Dilemmas On Screen: A Jewish Perspective

In this episode, join Rabbi Jack Cohen in an incredible exploration, a question that probably hovers at our consciousness: does your life belong to you? Life is a gift, I didn't earn it, it was given to me for free. Am I making good on this gift? To ground this analysis, we take apart an old favorite, Good Will Hunting, and how Will see-saws between wanting on the one hand to use his genius and on the other hand to stay anonymous and hang with his buddies.  
Good Will Hunting is a movie about Will, a genius who is 20 years old. Will is an orphan, poor, a blue-collar worker with blue collar friends living in a rough neighborhood. He works as a janitor at MIT and secretly solves math equations on the blackboards of classrooms and he does so effortlessly. We also learn that he was physically abused as a child, and has trust issues due to abandonment.
Will has three principal relationships in the movie.
The first is with Gerald Lambeau, a gifted MIT professor. The Professor finds out Will is in trouble with the law, and comes to an agreement with the judge that Will can avoid jailtime on condition that Will (i) does math with the Professor, and (ii) sees a therapist. Professor wants to help Will actualize his potential, and is harder on Will, but still seems to care about him. The Professor is less interested in focusing on Will’s emotional well-being and does not like making excuses for Will even though Will had a rough childhood.
The second is with Will's therapist, Sean, played by Robin Williams. Robin Williams enters the picture because Will mocks all the therapists the Professor sets Will up with, so the Professor finally brings in Robin Williams. Therapist is able to get through to Will (very slowly, and with challenges). Therapist wants Will to follow his heart, to play his hand, and is softer on Will, but still challenges him and asks Will, what do you want to do with your life? Will doesn't have an answer.
The third is with Chuckie, Will's best friend, who is played by Ben Affleck. Chuckie is like family. Will tells Chuckie that Will is excited to raise their families together once they each get married, Chuckie tells Will that if Will is still around in twenty years, Chuckie will kill him. Chuckie says, “You don’t owe it to yourself; you owe it to me" to cash Will's golden ticket and get out of here and go make a better life for yourself. This is a major impetus for Will to make a real move.
This leads us into the following questions, namely:
Does Will have an obligation, seemingly a moral obligation, to actualize himself? If he does, is it because he owes it to himself? Or is it because he owes it to others?
How do we resolve (i) being true to what one wants versus (ii) actualizing one’s own potential, and even being an asset to other people? The Professor, and Robin Williams, and Chuckie all appear to agree that Will would be “copping out” by not using his talents. Is that true?
As an educator, mentor, friend – to what degree do you push a person, and to what degree do you let go and let the person figure out what he wants to do?
With respect to pushing Will – is the Professor manipulating Will, as Robin Williams claims? When does “pushing” become “manipulation”? Sometimes, education has to be subtle. Subtlety doesn’t automatically mean “manipulation” – when do you cross the line?
It’s true that Professor can be dismissive of Will’s emotional problems. How do we balance that? How long do we have to wait for people to get over their issues and start taking responsibility and making decisions?
 
I am excited to welcome Rabbi Jack Cohen to this episode to answer our questions. Rabbi Cohen serves as the Director of Jewish Education and Community Engagement for Hebrew Academy High School in Miami, where he strives to teach Jewish philosophy and character development in a way that is relevant and resonant to 21st century teenagers. He also coaches and supports teachers in the school and works to be an educational bridge to parents and the broader community.
Rabbi Cohen has been teaching and mentoring young people for over fifteen years with a focus on building educational ecosystems of growth opportunities that allow participants to choose their own adventure.
Prior to his current role, Rabbi Cohen served as Director of Education for Olami North America and prior to that, as Director of Education for Olami Manhattan. He maintains a close connection with his own mentors, Rav Beryl Gershenfeld, Rosh Yeshiva of Machon Shlomo and Machon Yaakov, and founder of MEOR, and Rav Immanuel Bernstein, renowned author and lecturer.
Rabbi Cohen learned in the Mirrer Yeshiva and Yad Saadia Kollel in Jerusalem. He holds a bachelor's degree in physics and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in education (EdM) from Harvard.
He publishes articles about life wisdom from Judaism regularly on his website, www.theExpressionOfLife.com.
He also has a podcast called "Breakthrough!", which is available on Spotify. It is recorded every week in Aventura, Florida in an interactive ask-what's-on-your-mind format, at the following link: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H5WermZNbhVRum1P6I4KG?si=ayecu9_LScebFsd-Li2iHg

In this episode, Rabbi Josh Livingstone joins us and humorously works through Darth Vader's final act of redemption. But was it enough? Did Anakin go too far in his transformation to the Dark Side, and his subsequent acts over the years? How does Judaism view redemption? What do we have to do, and is there ever a point of no return? 
Anakin Skywalker was picked up as a kid by the Jedi. He was expected to be the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force. Anakin was a very powerful Force user. After many years of training, Anakin secretly married Padme Amadala, which went against Jedi rules. Anakin has dreams of Padme dying and is desperate to save her. He is eventually manipulated by Chancellor Palpatine (who is secretly Darth Sidious/the [future] Emperor) into turning to the Dark Side. Anakin proceeds to exterminate the Jedi and bring the Emperor to power.
Anakin is dubbed Darth Vader, and becomes the Emperor’s right hand man. Although it is not clear from the original trilogy (episodes 4, 5 and 6), Vader either commits, or is closely allied with those who commit genocide, including when the Empire destroys a planet full of people.
In the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker is the hope of the galaxy and is being trained to be a new Jedi. Predictably, Luke eventually fights Darth Vader, whom he eventually realizes is his father. Luke tries to convince Vader to return to the good side. Luke fails to do so, and subsequently defeats Vader, but refuses to kill his father. Instead, he appeals once more to Vader’s good side.
The Emperor offers Luke the opportunity to join the Dark Side and to kill Vader. Luke refuses on both counts. The Emperor tries to kill Luke. While Luke writhes in pain, screams, and begs his father for help, Darth Vader is clearly conflicted, looking between Luke and the Emperor, back to Luke, back to the Emperor.
Darth Vader then turns to the Emperor, picks him up and throws him down a shaft, killing the Emperor. This is considered a redemption moment for Vader. Luke uncovers Vader’s helmet, and it becomes clear that Vader is back to Anakin/good guy – “you were right about me”, he says to Luke, apparently referring to their earlier conversations where Luke appeals to Vader as Anakin, the good guy.
Luke, and clearly the audience, are meant to accept Vader’s act of redemption as genuine. Anakin is given a Jedi’s funeral and appears as a Force-ghost, apparently now accepted as a Jedi Knight.
This leads us into the following questions. Namely:
What does a person have to do to repent, from the Torah’s perspective? Did Darth Vader do that?
If Darth Vader did repent, is this repentance weakened because of his motivation? Vader did not repent the evil because it was evil; rather, Vader sees his son getting killed. If this new Jedi was not his son, but rather a total stranger to Vader, Vader (presumably) would not have redeemed himself.
Is there ever a point of return? Can a person ever go so far that they lie beyond the point of redemption
Remember, Anakin:
Played a key role in exterminating the Jedi, an international peace-keeping organization;
Leads an attack against the Jedi Temple;
Murders dozens of younglings (little kids training to be Jedi);
Murders countless people;
Is suggested to have committed mass murder and even genocide, by assisting the Empire in destroying entire planets
I am excited to welcome Rabbi Josh Livingstone to this episode to answer our questions. Rabbi Livingstone lives in Baltimore with his wife and children and has been involved in Jewish outreach and education for the last 18 years. He is currently the Director of Education at RAJE Maryland, which is an organization that works with young Jewish professionals in Baltimore. Rabbi Livingstone is also a marriage coach who specializes in working with husbands in both one on one and group settings with other husbands to help them improve their skills as a husband and improve their marriages. His Instagram handle is @the_husband_coach.
For questions, please reach out to joshlivingstone@gmail.com.

If you've ever watched a movie with a legitimate moral dilemma and wondered, "Honestly, I don't really know what the right thing to do is here" - so have we. We take those questions and dive into Judaism's perspective on those questions. What does the Torah have to see? Is it totally black-and-white? What circumstances might mitigate the dilemma? Join us for an interesting, thoughtful discussion and enjoy the Jewish take on these questions. 

In this episode, Rabbi Moshe Friedman, or "Rav Mo", joins us in confronting how Harry should feel towards the Dursleys, and the breadth of, and some limits to, the need to feel gratitude to someone who has done you a kindness. The analysis centers around whether Harry does need to feel a sense of gratitude to them - despite their abuse of Harry, an orphan entrusted to their care! 
Harry Potter is a wizard whose parents were murdered when he was a year old. Harry’s only living relative is his mother’s sister, Petunia. Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, is the most powerful wizard alive, and was very close to Harry’s parents. Professor Dumbledore decides Harry should be raised by his aunt and her husband, Vernon.
Harry ends up living with his aunt, her husband, and their child, Dudley (who is the same age as Harry), for the next ten years. Harry was often underfed, was verbally and emotionally abused, and was often given a significant amount of housework and other chores. Harry then goes off to Hogwarts, per Dumbledore, “alive and healthy” and “not [as] a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances.” Nonetheless, Harry returns to the Dursleys during the summer between school years. These summers are not pleasant for Harry.
Why did Dumbledore place Harry with such miserable, unloving people? Turns out, Dumbledore knew that he was condemning Harry to ten dark and difficult years. But Dumbledore’s priority was to keep Harry alive, and being raised by the Dursleys was the best way to accomplish that. The Dursleys accepted this responsibility, grudging though that acceptance may have been.
In this episode, we will explore the following questions:
Does Harry have an obligation to be grateful to the Dursleys for taking him in, despite the mistreatment? If he does, is this obligation mitigated given the mistreatment he suffered at the hands of the Dursleys?
What further obligation to be grateful does Harry have, given the magical protection the Dursleys provided for him by allowing him to call their house, “home”?
What if Harry earned an additional benefit of not being corrupted by fame, which may have occurred in another’s home where they did, in fact, care about Harry?
Rabbi Moshe Friedman will be our guest rabbi for this episode. Rabbi Friedman is a Jewish educator, musician, spoken word artist, video essayist, and author.  He has spoken and performed for audiences around the world, and continues to explore innovative ways of spreading Jewish wisdom through art, music, and media.  You can find his work at rav-mo.com and on his YouTube channel "Mensch Sense," at https://www.youtube.com/@menschsense1. His Instagram handle is @ravmo_.