A Serious Man

I just saw the movie by the Coen brothers called “A Serious Man.” In the movie, a nice but nebbishe Jewish guy from Minneapolis, has bad things happen to him.” I will talk about the movie in a minute but first, a little theology.

The question here is “why do bad things happen to good people?” Our parasha today has a very succinct answer to the question and it is how most of the Bible answers this question, “bad things don’t happen to good people, only to bad people.”

Take a quick look at our parasha today. God comes to Abraham and says, “I am going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness.” Abraham says, using good Biblical theology, “how can You (God) destroy the good people in the cities along with the wicked?” And here is the theology: “chalilah lach, ha shofet kol haaretz lo yaaseh mishpat?” God forbid, says Abraham to God, the judge of all the earth, Himself, will not do justice? And God agrees with Abraham. He will not sweep away the good people with the bad. He will not bring bad things upon good people. This is the theology of just about the entire Bible.

But then comes the Biblical Book of Job which stands Biblical theology on its head. Job is a completely righteous man who enjoys God’s blessings: good health, wealth, love, children. Satan says to God, “of course Job is righteous. Look at all the blessings you have given him. Take those blessings away; afflict Job with tzuris and just watch how fast he curses God.” So God takes it all away and Job does not curse God but he does ask a pretty poignant question, “why me?” Three friends come to Job, one after the other, and repeat to Job Biblical theology saying: “maybe, Job, you just don’t remember. But you must have done something to deserve the evil that has befallen you.” But Job, in fact, didn’t do anything wrong. The friends are wrong. At the end of the book, God comes to Job from within a whirlwind and says to him, “who are you who gives dubious counsel without knowledge?” This essentially means that Job, you cannot possibly understand the ways of God. Deal with what you have, the good as well as the bad.” Conversation over. This is the revolutionary theology of Job.

So the movie, “A Serious Man. ” a comedy. The movie was made by the Coen brothers who brought us “No Country for Old Men,” “Fargo,” and my favorite, “The Big Lebowski.” The serious man in the movies Larry Gobnick, a Jewish physics professor up for tenure. He’s a good man, who resists the temptations to do evil. Yet, his wife is leaving him for Cy Ableman, who is an obnoxious family friend. And if that isn’t humiliation enough, his wife and Cy convince Larry that it would be best for everybody if Larry moved out of the house and into this cheesy motel. Larry moves out. Then it gets worse. Cy dies in a car crash and his wife convinces Larry that it would be best for everybody if Larry paid for Cy’s funeral, which he does. More problems. Larry’s daughter is stealing money to save up for a nose job. Larry’s son is stealing money to buy marijuana from his Hebrew school classmate. In fact, his son likes marijuana so much that he smokes it the morning of his Bar Mitzvah and has some trouble, understandably, reading the Torah in front of the congregation.

Things are bad for Larry all around and everyone he talks to tells him to go talk to the rabbi. He can help. There are three rabbis in his shul, the assistant, the senior rabbi and the wise and mysterious Rabbi Emeritus whose name is simply, Marshak.

The first two rabbis are like Job’s friends who are of no help to the suffering Gobnick. The third Rabbi, Marshak, doesn’t have time to see him because, as his secretary says to Gobnick, the rabbi is busy “thinking.”
God finally takes Larry’s health away from him and a whirlwind comes in the final scene threatening to whisk away his son and his classmates. The movie ends abruptly here without God saying anything and the rest of us asking, what the heck is going on here? In the credits, the Coen brothers reassure us, “No Jews were injured in the making of this film.”

Good stuff for a sermon. A very funny movie but I think a serious movie as well.
It asks: Why is there evil in the world? Why does God allow the innocent to suffer? What does life mean, why are we here?

When Larry seeks out help from his religious tradition, he is frustrated as the rabbis he talks to come off as foolish. The junior rabbi seems to be facing his own religious crises and the senior rabbi tells Larry a silly story that doesn’t have anything to do with Larry’s problems. And he can’t even get in to see the emeritus. In other words, Judaism doesn’t help Larry in the existential crises that he faces.

But not so fast. The Coen brothers do seem to have some answers for us in the film if one looks closely. And these answers are very Jewish answers.
The first answer is right out of Job. We are human beings and we must live in this world with a sense of humility. We cannot know the mind of God. We cannot fully understand the good or the bad that happens to us. Gobnick is a physics teacher and in one scene, he illustrates the mathematical formula for Werner Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle.” He says to his students after writing the formula all over the board that the formula basically says we can’t know anything for sure. Then he says to his students:, “you are responsible to know this formula on the midterm.” Even the physics teacher teaching math using a precise equation concludes that we can’t know anything for sure. Even so, we are responsible to live our lives the best way we can. We have to live this way in a state of simply not knowing.
Secondly, again, from Job. The world can baffle us and even break our hearts but we can still turn to God. Here were Jews in a Minneapolis suburb, bad things are happening; the Jewish community looks shallow, the clergy silly. But the Coen brothers’ characters, interestingly enough, never question the existence of God. Disagree with God. Be angry with God. Perhaps even curse God, just don’t turn your back on God. The funny characters in the movie never turn their back on God. This is a very Jewish response to the problem of evil.

And finally. The Jewish approach to the problem of why bad things happen to good people. This is put in the mouth of the elderly rabbi emeritus, Marshak. Unlike his father, Larry’s son, the stoned Bar Mitzvah boy, does get a single brief audience with Rabbi Marshak who has been listening to the boy’s transistor radio. When the radio was confiscated a week before by the Hebrew school teacher, it had been playing Jefferson Airplane’s song: “Don’t You Want Somebody to Love.” We hear this song playing throughout the movie as its theme song. So now Marshak, in a thick Yiddish accent repeats the song’s first words to the boy. And here are the words: when the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies.” And then the great rabbi gives the radio back to the boy and says, “be a good boy.” And that is it from Marshak, the wise one, but that is enough.
Our lives don’t always make sense as the song says; when the truth is found to be lies. And sometimes, life breaks our hearts, as the song says: and all the joy within us, dies. And, of course, we finish the song in our minds, “you’d better find somebody to love.” This is the first answer from Marshak via Jefferson Airplane. “You’d better find somebody to love” Loving others, perhaps, is all that is true and meaningful in our lives. It is the balm for the broken heart.
And then Marshak says finally to Larry’s son, “be a good boy.” This comes right out of Ecclesiastes when King Solomon, failing to make sense of his world, in exasperation, says: “the sum of the matter, when all has been considered, fear God and keep His commandments, for that is man’s whole duty.” In other words, be a good boy.

What does the wise rabbi teach us in the film? What pearls of wisdom do the Coen Brothers leave us with? Despite the pain and confusion we experience in our lives: do good, as best you can. Love others, the best you can. And leave the rest up to God.

Another Coen Brothers triumph. A very Jewish movie, a funny movie, but serious as well. Indeed, no Jews were hurt in the making of this film. None hurt, but most likely, enlightened.