From ParshaBlog: Did Chava Speak Parseltongue?

In Harry Potter and Torah I wrote a chapter on speaking animals, titled Talking Snakes and Human Souls, discussing the power of speech, the uniqueness of the human soul, and talking animals. In the course of this discussion I note that Eve may have been the world's first parselmouth.

Now I see that the ParshaBlog has written a very in-depth article titled Did Chava Speak Parseltongue? on the subject of talking animals. Definitely a good read for those interested in what Jewish sources say on the subject of talking animals.

REPOST: Harry's Good Heart and Yom Kippur

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.

Kids and self-control

I'm sure I'll think of a connection later to Harry Potter, but this is just a quick post about something I saw that I find fascinating: Psychological and Educational research on the importance of self-control. Certainly the connection to Judaism is obvious, especially during the time period between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur where we're focusing on self-improvement.

The book that's discussed in the video is available here: http://qurl.com/8kcwg

Dumbeldore's repentance (teshuva) - a sign of a leader, or unbecoming of a leader?

The period before Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur is always one of introspection, teshuva (repentance), and hopefully self-improvement. I wrote a series of articles a few years ago on examples of repentance in Harry Potter, and in the first article I listed Dumbeldore as an example of someone who clearly repented and changed his ways in the course of the story.

Deathly Hallows does a great job of portraying people's reactions to Dumbeldore's having made mistakes in his past. His opponents were thrilled to find something to "take him down" for, and even his followers (like Harry) were confused at the conflict between their image of their leader and the pictures they were seeing of his past. This is not different from all the revelations we see in newspapers nowadays, of politicians with questionable actions in their past.

The question is: Is Dumbeldore tainted by having consorted with Grindewald and planned anti-muggle activities? Or should he be judged only by who he is today?

This is a question that comes up often nowadays in how leaders are portrayed, both politicians and religious Jewish leaders. Is a President a worse President, or a worse human being, because of whether he inhaled drugs as a college student? Is a Rabbinical Scholar less wise, less worthy of following, or less leadership-worthy, because of whether he did something 30 years earlier that he wouldn't do today? Are the characters in the Torah less Sacred and less awe-inspiring if they did things that make them human and that we can learn from?

In the Harry Potter stories, I think the resounding answer is that Dumbeldore wouldn't have been Dumbeldore if he hadn't done what he did as a teen. Yes, it was painful for him later, but so much of his character, of his empathy, and of his understanding came from his living through his father's actions, his realizations about Grindewald, and his decision to move his life in the other direction.

This exact point is discussed in Harry Potter and Torah in a chapter titled Mudbloods Moabites and Moshiach. The chapter makes the point that the ancestors of King David, and thereby the ancestors of all Jewish Kings and of the Moshiach, have their roots in some very shady deeds. From Lot and his daughters to Yehuda and Tamar, we see why the Midrash says "I found King David my servant - where was he found? In Sodom!"

This is explained very clearly in the Hebrew book MiMa'amakim, which writes (page 95) as follows: In the period before Moshiach, the Jewish people will be in a dark and terrible state, and it will be the Moshiach's job to raise them to the highest levels. For him to have the power to do this, Divine Providence will have it that even the Moshiach's birth will reflect transforming definitive evil to the highest spirituality. Everyone alive will know that he has the ability to similarly transform all.

After all, don't we want leaders that have themselves accomplished the self-improvement and growth that we all aspire to ourselves? Don't we want leaders that can relate to us and inspire us?

The Talmud says that if we re-make ourselves on Rosh HaShana, G-d will credit us on Yom Kippur as a brand new creation, free of any of the baggage that we may have picked up along the way. Not only do leaders need to know how to do this, but we do as well.

I want to wish everyone a sweet new year and meaningful Rosh HaShana holiday. May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life and of all the Blessings possible.

Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur are coming soon...

Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur are now officially a month away, and we've started the Jewish month of Elul in which we prepare for the holidays. In that spirit, here are links to some essays I wrote previously on Harry Potter themes related to the High Holidays:

Harry Potter and the Power of Repentance:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/08/harry-potter-and-power-of-teshuva.html

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

Even Malfoy's or Wormtail's repentance counts:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/09/rosh-hashana-even-malfoys-or-wormtails.html

Harry Potter's advice of feeling remorse:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/09/yom-kippur-take-harry-potters-advice.html

More notes about repentance:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/09/final-thoughts-about-harry-potter-and.html

I hope that everyone has had a great summer, and hope to have more Harry Potter and Torah thoughts for you soon!

Harry Potter thought on Hirhurim blog - choosing beliefs

Gil Student's fun-to-read Hirhurim blog has an interesting article on the discussion in Deathly Hallows of Harry's choosing what to believe:

Here is the first discussion (pp. 152-153):

"Well, in that interview," Harry went on, "Rita Skeeter hinted that Professor Dumbledore was involved in the Dark Arts when he was young."

"Don't believe a word of it!" said Doge at once. "Not a word, Harry! Let nothing tarnish your memories of Albus Dumbledore!"

Harry looked into Doge's earnest, pained face and felt, not reassured, but frustrated. Did Doge really think it was that easy, that Harry could simply choose not to believe? Didn't Doge understand Harry's need to be sure, to know everything?

And here is the second exchange (p. 185):

[Hermione:] "Harry, do you really think you'll get the truth from a malicious old woman like Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter? How can you believe them? You knew Dumbledore!"

"I thought I did," he muttered.

"But you know how much truth there was in everything Rita wrote about you! Doge is right, how can you let these people tarnish your memories of Dumbledore?"

He looked away, trying not to betray the resentment he felt. There it was again: Choose what to believe. He wanted the truth. Why was everbody so determined that he should not get it?

Gil omits the final example, where after burying Dobby Harry makes the decision to continue with the task that he was given on the basis of belief in Dumbeldore. I this that this has a strong message for us. We can debate belief all we want, but there are also times that we have to act, and need to choose our actions based on their own right-ness even when in principle we're not certain about the beliefs.

Thoughts?

Congratulations to Neal Hendel new Israeli surpreme court justice

Mazal tov to Neal Hendel, newly appointed Israeli supreme court justice.

See the Jerusalem Post article here.

I knew Justice Hendel in Beer Sheva (not from in his courtroom). He's a real mentsh and a definite religious scholar in addition to obviously being a legal scholar.

Aish article on Harry Potter and Free Will

I thought everyone would enjoy an article on aish.com titled Harry Potter and Free Will:

http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/52495892.html

It's highly related to the chapter in Harry Potter and Torah titled Destiny and Decisions.

Jewish Horcruxes (from a Rabbi in Connecticut)

I came across the following MP3 recording of a sermon by Rabbi Daniel Cohen in Stamford CT, titled Harry Potter and the Jewish Horcrux, that I thought I'd link here:

http://rabbidanielcohenpodcasts.blogspot.com/2009/08/shabbat-sermon-harry-potter-and-jewish.html

I've always been sure that there were Jewish sources about soul-splitting. I'm still looking into the sources that Rabbi Cohen quotes - I'll post more if I find more ideas relevant to Harry Potter.

Enjoy! Comments welcome as always.

Making Tisha B'Av mean something

Hi everyone, I haven't blogged for a while, even with the new Harry Potter movie out. But here it is on Tisha B'Av afternoon, and I just want to share some thoughts.

I spent the first half of the day today, from 8am until noon, at Tisha B'Av prayers with teaching and elaboration by Rabbi Yaacov Haber, a Rabbi I've been in contact with for 20 years but only now live in the same town. The prayers and Rabbi Haber's teachings, and most other teachings and writings about the day, revolve around two themes: (1) All the horrible events that have happened throughout history on Tisha B'Av, and (2) the Talmud's conclusion that the exile that we're mourning is Divine punishment for hatred between Jews.

Right now, though, I feel very frustrated. Jews the world over can mourn the exile, fast, say prayers remembering horrors throughout Jewish history, and discuss the problems with hatred between Jews. Then we go home, rest a bit, eat dinner when the fast day is over, and go back to our regular lives the next day. And unfortunately, there will be as much hatred between Jews tomorrow as there was yesterday.

I think we all need to do something really simple. We need to decide, each of us, what we can do to reduce hatred in the world, particularly hatred between Jews. Can we commit to trying to understand others instead of insulting them? Can we commit to doing something active to bring different groups of Jews together? Can we commit to doing something nice for people that we might not otherwise do?

It's very easy to focus on other Jews that need to do this more than us. Here in Israel it's easy to say that the REAL problems of hatred between Jews are the rioters, or the stone throwers, or the ..... But if we say that, nothing will change. We've all got to make a change.

If we can do this, maybe, with G-d's help, next year's Tisha B'Av can be a celebration instead of a fast day, and we can reach a Messianic state of true peace and understanding. If we want that, we need to make a step.