![Movies and Midrash](https://img.perlego.com/book-covers/2674380/9781438466163_300_450.webp)
Movies and Midrash
Popular Film and Jewish Religious Conversation
Wendy I. Zierler
- 328 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Movies and Midrash
Popular Film and Jewish Religious Conversation
Wendy I. Zierler
About This Book
Finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience presented by the Jewish Book Council Movies and Midrash uses cinema as a springboard to discuss central Jewish texts and matters of belief. A number of books have drawn on films to explicate Christian theology and belief, but Wendy I. Zierler is the first to do so from a Jewish perspective, exploring what Jewish tradition, text, and theology have to say about the lessons and themes arising from influential and compelling films. The book uses the method of "inverted midrash": while classical rabbinical midrash begins with exegesis of a verse and then introduces a mashal (parable) as a means of further explication, Zierler turns that process around, beginning with the culturally familiar cinematic parable and then analyzing related Jewish texts. Each chapter connects a secular film to a different central theme in classical Jewish sources or modern Jewish thought. Films covered include The Truman Show (truth), Memento (memory), Crimes and Misdemeanors (sin), Magnolia (confession and redemption), The Descendants (birthright), Forrest Gump (cleverness and simplicity), and The Hunger Games (creation of humanity in God's image), among others.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Rabbi Eugene B. Borowitz
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Truman Show: Truth
- Chapter 2 Magnolia: Confession and Redemption
- Chapter 3 The Descendants: Birthright: Consent versus Descent
- Chapter 4 On Memento: Remaking Memory from the Outside In
- Chapter 5 Crimes, Misdemeanors, and Sin
- Chapter 6 Forrest Gump: Cleverness and Simplicity
- Chapter 7 The Kingâs Speech: Speaking Godâs Word
- Chapter 8 Stranger than Fiction: God as Author
- Chapter 9 A Serious Man: Parables of Jewishness
- Chapter 10 Exam: Tests, Trials, and Attachments
- Chapter 11 The Hunger Games: In Godâs Image
- Conclusion Moonrise Kingdom: And the Youth Shall See Visions
- Appendix I On the Design of âReel Theology,â from e-mail archives
- Appendix II More Movies and Midrash: Additional Film Resources
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Back Cover