By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
SAN DIEGO — Comic-con came to a close on Sunday in San Diego! Some of my congregation’s members love dressing up for these conventions as Ninja-Turtles or as Captain America.
As a child, I loved collecting comic books. I probably would not have learned to read as quickly as I did were it not for comics. Back then, comic books did not reveal anything about the personal religious beliefs of its characters. Yes, these heroes were altruistic and lived a moral life—but comics deliberately kept away from religious topics.
I have noticed that since September 11, 2001, some comics and movies have been depicting religious fanatics threatening the peace of the universe. In one excellent adventure, Green Lantern (John Stuart) comes face to face with an enemy named Despero, a native of the harsh desert planet of Kalanor. Born with a third eye, he was outcast. In his travels through the desert, he stumbled upon the Flame of Py’tar, which gave him the ability to control the minds of others and project powerful energy blasts that could overpower even the mighty Green Lantern Corps. Soon Despero embarked on a mission to convert all the peaceful planets to his prophetic message.
But what about Jewish characters? This publication’s editor, Don Harrison, has already written a good article about the Jewishness of Superman based on the book by Larry Tye.
There is one interesting story that deserves special mentioning. In one issue of The Fantastic Four, our heroes confront your typical villain, who wishes to reduce the Earth to cinders. The story moves to a subsection of its plot, where Ben Grimm, better known as the super-strong “Thing” is standing by an old man who lying in his bed suffering from a life-threatening illness.
Despite his great powers, the “Thing” realizes there is nothing he can do to save the man. But then, Ben Grimm drops to his knees and begins chanting the Shema. Granted, the falling upon his knees is not especially Jewish, but the recitation of the Shema definitely is unexpected!
At any rate, the old man, Mr. Sheckerberg revives and has a discussion with Grimm about the meaning of faith. He says to him, “All these years in the news, they never mention you’re Jewish. I thought maybe you were ashamed of it a little?”
Grimm replies, “Nah … anyone on the Internet can figure it out, if they want. It’s just . . . I don’t talk it up is all. Figure there’s enough trouble in the world without people thinkin’, Jews are all monsters like me.”
But Sheckerberg reminds Ben Grimm about the legend of the Golem, “He was a being made of clay, but he wasn’t a monster. He was a protector—just like you.” According to Jewish legend and folklore, a 16th century mystic named R. Judah Loew ben Bezalel, created a Golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava river, and brought it to life through rituals and Kabbalistic white magic. This story gave rise to the famous Frankenstein story written by Mary Shelley in the early 18oos.
I had never thought about the Golem and Thing parallel before. In a strange way, both imaginative characters serve to promote goodness in the world; each one is a servant of God’s light. Like the Beauty in the Beast story, we cannot judge a human being by his physical appearance. For most of us, we tend to identify the beautiful with the good. In reality, there are many beautiful and handsome people who exhibit ugliness in their demeanor and behavior.
Ben Grimm and Bruce Banner (The Hulk) teach us that even what appears to us as a monster can serve a cause of nobility and goodness in the world.
It’s nice to see comic book heroes affirming their Judaism today. Too many Jews prefer to keep their Jewish identity and especially their spiritual lives in the closet, rather than share their beliefs and questions of what it means to be Jewish in the world.
Maybe the time has come for more Jews to take a lesson from Ben Grimm and openly start embracing their Jewish identities. In the end, God chose us to be a servant of light to the world. Our tradition teaches us that before we can be a servant of light to others, we must first start by embracing the light of goodness, ethics, and spirituality within ourselves.
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Rabbi Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Sholom. He may be contacted at michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com