Spoilers for season one. There are 3 seasons, and I'm about to finish season one.
I'm watching Shtisel, a show from Israel. It's an orthodox religious society, and yet there is a sensuality. It got me wondering if challenging asceticism is just moving the goalposts. Now TV is always excitement and sensuality, so perhaps it says nothing of the society, maybe it's more about what excites hope. People fall asleep, don't really say their prayers. There is constricting rituals and limitless freedom.
In traditional societies marriage is about propagating the species, not love. The fight for integrity is the struggle in a secular and a traditional society. We can gaze at each other and wonder, but each has strengths and weaknesses. The pressure to be enthralled by a person is an unrealistic expectation. To live without someone without being enthralled all the time, doesn't mean there aren't little moments of love.
It seems like the propagation of the species might be important in Israel, as they've just recovered from the slaughtering of 6 million Jews during the holocaust. One person can't replenish the tribe, but there's a kind of unspoken urge to propagate propagate, trying to right past wrong. Such a burden.
There is almost a Amish approach to technology. Akiva lives in a neighborhood without internet. Another woman's son pulls out her cable from her TV, and makes her go to a lecture by a Rabbi instead of watch her show.
Seeing your child married, working and raising a family is the goal of a parent in a traditional society. The propagation of the tribe. For all the propagation it's not very sexy.
There's a real "obey your father" vibe, similar to the one when you read the Bible.
One man flies off to South America to work and leaves the family, leaves his religious paraphernalia and gets involved with a woman outside the religion. A shiksa. He couldn't live without companionship and he doesn't want to be alone in a foreign country. So he leaves the way of life, stranding a family of 5 without a father. And yet everything is family. Family, family, family.
I really like the show, I guess I have Shtisel-mania. There's an intimacy and gentleness, a sensuality.
I feel like every religion has a continuum of fundamental to liberal, and it's interesting to see how the fundamental end of the spectrum operates. I'm not sure what this really says about ultra orthodox Judaism. The filming crew had to wear orthodox clothes to film in the neighborhood.
Links:
Unpacking the Immense Popularity of Shtisel
Television Review: “Shtisel” — A Charming Look at Jerusalem’s Ultra-Orthodox
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment