Lion and the Joseph Story

Today I watched a film called "Lion" which is based on a book I have not yet read entitled A Long Way Home. The film is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley. Saroo was born in India. He and his brother Guddu are poor and the two of them steal coal and work odd jobs to help out their mother (who is a laborer who gathers stones). One day Saroo follows Guddu to a job, becomes separated from him, endures a harrowing journey by train, and ends up lost. Eventually, he is adopted by a couple in Australia. The film tells the story of Saroo's separation from his birth family and homeland and his eventual return and reunion.

Over the course of the film, I realized that I was watching the story of Joseph brought to life. Joseph, too, was separated from his family. He endured evil and finds himself in a completely different culture, adopted/ raised by Potiphar and eventually Pharaoh. Just like Saroo wonders whether his mother is still alive and wants to comfort her, so too Joseph wonders whether his father is still alive and (eventually) wants to comfort him. The reunion scene between Saroo and his mother is similar to that described between Joseph and his father.

Below is a list of similarities between the two stories.

• Both Saroo and Joseph are abandoned by a brother (in Saroo's case, it is not intentional)
• Both Saroo and Joseph experience hardship and encounter evil (including in a sexual form). There are individuals who try to kidnap Saroo and others who want to use him for sex. Joseph is sold to a traveling band of individuals, was possibly intended for use as a catamite by Potiphar (see Rashi) and has to withstand sexual advances from Potiphar's wife. 
• Both Saroo and Joseph encounter women who seem kind but cannot be trusted. (Saroo encounters Noor, who wants to groom him to be used sexually, and Joseph encounters Potiphar's wife)
• Both Saroo and Joseph end up being "adopted" into/ raised in a different culture. (Saroo goes to Australia where he is adopted by loving white parents- so their skin, language and culture differs from his. Similarly, Joseph is "adopted" by Potiphar and then Pharoah- here too the language and culture differs).
• Both Saroo and Joseph eventually experience living a privileged lifestyle.
• Both Saroo and Joseph want to reunite with their families. (Granted, in Joseph's case it's unclear whether he initially wants to but in the end he does).
• Both Saroo and Joseph express real concern over whether their parent is still alive. 
• Both Saroo and Joseph have special markers that help prove they are who they say they are. Saroo remembers an incident where he got a scar because he was carrying a watermelon and was struck by an oncoming vehicle which he didn't see because he was carrying the watermelon. According to Midrash, Joseph sends agalot as a hint to his father that the last thing they learned together was eglah arufah.
• Both Saroo and Joseph only reunite with their parents after an extensive period of time (over 20 years). 

I think it would be fascinating to use this film to teach the story of Joseph. I would want the students to first watch the film and document their feelings and reactions regarding the story itself, the protagonists, and the conflict experienced by the protagonists. Afterwards, I would want them to learn the story of Joseph, comparing and contrasting the two protagonists and noting their similarities and differences. (The differences are important as well! For example, Saroo expends a great deal of effort and energy trying to locate his birth mother. In contrast, it is never documented that Joseph reached out to his family. This leads to an obvious question the students need to consider: Why not?) 

What makes the film meaningful vis-a-vis the Joseph story is:

• It shows that this type of story can happen (it's not "just" a Bible tale)
• It helps give the students a context for the kind of pain, fear and emotions Joseph might have felt
• It helps make the Joseph story more immediate and real for the students
• It helps the students consider how they might have responded if they were in Saroo's/ Joseph's situation

It's always amazing to see biblical stories and themes reflected in contemporary films or television shows. There's a lot of Torah to be found on both the large and small screens. 

Michal & Palti: Sansa & Tyrion

Those of you who read A Song of Ice and Fire, now more popularly known as the books that spawned the 'Game of Thrones' TV show, may have noticed by now that the book is positively biblical, which is probably why those of us who are Tanakh lovers enjoy it so much. In any case, I thought of a connection between Sansa & Tyrion and the Talmudic interpretation of Michal and Palti ben Layish.

(This is spoilery for people who have not read the books, although it will most likely come up in tonight's show).

In A Storm of Swords, Tyrion, a dwarf, is to be wedded to Sansa Stark. After they actually are wedded, the following very poignant speech is given by the dwarf:

"Sansa." The hand was gone. "Open your eyes." 

She had promised to obey; she opened her eyes. He was sitting by her feet, naked. Where his legs joined, his man's staff poked up stiff and hard from a thicket of coarse yellow hair, but it was the only thing about him that was straight. 

"My lady," Tyrion said, "you are lovely, make no mistake, but … I cannot do this. My father be damned. We will wait. The turn of a moon, a year, a season, however long it takes. Until you have come to know me better, and perhaps to trust me a little." His smile might have been meant to be reassuring, but without a nose it only made him look more grotesque and sinister. 

Look at him, Sansa told herself, look at your husband, at all of him, Septa Mordane said all men are beautiful, find his beauty, try. She stared at the stunted legs, the swollen brutish brow, the green eye and the black one, the raw stump of his nose and crooked pink scar, the coarse tangle of black and gold hair that passed for his beard. Even his manhood was ugly, thick and veined, with a bulbous purple head. This is not right, this is not fair, how have I sinned that the gods would do this to me, how? 

"On my honor as a Lannister," the Imp said, "I will not touch you until you want me to."
it took all the courage that was in her to look in those mismatched eyes and say, "And if I never want you to, my lord?" 

His mouth jerked as if she had slapped him. "Never?" 

Her neck was so tight she could scarcely nod. 

"Why," he said, "that is why the gods made whores for imps like me." He closed his short blunt fingers into a fist, and climbed down off the bed.

Even though Tyrion is Sansa's lawful husband, and for the sake of the kingdom and his father Tywin he needs to sleep with Sansa, he prefers to wait for her acquiescence rather than consummating the marriage. And he will wait forever, if need be.

It occurred to me that this scene nicely parallels the Talmudic interpretation of Palti ben Layish's marriage to Michal, daughter of Saul and wife of David. In Sanhedrin 19b, we read:

 כתיב פלטי וכתיב פלטיאל אמר ר' יוחנן פלטי שמו ולמה נקרא שמו פלטיאל שפלטו אל מן העבירה מה עשה נעץ חרב בינו לבינה אמר כל העוסק בדבר זה ידקר בחרב זה והכתיב (שמואל ב ג) וילך אתה אישה שנעשה לה כאישה והכתיב (שמואל ב ג) הלוך ובכה על המצוה דאזיל מיניה עד בחורים שנעשו שניהם כבחורים שלא טעמו טעם ביאה אמר רבי יוחנן תוקפו של יוסף ענוותנותו של בועז תוקפו של בועז ענוותנותו של פלטי בן ליש תוקפו של יוסף ענוותנותו של בועז  

[The second husband of David's undivorced wife] is variously called Palti⁴²  and Paltiel!⁴³  — R. Johanan said: His name was really Palti, but why was he called Paltiel? Because God saved him from transgression.⁴⁴  What did he do [to be delivered from sin]? He planted a sword between her [Michal] and himself, and said, Whoever [first] attempts this thing,⁴⁵  shall be pierced with this sword. But is it not stated: And her husband [Palti] went with her?⁴⁶  — This means that he was to her like a husband.⁴⁷  But is it not written, He went weeping? — This was for losing the good deed [of self-restraint]. Hence [he followed her] to Bahurim, implying that they both had remained like unmarried youths⁴⁸  and not tasted the pleasure of marital relations.
R. Johanan said: Joseph's strong [temptation]⁴⁹  was but a petty trial to Boaz;⁵⁰  and that of Boaz was small in comparison with that of Palti son of Layish.
  

In both of these situations, a man who ostensibly wishes to sleep with his beautiful wife refrains from doing so, either because a) it was not her choice to wed him, and he does not wish to force her or b) she is still married to another man. Each man exercises supreme self control, and it's always cool to see a modern example of an ancient event.