested in selling Harry Potter and Torah, they can contact the author at author@harrypottertorah.com for details on a variety of ways they can order it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Jewish perspective

Hi everyone. I assume that everyone's had enough time now to finish Deathly Hallows, so I'm going to start writing about my thoughts on the book and some Jewish perspectives on it. Below are some general thoughts about the book, with more specifics to follow in other messages.

Overall I really liked the book. It was definitely the most fun since the early ones, in that it didn't waste time, just about every page was action-filled and important for the story.

Most of all, I'm glad that Harry won, and that he won with a sense of personal responsibility for eradicating evil. And I'm glad he did it without turning to others, although he did receive help from others. And I'm glad Dumbeldore was truly dead, not that I wish anyone to be dead, but that Harry won himself.

I admit that I'm somewhat sorry that Snape ended up being a good guy. He was fun to hate. But at least it was done in a way that made some sense, and explained how he'd been acting.

That said, I'm disappointed that his lifelong feelings for Harry's mother were described as "love" rather than "obsession." More on that point in a future message.

From a Jewish perspective, I was somewhat disturbed by the death theme at the end of the book, but not as much so as I might have been. I'd like to break this into two parts: first is the scene with Harry's dying and them coming back to life, and second is the idea that he had to die to save everyone else.

The whole scene of his dying and then coming back to life was, unfortunately I believe, a strong sign of the author's xian religious background. She threw in the line at the end about how the whole thing happened inside Harry's head, but nonetheless, the scene seemed a lot like xian death and ressurection. And it added nothing to the story, other than a bit of explanation from Dumbeldore and the sight of the "child under the seat" (more on this later). It's surprising to see such a xian scene when the rest of the books have been completely free of any religious mention, but on the other hand, it's not surprising that the author's religious background should creep in somehow.

But all that said, it didn't really change the book for me. It's one scene, and can be largely ignored without effecting the story.

Second, though, is that the book built up the theme of Harry dying as a means of giving protection to others. Throughout the series there was a theme of Harry's having received magical protection from his mother's having died trying to save his life. This was always characterized in terms of her love, not as "dying for sins" or anything like that. There a book chapter in Harry Potter and Torah that gives a Jewish perspective on magical protection from self-sacrifice, in the blog here and in book form here.

I'd like to read Deathly Hallows as continuing the same theme. Harry's being willing to sacrifice himself out of love for his friends and out of committment to fighting evil led to everyone else's receiving magical protection at the end of the fight with Voldemort. I think that the story works perfectly well that way.

Combining the two, we have a final few scenes that could be read in a non-xian way, but could also be read in a very xian way. I encourage everyone to read my Jewish perspective on magical protection, and enjoy Deathly Hallows in that light.

There's lots more to say, but I'm going to write other messages over the next week or so on specific points in the book, my thoughts on them, and Jewish perspectives on them.

Comments welcome, either as blog comments or as email to author@harrypottertorah.com

Hope everyone's enjoying Deathly Hallows!

I hope everyone's enjoying Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I'm still reading, and I'm not going to post anything here about it until next week, to give time for everyone reading this to finish the book.

The predictions I made before the book came out, based on Harry Potter and Torah, are here, here, and here. Next week I'll go through them and discuss how accurate they were.

Comments welcome! E-mail author@harrypottertorah.com

CNN News coverage of Harry Potter and Torah

A CNN International Business news piece on the Harry Potter market includes several short comments by me, your Harry Potter and Torah author. You can see it on-line here:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2007/07/20/boulden.uk.harry.potter.book.business.cnn

or see it on CNN TV yourself, in the international business news.

Washington Jewish Week excerpt now on-line

The excerpt from Harry Potter and Torah that appeared in this past week's Washington Jewish Week is now available on-line here:

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=7394&SectionID=31&SubSectionID=30&S=1

Enjoy!

Book now for sale in Ramat Beit Shemesh bookstore

The bookstore Yerid HaSefarim of Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, is now selling Harry Potter and Torah.

Another Deathly Hallows (book 7) prediction: The Power of Love

Everyone's asking me what I predict for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows based on Harry Potter and Torah. Here's another such prediction, in anticipation of the book's release at the end of the week: (click here to see my previous prediction)

I think that Harry's victory over Voldemort will be based strongly on his feelings of love for friends and family. This will make him continue his relationship with Ginny, and change his mind about Ron and Hermione working with him to find Voldemort, and it will play a role in the final battle with Voldemort.

OK, it's not a revolutionary prediction, but now for the explanation of why this prediction is an application of Torah thought.

Throughout the first six books we've read of Dumbeldore's belief that love is the the most powerful magic. Early in the series this seems to be a very abstact concept, such as in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Voldemort tries to magically enter Harry's brain but is unable to do so when Harry thinks about his love for his father-figure Serius. But in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price (chapter 23) the magical power of love is given a more concrete meaning:

[Dumbelore said:] It will take uncommon skill and power to kill a wizard like Voldemort....

"But I haven't got uncommon skill and power," said Harry, before he could stop himself.

"Yes, you have," said Dumbeldore firmly. "You have a power that Voldemort has never had. You can ---"

"I know!" said Harry impatiently. "I can love!" It was only with difficulty that he stopped himself from adding "Big Deal!"

"Yes, Harry, you can love," said Dumbeldore, who looked as though he knew perfectly well what Harry had just refrained from saying. "Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. You are still yoo young to understand how unusual you are, Harry."

...

"It is essential that you understand this!" said Dumbeldore, standing up and striding about the room, his glittering robes swooshing in his wake. Harry had never seen him so agitated... "It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, ... and yet, Harry, despite your priviledged insight into Voldemort's world... you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort's followers!"

"Of course I haven't!" said Harry indignantly. "He killed my Mum and Dad!"

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said Dumbeldore loudly. "The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemorts! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart...."

"But sir," said Harry, making valiant efforts not to sound argumentative, "it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try to kill him, or---"

"Got to?" said Dumbelore. "Of course you've got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried! ... Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!"

Harry ... thought of his mother, his father, and Sirius... A flame seemed to leap inside his chest, searing his throat.

"I'd want him finished," said Harry quickly. "And I'd want to do it."

... He understood what Dumbeldore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to teh death and walking into the arena with your head held high... Dumbeldore knew -- and so do I, and so did my parents -- that there was all the difference in the world.

We see here that Harry's power of love is a concrete power that gives him magical motivation and strength against the black magic of Voldemort.


In the Torah this power of love, power based on relationship and based on emotion, is the power of Joseph. Joseph is the dreamer. Joseph is the only man in the Torah to be described in terms of his good looks (Gen 39:6, compare with 29:17, 24:16). Joseph is appointed leader of Egypt in a role that seems to be much more about the image of leadership than about management (Gen 41:42-43). And Joseph's blessing from his father is focused on his relationships (Gen 49:22).


On the other hand, the power of the strong rational and intellectual leader is Judah (eg Gen 44:18). Judah took charge of the plan to sell Joseph into slavery (Gen 37:26). And from Judah ultimately came King David and the royal line of kings. Judah was the source of Jewish leadership.


But, as an interesting analogue to the Harry Potter story quoted above, Judah did not have the power to withstand strong temptation from Tamar (Gen 38:15-16) while Joseph DID have the power to withstand similar temptations from Potifar's wife (Gen 39:12). Judah lost his Jewish purity in dealings with non-Jewish tribes (Gen 38:1, Rashi there) while Joseph fought to maintain Jewish seperation in Egypt (Gen 46:34).


However, and the paradigm of leadership by emotion and love and relationship, Joseph is held to a tremendously high standard. Joseph's relationships HAD to be altruistic and for the sake of the greater good. A tiny bit is self-interest (Gen 40:14) caused Joseph to be held in prison for two extra years (Gen 41:1, Rashi). If someone is going to be driven by love and emotion, it must be pure. Emotion of self-interest will not succeed.


Ultimately, the salvation of the Jews in Egypt started with Joseph, and only after that was Judah the leader. And ultimately we are told by the Prophets that Jewish salvation will come from the joining of forces between Joseph and Judah. "Take a stick, and write on it 'for Judah,' ... then take another stick and write on it 'for Joseph,' ... Join them together into one stick, so that they are one in your hand... behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations.. and will gather them on every side, and bring them to their own land" (Ezekiel 37:16-21, Haftara of VaYigash).


So we've seen strong analogues between Harry Potter's magical power of love and the power of emotion-based leadership of Joseph in the Torah. As we read about Harry's victory over Voldemort, which I predict will be based strongly on this power of love, we can also hope and pray for Jewish leadership to find the right balance between love (which needs to be purely altruistic, not self-interested) and rational strong leadership, to bring us the salvation we pray for and an end to the exile we remember on Tisha B'Av next week.



A lot of the ideas written here are based on the Torah thoughts of Rav Ahron Levitansky and Rav Matis Weinberg.

Book reviewed in Connections Magazine (Israel)

Harry Potter and Torah was reviewed in this month's issue of Connections Magazine, just out today. The review isn't yet on-line (I'll post a link when it is), but the magazine is distributed in English-speaking areas of Israel.

For Connections readers interested in buying Harry Potter and Torah, it's now available at Sefarim Ve'Od in the Migdal HaMayim neighborhood of Beit Shemesh. If other bookstores in your area are interested in carrying the book, feel free to e-mail me at author@harrypottertorah.com and I'll be in touch with them.

Last chance for first batch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Now is the last chance to pre-order a copy

of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the first batch being sold when the book is released! To order from Amazon, just click on the following link before noon EST on July 17.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0545010225?tag=hpt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0545010225

If you're thinking about what's going to happen in this seventh and final Harry Potter book, see here and here for two predictions that I've made based on ideas from Harry Potter and Torah. I'll post a few more predictions here later this week.

Recommended reading for Tisha B'Av

Tisha B'Av, the holiday remembering and mourning the destructions of Jerusalem and the expulsions of the Jews from the Land of Israel, is hard for many Jews to relate to. It's simply hard for us to relate to our current life as exile.


The following books are books that I've found, each in their own way, to bring the "Eicha" into modern life. They're not the most pleasant reading, but if anyone is looking for something to read on Tisha B'Av, or more generally to show the feelings of war and terror, I suggest the following.


Adjusting Sights: An excellent book about the 1973 Yom Kippur war, written by a then-18 year old religious soldier grappling with the pain, loss, and utter confusion of war.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1902881702?tag=hpt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1902881702


Life in the Shadow of Terror: A collection of personal accounts of life in Jerusalem during the Palestinian Intifada 2000-2003.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568712375?tag=hpt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568712375


O Jerusalem: The classic tale of the battle for Israeli independence in 1948.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671662414?tag=hpt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0671662414


Let's all work, hope, and pray for this year to be the end of terror and all suffering, and the beginning of true world peace.

Book excerpt on aish.com site: Harry Potter and Jewish Unity

The aish.com website has posted a second excerpt from Harry Potter and Torah on their website: Harry Potter and Jewish Unity:

http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Harry_Potter_and_Jewish_Unity.asp

For those of you not familiar with the aish.com website, it's the most popular Jewish web site according to the Alexa Internet rankings, the accepted standard in web site popularity rankings. Check it out, it has articles and videos of Jewish interest on a tremendous variety of topics. Including Harry Potter.

Was Fawkes the Phoenix on Noah's Ark? See Washington Jewish Week

Was Fawkes the Phoenix on Noah's Ark? Washington DC area readers can find out in an excerpt from Harry Potter and Torah in this week's issue of the Washington Jewish Week.

Unbreakable Vows in Harry Potter and in Judaism (Matot)

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price (the sixth book) we learn about unbreakable vows. In chapter 2 we see how Professor Snape takes an Unbreakable Vow: (some details skipped so as not to spoil it for those who haven't read it)

"Certainly, ... I shall make the Unbreakable Vow," he said quietly. "Perhaps your sister will consent to be our bonder... You will need your wand."
...
"Will you, Severus, watch over .... ?"
"I will," said Snape.

A thin tongue of brilliant flame issues from the wand and wrapped around their hands like a red-hot wire.

"And will you, to the best of your ability, protect... ?"
"I will," said Snape.

A second tongue of flame shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a fine, flowing chain.

"And, if it should prove necessary ... will you... ?"
"I will," said Snape.

A third tongue of flame shot from the wand, twisted with the others, and bound itself thickly around their clasped hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake.

And later we read Ron's simple explanation to Harry of what Unbreakable Vows
are:

"An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned... "Are you
sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?"

"Well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow...."

"I'd worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?"

"You die."

The idea of vows that magically bind a person's soul is found explicitly in the Torah, in the Torah portion of Matot (Matos). As the Torah tells us (Num 30:3):

"If a man makes a vow to G-d, or makes an oath to prohibited something to his soul, he must not break his word, whatever he says must be done."

Commentaries elaborate that vows and oaths include commitments to do certain things and commitments not to do certain things. If someone makes a vow or oath not to eat a certain food, for example, that food becomes as prohibited as pork. If someone makes a vow or oath to go to a certain place at a certain time, going to that place at that time becomes as required as any other commandment.

Oaths and vows are so important in the Torah that Jews have adopted the practice of never making them, even for things that they intend to carry out, because of not wanting to take any risk of breaking an oath or vow. As an example, on the back cover of Harry Potter and Torah I pledge to give a tenth of my profits from book sales to schools that educate English-speaking children living in Israel, but I specified that this pledge was not a Torah oath, just a pledge.

This is also the source of one of the most famous and well-attended prayer services of the Jewish year, Kol Nidrei, on Yom Kippur eve. Said right before the onset of the Yom Kippur holiday, the prayer specifies that we want to release ourselves from any vows or oaths that we've made that we didn't mean to make, and that we enter the new year with the desire not to commit ourselves to any vows or oaths that we may make mistakenly. Many of the things that people want atonement for on Yom Kippur relate to rash decisions, sometimes oaths or vows, that are made in the heat of the moment and which we later see to be mistakes. In Kol Nidrei we start the day of atonement with a request that G-d release us from all of these vows or oaths that we should not make.

Of course, for vows and oaths, and for all Torah laws, the Jewish perspective on reward and punishment is more complicated than Unbreakable Vows in the Harry Potter world, for which someone simply dies when violating. The Torah views the world as more complicated than simply "do this, you die." But like in Harry Potter's world, the Torah sees vows and oaths as very important, binding the person's soul to the promise made.

I'm not going to speculate how Snape's Unbreakable Vow will resurface in the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Would Snape have killed Dumbeldore if he had had the option of attending a Kol Nidrei prayer service? We may never know.

But Jews don't need magical spells to commit to things, as the Torah says, whatever we say should be done. By taking our commitments seriously, our words take on a magical force of their own.

Book for sale in Beit Shemesh (Israel)

Many people in Israel have asked me about buying Harry Potter and Torah in local stores. It's now for sale in Sefarim Ve'Od in the Migdal HaMayim neighborhood of Beit Shemesh.

More stores are in the works, so check back here or at the book's web site for more....

What can the Order of the Phoenix movie tell us about Deathly Hallows?

The movie will open to the public in theaters in five hours as I write this, and the reviews are sounding pretty good. One thing I haven't seen discussed much is what the movie may hint to us about the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due out in under two weeks.

In Harry Potter and Torah's chapter titled Everything Happens for a Reason I speculated about the scene in Order of the Phoenix where Dumbeldore uses a magical instrument in his office that showed an image of two snakes, and Dumbeldore muttered the mysterious words "yet still divided." It's a curious scene, and one that usually ends up meaning something later in the series. As I discuss at length in Harry Potter and Torah, in the Hary Potter series and in the Torah perspective on our lives, everything does in fact happen for a reason.

But this week will be the test: Will the Order of the Phoenix movie show that scene? Movie reviews have commented that the movie has streamlined the story considerably to fit it into the movie's time, so any scene that doesn't matter in the story has probably been cut. If this scene is in fact maintained in the movie, it will be a further sign that it will be significant in the final book, Deathly Hallows, later this month.

A prediction for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book seven)

A lot of people have been asking me what I predict for the seventh and final Harry Potter book, which is coming out in about 2 weeks, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Many readers have asked me by e-mail, and it was the most popular question I received when I spoke recently in New York.

One prediction that I believe in strongly is based on a chapter in Harry Potter and Torah titled Mudbloods, Moabites, and Moshiach. I believe that Harry will defeat Voldemort, and that he will specifically do so by benefiting in some way by his having grown up among Muggles. In other words, Harry will defeat Voldemort using some power that he has by virtue of his not being pureblood.

Anyone interested in the details of why I believe this will need to read the chapter in Harry Potter and Torah, but in short, Torah philosophers teach that the Jewish Moshiach (savior), and in fact King David and the entire Jewish royal bloodline, is specifically descended from immoral people and immoral relationships. Two reasons are given for this. First, saviors are distinguished from their origins by being very different from their origins. Being a moral person descended from immoral circumstances makes the savior a "new creation" of sorts. Second, rising from immoral circumstances shows that the savior has the ability to transform personally, which is a prerequisite for transforming the world.

Obviously the "mudblood" concept in Harry Potter is different from immorality in the Torah, but I think that the lesson is analogous. Something in Harry's being the "savior" in the Harry Potter series requires that he grew up among Muggles, both to make Harry distinct from his origins and to give him the demonstrated power to transform himself magically, and I predict that this will be part of the power that he uses to defeat Voldemort.

Comments welcome, either as blog comments or by e-mail to author@harrypottertorah.com